McCain Campaign Responds To Senator’s Inaccurate Iraq Statements: ‘So What?’
McCain Campaign Responds To Senator’s Inaccurate Iraq Statements: ‘So What?’
Yesterday at a townhall meeting in Wisconsin, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) claimed that troops in Iraq are already down to “pre-surge levels”:
So I can tell you that it is succeeding. I can look you in the eye and tell you it’s succeeding. We have drawn down to pre-surge levels. Basra, Mosul and now Sadr city are quiet and it’s long and it’s hard and it’s tough and there will be setbacks.
Watch it:
This assertion is wrong. There are now 155,000 troops in Iraq — far above the 130,000 before the surge.
But today on a conference call with reporters, the McCain campaign tried to dismiss this factually inaccurate statement. “So what?” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), a strong McCain supporter. “What does that amount to?” He added that McCain just “misspoke.” According to adviser Randy Scheunemann, McCain meant to say that troops will be eventually drawn down to pre-surge levels. From his response to the AP’s Liz Sidoti:
SIDOTI: Randy, I’m a little confused here. If the question is over the tense of the statement, why is he not wrong?
RANDY: If the question is, are we drawing down to pre-surge levels? The answer is, yes. If the question is, have we drawn down? The answer is, yes. Liz, I don’t know how to make it any clearer than that. [...]
SIDOTI: He said, “We have drawn down to pre-surge levels.” And what you’re saying is, we will have drawn down to pre-surge levels by June — or, I’m sorry, by July. He was speaking in the present tense: “We have drawn down to pre-surge levels.”
RANDY: And if we want to talk about verb tenses, we can talk about verb tenses. Everybody knows — it’s been publicly announced since before April — Gen. Petraeus and Amb. Crocker testified about it extensively. It is very well-known where we are in the surge force levels and that we are drawing down to pre-surge levels. That has not been fully completed yet, but will be completed within no more than 60 days.
Listen to the full call here:
“Verb tenses” aside, this claim still seems to be wrong and may be a problem for McCain, who likes to tout his expertise on Iraq. Michael Shear of the Washington Post points to testimony by Joint Staff director for operations Lt. Gen. Carter Ham at the end of February, where he said that the Bush administration’s goal is to reduce troop levels to only 140,000:
Q: General, coming back to Iraq and the troop numbers, so what you’re saying is by the time we get to the end of July, we’re going to be at 140,000, which looks to me like we’re still talking about significantly higher than pre-surge levels in Iraq. Am I reading that correctly?
GEN. HAM: Yes.
The Politico’s Ben Smith has more from the call, including the campaign’s cries of “nitpicking.”
UPDATE: In a press conference shortly after the call, a reporter asked McCain, “Did you misspeak yesterday?” McCain replied, “Of course not.” Watch it:
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42 Responses to “McCain Campaign Responds To Senator’s Inaccurate Iraq Statements: ‘So What?’”
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So McCain has adopted Bush's policies and Cheney's snarkiness.
May 30th, 2008 at 1:59 pmWhat McCain's people are saying: "It all depends on what the definition of is, was
May 30th, 2008 at 2:03 pmSo now when McGrampy is wrong, we are nitpicking for correcting him?
LMAO
May 30th, 2008 at 2:04 pmAnd the attention to detail that both have made famous.
May 30th, 2008 at 2:05 pm“So what?” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), a strong McCain supporter. “What does that amount to?”
What that amounts to is an inability to do basic mathematics , you brainless buffoon ; not exactly a characteristic that one who claims he's going to "educate" the opposition party's candidate on Iraq should possess , and certainly not (another) president ...........
May 30th, 2008 at 2:05 pm"And my friends, I can look you straight in the eye and say, I don't know what the F I'm talking about."
May 30th, 2008 at 2:07 pmj.mccain
McCain just adminitted he was wrong for using a photo of him shaking hands with Petraeus in uniform. I guess he's comfortable with being wrong so often.
May 30th, 2008 at 2:07 pmDid I say bomb China? Everyone knew I meant Iran, what's the big deal.
What's that? You say the bombs are starting to drop on Bejing as we speak?
So???
May 30th, 2008 at 2:08 pmMy friends, we've drawn down. It doesn't matter how many of them have drawn down, that was just crap I was making up yesterday. Today the issue is that we've succeeded my friends, blah, blah, blah ...
May 30th, 2008 at 2:09 pmRANDY: If the question is, are we drawing down to pre-surge levels? The answer is, yes. If the question is, have we drawn down? The answer is, yes. Liz, I don’t know how to make it any clearer than that.
Time and time again McCain has made ill informed statements regarding both foreign and domestic policy.
We need a president who actually knows what they're talking about. "I don’t know how to make it any clearer than that."
http://progressiveworldreview.com
May 30th, 2008 at 2:10 pmMcCain/Cheney [19]08
_AIO_
May 30th, 2008 at 2:11 pm"So what?” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), a strong McCain supporter. “What does that amount to?”
I imagine that it amounts to something to the men and women who are in Iraq facing the very real possibility of death or injury. I imagine that it amounts to something to the families of the men and woman who are serving so bravely in Iraq.
Just how shallow and callous can the right wing be when it comes to our military??
May 30th, 2008 at 2:12 pm.
Johnny McSpoke... say what?
.
May 30th, 2008 at 2:13 pmWhen Obama says that he has campaigned in 57 states (instead of 47, which is what he meant to say), THAT'S a "misspeak".
THIS is just not doing your homework.
May 30th, 2008 at 2:14 pmWhen it was pointed out to McBush that what he said was incorrect, I could just see him going into a Frank Burns rant -- "Pick, pick, pick, pick, pick! That's all you ever do!" Although Burns would usually say this after being criticized for almost killing a patient due to his sloppy surgery.
May 30th, 2008 at 2:17 pm"So I can tell you that it is succeeding. I can look you in the eye and tell you it’s succeeding."
Yeah , because we know you're cut from the same dirty cloth the present administration is ; a group of habitual liars and bullshitters........
May 30th, 2008 at 2:18 pmMaybe it's easier for a certain type of person to lie convincingly when he looks his target in the eye. A person relying on post-hypnotic suggestion, for instance.
May 30th, 2008 at 2:21 pmWhy is every single repug blissfully unaware of what is happening over there?
May 30th, 2008 at 2:24 pmHeyyyyyyy, Grammmmmmmmmmpy!!!! Where are yooooooooooooooou?
May 30th, 2008 at 2:25 pmHmmmmm. This sounds so familiar.
"There were no WMD in Iraq. How does this administration respond?"
"So what?"
McSame, indeed!
May 30th, 2008 at 2:27 pmKyl - now there's a piece of work. Luckily Hayworth isn't still in the mix, sticking his overly large nose in.
McCan't with friends like yours, who needs enemas?
'The Straight Talk Express' is running out of gas.
May 30th, 2008 at 2:29 pmI am sick to death of these people trying to dress up the horrific deed we did to Iraq with attempted eloquence, words such as we are winning, support the troops....
We illegally invaded a third world country with no working military, half the population under the age of 16, Shock and Awed them with 4,000 bombs drooped on Baghdad in a 48 hour period and watched this on cnn eating our popcorn.
Winning what? A loss of our country to multinational corporations.
May 30th, 2008 at 2:40 pm"I have earned a million dollars."
"No you haven't."
"I will have earned a million dollars."
"That's not the same thing."
"So what?"
May 30th, 2008 at 2:58 pmThe War in Iraq is over!
No. No.... It will be over!! In a hundred years. That's what he meant.
But basically it's over. Don't hassle the man. He's old.
May 30th, 2008 at 3:02 pmJohn MiSpoken
May 30th, 2008 at 3:04 pma nice compendium of mcsame's mcmisspokes is here.
May 30th, 2008 at 3:10 pmI refuse to vote for McCain because he's dead.
What I mean to say is, he will die, someday. And because he's dead, I can't not have voted for him in November.
Stop nitpicking, you know what I didn't mean to not say.
May 30th, 2008 at 3:12 pmKeep in mind, kids; According to the primary, this is the BEST the Republicans have to offer... and there is a non-zero chance he might actually win this election.
It should be no trouble for a rabid badger to win the general election by a landslide with McCain as his only opposition.
We have GOT to raise our standards as a nation.
May 30th, 2008 at 3:23 pmAccording to adviser Randy Scheunemann, McCain meant to say that troops will be eventually drawn down to pre-surge levels.
No, he meant to say exactly what said. He meant to deceive. And then we get the pat answer as we are becoming so accustomed to:
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) says "So what".
We may question the motives and perhaps integrity of a man who does not own up to his own mis-speak, but there is no question about the lack of integrity of a man who says "So what", in their defense.
May 30th, 2008 at 3:28 pmWell, since robbez seems to be otherwise occupied, I guess I'll say it;
Quit pointing out that Grampy misspoke.
You'll piss the old coot off.
May 30th, 2008 at 3:35 pmThis thread is sorely lacking a Buckie Boy entry :)~
May 30th, 2008 at 3:51 pmFacts be damned! The old coot is right! Dammit, get off my lawn, you whippersnappers!
May 30th, 2008 at 3:56 pmE~S~L~ My previous post is in no way intended to mitigate or lessen the impact of the Buckieless status of this thread. Thank you for your attention.
May 30th, 2008 at 3:57 pmEVERY time McPutz opens his yap is irrefutable proof that if he is elected, we, and the world will be truly phucked.
May 30th, 2008 at 3:58 pmGrampy McSame says - My friends back in the day I had a surge to pork this little blonde c**t here instead of my wife, my wife was lame, she had the cancer and well I just don't like that stuff, so I surged on this rich little blonde, she had lots of money and I like the smell of money, so now the troops are back to pre-surge numbers, heck, there are probably 6 or 7 of them in her bedroom every night, surging her 3 at a time, I like to watch them surge her, she just takes a fist full of those little pills and the troops can surge away on her..I like smoked salmon in my pants.
Cripes, don't tell us that stuff grampy, now I can't get it out of my mind, it burns, it burns.
May 30th, 2008 at 4:45 pmIf it had been just the troop levels, I might have cut him some slack that he left out a couple of words. But in the next immediate sentence, he says that Sadr city is quiet.
On this statement yesterday, a few minutes with http://www.cnn.com showed that it has only been a week since an agreement had been reached as to who could pursue whom in the city. Hardly a case of peace reigning supreme (and those flowers they're throwing at us are exploding.)
May 30th, 2008 at 5:02 pm150,000 . . . 140,000 . . . whatver. It's just 10,000 or so American lives in jeopardy - but why nitpick?
May 30th, 2008 at 5:26 pmDid I hear someone say that the wheels are coming off the Straight Talk Express?
May 30th, 2008 at 5:51 pmAnd such drawdown as has actually taken place was not due to "success": it was due to necessity (the overstretched military, 15-month deployments, and so on). The surge was never designed to succeed at anything beyond keeping as many troops as possible in Iraq for as long as possible -- or is this the success to which McCain refers?
May 30th, 2008 at 9:04 pmY'all better get used to the idea of McSame being your next president. You ain't seen the depths the corporate MSM will go to to ignore McCain's gaffes, misstatements, lies, etc. And the dirst they will smear Obama with will make you cringe.
May 30th, 2008 at 10:13 pmAmerica is a totalitarian, neo-fascist nation run by _______, industrial militarist goons who have taken complete control of the media.
McStain is an argument for not leaving bad wars too early.
May 31st, 2008 at 1:12 amOf COURSE McSenile doesn't tell the TRUTH.
That's for SUCKERS. If McSenile TELLS THE TRUTH about ANYTHING, well, he'll be breaking TRADITION with Bush, Rush, Cheney, etc.
June 1st, 2008 at 12:06 pm