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Then and Now

It seems that back in 2005 John McCain understood how dumb John McCain’s current position on Iraq is:

Host Chris Matthews pressed McCain on the issue. “You’ve heard the ideological argument to keep U.S. forces in the Middle East. I’ve heard it from the hawks. They say, keep United States military presence in the Middle East, like we have with the 7th Fleet in Asia. We have the German…the South Korean component. Do you think we could get along without it?”McCain held fast, rejecting the very policy he urges today. “I not only think we could get along without it, but I think one of our big problems has been the fact that many Iraqis resent American military presence,” he responded. “And I don’t pretend to know exactly Iraqi public opinion. But as soon as we can reduce our visibility as much as possible, the better I think it is going to be.”

Kudos to Sam Stein for writing this up. Checking the record by using Nexis doesn’t count as “reporting” under the fairly arbitrary rules governing “real journalism” but it sure can be valuable.

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