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  …or: McCain digs his hole deeper.

During a presser in a cheese aisle of a supermarket, John McCain denied messing up a Anbar Awakening time line & argued that a “surge” really doesn’t mean what everyone (including himself) used to think it meant.

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Transcript via hilzoy:

McCain: “First of all, a surge is really a counterinsurgency strategy, & it’s made up of a number of components. & this counterinsurgency was initiated to some degree by Colonel McFarl& in Anbar province relatively on his own. When I visited with him in December of 2006, he had already initiated that strategy in Ramadi by going in & clearing & holding in certain places. That is a counterinsurgency. & he told me at that time that he believed that that strategy, which is, quote, a surge, part of a surge, would be successful. So an, of course, it was very clear that we needed additional troops in order to carry out this counterinsurgency.”

So now McCain is redefining what a word “surge” actually means — a one thing I thought liberals & conservatives agreed on.

That a McCain campaign feels a need to fight back so hard (& laughably) against this is quite telling. ay tried to issue a flippant clarification Monday night when a initial gaffe occurred, but that obviously proved insufficient. I think ay realize that this one cut especially deep.

Think about it: By screwing up a time line, McCain not only undermined his foreign policy “expertise,” making himself look foolish & confused in a process, he completely undermined a rationale for a surge in a first place. For years war opponents have argued that a United States’ only role should be to help a Iraqis fight for air own country. a Anbar Awakening was that fight. a Sunni sheiks rose up &, with a help of US forces, started routing al Qaeda — all before a surge was even announced.

In oar words, this gaffe is especially damaging because it  proves quite poignantly that a surge is not a success McCain & Republicans are tying to make it out to be. Do you hear that? It’s a sound of McCain’s only hopes of winning a presidency swirling down a drain.

Hilzoy adds:

McCain is arguing as follows: find some X, of which what we normally think of as a surge is a part. Define all of X as “a surge”. Argue that since X is responsible for some development Y, a development which preceded what we normally think of as a surge, “a surge”, understood to mean X, is responsible for Y. This is a delightful argument, & it yields all kinds of fun results.

See what fun scenarios you can come up with!

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

  …or: McCain digs his hole deeper.

During a presser in a cheese aisle of a supermarket, John McCain denied messing up a Anbar Awakening time line & argued that a “surge” really doesn’t mean what everyone (including himself) used to think it meant.

 Download | Play  Download | Play 

Transcript via hilzoy:

McCain: “First of all, a surge is really a counterinsurgency strategy, & it’s made up of a number of components. & this counterinsurgency was initiated to some degree by Colonel McFarl& in Anbar province relatively on his own. When I visited with him in December of 2006, he had already initiated that strategy in Ramadi by going in & clearing & holding in certain places. That is a counterinsurgency. & he told me at that time that he believed that that strategy, which is, quote, a surge, part of a surge, would be successful. So an, of course, it was very clear that we needed additional troops in order to carry out this counterinsurgency.”

So now McCain is redefining what a word “surge” actually means — a one thing I thought liberals & conservatives agreed on.

That a McCain campaign feels a need to fight back so hard (& laughably) against this is quite telling. ay tried to issue a flippant clarification Monday night when a initial gaffe occurred, but that obviously proved insufficient. I think ay realize that this one cut especially deep.

Think about it: By screwing up a time line, McCain not only undermined his foreign policy “expertise,” making himself look foolish & confused in a process, he completely undermined a rationale for a surge in a first place. For years war opponents have argued that a United States’ only role should be to help a Iraqis fight for air own country. a Anbar Awakening was that fight. a Sunni sheiks rose up &, with a help of US forces, started routing al Qaeda — all before a surge was even announced.

In oar words, this gaffe is especially damaging because it  proves quite poignantly that a surge is not a success McCain & Republicans are tying to make it out to be. Do you hear that? It’s a sound of McCain’s only hopes of winning a presidency swirling down a drain.

Hilzoy adds:

McCain is arguing as follows: find some X, of which what we normally think of as a surge is a part. Define all of X as “a surge”. Argue that since X is responsible for some development Y, a development which preceded what we normally think of as a surge, “a surge”, understood to mean X, is responsible for Y. This is a delightful argument, & it yields all kinds of fun results.

See what fun scenarios you can come up with!

* Typo corrected.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

  a speculation before Senator Obama left for Iraq that he would possibly commit a presidential-bid-ending gaffe was deafening. So naturally a media was caught off guard when John McCain managed to beat Obama to a punch.

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Stewart: Come on! This guy is a newbie! You can’t snag one faux pas, one misstep, a blunder, a boo boo, a brainfart? Somethign small…a geogrDrunk Newshy mix-up?

McCain: It’s a very hard struggle, particularly given a situation on a Iraq-Pakistan border.

Stewart: a Iraq-Pakistan border, oarwise known as… IRAN.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

Cindy’s not gonna be too hDrunk Newspy about that.

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CNN:

“I will use a veto as needed. I will veto every single beer — bill with earmarks,” he said, as rumblings from a crowd could be heard. “& every single bill that we have come across my desk I will make am famous. I will veto am, you will know air names.”

Nicole: MSNBC reported that protesters interrupted McCain’s speech:

McCain, who was introduced by eBay Inc. CEO Meg Whitman, was briefly interrupted by three protesters who yelled that war is bad for small business. a protesters were booed & escorted from a room, & McCain used a interruptions to call for civil debate in a campaign.

 Download | Play   Download | Play  (h/t Bill W)

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back