Madonna Lebling, a researcher for the Washington Post, noted in reviewing President Bush’s appearances and public statements, that the President has taken the Harry Potter approach to Senator Obama in that the President has uttered the senator’s name but a handful of times since Obama began his bid for the White House last year. And the last time Bush did so was an “attempt at humor” during the White House Correspondents Dinner where the President said that Senator Obama:

“was unable to attend because he was ‘at church.'” It was a reference to the candidate’s troubles with his controversial former minister.

Of course, the President has no such aversion to mentioning his desired candidate Senator McCain by name. Nor does Bush have an aversion to fundraising for the presumptive Republican nominee.

One would assume that the current resident of the White House wants McCain to become the next resident. But I question that assumption when the White House ‘accidentally‘ sends a Reuters story of an interview Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gave to Der Speigel, a German news outlet, stating Maliki supports the 16 month US withdrawal plan of He Who Must Not Be Named’s to “an extensive distribution list.”

As ABC’s Jake Tapper reports:

The misfire comes at an odd time for Bush foreign policy, at a time when Obama’s campaign alleges the president is moving closer toward Obama’s recommendations about international relations — sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, discussing a “general time horizon” for U.S. troop withdrawal and launching talks with Iran.

Whoopsy.

The Washington Post says:

The mixup came after the White House announced Friday that it had agreed with Maliki to set a “general time horizon” for U.S. troop withdrawal.

Time Horizon? Which, of course is nothing like a timeline, timeframe, or any such thing, because we all know that:

the horizon is the line where the sky meets the earth — and thus can never be reached.

I am certain that this is the desired withdrawal date that the White House and Senator McCain have in mind; one which can never be reached (much like the elusive definition of Success in Iraq).

What does the McCain camp have to say about the Der Speigel article? Well, that it was mistranslated. Too bad that the Iraqi government again stated their support of the He Who Must Not Be Named timeline.

It appears that there has been the adoption of many of Obama’s policies of late. Before we know it, the Republican’s will be telling us that these were their policies all along.

And the most priceless quote of the day? This by Christopher Hayes over at The Nation (about the Iraqi government’s take on Obama’s timeline):

What’s truly amazing about this turn of events is that it more and more looks like the Prime Minister of Iraq is going to help engineer regime change back in the US.

For that, can I get an Amen?!

: : : : : : : : : :