I think the most important point John McCain made in the debate last night is that Barack Obama's misunderstanding of foreign policy is dangerous. Obama now has a string of "misunderstandings" when it comes to foreign policy and he committed another one last night during the course of the debate. When Obama tried to make a huge deal out of Henry Kissenger supporting him on the issue of meeting with the president of Iran without preconditions, he looked like an idiot when later even Kissenger himself came out and called Obama on the mischaracterization, or misunderstanding, of what he had said.

OBAMA: "Senator McCain mentioned Henry Kissinger, who's one of his advisers, who, along with five recent secretaries of state, just said that we should meet with Iran -- guess what -- without precondition. This is one of your own advisers."

Obama tried to make a big point of it. He didn't just mention it in passing, this was obviously one of his prepared talking points. The little "guess what" he put in there is especially embarrassing considering how completely wrong he was about what he was saying. Later in the exchange when McCain called him on it and said he had known Kissenger for 35 years and that he was sure Kissenger did NOT say that, Obama said, " We will take a look." Obama didn't have to look hard because Kissenger was watching and issued a statement immediately following the debate:

Senator McCain is right. I would not recommend the next President of the United States engage in talks with Iran at the Presidential level. My views on this issue are entirely compatible with the views of my friend Senator John McCain. We do not agree on everything, but we do agree that any negotiations with Iran must be geared to reality.

Ed Morrisey said of this, "Either Obama lied, or he's too inexperienced to understand what Kissinger said and actually meant."

That is not only the case in this one instance, it is a pattern Obama repeats. When he met with the Iraqi Foreign Minister Zebari during his worldwind tour in July, Zebari said Obama pressed for a delay in negotiations over troop withdrawals until after the Bush administration was out of office. At the same time publicly Obama was calling for a speedy withdrawal of troops. Via the New York Post:

Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.

According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.

"He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington," Zebari said in an interview.

Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in negotiations on the status of US troops - and that it was in the interests of both sides not to have an agreement negotiated by the Bush administration in its "state of weakness and political confusion."

It started when Obama said, "We took our eye off Afghanistan."

"You might think that with that kind of concern that Senator Obama would have gone to Afghanistan, particularly given his responsibilities as a subcommittee chairman," McCain retorted.

Obama's answer? "Look, I'm very proud of my vice presidential selection, Joe Biden, who is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and as he explains, and as John well knows, the issues of Afghanistan, the issues of Iraq, critical issues like that, don't go through my subcommittee because they're done as a committee as a whole."

"That's Senate inside baseball," he added.

Pat points out that the reason Obama gave in the debate is different from what he has said previously and that Biden has criticized Obama on Afghanistan.

This is a different reason than Obama has given in the past to the same question. Heretofore Obama has argued that he became subcommittee chairman at around the time he started running for president and frankly he had not been in Washington, DC all that much.

What is more, Sen. Biden himself was a frequent critic of Sen. Obama's "Johnny come lately" position on Afghanistan.

Sen. Obama's bizarre assertion that the declining security situation in Afghanistan proves his foresight and judgment is a testament to just how remarkably thin his foreign policy credentials really are.

Update II: I hope Obama's lack of understanding was as noticeable to the viewers as this:

However, my favorite line was when McCain hammered him about meeting certain people who are screaming anti-American tyrants without any pre-conditions. When Obama tried to claim everyone meets with foreign powers, McCain explained to him that there was a difference between some low level flunkies getting together in a room to exchange messages and sitting down to a tet-e-tet with the leader of a country that is a professed enemy of the United States and its allies.

You do not give that person or their crazy ideas any gravitas in public where the media can record you sitting there with your mouth open while the nut job lectures a sitting president about all the evils of your nation, your allies or the "rights" of a tyrannical regime to do evil things.

You. Just. Don't. Do. It. Period. End of story.

The entire damn world knows it. Even the French wouldn't be caught dead with a Chirac or Sarkozy having a photo op with Ahmedinejad.

McCain beat Obama with a two ton clue bat. The moment showed that Obama hasn't got a clue how foreign relations really works.