You believe it was a joke? Because it does seem, based on the debates, that McCain is very seriously headed straight for Iran.
It'd be like me jokingly saying, "I'm going to rape Hillary Clinton, take pictures, and then sell them to the media", as I'm preparing to become an intern for Hillary I have just bought a new digital camera that I'm testing in the dark, and I've contacted Shakran about "a breaking story regarding the Democratic presidential hopefuls" via email.
Maybe in a vacuum it's a bad joke, but it's not in a vacuum. McCain is seriously considering bombing Iran.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8358.html
Just fyi, Obama's LEAD speaks in volumes about
similarities between regions. I have to say that I've not been this pleasantly surprised since... actually I can't remember a time I've been this pleasantly surprised.