Imagine, for a moment, what we could have done in those days, and months, and years after 9/11.

We could have deployed the full force of American power to hunt down and destroy Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, the Taliban, and all of the terrorists responsible for 9/11, while supporting real security in Afghanistan.

We could have secured loose nuclear materials around the world, and updated a 20th century non-proliferation framework to meet the challenges of the 21st.

We could have invested hundreds of billions of dollars in alternative sources of energy to grow our economy, save our planet, and end the tyranny of oil.

We could have strengthened old alliances, formed new partnerships, and renewed international institutions to advance peace and prosperity.

We could have called on a new generation to step into the strong currents of history, and to serve their country as troops and teachers, Peace Corps volunteers and police officers.

We could have secured our homeland—investing in sophisticated new protection for our ports, our trains and our power plants.

We could have rebuilt our roads and bridges, laid down new rail and broadband and electricity systems, and made college affordable for every American to strengthen our ability to compete.

We could have done that.

Instead, we have lost thousands of American lives, spent nearly a trillion dollars, alienated allies and neglected emerging threats – all in the cause of fighting a war for well over five years in a country that had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks.

In response, John McCain offered his worldview in Albuquerque, N.M., as reported by the Associated Press:

I know how to win wars. And if I’m elected president, I will turn around the war in Afghanistan, just as we have turned around the war in Iraq, with a comprehensive strategy for victory.

Same planet, different worlds…

Two days ago, Senator Barack Obama said he had not been clear enough in explaining his Iraq policy. Today, there was a different rationale.

The confusion was not his fault, Mr. Obama said, but rather the media’s for seizing on three words he uttered in Fargo, N.D., when he suggested he would be open to “refine my policies” on Iraq.

“I was surprised by how finely calibrated every single word was measured,” he said, speaking to reporters as he flew here from Montana.

. . . Aides later conceded that Mr. Obama knows the office he seeks – the Oval Office – comes with a job description of calibrating and measuring every single word.

This tilted playing field, where Obama’s words get twisted and the press blames him for it, even as they give a pass to McCain’s gaffes, is going to be an ongoing factor in the fall campaign. Â But what’s a candidate to do when reporters essentially rub their double standard in his face?

Obviously, holding another press conference isn’t going to do much good.  So Obama’s gone a different route — offering a lengthy, exclusive interview to CNN yesterday, publishing an op-ed on Iraq in the New York Times the same day, and now announcing a major speech on the subject for tomorrow.

It’s all an effort to avoid having his positions run through the journalistic meatgrinder before they get to the public, stating his policies so clearly and loudly in so many forums that it drowns out the chatter of reporters and Republicans trying to obscure them.

I’m sure Obama will have to do this any number of times between now and November. Â But it’s good that his campaign already understands that if Barack wants to get his message out clearly, he’ll have to do it himself.