ABC cherry picks information to cover for McCain on Iraq and portray Obama as distorting McCain

[ProSense]

Obama Continues to Twist Truth About Twisting Truth

April 08, 2008 9:44 AM

Here are the facts.

* Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has suggested he would be fine with an indefinite US troop presence in Iraq for 100 years or more "as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed" -- not a continued war for that long, but for a US troop presence there, the way the US continues to have troops in Japan more than 50 years after the end of World War II. Watch McCain make this comment HERE

* Generally when Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, has hit McCain for this remark, he has been accurate in his description.

* There have been at least three times when Obama has twisted what McCain said to portray McCain as advocating war in Iraq for 100 years or more: As recently as the end of March in Lancaster, Penn., Obama said, “you know, John McCain wants to continue a war in Iraq perhaps as long as 100 years." At the Cleveland, Ohio, presidential debate, Obama said the U.S. is "bogged down in a war that John McCain now suggests might go on for another 100 years." In Houston, Texas, on February 19, Obama said that McCain "says that he is willing to send our troops into another 100 years of war in Iraq."

* Yesterday on MSNBC, Obama senior strategist David Axelrod said Obama "is not saying that Sen. McCain said we'd be at war for 100 years." I suppose that depends on what the meeting of the word "is" is.

* Today on TODAY, Obama was asked by Meredith Vieira if he's willing to admit that he has distorted McCain's statements. Obama said: “No. That's not accurate, Meredith. We can pull up the quotes on Youtube. What John McCain was saying was, that he was happy to have a potential long-term occupation in Iraq. Happy may be overstating it -- he is willing to have a long-term occupation of Iraq, as long as 100 years, in fact he said 10,000 years, however long it took.”

* It is accurate to say that Obama has in the past distorted McCain's comments. Watch a Republican Youtube video that shows Obama's words from today and from the past HERE

It's beyond me why Obama would want to change the focus of this debate from McCain's willingness to have troops in Iraq indefinitely to his misrepresentation of what McCain said. As ABC News' Ron Claiborne sagely noted McCain's actual remarks are sufficient Democratic ammo.

In fact, McCain is trying to have it both ways, claiming that he would consider staying in Iraq and at the same time saying that Iraq will be at war long-term. McCain has also made statements rejecting the South Korea model for Iraq.

Senator Kerry on McCain

The Carpetbagger reported on that Charlie Rose Show interview that Senator Kerry brought up

Think Progress on the Nov 27, 2007 Charlie Rose appearance

John MCCain on Charlie Rose, 11/27/07. (Video)

John McCain on Charlie Rose, August 2007 (Video)


More on McCain's inconsistencies


Edited labeling of videos.

[patrice]

1. Great post! Marking it for study, later. Thanks! : - )

:applause:

[ProSense]

6. Thanks!

They don't call him weather vane McCain for nothing.

[TwilightGardener]

2. The media is going overboard to defend McCain's hundred years of war comment..

I think the Dems should not heed any flack from the media--they are trying to scare off our candidates from making hay out of this by going after DEMS for McCain's retarded and ill-thought comment. The media will always protect and bolster him. Sickening.

[ProSense]

3. McCain: ‘No one has supported President Bush on Iraq more than I have.’

McCain: ‘No one has supported President Bush on Iraq more than I have.’

[ProSense]

4. More on the McCain Bamboozle

More on the McCain Bamboozle

04.08.08 -- 2:09PM
By Josh Marshall

I'm feeling sorry for some of my journalistic colleagues who are freely letting themselves get slapped around by John McCain and his press hounds on his '100 years' in Iraq promise.

In this morning's episode of TPMtv, we noted how McCain didn't just say this once in an off-the-cuff exchange, as he's claimed. He actually said it numerous times during the primary season. And he was so into it that 100 years was actually the shortest period of time he boasted about.

Now McCain and his handlers are trying to say he wasn't talking about 'war' in Iraq or even an 'occupation' but only a 'presence' in which no US military personnel are killed and seemingly one which doesn't cost anything either.

If reporters who've bought into McCain's explanation actually think this is true, then the logical follow-up is to ask: if he is only happy continuing the 'presence' in Iraq for a century under his fantasy conditions, how long is he willing to continue it with a price tage of $100 billion and hundreds of US military fatalities a year? Or how about $50 billion and only 500 fatalities a year. If he really wants to run away from the bold commitments he made as a primary season candidate, reporters really need to do some due diligence gaming out just what he means.

More in the vid ...

link

[JimGinPA]

5. K&R & Bookmarked

[ProSense]

7. McCain Stumbles on Shiites v. Sunnis….Again

McCain Stumbles on Shiites v. Sunnis….Again

April 09, 2008 10:19 AM

During the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing yesterday, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in his questioning of General David Petraeus, stumbled again on whether Al Qaeda is Sunni or Shi'ite.

MCCAIN: Do you still view al Qaeda in Iraq as a major threat?

PETRAEUS: It is still a major threat, though it is certainly not as major a threat as it was say 15 months ago.

MCCAIN: Certainly not an obscure sect of the Shi’ites overall...

PETREAUS: No.

MCCAIN: …or Sunnis or anybody else.

It took just minutes before the Democrats posted the video on Youtube.

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean issued a statement saying, "As John McCain continues to get the basic facts on the ground in Iraq wrong, he makes it clear to the American people that he will continue the open-ended commitment to fighting President Bush's war in Iraq. One hundred years in Iraq is not a plan. We all honor the service and sacrifices of our brave troops and their families, who have done everything that has been asked of them every step of the way. Honoring their service means bringing this war to a responsible end, and the only way to do that is to elect a Democratic president in November."

more

[rodeodance]

8. ha ha- Saddle up PS--and get used to it. Reminds me of your posts cheery-picking HRC words

[ProSense]

9. Was it

this one?

[rodeodance]

11. Best link is from Obama camp saying Don't pick on Mccain-stop calling him a warmonger!!

[ProSense]

13. Yet here I am picking on weather vane McCain the warmonger!

Does that make you feel sad?

[GoldieAZ49]

10. Letterman asked McCain if he was going to call Obama about misrepresenting his words

McCain said no reason to, Obama is an intelligent man, he can read the transcripts.

[jab105]

12. Easiest way to combat it was suggested on TPM, and I think it is brilliant!

Simply say...

Well, how long will it take until we have no one being killed in Iraq?
Well, however long THAT is - then add 100 years...

So, its actually worse than what is reported...

Because defending that he said "as long as no one is being killed" presumes that very soon no US service member is going to be killed in Irq. But, to put it bluntly, that is a LONG way away...people are still being killed, and that seems to be what is occuring for the future both based on recent events as well as testimony from Petraeus and Crocker...

I've been able to watch cable this week for the first time in forever (I'm on vacation), and its true what Abrams says "teflon John"...but if we back down and don't start hammering it, the teflon wnt wear away...

[cooolandrew]

14. Ooops mistake.

McCain will have to work to his base who are anti women, either candidate we have will not be that. McCain is a Republican of course he wants us there as long as possible as the last 7 years has proved this.The war machine is running empty it needs new blood for it will need more sons and dughters soon.

[ProSense]

15. delete n/t

[cooolandrew]

16. Not sure what the reply was but it was my bad. I reacted before finishing reading....

I used screen reader and only caught part way throught the post what was being conveyed.

[ProSense]

17. No problem. I posted "huh?" It didn't make sense after your edit.

:)

[cooolandrew]

18. Cool glad I didn't get misunderstood.

:) :toast:

[ProSense]

19. Clinton Uses ‘100-Year’ Remark to Fault McCain

April 9, 2008, 12:30 pm

Clinton Uses ‘100-Year’ Remark to Fault McCain

By The New York Times

Senator Barack Obama has come under some criticism for suggesting that his colleague in the Senate, John McCain, wants to stay in Iraq for 100 years, even though Mr. McCain was speaking hypothetically. Today in Pennsylvania, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton did not shy away from using that line of attack either.

At a speech at Hopewell High School in Aliquippa, Pa., Mrs. Clinton praised Mr. McCain, but then added that the Senator “has said that it would be alright with him if we kept troops in Iraq for up to 100 years and again yesterday, he basically reiterated his commitment to the course that we are on in Iraq. Well, I don’t agree with that.”

Mr. McCain first mentioned the possibility of a 100-year presence in Iraq in a casual interjection to a question on the campaign trail in January, and since then he has repeatedly tried to clarify his remarks. In one speech in Cleveland, he said: ‘’The war will be over soon, the war for all intents and purposes, although the insurgency will go on for years and years and years. But it will be handled by the Iraqis, not by us.'’

Mrs. Clinton, in her remarks, also took some shots at Senator Obama for his Iraq positioning, saying he “says he’ll end the war
but his top foreign policy adviser said he won’t necessarily follow the plan he’s been talking about during this campaign, that the plan is just words. Well, you can count on me to end the war safely and responsibly.”