Barak Obama ha messo al sicuro la sua nomination come candidato del Partito Democratico alle elezioni pre­sidenziali. E’ certamente un turning point della storia americana, per la prima volta aspira alla pre­sidenza degli Stati Uniti un candidato di colore. Ma da questo momento, la corsa alla Casa Bianca entra nel vivo, nella sua parte finale. Finita la sbornia democratica, si comincerà a parlare di programmi politici, si vedrà la reale forza dei conservatori americani, si confronteranno differenti visioni del mondo. John McCain, il candidato repubblicano, potrà misurarsi con un candidato più giovane, dialetticamente abile.

Tornerà ad essere importante il tema del terrorismo e dell’Iraq.

Il piano di Barak Obama sull’Iraq è un cambiamento a 360 gradi e pre­vede il ritiro:

Obama would immediately begin to pull out troops engaged in combat operations at a pace of one or two brigades every month, to be completed by the end of next year. He would call for a new constitutional convention in Iraq, convened with the United Nations, which would not adjourn until Iraq’s leaders reach a new accord on reconciliation. He would use pre­sidential leadership to surge our diplomacy with all of the nations of the region on behalf of a new regional security compact. And he would take immediate steps to confront the humanitarian disaster in Iraq, and to hold accountable any perpetrators of potential war crimes.

Il piano di John McCain sposa la strategia messa punto dal generale David H. Petraeus:

John McCain has been a leading advocate of the “surge” and the counterinsurgency strategy carried out by General David Petraeus. At the end of 2006, four years of a badly conceived military strategy that concentrated American troops on large bases brought us near to the point of no return. Sectarian violence in Iraq was spiraling out of control. Al Qaeda in Iraq was on the offensive. Entire provinces were under extremists’ control and were deemed all but lost. At that critical moment, John McCain supported sending reinforcements to Iraq to implement a clas­sic counterinsurgency strategy of securing the population.

Sono due programmi nettamente contrapposti, il vero spartiacque della corsa alle presidenziali.