American Idol: POTUS Edition

Tomorrow will be the closest America will get to having a cross-party primary debate (even if it is about one issue). As the Washington Post puts it:

When Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker travel to Capitol Hill tomorrow, they might be the ones before the microphones, but the cameras will be trained on three of their inquisitors: Sens. John McCain, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

The hearings before the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees promise to be as much about presidential politics as about the past six months of military and diplomatic progress in Iraq. All last summer, Washington anxiously awaited the September appearances of Petraeus, the commanding U.S. general in Iraq, and Crocker, the top U.S. diplomat in Baghdad, anticipating that their testimony could determine the political viability of continued war.

Their return engagement is eliciting no more than shrugs -- except on the political front. It has been months since Obama, McCain or Clinton appeared at a hearing, but all three contenders for the White House will take rare breaks from their campaigns to be on hand. Although the committee chairmen are loath to admit it, two relatively junior Democratic senators and one ranking Republican are likely to steal the show.

Of course, it's not the stances we're interested in; it's pretty clear where everyone stands. What's going to be key here is the delivery by the candidates (which will be affected by the time they are allotted) and the testimony of Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. While I believe that the later is more important than the former, my guess is that the media will run with a "s/he didn't get alot of time did s/he?" meme when it's all said and done.

Chairpeople are already feeling the heat.

For the outsize personalities that dominate the two committees, the political preparations for the hearings have been particularly galling. Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) rejected any suggestion that he move Obama up in the questioning order rather than stick to the committee's rules on seniority. "The biggest mistake we could make is politicizing this, looking at this in terms of political advantage," he said. "The American people are sick of this."

I'm curious as to how "now" events, not something that happened three months ago, is going to play with this hearing. For example: Sen. McCain says that we're "no longer staring into the abyss of defeat," without really getting into when we were actually staring into the abyss (was this two years ago? Two months? Two weeks?)

But even if you're looking at the big picture, things don't look good for the pro "stay in Iraq" crowd. For all intents and purposes, the surge has failed to curb the overall violence as well as provide the Iraqi officials the necessary breathing room to make significant political accomplishments. Soldiers are quitting. Any cease-fire in the country is due more to people like Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr than Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The media has all but decided to keep the country stupid about what's going on on a regular basis.

What's even more bizarre is how Republicans, who once welded 9/11 to the point that people believed Saddam Hussein sent the hijackers here, are now complaining about 9/11 rescue workers who still need medical attention (some of the money wasted on Iraq could be used to help these poor people).

Which of the three remaining candidates will be able to bring these issues up? I don't see McCain doing it, and Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama are still juniors; their speaking time will not only come late, but may be reduced.