John McCain says he'll win in Iraq, catch Bin Laden.

In particular, he sees a world in which:"The Iraq war has been won. Iraq is a functioning democracy, although still suffering from the lingering effects of decades of tyranny and centuries of sectarian tension. Violence still occurs, but it is spasmodic and much reduced."

We all agree on that. But the question that must be asked is, what are we there for? Are we really there to stop terrorism? Or are we there to prop up Arab dictators and fuel even more anger and resentment and terrorist activity against us in the future? John McCain, like George Bush before him, still can't explain the noble cause for which our men are dying. And our support of Arab dictators (see -- Iran-Contra, Rumsfeld's visit to Saddam) led to this mess in the first place. At some point, we have to say enough is enough.

The Taliban threat in Afghanistan has been greatly reduced.

"The increase in actionable intelligence that the counterinsurgency produced led to the capture or death of Osama bin Laden, and his chief lieutenants," McCain said. "There still has not been a major terrorist attack in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001."

Brought to you by the very administration who first said that Bin Laden was wanted dead or alive and then let him get away at Tora Bora. Brought to you by the very administration that diverted our resources from the capture of Bin Laden to a war for control of the world's oil supplies and a war for personal revenge. Brought to you by the very administration which has done nothing since Tora Bora to capture Bin Laden. They failed to capture Bin Laden for eight years. Why should we trust them when they promise to capture him now?

A "League of Democracies" has supplanted a failed United Nations to apply sanctions to the Sudanese government and halt genocide in Darfur.

Here, of course, McCain is pandering to the Black Helicopter Crowd who thinks that the UN is nothing but a bunch of jack-booted thugs seeking to take away our way of life. For all their problems, the UN is still the best hope we have of getting international problems like Darfur solved. Just like people are expected to conform to the standards of the laws of their countries, nations should be expected to conform to international laws. What he is really doing is laying the groundwork for a unilateral invasion of Iran, on the grounds that the UN is no longer a legitimate organization.

The United States has had "several years of robust growth," appropriations bills free of lawmakers' pet projects known as "earmarks," public education improved by charter schools, health care improved by expansion of the private market and an energy crisis stemmed through the start of construction on 20 new nuclear reactors.

Again, this from the administration which created no new jobs in the eight years that they have been in power. The earmarks that McCain is whining about include appropriations for downtown renovations which will bring jobs and money to local economies. Next, any appropriations towards charter schools simply takes away money from public schools. Why can't we spend that same money that McCain proposes to use for charter schools to bring our teacher salaries to $40,000 per year, like Bill Richardson suggested? Regarding healthcare, the private markets are the ones which are ripping us off in the first place; Obama would create federal competition to bring the cost of healthcare down in this country. Nuclear reactors might help if the proponents can show how to dispose of all the waste and how to extract the Uranium without long-term health hazards to employees. But he says nothing about wind, solar, or ethanol, all of which would not only address our energy crisis, but would reverse 100 years of decline of rural communities.

Democrats are asked to serve in his administration, he holds weekly news conferences and, like the British prime minister, answers questions publicly from lawmakers.

All of these are just gimmicks unless followed up by concrete progressive plans. And by "Democrats," he undoubtedly means people like Joe Lieberman and Mark Penn and Bob Shrum.

All this shows is that despite the window-dressing, John McCain simply represents the same tired old politics as usual. Not only that, he is simply too radical for this country. A McCain administration would attack Iran, keep us in Iraq for 100 years, abolish the Federal Minimum Wage, and appoint radical right-wing judges who would eliminate Brown, Griswold, and Roe. He would represent no meaningful improvement for schools, counties, communities, nursing homes, or other local government agencies to provide services to people.