This editorial appeared in The Idaho Statesman.
It's almost forgotten, given the economic crisis of the past several weeks, that the Iraq War was once Barack Obama's campaign centerpiece.
An opponent of the war from the beginning, Obama played the issue to full advantage. An unpopular war made him a popular alternative, giving momentum to his upstart candidacy.
Yet on Tuesday, the economy was the electorate's primary motivation. A perfectly understandable sentiment. The economic problems are very real and excruciatingly immediate. Ask anyone who has lost a job or is fretting over a cratering 401(k). Foreign policy feels farther removed from us all.
But it isn't. Especially when American taxpayers spend $12 billion a month in Iraq, a country now operating, unlike the U.S., with a budget surplus.
To read the complete editorial, visit The Idaho Statesman.