Poor John McCain. One minute he’s laughing and joking on his tour bus with the press, and stories abound about how the press loves him. No one challenges him on his many flip-flops, and he’s free to complain about Obama’s ties to a pastor, all the while having his own pastor issues. The next minute, his campaign is bitching and moaning about how Obama’s getting all the press while he meets with world leaders in the Middle East. The headline on MSN was, “Is the Media being unfair to John McCain?

According to this article at the FOX News website, McCain “repeatedly challenged the Democratic front-runner to join him there and see the situation on the ground before concluding that U.S. efforts have failed to get the war-torn nation back on track.”

McCain wasn’t alone in calling for Obama to check out Iraq for himself. Republican National Committee Chairman, Mike Duncan, also chimed in with some rather pointed comments. This is also from the article referenced above:

Seeing a possible opportunity to gain points against Obama, the Republican National Committee on Wednesday launched a clock on its Web site that is counting the days since the Democratic presidential front-runner visited Iraq.

“Barack Obama has only visited Iraq once — and that was 871 days ago,” RNC Chairman Mike Duncan said.

“Obama has done shockingly little to educate himself firsthand about the war in Iraq. Instead, he displays an arrogant certainty gained on the campaign trail. … Obama’s failure to visit Iraq, listen and learn firsthand and witness the surge’s progress demonstrates weak leadership that disqualifies him from being commander in chief.”

So what did Obama do? He took their suggestion. He went to Iraq, visited with a few Middle East leaders, and was generally looking pretty presidential as he did it. Apparently the McCain camp was getting a little distressed that Obama’s trip was garnering so much positive attention worldwide, so it sent its attack dogs out once again. Hannity started calling him “the annointed one,” stories appeared in the press that Obama was getting all this positive coverage while no one was talking about McCain anymore. Conservative websites echoed the royalty theme.

Bah, humbug.

So after a large tour of the Middle East, a tour McCain suggested would change Obama’s mind about a withdrawal from Iraq, is Obama now onboard with the McCain plan? Doesn’t seem that way. In fact, Obama’s visit to Iraq only solidified his views that we need to redeploy troops in Afghanistan and that Iraq is ready to start assuming responsibility for its own security, free from American interference.

Careful what you wish for, McCain.