Not as pointed as the first ad, which wondered why he won’t meet with military commanders but will meet with any degenerate who can call himself a head of state, but the basic point remains. Fearless prediction: Obama will ultimately meet with Petraeus before the election. If he doesn’t have the stones to stand by his flag-pin boycott, he’s surely not going to let the GOP chip away at him on this. The more I think about it, the less I understand why he’d shy away from that meeting in the first place. Yes, it would force him to recognize the liberal heresy of progress in Iraq, but there are aspects of that which can be assimilated pretty cleanly into the left’s platform. It’s not like Petraeus is going to tell him everything’s sunshine and candy canes, either. They chat for an hour, Obama emerges and pays his obligatory lip service to the fine job our men and women are doing in this imperialist criminal endeavor, notes that he’s heartened by the prospect of further withdrawals, then laments that the Iraqi government still hasn’t made enough progress. Easy peasy. Figure a quickie two-day trip to Baghdad sometime in July.

Anyway. Viewing this, I’m reminded of what Hitch once wrote about Ayaan Hirsi Ali: “I never know whether or not it’s right to mention, with female public figures, the fact of arresting and hypnotizing beauty, but I notice that I seem to have done so.” So too here. Good lord.