In remarks in South Dakota just now, Barack Obama hit back hard at George Bush's and John McCain's foreign policy attacks yesterday, stating flatly that a debate with the two Republicans over foreign policy is a debate that "I will win."

"George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for," Obama said.

The fight is one that the Obama campaign is eager to have, because it accomplishes two things. First, it forces McCain to stand by Bush, making it easier to tie them together. And second, it puts Obama, sans Hillary, on the same stage as the current Republican president and his would-be successor, making the Dem primary seem a bit like a distant memory.

"If George Bush and John McCain want to have a debate about protecting the United States of America, that is a debate I am happy to have any time," Obama said. "That is a debate that I will win."

He proceeded to rattle off all the things Bush and McCain have to "answer for." The unnecessary Iraq War. The phantom WMDs. The strengthening of Iran. The fact that "Hamas now controls Gaza." And the fact that Osama Bin Laden is "sending out video tapes with impunity."