John McCain misspoke about the situation in Iraq yet again this week, claiming that we've drawn down to presurge troop levels and that things in Mosul are quiet.
Watch it:
Problem is, Mosul is far from quiet with THREE suicide bombers attacking the same day McConfused made his comments. Also, and probably more importantly, we are nowhere near presurge troop levels. We are actually 20,000-25,000 ABOVE the levels before the surge. When called on it, McCain's camp went into full-frontal spin mode:
From McCain aide Tucker Bounds:
Clearly John Kerry and Barack Obama have very little understanding of troop levels, but considering Barack Obama hasn’t been to Iraq in 873 days and has never had a one on one meeting with General Petraeus, it isn’t a surprise to anyone that he demonstrates weak leadership. What informed people understand, John McCain included, is that American troops are not even close to Surge levels. Three of the five Army ‘Surge’ brigades have been withdrawn and additional Marines that were initially deployed for the ‘Surge’ have come home as well – the remaining two brigades will be home in July. Talk about a political stunt, it’s sending out campaign surrogates to parse words about a topic Barack Obama has no experience with, and has shown zero interest in learning about.
In other words, forget that McCain actually said PREsurge levels. Pretend that Obama and his camp actually misheard him when he was talking about SURGE levels. Too bad about that pesky YouTube thing, though, huh, Tucker & John?
On a McCain campaign conference call, [McCain supporter] Senator Jon Kyl did not concede that McCain had made an error in saying, "We have drawn down to pre-surge levels," instead accusing the Obama campaign and reporters of "trying to nitpick the tense of the verb about the surge troops being home."
"The surge troops will be home by the end of July," he said.
McCain advisor Randy Scheunemann hit the same talking point.
"To get into a debate about a verb tense rather than the real fundamental national security issues at stake is really a distraction," he said.
This verb tense thing is a novel excuse, with potentially wide future use on both sides. Hillary, for instance, could have been referring to the risk of future sniper fire. Obama, perhaps, meant that the U.S. will, at some future date, add seven states.
"If you’re going to start fact-checking verb tenses, we’re going to make sure we start monitoring verb tenses a lot more closely than we have in this campaign," Scheunemann said.
Are you fucking kidding me???! VERB TENSES???! Jesus, Bill Clinton much?
As is usual, Obama calmly put it all into perspective:
[McCain has] been proposing a joint trip to Iraq that’s nothing more than a political stunt. He’s even been using it to raise a few dollars for his campaign. But it seems like Senator McCain’s a lot more interested in my travel plans than the facts, because yesterday – in his continued effort to put the best light on a failed policy – he stood up in Wisconsin and said, “We have drawn down to pre-surge levels” in Iraq.
That’s not true, and anyone running for Commander-in-Chief should know better. As the saying goes, you’re entitled to your own view, but not your own facts. We’ve got around 150,000 troops in Iraq – 20,000 more than we had before the surge. We have plans to get down to around 140,000 later this summer – that’s still more troops than we had in Iraq before the surge. And today, Senator McCain refused to correct his mistake. Just like George Bush, when he was presented with the truth, he just dug in and refused to admit his mistake. His campaign said it amounts to “nitpicking.”
Well I don’t think tens of thousands of American troops amounts to nitpicking. Tell that to the young men and women who are serving bravely and brilliantly under our flag. Tell that to the families who have seen their loved ones fight tour after tour after tour of duty in a war that should’ve never been authorized and never been waged.
I never saw this on YouTube, but, for some reason, Obama stating that he had been to 57 states was all over the place.
I don't think McCain has a clue, and I think we'll be in big trouble if he wins. I saw some Gallup Poll numbers over on Cesca's blog that shows him ahead. Pretty scary.
I won't pay any attention to the general election polls until after the two conventions. Until then they just plain don't mean much. I am SO looking forward to the debates, though. *salivates*
Bebbet: The poll showed him ahead of Obama. Of course, I don't put much stock in polls. The questions can be manipulated to achieve the desired results. Still, just the possibility that McCain is ahead of anybody is more than a little scary for me.
"Pay particularly close attention about 3:30 in):"
That percentage math actually seems a little screwy to me.
I mean, they're losing 16% in retention rates, but gaining 16% in recruitment rates... Those are two different rates and probably two different numbers... So you can't really just add and subtract the 16%.
I mean, it could work out that we start recruiting more than we're losing... Then again, retaining already trained soldiers could be more valuable than having to train newbies.
Ogre: I think you may be correct , sir. If I'm looking at it right, the 16% increase in recruitment is based on the average number of recruits coming into the armed services. The retention rate is based on the total number of people already in. We would really have to know exact numbers to see if they equal out.
Then again, retaining already trained soldiers could be more valuable than having to train newbies.
There is quite a bit of money that goes into that training, so I think you're right on that point, as well.
Some folks sleep on a problem, but you can camp on one as well. Camping is for the mind what a high-speed run on the highway is for a car. It tends to blow out all the sludge that accumulates in the type of urban driving most of us are forced to do in order to earn a living.
-- Tim Cahill
To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.
-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld
The most alarming sign of the state of our society now is that our leaders have the courage to sacrifice the lives of young people in war but not the courage to tell us that we must be less greedy and wasteful.
-- Wendell Berry
