McCain Goes to Iraq. Where’s the Press?

Ed Morrissey:

John McCain took some time off of the campaign trail and hit the ground in Iraq this morning.  The media calls it a “surprise visit”, but he had given indications that he would visit Iraq after he clinched the nomination in order to get a fresh assessment of the progress being made by General David Petraeus and the troops.  He intends to meet with Iraqi leadership, who might get a glimpse of the McCain temper for their foot-dragging on reconciliation:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain arrived in Iraq on Sunday to assess improved security attributed to a build-up of 30,000 extra troops of which he has been a strong supporter.

McCain arrived in Baghdad and was due to meet Iraqi government leaders and U.S. officials in the heavily fortified “Green Zone” diplomatic and government compound, U.S. embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said. …

Attacks across Iraq have fallen by 60 percent since last June, when extra troops were fully deployed. There has been a fall in violence since January but U.S. commanders in Iraq say this does not represent a trend.

McCain’s visit will have at least one salutary effect – it will force news agencies to cover the drop in violence in Iraq yet again.

Really? So why is your post on this, literally, the first time I’ve heard of the trip? A look at CNN’s site, shows nothing of the trip on the front page, until you get about halfway down to the bottom, where it lists under “World News” a very small (*-10pt) headline: McCain arrives in Baghdad.

Fox, meanwhile, has it a bit closer to the top, but still takes the majority of the space for a message from the Pope denouncing our actions in Iraq.

(By the way, that’s a real gem of an idiot you’ve elected pope, guys… I strongly expect a lot of Catholics are getting embarrassed by this guy.. as they should be.)

(BTW II:So much for Fox being a supposed “right wing news outlet” There is no such animal.)

So, in short, not much has changed. The press as a whole is still trying to duck the issue of progress being made in Iraq, for fear it will place the Democrat candidates in jeopardy of not attaining power. Move along, citzen. Nothing to see here.