Obama Almost Says What He Means

We’ve noted many times the disconnect between statements by the leaders of al Qaeda that Iraq is the main front in their war against civilization, and statements by leaders of the Democratic Party that the Iraq war is a “distraction” from our “real” war against al Qaeda. It would be convenient for the Democrats if al Qaeda would abandon Iraq altogether, but so far the group has shown no inclination to do so.
Campaigning in Gary, Indiana, today, Barack Obama started to articulate what many Democrats believe to be true–or at least wish were true–i.e., that al Qaeda is not in Iraq:

Obama corrected himself with the observation that al Qaeda’s “top leadership” is not in Iraq. But this is, of course, a non sequitur. So what? Al Qaeda’s top leadership has made creating chaos in Iraq its number one priority. Was the top leadership of Nazi Germany in Normandy, or the top leadership of imperial Japan on Iwo Jima? Obama’s slip nicely reveals how the Democrats’ incoherent policy on Iraq requires them to deny, explicitly or implicitly, the reality of what is happening there.