OBAMA RESPONDS TO MCCAIN: “There was no such thing as Al Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq.”

The problem with this statement is that, although it’s an article of leftie faith, it’s not true. (Remember how Richard Clarke was worried that Osama would “boogie to Baghdad” if we invaded Afghanistan? It’s not really Obama’s fault though — as an Illinois State Senator when these events transpired, he probably wasn’t paying much attention.) Meanwhile, McCain hits back.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

As a preface, I agree with you on the “not true” part: there were terrorists in Iraq prior to 9/11 and prior to the invasion, and there are terrorists there now; that’s not really at issue for me.

However, this post is at issue: “[t]he problem with this statement is that, although [the belief that ‘[t]here was no such thing as Al Qaeda in Iraq’ is] an article of leftie faith, it’s not true. ( . . . It’s not really Obama’s fault though — *as an Illinois State Senator* *when these events transpired*, he probably wasn’t paying much attention.)”

Obama, in addition to being a state senator, was a law professor at the University of Chicago during the run-up to the war. It’s intellectually dishonest for you to leave out this information and instead belittle a candidate and his views on Iraq by saying that he was just a meager State Senator at the time of the events listed. It’s also somewhat amusing, since you are also a law professor and thus at the time you both had similar credentials – neither of you were serving as U.S. Senators at that time, both of you were law professors.

The difference is that I was paying attention. I promise, however, that a position as a professor of Constitutional Law — or, as Obama actually was, a non-tenure-track lecturer — provides no special insight into antiterrorism. however, I’m including Mr. Hawkins’ email on the off-chance that others think this is as important an omission as he does.