Right wing hack Jeff Jacoby apparently saw a different debate last night than the rest of the world:

JOHN MCCAIN’S opening words last night were: “Senator Obama, it’s good to be with you at a town hall meeting!” Indeed it was. We now know why Barack Obama declined McCain’s invitation earlier this year to appear together in a series of 10 town hall meetings around the country. This is the format in which McCain excels, and he excelled last night. He was substantive, sympathetic, strong – sure of himself, his facts, and his convictions. On issue after issue, McCain sounded clear and mature. In a word, presidential.

I have heard of those magical feel good pills, but Jacoby must have overdosed. These pills do have bad side effects, such as a sudden incursion of ones head into ones ass. Here’s what Jacoby says:

Though most of the debate dealt with domestic issues, it was a foreign-policy question that sent me flying to my files. Moderator Tom Brokaw asked the candidates what their “doctrine” would be “in situations where there’s a humanitarian crisis, but it does not affect our national security,” such as “the Congo, where 4.5 million people have died since 1998,” or Rwanda or Somalia.

In such cases, answered Obama, “we have moral issues at stake.” Of course the United States must act to stop genocide, he said. “When genocide is happening, when ethnic cleansing is happening . . . and we stand idly by, that diminishes us.”

But that wasn’t how Obama sounded last year, when he was competing for the Democratic nomination and was unbending in his demand for an American retreat from Iraq. Back then, he dismissed fears that a US withdrawal would unleash a massive Iraqi bloodbath. “Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn’t a good enough reason to keep US forces there,” the AP reported on July 20, 2007 (my italics).

The article Jacoby links and references is still available, here’s what it says:

SUNAPEE, N.H. (AP) – Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn’t a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there.

Sounds like a 180 – doesn’t it? Of course with the side effects of those pills plaguing Jacoby, he couldn’t see beyond that to the next 2 paragraphs:

“Well, look, if that’s the criteria by which we are making decisions on the deployment of U.S. forces, then by that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now—where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife—which we haven’t done,” Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press.

“We would be deploying unilaterally and occupying the Sudan, which we haven’t done. Those of us who care about Darfur don’t think it would be a good idea,” he said.

That 180 just got erased. Obama was saying we couldn’t use genocide as an excuse to keep troops in Iraq then we ignore all the other genocide in the world. He never said he didn’t support troops for genocide – he just doesn’t support using genocide as an excuse. That’s exactly what the Bush administration and Republicans have done.

Hacktackular Jacoby! Unfortunately for you though the effects of those pills are permanent so I doubt we will see a correction.