Unless the president's new strategy proves a clear success by the beginning of 2008, Mr. McCain could find his judgment on matters of national security being called into question.As writers on this and other blogs have noted, it is much easier for a politician to support a specific course of action in Iraq when there is no risk of that plan being implemented. But Bush and McCain appear to be in sync on the question of sending more troops to Iraq, and the outcome of that move will be plain by 2008 (if it isn't already plain right now).The chairman of the American Conservative Union, David Keane, said yesterday that Mr. McCain risks having opponents in the 2008 campaign refer to the new war strategy as the "McCain-Bush plan." And the editor and publisher of the Rothenberg Political Report, Stuart Rothenberg, called Mr. McCain's war position "risky." "He is not purely the guy offering the criticism now. Democrats and his fellow Republicans could criticize him for owning the policy," Mr. Rothenberg said.
Mr. Bush has kept mum on any details of the new Iraq strategy, which he will unveil next month. But administration officials say he is planning to spurn the advice of his top commanders and call for up to 30,000 more troops in Iraq by extending the stays of some active-duty personnel already there and calling up their replacements earlier.
The plan is similar to the ideas Mr. McCain first outlined on ABC's "This Week" on November 20, when he said he could not support the war unless the president sent enough troops to fight it.
--Garance Franke-Ruta
