Brooks: ‘No One’s Going To Care’ About McCain’s Troop Levels Gaffe
Brooks: ‘No One’s Going To Care’ About McCain’s Troop Levels Gaffe
Earlier this week, speaking in Wisconsin, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) falsely claimed that troops in Iraq are down to “pre-surge levels.” “I can look you in the eye and tell you it’s succeeding,” he said of the surge. “We have drawn down to pre-surge levels.” In reality, there are now 155,000 troops in Iraq, far more than the 130,000 before the surge.
Today on ABC’s This Week, conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks said McCain’s misreading of the troop levels is an irrelevant issue, claiming it simply reflects the “stupidity of Blackberry politics.” Ultimately, McCain has been “right” about Iraq, he said:
BROOKS: Yeah, this is the stupidity of Blackberry politics. They get caught in this day to day. No one’s going to care what John McCain says about the fact levels. What they care is fundamentally who was right about Iraq. And there I think McCain has a pretty strong case. I mean, the Iraq war is going a lot better.
Watch it:
The troop levels comment wasn’t McCain’s only misreading of “the fact levels” in Iraq that day. In the same town hall, McCain said that the city of Mosul in Iraq is now “quiet,” just as a powerful suicide bomb erupted in the city.
Contrary to Brooks’s claim that “no one’s going to care” about McCain’s reading of troop levels in Iraq, the issue is critically important. As Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) noted, “If you don’t know the number of troops it’s very difficult to make a judgment on if they are over-extended.”
Brooks claimed that McCain has a “pretty strong case” that he has been “right” about Iraq. But McCain’s gaffes are the latest in a series of ignorant comments about Iraq that raise questions about a candidate who has staked his campaign on the war.
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More like dingleberry politics…
June 1st, 2008 at 1:35 pmHave facts ever stood in the way of a neocon jihad? McCain gone has completely over to the dark side in his pursuit of power.
June 1st, 2008 at 1:49 pmNo one cares about facts?? What else are you suppose to care about? Just swallow the myth of McCain the foreign policy expert? The man who doesnt even know whos in charge in Iran??
June 1st, 2008 at 1:49 pmFrom his predictions of a short war and claims U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators to his announcements of mission accomplished and his ongoing confusion over friend and foe in Iraq, McCain’s is a record of unbroken error.
For the details, see:
June 1st, 2008 at 1:51 pm“Is McCain ‘Sick at Heart’ Over His Own Iraq Mistakes?.”
Fire Brooks!
June 1st, 2008 at 1:53 pmMcCain isn’t responsible for his own gaffes but Obama is responsible for gaffes made by everyone he’s ever met. If I was black I’d probably think it was racism.
June 1st, 2008 at 1:53 pmSo McCain will look you in the eye and tell you something that’s not so unequivocal, and not necessarily consistent with the facts. That’s good to know.
June 1st, 2008 at 1:55 pmExcept for that whole WMD thing; oh, and the cakewalk; oh, and the bankrupt empire: oh, and the laughingstock of the world; oh, and the millions of justly pissed Arabs and Muslims; oh, and the dead. My fingers are tired by the stupid.
June 1st, 2008 at 1:57 pmSo what if McCain is constantly making mistakes on important issues like the war. Because he’s McCain, not some carping left-wing critic, they’re obviously what Jonah Goldberg would call “worthy mistakes“.
June 1st, 2008 at 1:57 pmLOL.
McCain could call for having screen doors installed on all of our submarines and Brooks would defend that too.
What a dumbass!
June 1st, 2008 at 1:58 pmIt’s amazing that anyone can understand what Brooks has to say, seeing as he has to shift McSames cock to the side of his mouth to be able to speak. Screw Bobo.
June 1st, 2008 at 1:59 pmPlease join me in this:
Comment URL: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/letters.html
Subject: Brooks:”No one’s going to care…about fact levels
Message:
Dear Sir or Madam,
I regret to inform you that your opinion correspondent, David Brooks, has seriously and substantially called in to question his credibility as a journalist.
According to the Think Progress blog, earlier this week, speaking in Wisconsin, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) falsely claimed that troops in Iraq are down to “pre-surge levels.” “I can look you in the eye and tell you it’s succeeding,” he said of the surge. “We have drawn down to pre-surge levels.” In reality, there are now 155,000 troops in Iraq, far more than the 130,000 before the surge.
Today on ABC’s This Week, conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks said McCain’s misreading of the troop levels is an irrelevant issue, claiming it simply reflects the “stupidity of Blackberry politics.” Ultimately, McCain has been “right” about Iraq, he said:
BROOKS: Yeah, this is the stupidity of Blackberry politics. They get caught in this day to day. No one’s going to care what John McCain says about the fact levels. What they care is fundamentally who was right about Iraq. And there I think McCain has a pretty strong case. I mean, the Iraq war is going a lot better.
Please see for yourself: http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/01/brooks-no-ones-going-to-care-about-mccains-troop-levels-gaffe
I ask that you take immediate steps to sever your contractual and all other relations with David Brooks to maintain credibility as a news organization.
Thank you.
June 1st, 2008 at 2:01 pmNo one cares about McSeniles fact levels?? Speaks volumes about Republicans, doesn’t it?
June 1st, 2008 at 2:03 pmC’mon – What Bobo is trying to say is that as far as Grampy McSame Senior Moments go, this is a relatively minor one. He’s going to screw up much worse soon, due to his senility.
June 1st, 2008 at 2:14 pmBrooks said something?
June 1st, 2008 at 2:21 pmWhat did he say?
I think he said something but I don’t remember what it was.
Who cares what Brooks says?
Who is that Brooks guy again?
Now that’s the kind of bold Bush language we’re used to:
“No one” as in “No one foresaw a levee breach.”
“Going to” as in “I’m going to run an administration with the highest integrity”
“to care” as in “The new Medicare Part D means seniors won’t have to choose between food, electricity and medicines.” Ooops, what about those 2 million dual eligibles?
June 1st, 2008 at 2:28 pmIt seems every show has to have a baboon sitting at the table. David Brooks was today’s baboon! I’d rather listen to a real baboon than Brooks! It’s amazing to me how these apologists can sit there and say white is black and black is white without their heads exploding!
June 1st, 2008 at 2:35 pmApparently, this is the latest entry in the GOP excuse-Rebranding effort.
NO one’s goig to care” about McCain’s mistaken reading of the situation in Iraq.
“No one’s going to care” about Scott McClellan admitting that Bush liedus into war and authorized the leak of a CIA agent’s identity.
“No one’s going to care” that the economy is in the crapper, civil rights are on the wane, the Justice department is in shambles, or that the Pentagon orchestrated a wide propaganda operation aimed at the American people.
Yeah, David Brooks, no one’s going to care. What a tool.
June 1st, 2008 at 2:36 pmYeah the war’s going so well it could keep going another 7 years. Fantastic.
June 1st, 2008 at 2:37 pmDavid Brooks has always taken pride in being a White House insider and it makes since he would continue to support idiot McCain. Now Brooks has bigger problems to deal with then talking up John McCain. Yes Scott McClellan is David’s biggest problem now. David Brooks announced on PBS that he was given classified information before Bush declassified it, why because as David said he’s friends with the President. Now PBS host strongly suggested that David not talk about that on live TV but David was so proud he was chosen by the White House he just couldn’t help it. Now comes today’s comments about Scott McClellan and the body language of David said it all he’s in big trouble. But if David Brooks gets a chance to read this or a friend of his take note to this. I have already forwarded the transcript of David comments to Joe Wilson and Pat Fitzgerald. No I didn’t send it to the current AG as he’s stalling for the exist date of the Bush Administration. Fair warning to Bush Criminals and insiders don’t go on tape it will send you to jail.
June 1st, 2008 at 2:38 pmI think Donna Brazile got it right, on Steffi’s show, when she said this “mistake” paints McCain as just another republican who, like Bush, cannot acknowledge the true situation in Iraq. It portarys McCain not as inept, but politically corrupt for refusing to admit the truth.
And BoBo? He’s shown many times that there is no lie told by a republican that he can’t justify.
He and Broder can Carpool to Irrelevance.
Sounds like the good name for a book, describing how Old Media are driving themselves off the credibility cliff.
June 1st, 2008 at 2:38 pmI guess the RNC or one of its committees still has enough money to payroll Mr. Brooks for his off the wall punditry.
June 1st, 2008 at 2:47 pmNo one will care about McCain’s gaffes – because he won’t win the election.
June 1st, 2008 at 2:51 pmReading this brings a particular thought to mind.
Clutching at straws.
June 1st, 2008 at 2:54 pmI have to agree. I saw this exchange this morning and it really pissed me off. I don’t get it. These are the leaders of the journalism profession – and if they’re not understanding that Americans actually DO want to know if presidential candidates are being honest or truthful or misleading, then the profession is a farce and the future of America is doomed.
There was a time when journalism played a key role as a “watchdog” over the goverment. It’s a role spelled out in the first amendment to the Constitution. And it’s a necessary role. It was a necessary amendment. That’s why it’s there.
To publicly abdicate that responsibility is shameful. And to be done by someone considered respected in the field (and a role model of success to other journalists) is just plain sad. If anyone wonders why more and more people are cynical about the future of America in general, and about government and politics in particular, this is why.
June 1st, 2008 at 2:57 pmWhat David Brooks is completely ignoring is that John McCain’s whole platform is that he understands Iraq better than Obama. McCain said “Anybody who believes the surge has not succeeded, militarily, politically and in most other ways, frankly, does not know the facts on the ground.
(February 2008). John McCain is the only candidate that doesn’t know the facts or the difference between the Shiites or the Sunnis.
Yet he says “I am fully prepared to be commander in chief… I don’t need on-the-job training.” What a scary and horrifying thought.
June 1st, 2008 at 3:02 pmWhy does anyone listen to this asshat? Moreso, why does he have a platform?
Jeebus!
June 1st, 2008 at 3:08 pmNo One (Nobodies) = Media whores
The people who care to examine the details in search of the big picture of a candidate = Progressives.
June 1st, 2008 at 3:27 pm.
Why does Brooks hate facts?
.
June 1st, 2008 at 3:30 pmWhen I heard Brooks say this my jaw dropped. My thought is that Brooks thinks this gaffe will not matter because the old media doesn’t like to report on this type of news. Brooks must think the old media still decides what we know or don’t know about the candidates.
That McCain doesn’t know the facts about matters of national security is a big deal for some one who thinks he should be commander-in-chief because he is so much better at foreign policy. It’s also a big deal that when confronted with the truth he won’t admit he was wrong. Paints him more vividly as BushIII. His frequency of bizarre gaffes shows him to be incapable of handling the rigors of campaigning much less the rigors of being president.
Brooks must not understand that we now get to decide for ourselves what is important because we have so much more access to information. He and his buds don’t get to control what we know and haven’t for a very long time now. Brooks must be a very slow learner.
Brooks made his own huge gaffe today. And based on Jackie’s post, #21, he made a much worse (for him) error on PBS.
June 1st, 2008 at 3:38 pmWhat Bobo was trying to say is that people who are voting for McSame don’t really care if he knows which way is up. That’s the advantage of faith based government: it’s proponents don’t have to know — and often have NO IDEA — much less care about, what’s going on in this world. Like Bobo, the so-called faith-based “values voters” prefer politicians who will tell them what they want to hear, e.g. crap like “tax cuts for fat cats stimulates the economy” or “we’ll be greeted as liberators by the Iraqis” or “Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter,” you know, politicians that will LIE to them.
Bobo refuses to read the writing on the wall: America has had enough of the B.S. from clueless liars like Bush, McSame and the rest of the GOP.
June 1st, 2008 at 3:43 pmYup, just like his sidekick Dictator Bush he can look you right in the eye and LIE to you. That is what THEY do best.
JJ
June 1st, 2008 at 3:46 pmOnline Privacy Center
I’ll care! Won’t you? Tell Brooks! Swamp his mail box!
June 1st, 2008 at 4:05 pmBrooks should listen to Scott McClellan who confirms what we all have known…Obama was right for opposing this illegal and immoral occupation while McSame was for it and continues to defend the crimes and mismangement based on lies of the thugs in the Bush Crime family. Brooks is a toady of the reichwingnut lunatic fringe.
June 1st, 2008 at 4:34 pmBrooks in an elitist.
June 1st, 2008 at 5:01 pmOnce again, we have an apologist for McCain who, rather than own up to their candidate’s mistake of facts, makes the claim that “no one cares about the facts”.
Translated: the common voter doesn’t care.
jps, thanks for the link. message sent.
June 1st, 2008 at 5:10 pmleftcoast,
the reality is, those who follow NeoCon talking points will swallow this, and adopt the posture of not caring whether McCain knows the difference between 130,000 and 155,000 troops in Iraq.
June 1st, 2008 at 5:12 pmWhat if McCain is right, and there have been some 25,000 casualties this past year no one is telling us about?
June 1st, 2008 at 5:14 pmBrooks claimed that McCain has a “pretty strong case” that he has been “right” about Iraq.
Only if you start with the premise that invading Iraq was the right thing to do in the first place. Most of us do not.
June 1st, 2008 at 5:27 pmMcNumbNuts is right! There are only 130,000 troops deployed in Iraq to fight GDumbya’s dirty little avoidable war.
The other 25,000 are there to provide the security detail for McNumbNuts’ next rug-shopping trip to the Baghdad street markets.
June 1st, 2008 at 5:33 pmNo one aligned with Bushco has been right about a single fact pertaining to Iraq. In fact, each statement and action has proved to be the worst possible course. Every single step has been FUBAR because the initial policy was so illegal, immoral and fatally flawed.
If a million magical flying golden monkeys flew out of McCain’s ass and transformed Iraq into paradise on Earth? That still wouldn’t change the fact that he proved his unworthiness for public service by failing to tell Bush, “Mr. President, what you are proposing is illegal and immoral and I will fight you to stop such a mad course”. Since McPander Bear failed to do that, he has nothing to contribute to a discussion of lawful ways to end the madness, or, much of anything else.
June 1st, 2008 at 6:00 pmBTW, I noticed Herren Brooks and McCain don’t say much about the steady increase in troops deployed to Afghanistan to deal with the “defeated” Al Queda. Didn’t the Chimp himself recently try to say that “they are parts of the war on terror”? Seems to me that the net increase in deployed troops speaks against the rosy pronouncements of the Retarded Right.
Of course, I can’t seem to shake “reality based” thinking where success in war means that fewer troops are needed.
June 1st, 2008 at 6:07 pmThe American people deserve a POTUS who was not bottom of the barrel at his military academy. Someone who has real knowledge of the issues in the ME and our economy. George Bush clearly wasn’t that person, and MyCane is a diluted version of him.
June 1st, 2008 at 6:21 pmThis country will not survive four more years of this BS.
BROOKS=IDIOT
Matt Taibi includes an encounter with Brooks in one of his articles on the New Hampshire primary which really captures the essence of the dimwit that is David Brooks.
Taibi sees Brooks after a rally in New Hampshire wandering around looking for his car….Brooks asks Taibi where the press parking is, Taibi points him in the direction of the press parking lot, Brooks hears this information , but then procedes to wander in the complete opposite direction in search of his car.
Check Al Franken’s book for another shining example of example of Brooks’ big brain in action.
This guy lives in his own universe and as long as his corporate sponsors keep signing his pay checks he will never have to leave that bubble and join the rest of us.
June 1st, 2008 at 6:23 pmCan someone send that idiot to an orthodondist. Hearing his drivel is bad enough, seeing it come out of those ugly crooked teeth just makes it worse.
June 1st, 2008 at 6:35 pmI don’t think this comes under the definition of gaffe:
a clumsy mistake;a blunder; faux pas.
This is supposed to be McCain’s most important area of expertise, the reason to vote for him over Barak. This is very empirical and very critical. He is ignorant or senile or trying to fool us or trying to fool himself.
Interestingly, I saw on CNN the other day that one expert on Alzheimers said Reagan exhibited it during the 1984 debates.
June 1st, 2008 at 6:46 pmOh, and just to fend off the inevitable trollish assaults on reason, I’m very glad that casualties were relatively low in May. However, one has to wonder how much of that is do to regrouping after a very violent April.
Also, it seems that the battle lines for the political destiny of Iraq have solidified. Once the American buffoons, and their equally inept Iraqi puppets, are out of the way, the principle struggle seems to be shaping up between the Badrists, the Sadrists, and the Kurds. I wouldn’t be making any long range plans if I were a member of Maliki’s camp.
June 1st, 2008 at 7:46 pmIt’s Stephen Colbert’s world, we just live in it. Truthy statements beat facty every time. Those fact-checkers in the fact-o-sphere will just have to deal.
June 1st, 2008 at 8:02 pmI doubt if people want another ignorant president so I do think that gaffes (particularly in the area of one’s supposed expertise) may be deal breakers.
June 1st, 2008 at 8:31 pmYeah, it’s going so much better…
Saturday, May 31, 2008
June 1st, 2008 at 8:59 pmThousands of Sadrists Protest Security Pact With US;
Sistani Aide Demands Parliament Vote
like THIS
Thousands of followers of Shiite leader Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr peacefully protested across southern Iraq on Friday, according to McClatchy. They prayed and then stood silently in solidarity against the security agreement being negotiated by PM Nuri al-Maliki with George W. Bush.
Wow RU. Great minds… I was just about to post that same link. Funny how everyone was watching the Scotty show while that was going down. No?
June 1st, 2008 at 9:26 pmOh yeah, Brooks. We don’t care if Bush lied to start the War and we don’t care that it is now a never-ending fiasco.
Heckuva Job, Davie. Thanks for your insights on This Week.
June 1st, 2008 at 9:51 pmBlackberry politics? How bout boot-licker politics, Brooks has that down pat and there is no need for facts.
June 1st, 2008 at 9:51 pmI would be a lot more forgiving if McCain had made a simple mis-statement of the troop levels, potentially associated with just being plain bad phrasing.
But in the next sentence, he said that Sadr city and Basra were at peace. This is a rather big mis-statement.
Of course, a few years back he talked about how peaceful the market was.
June 1st, 2008 at 9:55 pmpete, I’ve noticed we’re often on the same wavelength…{:>}
June 1st, 2008 at 10:15 pmMaple, Sadr city is in the process of being invaded by Iraqi troops and Muqtada has told his folks to cool it. That’s a far cry from being at peace…
June 1st, 2008 at 10:17 pmMcIIIrd hasn’t got clue one how powerful the young cleric is.
Probably thinks he’s a Sunni.
Is David Brooks aware of the fact that most people consider him a Zionist stooge?
Just crious.
June 1st, 2008 at 10:48 pm“I must admit it’s getting better . . .”
Suicide Bomber Kills At Least Ten West of Baghdad
Saturday 31 May 2008
by: Kim Gamel, The Associated Press
A suicide bomber killed at least 10 people Saturday, hitting a police checkpoint outside Baghdad.(Photo: AFP)
Baghdad – A suicide bomber blew himself up at a police checkpoint west of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 10 people including the local police chief, an official said. . . .
This used to happend daily if nopt twice daily before the surge!!!!!?
June 1st, 2008 at 10:49 pmWayne A. Schneider – The “pretty strong case” doesn’t seem to be cutting it, even by McCain’s reasoning — as McCain cited the return to pre-”surge” troop levels as one of the top pieces of evidence in support of his claim. When called on it, he doesn’t deny he got his numbers wrong, but I haven’t seen where he’s reassessed the United States’ “success” in Iraq in light of his new understanding of the correct figure.
Is a return to pre-”surge” troop levels a prime metric of U.S. success in Iraq, or isn’t it, Mr. McCain?
Keith – I agree: no gaffe. I vote for trying to fool us; it was the same with his “gaffe” of bundling all the bad guys in Iraq in with al Qaida
June 1st, 2008 at 10:58 pmWhat is Brooks claiming that McCain has been right about regarding Iraq. Was he right about authorizing Bush to go to war with Iraq? I don’t think so. In fact, McCain has been consistently wrong about Iraq. Obviously, Brooks is only talking about the “surge”. But how right has he really been on that account? What about the 18 benchmarks. Has the surge bought the time for political reconciliation or has that time been squandared. Even al Sistani is now saying it is o.k. to shoot the occupiers. Iraq is looking to buy sophicated weapons from none other than France. Why doesn’t Iraq use the oil money instead to repair the massive damage caused by war. What Maliki wants is to do is to buy weapons from France to crush internal political opposition. Some success that is. What are McCain’s views on that latest development.
June 2nd, 2008 at 1:25 amBrooks adroitly brings the issue back to the personal trust of the voters in Obama, which is obviously a reference to the Pfleger videos, each of which is more incendiary than the one before. I think it will be necessary to establish the possibility at least that Pfleger is a provocateur, planted at some earlier point in order to be exploited at this one.
June 2nd, 2008 at 5:36 amBut will the corporate MSM harp about this through election day or follow Brooks advice and drop it? The media seem all too eager to whip up gay marriage as an election year issue AGAIN…
June 2nd, 2008 at 5:38 amThe American republic is gone.
Remember, Brooks declared a few months ago that we are now politically “Postwar“, i.e. the war is itself irrelevant.
I guess he figures if he says this kind of stuff enough, other people will say it too.
June 2nd, 2008 at 5:54 amAs usual, a neoconista has it wrong.
No one is going to give a rat’s ass about Obama’s 57 States slip of the tongue or his misstatement regarding which Nazi camp his great uncle helped to liberate.
A pretender to the throne of commander in chief that can’t even get something as simple as troop levels right the first time and has to have his sychophants make up some sh1t about what he meant to say?
Yeah, people will remember that.
June 2nd, 2008 at 6:09 amAnd no one will remember this NeoCon Zionist AssKlown after the November elections. He is so irrelevant.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:21 amMaybe David Brookes doesn’t care, but these repeated mistakes prove two things. One John McCain is too old and his memory just “Aint what it use to be”. Sorry David, but you logic just doesn’t add up. Does this moron actually think the Democrat don’t have this on tape ready for play over, and over again once McCain starts with his Rev. Wright crap? As for Hillary: “You are a sore loser, shut up and get on the band wagon while there is still time”, and “No you shouldn’t be a VP choice”
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:34 amWrong Sir, wrong. When a person is trying to make a case and the math he is using isn’t correct then his entire case can/will fall to the ground. To say anything other is to ignore the initial question.
Don’t belittle yourself any further Mr. Brookes. It’s fine to be a partisan hack but you will be exposed as a partisan hack for trying to piss on America’s head and tell us it’s raining. Did you get math lessons from Mr. Rove?
June 2nd, 2008 at 1:23 pm