Jun 11 2008
McCain Goofs on the Today Show
John McCain is creating a buzz with his latest appearance on the Today Show. McCain told Today that getting the troops out of
Iraq wasn’t important. He went on to say keeping them out of harm’s way is the key.
The Obama campaign wasted little time jumping on McCain, using John Kerry as their voice. Declaring McCain is out of touch with the American people on this issue and ripping McCain for his stance. This was the second time McCain offered fuel for Obama; a few months ago, McCain said the troops would stay a hundred years if need be. This type of statements may provide Obama with some political hay, but like most issues, those most upset about the comments are firmly against McCain.
McCain addressed the issue with an emergency press conference by Sen. Joe Lieberman and Sen. John Thune, both members of the McCain camp. The two looked to set the record straight on McCain’s comments and well, put out the sparks before they become a fire.
McCain would be wise to pound the recent success of
Iraq and needs to sway public opinion. The situation has stabilized and with some work McCain could flip the issue on Obama. However, the real issue for the American people is going to be the economy with soaring fuel and food prices. As Bill Clinton said “It’s the economy stupid.”
Update: The following is Sen. Joe Leiberman’s comment at the press conference.
“Well, to put it mildly, I’m disappointed by these reflexive attacks on what Senator McCain said this morning on ‘The Today Show,’ because if you read the paragraph and not take a single clause out of context, it’s very obvious what John McCain is saying and it’s consistent with everything he’s said along the way.
“I view the attacks on Senator McCain this morning as another partisan attempt to distort John McCain’s words to distract the American people from the fact that John McCain has been both courageous and right about the Surge in Iraq, and Barack Obama has unfortunately been consistently wrong. And I think this is exactly the kind of partisan political game that the American people are sick and tired of. It’s again obvious if you read the short paragraph that Senator McCain is saying what – answering a question about what his estimate is based on the success of the Surge, which he’s supported as I will get to in a minute.”
6 Responses to “McCain Goofs on the Today Show”
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I think he means to say that occupation wouldn’t matter if we weren’t in danger of casualties. Great post though! Oh, and stop stealing my layout LOL!
My comments are lonely: http://waxingpoetically.today.com
Best,
Mike
I think that McCain speaks well as long as he’s scripted. When he’s “off the leash” then he’s prone to say what he’s thinking instead of what he’s supposed to say. Pity we didn’t have more of this, then we’d get a real picture instead of the air-brushed one!
As far as Iraq goes, I think he would have lost a lot of voters with his “if it takes 100 years” statement that he made a few weeks back! I don’t think that the American people want that, and I don’t think the US economy could take it - that statement could very well have shot him in the foot. By all means do the patriotic flag waving and the staying there for the right reasons until a timely withdrawal can be made, but 100 years?
Being a Political candidate and always in front of the media has got to be a challenge. I, myself would not last 5 minutes– without saying the wrong thing or being misinterpreted. Best of luck to those that choose this as a career.