We are definitely neighbors...

Ok... I'm watching round one of the B.O. vs B.O. prize fight on Fox last night, and I'm thinking that while O'Reilly is being firm he's not being disrespectful, and Obama, who looked a bit scared but was actually trying to answer the questions, seemed like he was holding his own - at least through the first few questions. But then it happened...

O'REILLY: But I still don't understand -- and I'm asking this as an American as well as a journalist -- how threatening you feel Iran is. See, look, if Iran gets a nuclear weapon, okay, to me, they're going to give it to Hezbollah if they can develop the technology. Why not? And so we don't have anything to do with it. So therefore, the next president of the United States is going to have to make a decision about Iran, whether to stop them militarily. Because I don't believe -- if diplomacy works, fine. But you've got to have a plan b. And a lot of people are saying, look, Barack Obama's not going to attack Iran.

OBAMA: Here's where you and I agree. It is unacceptable for Iran to possess a nuclear weapon. It would be a game changer, and I've said that repeatedly. I've also said I would never take a military option off the table.

O'REILLY: But would you prepare for one?

OBAMA: Well, listen --

O'REILLY: Answer the question, Senator. Anybody can say options. Would you prepare for it?

OBAMA: Look, it is not appropriate for somebody, who is one of two people who could be the president of the United States, to start tipping their hand in terms of what their plans might be with respect to Iran.

Wh... what? No he di'nt! He didn't just say "...it is not appropriate ... to start tipping their hand" did he? There is no way I just heard him say that, because if he did he just validated the reason President Bush and the Congressional Republicans have been giving - for almost two years now - for not setting a timetable regarding withdrawal of troops from Iraq, and completely exposed as a political stunt the same timetable that he and the Democrats have been demanding.

Democrats and the anti-war left have been pointing to the President's desire not to set a timetable - and thereby to not "tip our hand" to Al-Qaeda regarding our military plans - as proof that the President and Republicans are war-mongering fascists who want to kill as many Iraqi civilians as possible so that we can expand the American Empire and grab all the Iraqi oil for ourselves... or something like that.

But if, as Barack Obama has himself just stated on national television, it's not appropriate tip your hand about possible or future military matters concerning Iran - a country in which we do not (currently) have troops - doesn't it then follow that it would be equally "not appropriate" to tip our hand about possible or future military matters in Iraq?

Huh?

Hello? [echo]

[sound of crickets]

Media types? Democrats?

[more sounds of crickets]

Any answer?

[more sounds of crickets and weak, nervous whistling sound from off in the distance]

So, I guess when a Republican says that tipping our hand to the enemy is a bad thing, he or she is a lying, war-mongering Neanderthal. But when a Democrat says the exact same thing he or she is enlightened, deliberative and nuanced? Is that about right?

Here's the vid. See for yourselves. The golden nugget comes at the 2:40 point.