Jonathan Martin argues that because Barack Obama and President Bush recently made statements that are somewhat more similar to John McCain's hawkish statements in the first hours of the South Ossetia crisis than their own original comments, McCain has somehow been proven prescient:
McCain aides feel encouraged that their candidate appeared to get it right first, and they are now working to remind reporters that he's long been wary of Putin's Russia.
Pushing the prescience line, aides are circulating a pair of YouTube clips from 1999 and 2000 that feature some tough talk from McCain about the new Kremlin regime.
But even if McCain was completely right initially and Obama and Bush have completely come around to his position (both of which i highly doubt) that's still doesn't mean McCain's initial position was correct. After all, right now, we know that Russia has responded much more aggressively than many people, including the Georgian government, expected. But when McCain made his initial statements it was hardly clear that would be the case.
If McCain was president and said what he did a few days ago, his belligerence could easily have made things worse than they are now. Sometimes, it's best to wait and see what happens rather than leaping to conclusions.
Similarly, deliberately alienating Putin in 1999 and 2000 would hardly have been very helpful either. This is the thing about diplomacy -- it's helpful to be, you know, diplomatic.
--Sam Boyd
