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At the close of Q and A at an Associated Press luncheon in Washington, DC, AP chairman Dean SIngleton skipped over a question on what’s becoming known as “bitter-gate” in favor of asking Illinois Senator Barack Obama what he surely thought would be a less controversial question on Iraq.

Would the senator be willing to shift a substantial number of troops from Iraq to Afghanistan, asked Singleton, where the Taliban has been gaining strength — and “Obama bin Laden” is still at large.

The room was quiet - as the crowd contemplated whether they’d in fact heard what they thought they heard. But Obama, apparently, heard the same thing. After a pause and a smile, he said “I think that was OSAMA bin Laden.”

A red-faced Singleton put his hands to his head. “If I did that, I’m so sorry!” he said.

Obama assured Singleton that the verbal misfire was a-ok with him. “This is part of the exercise that I’ve been going through over the last 15 months,” he said, breaking into a grin. “Which is why it’s pretty impressive I’m still standing here.” The professionally-stoic crowd of journalists gave Obama a round of applause.

Chula Vista, CA– Sen. John McCain slammed his Democratic rivals Monday for their continued calls for withdrawal from Iraq despite what he says is clear evidence that the effort on the ground is succeeding.

Citing an audio tape released last week by Osama bin Laden in which the terrorist leader stressed the importance of an al Qaeda victory in Iraq, the presumptive GOP nominee said Sens. Obama and Clinton “refuse to understand what’s being said and what’s happening.”

“General Petraeus is correct when he says that the central battle ground in the struggle against Al Qaeda is Iraq and Osama Bin Laden just confirmed that,” McCain told about 200 attendees at a town hall meeting in Chula Vista—his first since returning from a week-long trip to the region. “So General Petraeus and I and Osama Bin Laden are in agreement. It is hard to understand why Senator Clinton and Senator Obama do not understand that. I don’t know if its naïveté or what the problem is, but it’s obvious that they are dead wrong and they are wrong when they say we should leave Iraq immediately.”

In a tape first aired by al-Jazeera Thursday, bin Laden said that “Iraq is the Jihad theater that would lead to the liberation of Palestine. The Jihad in Iraq should be supported in order to liberate Palestine.”

McCain lauded progress he said he witnessed on the ground in Iraq last week, adding that it shows “the surge is succeeding and it’s time that (Democrats) acknowledged that the surge is succeeding and the benefits of success in Iraq will spread through the Middle East, including a stable society, a stable government, a bastion of Democracy–flawed but functioning.”

The Democratic National Committee was quick to respond this afternoon, attempting to draw a distinction between McCain and Petraeus. Noting that while the top American General said last week that “Iraqi leaders have failed to take advantage of a reduction in violence to make adequate progress toward resolving their political differences,” McCain failed to put any pressure on the Iraqi government during his visit, said DNC Communications Director Karen Finney.

“McCain continues his pattern of parroting the Bush Administration’s misleading rhetoric on the war. General Petraeus was right to point out that Iraq’s leaders have not made the political progress the surge was supposed to make possible, yet John McCain’s only plan for Iraq is 100 years of President Bush’s open-ended commitment to a failed strategy,” Finney said. “The brave soldiers fighting in Iraq don’t need another Republican president who talks about trusting General Petraeus then ignores his advice.”