Prediction: Obama’s mother of all flip-flops — Iraq

Remember you read it here first. Barack Obama has been on a steady march to the political center since defeating Hillary. In the primary, of course, you will remember him as the most liberal of the lot, and that helped him get the nod from the lefty Democratic base. Now, in the general election, it is all about appealing to the center. This is where normal people live.

And normal people are grateful for the sacrifice of those in our military. They want us to win in Iraq and hate the notion espoused by Democrats that it's past time to turn tail and run out of Iraq.

Sen. John McCain basically owns the national defense issue. And, he's embarrassed Obama by pointing out that the Big O is willing to meet with America's sworn enemies and terrorist states, but he won't go to Iraq and meet with our generals on the ground. To blunt that effective strategy by McCain before the heat of the general election, Obama is going to visit Iraq in conjunction with a longer trip.

He will meet with generals for a good old fashioned photo-op. (Don't put that tank helmet on, Barrack!) He'll meet with the Iraqi government. And then we will see Obama do the mother of all flip-flops. He's going to emerge from that trip talking about the need to exit Iraq far more slowly that he suggested during primary. He's going to say that he's not going to stay there for 100 years like that bad guy President Bush and his clone Sen. McCain, but that we must not allow our withdrawal from Iraq to destabilize the region, thereby sucking us back into a bigger, fiercer way. He'll start emphasizing how we must extricate ourselves from the Iraq war with "honor", instead of his previous nonsense about how we must get out of Iraq in 60 days, or six months.

It is going to be a spectacular display of political movement to the middle. Don't know if it will work. Obama has a lot of ground to cover between his primary position on Iraq and a sensible middle ground position for the general election. But I bet he tries real hard to make that political trip. Otherwise, there are a lot of middle-ground people in this country who simply will never, ever consider voting for him.