John McCain, Pony Fan

I signed in to a John McCain blogger conference call just now and my eyes widened after he answered a question about what will happen in September vis-a-vis the Iraq debate.

If Gen. Petraeus comes back in September and says, "Look, here's where we are showing some progress, and here's what I think will happen if we got out in the next 90 days," I think that would have an impact. Gen. Petraeus is one of the most one of the most dynamic military figures we've encountered and if people could see him up close they would be impressed. But maybe I'm just digging for the pony.

This is the second time McCain's made a prediction about Iraq and said "I'm digging for the pony." The first time, three months ago, he predicted Moqtada al Sadr would back down from confrontation with U.S. troops surging in Baghdad.

He never found that pony.

(Some quick praise for the conservative bloggers on the call: They were less interested in poking at McCain's campaign troubles or raking him over the coals on immigration than they were in details about Iraq.)

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