The Senate held two hearings with General David Petraeus and Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker. The Armed Services Committee got the chance to question the men in the morning and after a recess the Senate Foreign Relations Committee followed in the afternoon.

Senators Hillary Clinton and McCain attended the Armed Services Committee Hearing and Senator Barack Obama was in attendance during the Foreign Relations Hearing. So, all three candidates got the chance to show their stuff and make their positions clear. (Video after the jump.)

Video clips of the three candidates in action is below, courtesy of Talking Points Memo and Votersthink.org.  Honestly think Clinton did the best at cutting into the heart of the matter: when does the American Congress get to trump the Bush Administration’s coalition with the Iraqi Parliament?

But I still feel Obama has the ability to better understand foreign relations, overall. He’s got the ability to make his opinion known in the most unoffensive and dignified way and that is a true political gift. He also seems to have a more complete understanding of the complexities of the different populations within Iraq. (Done gushing.)

As for McCain, well…. he just regurgitated some stuff “out of Karl Rove’s play book” and pretended Iraqis are currently at a dandelion picking festival in Basra. The American citizens in the room weren’t feelin’ him though. There was a little bit of naughty heckling during his propaganda speech. It was probably the Code Pink ladies. (Their website is snazzy.)

Anyway, compare away, cuties!

McCain is up first:

Hillary is next:

And last is Barack: