John McCain's campaign has been doing its best to put Barack Obama in the worst possible frame before he leaves for his trip to Europe, Afghanistan and Iraq. It has settled on a message about him being motivated only by politics when it comes to his position on Iraq, it has put out a memo attacking him and now it has released what it's calling a "documentary" about his statements on Iraq. The Obama camp isn't taking it lying down.

In a memo of its own, Obama's campaign took the fight to McCain on Thursday, working to tie him to Bush and portraying him -- in much the same way McCain is doing to Obama -- as rigid, inflexible and unwilling to acknowledge reality when it comes to Iraq. In the memo, Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan says, "All John McCain has ever looked for in Iraq are reasons to stay there indefinitely." Sevugan continues:

He has stubbornly championed a strategy of fighting an unnecessary war in Iraq regardless of the shifting facts offered to justify it, regardless of the levels of violence and political progress in the country, and regardless of the gathering strength of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. And now, as he advocates a policy of staying in Iraq indefinitely, it is clear that he is going to continue to adhere to George Bush’s ideological agenda even as every other critical national security challenge is neglected, and our troops continue to fight tour after tour of duty and our taxpayers spend $10 billion a month in Iraq.