While Obama hasn't quite locked up the Democrat nomination, I believe liberals and Democrats will be rather surprised at how gladly the Right will embrace an honest debate on Iraq between Obama and McCain. Obama doesn't fully appreciate what he's walking into here.
To begin with, he's stuck with the position of running down a war in which our military is currently engaged. That defeatism takes more than simply a rhetorical flourish from a gifted speaker to pull off, once they are addressing people outside the Democrat base. In a debate extended over a Fall campaign, McCain also has the ability to remind people of the true lay of the land circa 2003, when Saddam was ignoring every sanction and profiting from a corrupt UN Oil for Food program.
An accurate history does not reveal Obama to possess some special gift of judgment. It reveals him to be weak on National Defense, with a willingness to give tyrants too much slack, a prospect in a potential POTUS made all the more troubling in an increasingly nuclear powered world. From comments at The Politico (link above) the Left can't wait for this debate to take place. I think the Right will be glad to have it, as well - and the Left may just find themselves surprised to learn how the American people, as opposed to only liberals and the mainstream press, really feel about winning in Iraq.
Obama departed from his regular stump speech today in Columbus to respond to John McCain.
"John McCain may like to say he wants to follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of Hell, but so far all he’s done is follow George Bush into a misguided war in Iraq," he said.
Obama was responding, incredulously, to McCain's suggestion that he's unaware of the presence of Al Qaeda in Iraq, which the Arizona Senator said earlier today was apparently "news" to Obama at last night's debate.