I'm sorry, but that's just not cool

So apparently John McCain took a pretty nasty swipe at Barack Obama in the last few days, saying something the right wing talk radio hosts might say all the time, but something many were surprised to hear blurted out by a presidential candidate. In essence he claimed that Obama would like to lose the war in Iraq because doing so would be politically expedient. There's video of McCain's statement here. Today, however, I came across an interesting blurb on Andrew Sullivan's blog that adds a little context to the picture. What they raise is the idea that such comments really are, historically, not the sort of thing that presidential candidates engage in. Meanwhile Ben Smith over at politico is on a mission to find any precedent for a presidential candidate (not their surrogates) nakedly accusing their opponent of selling out the US. Assertions of weak patriotism, etc. are certainly all too familiar at this point, but there is something a little more direct about what McCain had to say. Let me know what you think.