Whoa, I think that would be actually be called lying, McCain.
I think the best he could have done is leave the issue alone, but instead John McCain tries to do damage control on his ridiculous photo op in the Baghdad market that required a small Army to show us that it was safe there. His visit required 100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk helicopters, two Apache gunships overhead, hidden snipers and bulletproof vests. His excursion included a Rug Shopping Spree at an Iraqi street vendor with Senator Lindsey (”I bought 5 rugs for 5 bucks“) Graham (R-SC) and Rep. Mike (”like a normal outdoor market in Indiana“) Pence (R-IN).
He doesn’t indicate which comments were misspoken, so he still looks even more ridiculous — and people will parse his earlier statements all over again. He’s ensuring the story won’t die down (not that it should). So which of these did he misspeak?McCain said he regrets comments he made after a tour of Baghdad last Sunday, when he said he could see progress and the American people were not being told the “good news” about the war, according to excerpts of his comments and a press release provided by “60 Minutes.”
…”Of course I am going to misspeak and I’ve done it on numerous occasions and I probably will do it in the future,” said McCain, according to “60 Minutes”. McCain acknowledged in this “60 Minutes” interview that he had been accompanied by heavy security during his trip.
“I can understand why (the Army) would provide me with that security, but I can tell you that if it had been two months ago and I’d asked to do it, they would have said, ‘Under no circumstances whatsoever,’” he said.
“I view that as a sign of progress.”
“There are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today,”BTW, an Iraqi merchant also came forward to blow away McCain’s fantasy (WaPo):
– the confident Tool on Bill Bennett’s Morning in America radio showQUESTION: I have just read on the Internet that you said there are areas in Baghdad that you can walk around freely.
MCCAIN: Yes, I just was — came from one.
QUESTION: Pardon me?
MCCAIN: I just came from one.
QUESTION: Yes. And which areas would that be?
MCCAIN: Sir, what I said was — what I said was that there is encouraging signs and that things are better.
– lying to an Iraqi reporter at the Green Zone press conference in Baghdad“The American people are not getting the full picture of what’s happening here. They’re not getting the full picture of the drop in murders, the establishment of security outposts throughout the city, the situation in Anbar Province, the deployment of additional Iraqi brigades, who are performing well, and other progress — signs of progress that are having been made.”
– at the press conference in Baghdad“General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed humvee. I think you oughta catch up. You are giving the old line of three months ago. I understand it. We certainly don’t get it through the filter of some of the media.”
– to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, who asked McCain why Americans still aren’t able to safely leave the Green Zone in IraqCNN’s Michael Ware rebutted those remarks straight away: I’ve spoken to military sources and there was laughter down the line. I mean, certainly the general travels in a humvee. There’s multiple humvees around it, heavily armed. There’s attack helicopters, predator drones, sniper teams, all sorts of layers of protection. So, no, Sen. McCain is way off base on this one..”
“Well, I’m not saying they could go without protection. The President goes around America with protection. So, certainly I didn’t say that.”
– McCain on CNN the very next day just flat out lying (maybe this is the misspeak he’s talking about), when told about Petraeus’s actual security detail
Amir Raheem, 32 , a floor carpeting merchant at the Shorja market, disagreed with the upbeat assessment of the congressional visitors. “Just yesterday, an Iraqi soldier was shot in his shoulder by a sniper, and the day before, two civilians were shot by a sniper as well,” he said.Related:He said Sunni insurgents routinely clashed with Shiite militiamen or with Iraqi soldiers and policemen in the area. “Everybody closes their shops by 2:30 p.m.,” Raheem said.
Although the congressional delegation reported seeing crowds of Iraqis shopping in the market, Raheem said the number represented a sliver of the customers he used to see. “It is not even 10 percent of our work before the bombings, because people are afraid to come,” he said.
Worse, he said, the closure of the main street by barriers has affected his business. If it was so safe, he said, “let them open the street, for the market has died since they put them there.”
* A little stroll in Baghdad
13 Responses to “McCain: I ‘misspoke’ about conditions in Baghdad”
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Thanks, McCain for clearing up that slight misunderstanding. Chances of winning the GOP nomination - zero, although I feel he deserves it.
isn’t it funny how idiotic and delusional republicans look when the press in this country actually does its job and calls them out on their bullshit right away, as opposed to just sitting by and playing stenographer like they’re usually want to do?
it really is extraordinary.
mccain’s only mistake is that the sheer stupidity and irrationality he was asking the press to swallow and pass off for him was just too in-your-face for them to let go.
that is, they knew even the dumbest, least aware, delusional people in this country were gonna raise their eyebrows if they played on mccain’s team with this issue.
He got his tongue wrapped around his eye-teeth and he couldn’t see to talk straight…
McCain is in a position alien to him — Establishment frontrunner. His entyire career has been Reformer. In a sense, this, the Presidency, is his first campaign. And so we see his various mistakes — The “Surge” position, anemic fundraising, and now this.
Kudos to Pam for spotlighting this and for honest correspondents like Michael Ware and Allen Pizzey for calling bullshit. But we need more of it, much more, because so much of the MSM has never gotten over its full-on 2000 swoon over Walnuts and his Straight-Talk Express. The MSM (after 6 years!) seems finally to be realizing that Bush is clueless and almost delusional about Iraq (I’m pointing at Joe Klein, at fucking last!) but McCain is just as bad. Will they finally add two and two together, get four, and start actually telling the public that McCain is as kookoo for Cocoa Puffs as Bush? Not unless Pam and the netroots keep pointing out the sun-blindingly obvious as often as they can. Yay!
“misspoke”== lie
“clarify” == frantic backpeddling
“further elucidate” == attempt at a full 180 on position when it goes over like a lead balloon
By the way, Amanda, I notice two big honkin’ ads for Rudy on the right side of the screen. I realize it’s probably whatever the silly e-ad agencies provide you and there’s not much you can do about it. If you Pandagonians keep posting such skewering political commentary, you will continually negate any effect of the ads whatsoever all the time while they spend their money. Niiiice….
(And given that goofy rabbit look on Rudy’s face, I can’t help but think we’ve got a mole inside Rudy’s campaign, anyway.)
I just came back from visiting an otherwise sane friend in Arizona who is pro-McCain. He refused to believe me when I said that McCain has always been a punk motherfucker. It shocks me the extent to which people will allow themselves to be deluded by this obvious lies. McCain — always been a sellout bastard, always will be.
So when is he going to rename his campaign the Straight Mis-talk Express?
I feel only the slightest twinge of sympathy, because with all of his GOP brethren peddling consequence-free (to them) lies for years, he must have felt that no one would notice if he let loose with a whopper.
Now here’s the real question: how much of any of this will people remember in six months or a year?
Yeah, McCain lied when he visited that market. Let’s also remember that his visit got 21 Iraqi civilians killed, but I don’t see him offering any apologies for that. So much for the Party of Personal Responsibility.
Hope this isn’t too long. It’s damn funny though…
WHAT!!?!?!
Under what possible interpretation, under what conceivable set of circumstances, does that statement make the slightest bit of sense?
I’ve always had low regard for McCain after he sucked up to the administration in spite of what they did to him in Campaign 2000. Generally I’ve called him “the administration’s cum rag”…but I guess for tv I would say “snot rag”.
I saw the 60 minutes interview and it is amazing what dissonance from reality he and all the other war cheerleaders seem to have.
A sign of progress? So a wounded civilian comes in with four severed limbs three months ago and then only three today. AHA ! Progress !
At what point does the number of skulls on the y axis of their “progress graph” equal success ?
I’ve suspect that this administration must have copied a not-so-secret corporate business model of profiting directly from human suffering.
BTW — not to go too ad hominem, but is it my imagination or is McCain sounding drugged lately?