He also said that the casualties were more important. He's alluded in the past that reducing the casualties in Iraq would help boost American support for the longevity of the Iraq war.

I think he should have left bad enough alone and brought his considerable expertise to bear on Bush's war on Pakistan

Getting inside McCain's OODA Loop and the campaign is but days old

http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/02/4gw_meets_campaign_08.php

AS you mentione din your earlier post, Greg, the key is that the Dems are hitting him on the clarification. They are not twisting his words at all. They put it in the context McCain's camp used in clarification # 1. now they look like fools for trying to divert and expand the debate to something else.

If anyone is paying attention, Obama is wiping the floor with McCain today.

Here's the problem. Any comment McShame makes is in the context of a war.

War is the context!

A war that as Obama says should never have been started. A war a huge majority of the country is against. A war folks want ended. A war that will not feel "over" to folks till the troops all come home.

That is the context!

So no matter how they try to spin the gaffs, the public won't buy staying in Iraq forever. Or for 100 years. Or even for 5 years!

Context: People want out of Iraq. Iraq wants us out too!

Chew on that McShame!

I think the larger issue here is how Senator McCain believes that Americans troops in Iraq can somehow stay in Iraq and not be in "harm's way," as he puts it. Iraq is not South Korea, it's not Germany. And to me, those analogies are more indicative of the flaw in McCain's thinking than his argument against a timeline for withdrawal. Can American troops essentially occupy an Islamic country and not be in harm's way?

Are there any precedents that folks know of where U.S. troops have been peacefully deployed for any length of time to an islamic country?

Doh! If only Joe Lieberman had been there to tell him what to say.

And the story just appeared on WaPo's "The Caucus"....

Downside - McCain might actually learn how to campaign by Sept or so

Jesus tits. McCain now comes out and plays the "bitter" card in Pennsylvania to deflect some heat. He's that desperate in early June.

BTW, I'm starting to groove on Biden as the VP candidate. Can't you see him up against some fresh-faced young conservative doofus in a foreign policy debate?

Question:

Why isn't this an ideal opening to raise the nasty little question of Bush's Base Treaty with Iraq?

The Iraqis are pissed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/10/AR2008061003415.html?hpid=topnews

Lotsa synergies and a ripe issue

Well, it's starting to become clear that these two campaigns have really taken on the personalities of their candidates. Everytime McCain trips over himself and is called on it, his camp's response is angry, negative, and slightly bewildering. If they're going to simply rely on bluster and indignation everytime they're caught in an inconvenient moment, it's not going to take much for people to pick up on those "anger issues" that McCain is famous for.

That is, if we get reporters in this country to actually hold McCain accountable for anything that he's said or done.

Senator McCain declares mission accomplished. Says there is no reason to set deadlines for withdrawal. We should get our Troops out now. He says that we should not engage in nation building or staying until law and order is established. We should not stay because it would put our Troops in danger of being killed or captured, and would only help the terrorists. He said that he does not believe that it would harm our global prestige if we withdrew all our Troops now. He strongly urges that we do so.

This is not a joke folks: Senator McCain said all that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8TFKXHiefs

This is an important distinction that Greg highlighted and turnip pointed out. They are hitting him on the clarification. This part of the response got me:

John McCain was asked if he had a 'better estimate' for a timeline for withdrawal.

1. A 'better estimate' is not important


2. - or - Timeline for withdrawal is not important

Both of which are pretty important to me and I'm assuming, the American people and, most importantly, the people who are bravely serving for an undertermined ("could be 100 years") time period that, to John McCain, is not too important.

This "clarification" stinks.

This is another "verb tense" type argument because that is all they have.

I'm watching MSNBC right now and Andrea Mitchell and Lee Cowan are spinning fast, backing up McCain to the hilt. Typical for McCain's base.

Any reasonable person who reads the full transcript would see this and reject the Obama campaign's attempt to manipulate, twist and distort the truth.

Kind of like people read the full transcript of Obama's "bitter" comment? And everyone, of course, has viewed Rev. Wright's entire sermon where he said, "God damn America!" Right? Right?

They've opened a can of worms here with this context argument.

Of course the full statement changes the "gaffe" to an attack on Obama -- and a pretty effective one. We want to be careful about falling for out own bullshit, and selective editing of our opponents remarks is a good way to fall into the trap of believing everyone is going to agree with us on the best way to end the occupation. I've seen that McCain smile before. He is just itching to get a piece of Obama in a debate.

Dear 2008 Appeasers/Surrender Monkeys/TPM Readers/Democrats/The Media/That damn kid who's Frisbee keeps landing in my yard:

You have clearly taken my comments out-of-context again. What I meant to say is: Anyone who disagrees with my position on Iraq is clearly a terrorist sympathizer who wants to sodomize 9/11 widows with the amputated limbs of wounded Iraq veterans.

Yours Sincerely,

John "Morning Fresh" McCain

It's fun to make as much political hay as possible out of carelessly worded statements taken out of context, but this one isn't really all that big. If it hurts McCain, fine, let's use it. But in truth he can claim he didn't really mean withdrawing troops is unimportant. Meanwhile Bush is threatening Iran, and even German Chancellor Angela Merkel is not so subtly saying Bush is wrong. What an idiot he is! And a dangerous idiot! And an embarrassment. We should be making a big deal about that today instead of McCain's poor choice of words.

We have to start with the premise that Winning in Iraq is going to win for McCain.

The Dems offer losing in Iraq as a rebuttal.

McCain wins.

For me there seems to be a basic problem with McCain's arguement. He say's it's not too important about when then troops come home and what is important is the loss of life and the risk to american lives. Well ok but conflict has existed in this region for thousands of years. It's fairly easy to understand that we're not going to solve those issues in 6 months. So I think it's easy to argue that American lives with be in danger as long as Americans are there. The best way to remove the threat to Americans is remove the Americans. Set a timetable for withdraw, intensify the transfer the responsibility of security to Iraqi forces and go home. We can maintain strong diplomatic relationship without a military presence. Be alert to the need to aid in any response to Iran and be willing to lend aid. And it wouldn't be failure as Bush already said, "Mission Accomplished!"

OK, so he wants American troops in Iraq, ideally without them being in harm's way.

Well, I think we'd all like that. But how exactly does think this kind of situation will exist? Is this one of his fairytale scenarios from his "Utopia 2013" speech?

If our troops are not in harm's way, then they're not out in the streets of Iraq, they're just dug in in bases, "force protection", etc. What does that accomplish?

What does honor have to do with anything? Whose honor is he defending? Does John McCain really believe that if the troops will suffer dishonor if they are pulled out before Iraq is better (for lack of a more concrete goal)?

Will he be the one to stand up and call their service dishonorable, if that should happen?

Thank you Senator McCain, for exposing yourself as a whiner.

is petraeus really going to tell us in July when the troops are going to come home as John Mcain claims in this interview?

i highly doubt it.

this deserves some follow up as well.

Macho nonsense from the Reich-wing.
Always afraid to pull out.
Freud would have a field day with this.

Is anyone surprised that the "mainstream media" like CNN and FNC have nary a mention of McCain's comment anywhere on their sites or on-air programming? Greg's point today cannot have been more prescient -- can we imagine the outrage if any Democrat had uttered exactly the same comment?