On the Campaign Trail with Ed Tibbetts

For a while there, it seemed there wasn’t a war going on.

Over the summer, as the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates, wound their way through Iowa — to the state fair, the straw poll and innumberable town halls, coffees and diner chats — the Iraq War seemed to fade to the background. Health care, immigration, taxes, the size of government, fighting poverty, these were the topics that got questions.

The war, it seemed, was being ignored.

Of course, it wasn’t. Nobody forgot about it. But after the speedy start to the ’08 presidential campaign cycle and the spasm of positioning in both parties over what to do about the war – and what was done before it started – it seemed the activist base had heard it all.

As event after event passed and Iraq was asked about only sporadically, I began to ask people why it wasn’t coming up. The answer I got back frequently: What new do they have to say?

We’re about to find out.

Gen. David Patraeus’ and Ambassador Ryan Crocker’s progress report on the surge this week has reinvigorated the political debate over Iraq. And, with a war spending bill to come before Congress, this all presents an opportunity, an obligation, even, for Republicans and Democrats to redraw, revise, recast and reinforce their own national security profiles.

Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd and John McCain all got the chance to start doing it on the main stage, with Patraeus and Crocker at yesterday’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

Watch for more of it in the coming days. Obama starts in Clinton today.

For McCain, in particular, this is a welcome moment.

A few weeks ago he was written off, but strong reviews of his debate performance in New Hampshire last week and what will surely be a Republican rallying around the war effort is bound to benefit the guy who, while critical of some of the tactics, has been standing behind the war all along.

All this is going to get chewed over in the media and activist base for a while. How long it extends into the fall and winter is a big question. Health care, education, immigration and the size of government are still big topics yet to be fully tackled.

Still, the elephant’s back in the room again and he won’t be ignored.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 8:38 am and is filed under On The Campaign Trail. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.