Jules Witcover: Glimpses of the future

Thanks to John McCain and the House Democrats, voters got a couple of advance peeks the other day at what American policies might be starting next January, depending on the election results for president and Congress in November.

On the Republican side, McCain?s speech in Columbus laid out what his presidency would seek to achieve in four years ? an end, in victory, of the war in Iraq with most American forces out. It would also see, he said, a defeated al Qaeda in Iraq, a “functioning democracy” though a still-troubled one there, and only a much smaller U.S. military that “does not play a direct combat role.”