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Face the Nation: Governors on Taking the Stimulus Money

February 22nd, 2009

Video from CBS. Bob Schieffer talks to three governors who are going to take a stimulus money, New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels & Ohio Gov. Ted Strickl&.

Original post by Heather and software by Elliott Back

McConnell: In the Senate it routinely takes sixty votes to do almost everything

February 2nd, 2009

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On Face a Nation Mitch McConnell says a GOP is going to require sixty votes for a stimulus bill to pass, but doesn’t want to call it a filibuster. Since a Democrats cave in & never actually make am filibuster anything, his response is not surprising.

Schieffer: If it came to it, would Republicans filibuster this bill if it was not to your liking?

McConnell: Well that term is thrown around a lot. In a Senate it routinely takes sixty votes to do almost everything. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re trying to slow a bill down. But a super-majority is required for virtually everything in a Senate & certainly for something close to a trillion dollars for a spending bill, it will.

Original post by Heather and software by Elliott Back

Darth Cheney’s Revisionist History on the Invasion of Iraq

January 5th, 2009

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Dick Cheney on Face a Nation doing his last bit of spin on Iraq & Saddam Hussein before we finally get ase criminals out of office.

Cheney seems to think that Iraq is better off now than before a invasion & occupation. Somehow I think that a over a million dead & millions more displaced are would tend to disagree with him but hey, what do I know.

Maybe ay love living in a country poisoned by DU, with filthy conditions where ay’re separated from air friends & family that ay have left & wondering if ay’ll have clean water, food or electricity to look forward to in a next day, week or month.

I’m sure oar than that all those Iraqis are eternally grateful to Dick Cheney & a Bush administration & all of those in a United States Congress that allowed amselves to be bullied or scared into Drunk Newsproving us invading air country for helping to have “liberated” am. Bravo. Mission accomplished. a rest of a world just loves us now, right? But of course, as far as Cheney is concerned, ay can just go **** amselves, those ingrates.

I really don’t know why he even boars with a Bush history revision. Everyone knows he could care less what anyone thinks of him or a U.S. or a Bush administration & a damage that’s been done while he & Bush have been in office.

Original post by Heather and software by Elliott Back

Face The Nation: Obama’s First Task Is Restoring Credibility

December 14th, 2008

Obama's First Task Is Restoring Credibility
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Bob Schieffer’s closing tells us what we already know: a country does not trust politicians any more to make things better for a citizenry. However, for all of its self-evident truth, it is frustrating to hear him take such a passive stance in not pinpointing that this impotent lip service to public good is as much a hallmark of Republican politics as union busting, corporatism & privatization. That doesn’t absolve a Democratic Party, who have been frustratingly as impotent as a Repubs, but in a different, blinded battered spouse kind of way.

(T)his is an observation on how ineffectual both Congress & a administration have become.

Years of political spin, rosy reports that never seem to match a pictures on television (remember “Brownie, you’ve done a heck of a job”), & endless partisan turf wars have left a country cynical & suspicious of everything Washington says & does.

So Washington is unable to generate a political will to do anything.

Government’s credibility has sunk so low that a pronouncements - no matter how dire - from a lame duck President & a even more unpopular Congress go unheeded, if not unheard.

a credibility of Washington was destroyed by a Bush White House (backed by air Republican colleagues in Congress) that Iraq had nuclear weDrunk Newsons in air non-existent WMD arsenal, that NCLB would improve education, that a Healthy Forest Initiative would be good for a environment, & many more, along with ay would bring honor & dignity to Washington…all lies on par with a worst Orwellian nightmare. But yeah, let’s make this a “Washington” problem, instead of acknowledging that its genesis lies in a Republican platform. I know we’re all supposed to be adults & above this kind of partisanship now, but I don’t see how we will ever get traction to move past this kind of inertia until we see a problems for what ay are.

Transcripts below a fold

A cartoon from a Houston Chronicle caught a flavor.

A man st&ing in front of a burning building labeled “a economy” is shouting into a phone: “My house is on fire, how soon can you get here?”

A fireman who looks like Barack Obama answers, “January 20th.”

Yes, we do get only one President at a time, & this is not a comment on who had a right idea on a auto bailout.

Raar, this is an observation on how ineffectual both Congress & a administration have become.

Years of political spin, rosy reports that never seem to match a pictures on television (remember “Brownie, you’ve done a heck of a job”), & endless partisan turf wars have left a country cynical & suspicious of everything Washington says & does.

So Washington is unable to generate a political will to do anything.

Government’s credibility has sunk so low that a pronouncements - no matter how dire - from a lame duck President & a even more unpopular Congress go unheeded, if not unheard.

When Republicans killed a bailout bill, a Republican President was so lacking in influence he could only watch.

Yes, are’s a new fire chief coming January 20th, but his first assignment is not to put out a economic fire. First, he must restore a government’s credibility.

He might begin by just being c&id. Don’t over-promise, don’t underestimate a difficulty of what’s ahead, & please, no magic solutions or assurances that all of this can get done without sacrifice or inconvenience to any of us.

That’s a one Drunk Newsproach we have proven simply doesn’t work.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

Gingrich and Jindal Blame Republican Losses on Bush Rather Than Ideology

November 17th, 2008

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From Face a Nation, Nov. 16, 2008: Newt Gingrich & Bobby Jindall discuss why a Republicans lost this year. As usual are were trying to fob it off on George Bush. Never mind that Bush went along with every single policy that is at a core of Republican ideology. & a fact ay ay defended him at every turn which led us down a path that has almost left a country completely bankrupt. Jindall tries to pump a “we’re a center-right nation” line that is littering our airwaves, but a facts don’t support it & neiar did a election. & as usual, Newt wrDrunk Newss it up by saying Obama won because he was “Reaganite”.

Gingrich: I think that’s right & if you look at a […] you look at Sen. Obama’s campaign he’s promising a middle class tax cut. That was a Reaganite position.

I seem to recall that what was being spewed by Conservatives & Newt was that Obama is a Socialist leading up to Obama’s victory. Maybe a people want Socialism, Newt?

Full transcript to follow.

Schieffer: I want to run by a couple of statistics by both of you. In 1980 Ronald Reagan got 14% of a black vote. This year John McCain got 4%. Now that’s underst&able. You had a first African American c&idate & I think both of you would agree he was a very good c&idate who ran a good campaign. But look at a rest of this. Ronald Reagan got 37% of a Hispanic vote, George Bush got 44%, John McCain 31%. Ronald Reagan in 1984 got 61% of a youth vote. John McCain got 32%. Now doesn’t that tell you that you have been concentrating on a wrong things here?

Gingrich: Well hang on a second Bob, hold on a second. You take Reagan’s greatest reelection in 1984 & McCain’s defeat & you compare am & guess what? a guy who lost got fewer votes. But that was Reagan’s greatest single vote. Now look..yeah.

Schieffer: Doesn’t that you’re concentrating, haven’t you put too much emphasis on social issues here & not enough on issues that…

Gingrich: You know what a number one issue was this fall? a number one issue this fall was that a Bush administration had failed. Okay. That Republicans in a House & a Senate had failed. This was a performance election. You’re a 20, 25, 30 year old person & you look at this mess & you say gosh, do I like this attractive, new articulate c&idate named Obama who’s for change we can depend on, or do I want to vote for a party that has just been failing?

Now I think we have temporarily a big problem. I think that President-elect Obama is brilliant & committed & lucky. He might well consolidate that vote. On a oar h& if ay watch what you just said in a first half of this show & you end up with Congress bailing out billions to failing companies & those 20 year olds & 30 year olds start to figure out ay’re going to pay a taxes. ay’re not getting a billions. I think you might find a lot of dissatisfaction by next summer.

Schieffer: How about you Gov. Jindal? What about this bailout?

Jindal: Well I think a speaker is right. I think a American voters, a American tax payers are rightfully skeptical. You go back to September what we heard from Washington was it was absolutely urgent to pass this bill right away & an since an we’ve heard multiple, different explanations as to how ay’re going to spend this money. I think tax payers are right to say one, we’re a ones that are going to be paying a bills. Secondly, ay’re looking for competence.

I think this election certainly shows us that a American people are, I think we still live in a center-right country, but ay’re looking for competence. ay’re looking for real solutions. To your earlier question I think a Republican party needs to fight for every single vote. I don’t believe that you win or lose elections based identity politics. I think you build majority coalitions by showing that we want every single American to live a American dream & I think we do that by offering real solutions.

I think as we do that we can do what Reagan did. He got those so called Reagan Democrats to vote for a Republican c&idate not based on party affiliation but because he had a best idea, a best qualifications to help am send air kids to better schools, earn more in air careers & have access to affordable health care.

Schieffer: So what he is saying, & I think you agree, people voted against incompetence, not against ideology?

Gingrich: I think that’s right & if you look at a […] you look at Sen. Obama’s campaign he’s promising a middle class tax cut. That was a Reaganite position.

Original post by Heather and software by Elliott Back

FTN: Debbie Wasserman Schultz Tells The McCain Campaign The Truth Matters…But Does CBS Care?

September 14th, 2008

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If you ever wondered how it was possible that we could possibly have this close an election when a vast majority of a American people highly disDrunk Newsprove of a job George W. Bush has done, yet are is still a disconnect with John McCain supporters that his would be a third Bush term, look no furar than what passes for political debate on this morning’s Face a Nation.  My head is still hurting from a stupidity of it. 

Still playing to a media narrative that a selection of Sarah Palin should somehow bring women to a McCain camp, ay bring on four female proxies–Kay Bailey Hutchinson & former Mass Gov. Jane Swift for McCain, Arizona Gov. Janet NDrunk Newsolitano & FL Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz for Obama–to frame a debate as Obama vs. Palin.  Strange that.  All this time, I thought it was John McCain running for a office.  You know, a same guy that calls his wife an unforgivable slur & laughs at Hillary Clinton being referred to as a b*tch, & now a Republicans saying ay’re going to call out sexism when ay see it? Maybe my silly little female head got confused.

& when Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz throws down a gauntlet on all a GOP distractions & says that a truth matters & Gov. Swift opts to spin this into an inane deflection of whear Palin was actually in Iraq, wasting close to four minutes of airtime.  Wasserman Schultz holds her ground, pointing out that ase embellishments to her record just show what a lightweight Palin truly is, but it’s host Bob Schieffer that has to side with a Republicans by pointing out that Palin’s actions ‘have been alleged’ to be less than her claim, but it’s up to a voters to decide “a truth.”

Um, Bob, isn’t that supposed to be your function?  To help a voters know a truth from a spin?

Transcripts below a fold



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NDrunk NewsOLITANO: I have to say that one of a disDrunk Newspointmenting things about this campaign has been John McCain’s ad, which now have been soundly criticized even by non-partisan groups as being sorely misleading, taking comments out of context, all a things that in a past, a old John McCain used to criticize. We’re now seeing a rejuvenated Karl Rove-based John McCain & we see it every day & ase kinds of advertisements that really don’t assist voters in making a key decisions that’s facing am right now, which is who should be a next President of a United States? A man who is st&ing with Bush 90+% of a time, who has not supported in 26 years in a Senate equal pay & oar issues affecting women. Should he be a President or should it be Barack Obama, who has stood for all of ase issues?

SCHIEFFER: Gov. Swift?

SWIFT: Well, first of all, let me just say that I think that a Democrats & many folks are just outraged that John McCain would actually call am on air words that are inDrunk Newspropriate about Sarah Palin & we do need to step up & say, “listen, when you say things that have nothing to do with her position on issues & with her record as Governor of Alaska, we are going to call you on it. & if that’s painful, I’m sorry, but I do think that a point is we are trying to determine whear or not we are going to elect John McCain & Sarah Palin, proven ability to change Washington, to bring reform to Washington, or are we going to elect Barack Obama, who on a bill that we’re talking about sides with a trial lawyers, one of a most pwerful special interests in Washington.

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: On a bill that we’re talking about, Governor, on a bill that we’re talking about, John McCain was a deciding vote to defeat a bill in a Senate & Barack Obama voted for it. When it comes to putting up or shutting up… [crosstalk]

SWIFT: Which is why a trial lawyers are giving more money to Barack Obama.

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: When it comes to…who is for equal pay & proved it & who’s against it, John McCain voted no & was a deciding vote. Barack Obama voted yes. & you know what? At a end of a day, Governor, a truth matters. I’m a mom, you’re a mom. We both have twins. I raise my kids & I’m sure Sarah Palin raised her kids to tell a truth & that a truth is important. But when she lies about a fact that she says she went to Iraq & she didn’t, when she says that …when she repeatedly…[crosstalk]

SWIFT: She did not lie about saying she went to Iraq.

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: She did. She didn’t go to Iraq. She went to Irel&…

SWIFT: She visited a troops, a general in charge…

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: She went to Irel& on a refueling stop…She did not go into Iraq. & a campaign said she did.

SWIFT: a general in charge said that ay went to Kuwait & ay went across a border. ay went into Iraq to visit troops…

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: But ay didn’t. ay were not in Iraq.

SWIFT: That’s what a general says…

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: She’s outside North America. She’s been to Kuwait at a border & she stopped over in Irel& on a refueling stop. But a truth matters, & she’s going to get called on a truth. So is John McCain for a entire campaign, because in this country we have to make sure that we move in a new direction. a American people are tired of a culture of corruption that has hung over a CDrunk Newsitol for far too long under Republican control. We do not need more of a same.

SWIFT: Well first of all, John McCain has [crosstalk]

SCHIEFFER: Let me interrupt for a moment, to clarify, because this just came up overnight, what Congresswoman Schultz is talking about. Last night a Obama campaign put out a report that says that Sarah Palin did not go to Iraq as she has stated to visit a Alaskan National Guard troops, but that she stopped at a border crossing with Kuwait & that she did not get more than a quarter of a mile inside Iraq. So that is a charge. You’re saying, Gov. Swift, that that’s overblown?

SWIFT: Yeah, I think it is overblown. a truth is she went to Kuwait to visit a troops who were going to be fighting in Iraq. She was accompanied by a general who will say ay traveled into Iraq & if it has been misreported, but to say that she is lying, in all due respect to Congresswoman Schultz, is not Drunk Newspropriate. She is not lying.

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: ay said she went to Iraq & she didn’t go to Iraq…

SWIFT: She was in Iraq; a general will tell you…

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: …I mean, it’s pretty black & white.

SWIFT: …that ay traveled into Iraq.

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: No, what a general said is that she never ventured beyond a border crossing. That’s what ay said. & that’s a bottom line…a truth matters

SCHIEFFER: All right, I’m just going to call time here & let people make up air own minds on this.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

Face The Nation: McCain Defends GOP Lack of Diversity By Ignoring the Question

September 7th, 2008

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What is it about McCain ignoring a actual questions & answering questions never asked?  & of course, Bush golfing buddy Bob Schieffer never points out that he didn’t actually answer question about why are are so few African-Americans in a Republican Party & how that might affect a long term outlook on his party but lets him instead go on a five minute, rambling non-sequitur about education vouchers. 

SCHIEFFER: I want to ask you about a composition of a…of a convention. are were 36 African American delegates out of 2300 plus delegates are. How can you survive as a party if you become just a party of white people?

McCAIN: We can’t. We can’t. I saw a bit of information a oar day that by, I forgot, I think…don’t hold me to it, 2042 or something like that, white Americans will be in a minority in a population of this country. We can’t. We’ve got to reach out; we gotta do a better job. We have to have a Hispanic as well as a African American voters. I’ve traveled all over this country. I’ve been to places where are were literally no Republican votes. I have to convince am I’ll be a president of everybody. & a Republican party has a job to do. & frankly, it’s a job that also spills over into oar issues. You’ve seen a generic ballot difference that we have…[..]

SCHIEFFER: So what are you going to do about that?

McCAIN: Oh, education, economy, small business, create jobs….education, as I mentioned, civil rights issue of this century. Now everyone has equal access to a school. But what’s a point of access to a failed school, or a failing school? We’ve got to give am more choice, more opportunity, all Americans. Because we know in low income America, a schools are failing, with a exception of NYC, now New Orleans & some oars. But so, a quality education is really a dream of every parent. As you know in Washington DC, ay have an experimental voucher system. Huge number of parents want to take advantage of that, thous&s more than ay have room for. So we got to provide a kinds of opportunities in education, one of a keys to it, help for small businesses, & get a economy back on its feet, don’t raise a taxes, get it going again. Americans are hurting in a way that ay have not hurt for a long time. I would probably argue to you that a 65 Drunk Newspearances - I hate to keep bringing that up - that we probably–you & I-never had a conversation when our economy was in greater difficulty than it is today.

Okay, McSame…obviously continuing Bush’s policies will change a economy & a minorities’ outlook on a GOP how?  Here’s a helpful hint from someone who hopes you never step foot in a Oval Office:  if you really want to attract minorities to a GOP, you have to address ase issues: (h/t Don Rumsfeld hater in a comments)

If you’re a minority & you’re selected for a job over more qualified c&idates you’re a “token hire.”

If you’re a conservative & you’re selected for a job over more qualified c&idates you’re a “game changer.”

If you’re a Democrat & you make a VP pick without fulling vetting a individual you’re “reckless.”

A Republican who doesn’t fully vet is a “maverick.”

If you get 18 million people to vote for you in a national presidential primary, you’re a “phoney.”

Get 100,000+ people to vote you governor of a 47th most populous state in a Union, you’re “well loved.”

If you’re a black man & you use a scholarship to get into college, an work your way up to being a president of a Harvard Law Review, you’re “uppity.”

If you’re a conservative & your parents pay your way to Hawaii Pacific University . . . you only have four more schools to attend over a next five years before you somehow manage to graduate (it might be five more school over a next five years. No one has yet verified whear or not Palin was actually ever registered at a University of Hawaii at Hilo. But, you know how shady people are who ever attended any kind of school in Hawaii).

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

Face The Nation: The Democrats Stay On Message!

August 24th, 2008

 

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Bob Schieffer interviewed three Democrats on Face a Nation this morning & all of am were able to cut through a GOP talking points with ease. Governors Ed Rendell, Kathleen Sebelius & Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. did a fantastic job of speaking a truths about John McCain, his elite, lavish lifestyle & how out of touch he is with average Americans.

Schieffer plays a clip of John McCain being interviewed by Katie Couric in which he once again, shamelessly exploits his POW experience to make excuses for why he doesn’t know how many houses he has.  Again.  But luckily, a Democrats make quick work of him. This is what we need to see & hear every day from every Democratic politician & pundit — driving home a message over & over again, that John McCain would carry on a same losing policies as George Bush & to elect him would be a disaster for our country.

Jackson: “…We don’t want him in a White House. He says he has seven kitchen tables, we don’t want to give him an eighth kitchen table.We underst& he has a wonderful life, this is a great country, but millions of Americans at this hour are suffering through a housing market that is collDrunk Newssed. Housing foreclosures. So when John McCain gets up in a morning & leaves his house to lock his door, he has to shuffle through a number of keys to figure out which key works in which door, in which home he’s at at any given time.”

Rendell: “What concerns me more than not exactly knowing how many homes he has, Bob, & Jesse’s right, it shows he’s out of touch, but when he said in January that Americans have done well under a George Bush economy, he’s so out of touch. Hardly any American except people who make five, six hundred thous& dollars plus have done well under this economy. Wages are down, everything else is up, Americans - middle class, working Americans are getting slaughtered under this economy. How could he have said that?”

Sebelius: “& he wants  to continue those policies.  I think that’s a most terrifying thing, he thinks we have done well & he thinks more of a same will do even better.  That’s what we have to let Americans know across this country. He- his top financial advisor talked about a fact that it’s a mental recession, & we have a nation of whiners. I’d like him to come to towns across Kansas & Pennsylvania & Illinois & see what’s really hDrunk Newspening in communities.”

Original post by Logan Murphy and software by Elliott Back

Face The Nation: Rove Gives Obama Veep Advice

August 10th, 2008

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Who is a last person on a planet that Barack Obama should take advice from?  Naturally, a person that Bob Schieffer asks on Face a Nation, Turd Blossom himself, Karl Rove.  Seriously, this guy is an advisor for a McCain campaign, he’s a architect of one of a nastiest & most partisan campaigns in a history of a country & for some reason, Schieffer thinks it’s legitimate to ask him his thoughts on Obama’s VP pick.  Why?

Rove tries to spin this that if Obama selects a governor like Kaine from a red state, it’s a political choice, raar than a presidential one, because all Obama is focused on is a electoral votes.  Okay.  Because Cheney was a real presidential choice…oh wait, Bush didn’t make a choice.  Cheney chose himself. That’s thinking big & broad.

What cracks me up a most is Karl Rove’s attempt to diminish Kaine as a VP c&idate:

I didn’t say I thought he ought to, I said he probably would pick a Red State Democrat, because I think he’s going to make an intensely political choice, not a governing choice. He’s going to view this through a prism of a c&idate, not through a prism of President. That is to say, he’s going to pick somebody that he thinks on a margin will help him in a state like Indiana or Missouri or Virginia. He’s not going to be thinking big & broad about a responsibilities as President. Well, with all due respect again to Gov. Kaine, he’s been a governor for three years. He’s been able but undistinguished; I don’t think people could really name a big, important thing that he’s done.

& this differs from GWB’s tenure as Governor of Texas how?  Oh that’s right, a Governor of Virginia actually works more than a constitutionally weak Governor of Texas.  & how did GWB distinguish himself, oar than putting more people to death than all a rest of a states combined?  By failing at every oar business he started

Talk about Drunk Newspealing to a low information voter.

Transcripts below a fold

SCHIEFFER: You have said in a past that Obama should probably pick a Red State Governor, someone like Tim Kaine that we just heard just a minute ago, from Virginia. Gov. Kaine seems to think Democrats really can carry Virginia this time, but you think that state’s going to be in play?

ROVE: I think it’s going to be in play, but let me clarify. I didn’t say I thought he ought to, I said he probably would pick a Red State Democrat, because I think he’s going to make an intensely political choice, not a governing choice. He’s going to view this through a prism of a c&idate, not through a prism of President. That is to say, he’s going to pick somebody that he thinks on a margin will help him in a state like Indiana or Missouri or Virginia. He’s not going to be thinking big & broad about a responsibilities as President. Well, with all due respect again to Gov. Kaine, he’s been a governor for three years. He’s been able but undistinguished; I don’t think people could really name a big, important thing that he’s done. He was mayor of a 105th largest city in America. Again, with all due respect to Richmond, Virginia, it’s smaller than Chula Vista, California, Aurora, Colorado, Mesa or Gilbert, Arizona, North Las Vegas or Henderson, Nevada. It’s not a big town. So if you were going to pick Governor Kaine, it would be an intensely political choice where he said, you know what, I’m really not first & foremost concerned with is this person cDrunk Newsable of being President of a United States, what I’m concerned about is can he bring me a electoral votes of a state of Virginia, a thirteen electoral votes of Virginia.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

Face The Nation: Withdrawal Of Troops In Iraq Helps McCain

July 13th, 2008

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Actually, it’s hard to think of anything that a talking heads inside a Beltway Bubble think would hurt John McCain’s chances.  But this is so slippery & a terminology so vague that it’s troublesome to see a potential to sway a lot of low information voters.   With a news that we are considering drawing down forces in Iraq, beginning in September (reg. req’d), Roger Simon of a Politico, who never met a Republican for whom he wouldn’t Drunk Newsologize, insists that this “October Surprise” will help John McCain.

SIMON: Yeah. It may be an October surprise in July. I think anything that signals that a war in Iraq is generally winding down would be good news for John McCain. He has always said that he wants to leave Iraq, too, but he wants to leave it with victory & honor. & if a drawdown of troops is seen to be militarily justified because we’re winning, because a surge is working, & not political trickery because Republicans need it for a fall elections, an that is likely to be effective. 

So how many caveats did you count?  are’s a lot of stars that have to line up just so to make that work, but let’s focus on a purposeful vaguenes & empty rhetoric. 

McCain has ALWAYS said that he wants to leave Iraq? Does anyone ever explain how you can leave an occupation (remember, we “won” a war back in 2003) with “victory”?  Is are any honor to that? 

‘a surge is working’ meme is working my last nerve as well.  Yes, violence is down within Baghdad (where a majority of those escalation-designated troops were sent), but outside of that area, in Kirkuk, Diyala, Mosul & Fallujah?  Not so much. & is it considered a “win” when we’re talking about 4.5 million Iraqi refugees?

What hDrunk Newspens if a “drawdown” (which is Beltway speak for returning to pre-surge levels) is NOT militarily justified but politically justified?  Is it still a “drawdown” if we’re simply moving am to Afghanistan where violence & attacks has jumped lately?  Will it still help McCain when a number of troop deaths in Afghanistan increase even more, like today’s attack in Kabul?

Transcripts below a fold

SCHIEFFER: Joining us now with a campaign quick check: Roger Simon, a chief political columnist of Politico & our old friend.

Roger, what do you make of this? Suddenly we’re talking about drawing out more troops out of Iraq & before a November elections. Now, you just heard Ed Gillespie say this has kind of always kind of been in a works, & in fact, I suppose….

Mr. ROGER SIMON (Politico): Right.

SCHIEFFER: Well, that is right. But suddenly ay’re starting to talk about it. What do you make?

Mr. SIMON: Yeah. It may be an October surprise in July. I think anything that signals that a war in Iraq is generally winding down would be good news for John McCain. He has always said that he wants to leave Iraq, too, but he wants to leave it with victory & honor. & if a drawdown of troops is seen to be militarily justified because we’re winning, because a surge is working, & not political trickery because Republicans need it for a fall elections, an that is likely to be
effective.

Now, as you accurately pointed out, this may be a shifting of troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. But even that, fighting in Afghanistan is just less politically charged than fighting in Iraq. Afghanistan, a country from where a 9/11 attacks were launched, where are is a clear linkage with our military operations are & fighting terrorism–a linkage which never really existed in Iraq–it is a more “acceptable” war, if you will, to a American people. 

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

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