Even more than flubbing a fact, it shows that like Bush, McCain is trying to put the best possible spin on the war which plays directly into Obama's hand since the American people are now very skeptical of this type of talk.

As he told CNN's Kiran Chetry, in August of 2007, "I was the greatest critic of the initial four years, three-and-a half years."

http://www.truthout.org/article/mccain-misspeaks
How would American troops be greeted?: "I believe that the Iraqi people will greet us as liberators." (March 20, 2003)

Did Saddam Hussein have a nuclear program that posed an imminent threat to the United States?: "Saddam Hussein is on a crash course to construct a nuclear weapon." (October 10, 2002)

Will a war with Iraq be long or short?: "This conflict is going to be relatively short." (March 23, 2003)

How is the war going?: "I would argue that the next three to six months will be critical." (September 10, 2003)

How is it going (almost two months later, from the war's "greatest critic")? "I think the initial phases of [the war] were so spectacularly successful that it took us all by surprise." (October 31, 2003)

Is this war really necessary?: "Only the most deluded of us could doubt the necessity of this war." (August 30, 2004)

How is it going? (Recurring question for the war's "greatest critic"): "We will probably see significant progress in the next six months to a year." (December 4, 2005)

Will the President's "surge" of troops into Baghdad and surrounding areas that the senator had been calling for finally make the difference?: "We can know fairly well [whether the surge is working] in a few months." (February 4, 2007)

More hate from the Trinity radical church:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H11x6bMu4Y

Pathetic.

What Obama's team did is the kind of rapid response that Bush's team killed Kerry with. When Kerry used the word "sensitive" regarding the War on Terror, they blasted him for days using the phrase "sensitive," it was brutal.

McCain made a gaffe and Obama pounced. So much for those who thought he wouldn't be tough.

McMath; Verb tenses=numbers.

McSame's senior moment # 1,743 of this election cycle is actually going to be covered by the press? Really?

If the press actually covers stuff like this Obama could well win all 50 states.

I'm glad Obama is hitting him on this, I love when arrogant bastards like McCain get called on being total hypocrites.

I've heard dozens of screw ups on basic facts about Iraq coming from McCain, and not a single one from Obama...so tell me again, who needs to spend more time there...?

Screwing up Shia and Sunni, not knowing the difference between them. He doesn't realize we have more troops now than we did pre-surge. He doesn't understand Iran's role in affairs with Iraq. Pretty damning.

Obama on the other hand understands all these things.

Who understands are situation in Iraq better? Obama clearly does.

We don't need 4 more years of people dodging the truth and spinning this war for political purposes. We need solutions. In order to come to a solution you have to know the facts.

McCain doesn't have the facts or in the very least can't retain them. Thus, he can't give us a well-thought out solution for our Iraq debacle.

Of course, he doesn't want to. He wants the military in the middle east for as long as it takes. And when we don't need to be there any longer- we'll still stay.

Our troops deserve someone who knows the facts and wants a solution. Our troops deserve to come home. They deserve to see their families. They deserve a break. They have served heroically in Iraq, doing far more than they signed on to.

They deserve a college education at our expense. McCain didn't even bother to show up to vote on the GI Bill that would all them that fair compensation for their hard work.

They deserve better. We all do.

Obama for President! McCain needs to take off the rose colored glasses and see the reality of what our troops, our family members, our American family is sacrificing by being in Iraq. They have completed their mission. Allow the Iraqi government to take over. Let our troops and our families come home.

MY

THIS

This is exactly the conversation Dems want to get going with McCain, one that shows he's got his facts wrong, or he's forgotten the facts. This is allegedly McCain's strong suit. HA!

The real news about McCains ever-thickening mental fog isn't that it happened but that he was caught out -- not by the submissive press corpse but by the Obama staff.

Ironic after all the crap under the bridge about a useless and compliant press, the bullshit still only gets challenged by his opponent. McCains staff has the guts to finger the press, telling them not to nit-pick? Lets call this what it is...flat-out intimidation.

A debate between these two will certainly be fun to watch.

Ask yourself, America:

Do you really want this doddering old crank to have his finger on The Button?

Verb tense? THAT'S the best defense they could come up with?!

But judging by the first round of coverage in The Washington Post, the Obama team is getting the story told its way...

Maybe that would be because McCain's spin doesn't make any f***ing sense. "I can look you in the eye and tell you it's succeeding. We have drawn down to pre-surge levels. Basra, Mosul and now Sadr City are quiet." What other tense would work in that sentence? He's obviously talking about what he thinks has happened. He just got his facts wrong, it's that simple. There just isn't any other explanation.

wouldn't this be a wonderful opportunity for Hillary to join in and bash McCain. truly amazing to me that she finds the sidelines so appealing. for a fighter, where's the fight?

It seems like flubbing a fact about troop levels is a bit of a gaffe for someone who regularly attack his opponent's experience and fitness to be commander in chief.

That's nothing compared to calling your great-uncle your uncle, or mixing up the name of a Nazi slave labor camp with a Nazi death camp!

I'll cut McCain some slack. He probably didn't take his Geritol this morning and he needed to lay down for a nap.

No gaffe... McCain LIED and what's interesting to me is that he appears to be stuck in decades past where media wasn't as ubiquitous and pervasive as it is today.

He thinks he can just talk/shout a reporter down but the replays make him loomk 100X worse.

Back up for a second. Take a common sense look at McCain.
This is an old man from a multi generational military war command family. He gets his facts muddled. He loves to say we're winning. He loves command. He loves war. He has no goal for leaving Iraq.
Leaving Iraq is the goal Mr. McCain. Reducing the sounds of battle and reducing the adrenalin rush to old warriors is America's goal.
You can ignore or muddle the facts in your drum and fife vision Commander McCain but winning in Iraq is to leave.
Leaving is only surrender if fighting is your blood call intruding on common sense inteligence.
Thanks for your years of service; your ability to lead clearly has passed.

McCain lacks the mental capacity
To be POTU.

How many mental gaffes does one candidate get during a election year before he/she is considered unqualified. One has to really question based on the number of misstatemnts this year whether McCain has the mental capacity to do the job.

Had Obama, Clinton or any other candidate made the number of gaffes McCain has on foriegn policy alone all of us would be screaming about their lack of experience. Yet McCain, who has staked his whole campaign on the basis of his foriegn policy knowledge makes mistake after mistake and he's given a pass by the msm.

If McCain can't keep his facts straight on one issue which is foriegn policy [His supposed strength] how's he going to deal with our demestic problems, to include immegration, taxes, gas prices and home foreclosers?

The POTUS should be able to comprehend and deal with several issue's...NOT JUST WAR, NOT JUST IRAQ! What will it take for republicans to realize that this guy is dangerous to our country...wake up!