<p>No, Hindoo. More than one poster (two I know of for sure) used the term Mc**** not McSame. </p>
<p>If I was referring to McSame, I would have spelled it out.</p>
<p>IB–I didn’t know about till later, too late to chime in (and I think long gone by then). And I didn’t chime in on the initial thing till I’d seen it for the umpteenth time.</p>
<p>Oh, whoa! I never saw that, ilsa. I was guilty of using McSame at one point, but felt I was being (childishly) clever–not malicious. Thanks for clearing that up.</p>
<p>I’m still a little confused about why somebody needs shorthand for Obama’s name, but not McCain’s.</p>
<p>The Audacity of McCain: John McCain tries to redefine the surge…</p>
<p>And contradicts what he said in 2007.</p>
<p>Is he just outright lying now?</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
<p>Newjack: Here’s my take. Tell me if you think you agree.</p>
<p>McCain just screwed up when he did his interview with CBS. He didn’t keep chronologies straight, and he ended up attributing a lot of the surge’s success at reducing violence to things that happened before the surge went into effect. My guess is he just got confused about what happened when. I don’t believe in a campaign “gotcha” kind of environment when he’s trying to make himself look like a statesman that he’d wilfully lie to try to make the surge seem more important than it was.</p>
<p>But now that he’s been caught saying something that everybody agrees is just patently false, he’s trying to wriggle out of the misstatement by redefining the surge. He realizes it would be costly to his credibility to have to own up to his earlier confusion.</p>
<p>He was confused then, and he’s a liar now. That’s my take.</p>
<p>I almost think his confusion is worse in terms of the strength of his candidacy than his lying. Again, he is resting his argument for president on a very thin reed of “I can handle Iraq and the World,” and yet time and time again he doesn’t get the basics right…</p>
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<p>I linked that article b/c it included the quote from Andrea Mitchell (see below). Are you suggesting that she isn’t “credible”?</p>
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<p>Did Obama’s campaign pretend that the questions were from journalists? If they did, that’s bad. If they didn’t, it just seems like a kind of sour grapes complaint.</p>
<p>NewJack - no contradiction b/w what McCain was saying then & what he’s saying now. In the 2007 video he clearly outlines a broader strategy for troops than just “fighting”.</p>
<p>You guys are really grasping at straws trying to suggest that McCain is uninformed and/or “lying”. Do you really think people will fall for that? All they have to do is watch the two videos you posted to see that your assertions are false. In that regard, I thank you for posting b/c is shows how informed & involved McCain has been about Iraq & the activities there all along.</p>
<p>One more point - Congress didn’t actually vote to “go to war”; they voted to give the president the authority to use force. It was Bush’s decision. McCain’s involvement was to say, “Ok -if you’re going to do this, then at least do it the RIGHT way; and btw, Rumsfeld is going about this all wrong and should be fired!”.</p>
<p>This further supports the notion that McCain, more than ANYONE else, would’ve been watching Bush’s (and Rumsfeld’s) every move over the past 8 yrs. with a very very critical eye. And he ALONE will know the best ways to deal w/ all the issues he would inherit at inauguration.</p>
<p>Well Hunt, Mitchell did go so far as to call them “fake interviews”.</p>
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<p>McCain said that the surge started in 2006 but was advocating implementing it in 2007?</p>
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<p>That argument doesn’t work. Ask Hillary Clinton. Everyone knew what would happen after the vote. If McCain tries to paint his vote the same way Hillary Clinton tried to he’s going to be doing a great disservice to his judgment and foreign policy credentials.</p>
<p>Also, the latter part about “doing it the right way” gets trumped by the fact that he supported the war in the first place.</p>
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<p>I disagree. I think that today’s issues are much too complex and require someone who is an intellectual and appreciates nuances, details, etc. to address and solve them. John McCain–who graduated 795th out of 800 students and who voted against a bill he authored–doesn’t exactly strike me as an intellectual.</p>
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<p>Source?</p>
<p>Anyway, over the last couple days, Mitchell has walked back those comments quite a bit. On Morning Joe earlier this week, she said that Obama has been being asked “tough” questions–one of which she asked him.</p>
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<p>I have a hard time understanding Miitchell’s comments other than by attributing it to spite and jumping the gun.
- The military has its own press corps. I wonder whether Mitchell thought the military was in cahoots to produce campaign propaganda for Obama.
2.Mitchell works for NBC. Lara Logan works for CBS; she is Chief Foreign Affairs correspondent for CBS Evening News. Does that not make her a “real journalist?” Her interview aired on July 20, one day before Mitchell made that comment.
3.Obama held a press conference in Jordan on July 22. Were those who asked questions not real journalists (were they Obama plants?) - Katie Couric interviewed Obama on July 22 and asked tough questions. Is she not a real journalist?
5.Charles Gibson interviewed Obama on July 23. Is he not a “real journalist?”</p>
<p>It would behoove Mitchell to wait a little to see how things unfold before making such remarks. Or could it be she thinks she’s the only real journalist among the 40 who have accompanied Obama? Perish the thought.</p>
<p>My take on the surge:</p>
<p>Obama is giving too little credit to the surge for improving the situation.
McCain is giving it too much credit and not enough to Iraqi factors, as well as redefining it to mean counterinsurgency so that it can start earlier than announced.
I wish that Obama more readily conceded the military success; I still fault McCain for his Humpty Dumpty definition and wrong chronology.</p>
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<p>Those were/are 800 of the best & brightest students in the world at one of the most (if not the most) competetive & demanding schools in America.</p>
<p>No dishonor in that.</p>
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<p>FYI, THIS is what congress voted on:</p>
<p>[Congressional</a> Resolution on Iraq (Passed by House and Senate October 2002)](<a href=“http://hnn.us/articles/1282.html]Congressional”>Congressional Resolution on Iraq (Passed by House and Senate October 2002) | History News Network)</p>
<p>I still contend that it was Bush’s decision - and only McCain said, “IF you do it, do it RIGHT!”.</p>
<p>Hunt: I’m a little confused why you would type stars instead of letters in a man’s name. It’s certainly not even shorter. :)</p>
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<p>Here’s the problem you can say “The surge is working” and people will mistake your meaning to think we are “winning in Iraq.” What the surge --and all the other factors – working together does is give us an opportunity to leave more smoothly and let the Iraqis continue to build their own society. With 2 million Iraqis dead or displaced internally and 2 million others seeking refuge outside Iraq, this may be easier.</p>
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<p>Absolutely! His age is definitely a factor in the minds of many people and anything that spotlights his mental confusion is detrimental to his campaign. As the many instances of mental confusion pile up, people are going to be very leery about giving the reins of the country over to him.</p>
<p>LMNOP:</p>
<p>I agree with both your posts. Fred Kaplan also has a pretty negative assessment of McCain’s foreign policy ideas, including his League of Democracy and his wanting to kick Russia out of G-8.</p>
<p>[How</a> much does John McCain really know about foreign policy? - By Fred Kaplan - Slate Magazine](<a href=“http://www.slate.com/id/2195865/]How”>How much does John McCain really know about foreign policy?)</p>
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<p>Grasping at straws? Ha ha…Leave it to BZ to tell baldface lies, just like her candidate… </p>
<p>And I may have been too charitable in saying this was just McCain’s confusion…he clearly is deliberately misleading according to this column and credible observers.</p>
<p>[McCain’s</a> Campaign, By Kevin Drum - CBS News](<a href=“http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/23/politics/animal/main4285589.shtml]McCain’s”>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/23/politics/animal/main4285589.shtml)</p>
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<p>He sold himself out to gain their support and the support of people who like them. That’s my problem with McCain now. I liked him a lot more in 2000.</p>
<p>“Hunt: I’m a little confused why you would type stars instead of letters in a man’s name. It’s certainly not even shorter.”</p>
<p>I don’t think I was responding to BHO when I did that…maybe it was Nobama. Perhaps it was in response to somebody saying, “Isn’t Hussain his name?” If you looked it up, perhaps you can refresh my memory.</p>
<p>"Well Hunt, Mitchell did go so far as to call them “fake interviews”</p>
<p>Well, almost. She said “some” would call them “fake interviews.” I guess that’s so she can deny having said they were fake.</p>