The media’s fixation with such things as Barack Obama’s lapel flag pins, the latest gotcha story about  John McCain’s advisers, and Jesse Jackson’s odd mutterings was interrupted today by…an actual debate on a crucial issue.

Obama and McCain weren’t face-to-face; in fact, they weren’t in the same time zone. No media interlocutors were present. It wasn’t one of the debates sanctioned by the Commission on Presidential Debates. Yet a debate on Iraq took place just the same.  

In what his campaign had advertised beforehand as a major foreign policy address Obama spoke about on the war in Iraq and U.S. international relations in an appearance at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C.

McCain had been "wrong" on the war in Iraq, Obama said, adding pointedly that he was guilty of "bluster" and "idle threats." Obama, who opposed the Iraq invasion before it began, and who also opposed the “surge” that seems to have stabilized that beleaguered country, acknowledged that the situation had gotten better in Iraq. But he argued that such developments made it more feasible for a U.S. withdrawal, and implied that American troops pulled out of Iraq might be needed more in Afghanistan, the place where the 9/11 attacks were actually planned and launched.

“George Bush and John McCain don’t have a strategy for success in Iraq, they have a strategy for staying in Iraq,” maintained the Democrats’ standard-bearer. “They said we couldn’t leave when violence was up, they say we can’t leave when violence is down.”

Out in New Mexico, Obama’s comments were relayed to McCain, who responded quickly. The Republican nominee pointed out that he favored both the troop surged and a change in military tactics long before the president did, and that Obama denounced the surge before it had even had a chance to work.

“I called for a comprehensive new strategy, a surge of troops and counterinsurgency to win the war,” McCain said. “Senator Obama disagreed. He opposed the surge, predicted it would increase sectarian violence, and called for our troops to retreat as quickly as possible. Today we know Senator Obama was wrong.”

Those are just a sample of comments, but each man made a forceful argument of his own position. (For easy-to-find transcripts of both candidates’ speeches today, go to Real Clear Politics.) This is called campaigning, sports fans, and it’s more important than, say, tonight’s All-Star Game in Yankee Stadium. Loose Cannon won’t presume to say which candidate won today’s argument, or who is right on the war. He will say that he likes campaigns that are conducted during wartime to be waged on substantive, and not trivial, grounds. Today the candidates obliged, and the media actually went along on the ride.

 It’s called elective democracy, and some days it still works.