From Steve Sack.

Michelle has more on Straight Talk's armored shopping tour in Baghdad.



Many merchants in the market apparently gave McCain and his fellow nincongresspoops great deals--even free stuff. They apparently believed, and with good reason, that it was a stick-up. Josh Marshall:

The aging war hawk, proving that security is returning to Baghdad by walking into a market encased in body armor, surrounded by rooftop sharpshooters and enveloped in a shield of a hundred soldiers, helicopters (Blackhawks), helicopter gunships (Apaches) and all after another group of soldiers went in for a pre-jaunt security sweep which, in the words of Larry Johnson, "searched for explosives, sent informants into the crowd, set up a perimeter, and secured the area before the Senators showed up with their 100 armed guards."