Today, the happy hagglers and tea-sipping onlookers showed their sinceere appreciation of their Most Important Customers Ever:
A day after members of an American Congressional delegation led by Senator John McCain pointed to their brief visit to Baghdad’s central market as evidence that the new security plan for the city was working, the merchants there were incredulous about the Americans’ conclusions.
"What are they talking about?" Ali Jassim Faiyad, the owner of an electrical appliances shop in the market, said Monday. "The security procedures were abnormal!" [...]
“This area here is very dangerous,” continued Mr. Youssef, who lost his shop in the February attack. “They cannot secure it.”
Told about Mr. McCain’s assessment of the market, Abu Samer, a kitchenware and clothing wholesaler, scoffed: “He is just using this visit for publicity. He is just using it for himself. They’ll just take a photo of him at our market and they will just show it in the United States. He will win in America and we will have nothing.”
Fortunately, McCain's visit offers the shopkeepers the promise of a brigher future:
Several merchants said Monday that the Americans’ visit might have only made the market a more inviting target for insurgents.
Yep, you read it here first: nearly one year ago today, I told you all that Senator "Straight Talk (in a Non-Gay Way)" McCain would make a better president than even than his forerunner, Seth Pecksniff (who, alas, wasn't eligible to run).
Update: You think I'm overstating the case? Josh Marshall practically endorses McCain as the presumptive Pecksniff Party presidential pick.
