BY TAYLOR MARSH
Couric wants to talk “microcosmically”. What in the world is this woman talking about? Here’s
the transcript so you can figure it out. But since Ms. Couric insists, okay, let’s. She can start by explaining why she left McCain’s gaffe on CBS’s cutting room floor.
Via the Jed Report, who also runs it all down.
As Olbermann said tonight in his broadcast, Spencer
Ackerman slaps John McCain around like a rag doll. Well, he didn’t say exactly that but that’s what Ackerman does.
For McCain to say that the Anbar Awakening is the product of the surge is
either a lie or professional malpractice for a presidential candidate who
is staking his election on his allegedly superior Iraq judgment.
Huffington Post has more, also linking to Colonel Sean MacFarland’s Anbar Awakening document.
Ilan Goldenberg of Democracy Arsenal sees a “fundamental misunderstanding of Iraq” by McCain. No kidding.
John McCain made a mistake this evening, which as far as I’m concerned disqualifies him from being President. It is so appalling and so factually wrong that I’m actually sitting here wondering who McCain’s advisers are. This isn’t some gaffe where he talks about the Iraq-Pakistan border. It’s a real misunderstanding of what has happened in Iraq over the past year. It is even more disturbing because according to John McCain, Iraq is the central front in the “war on terror.” If we are going to have an Iraq-centric policy, he should at least understand what he is talking about. But anyway, what happened. … .. The surge wasn’t even announced until a few months after the Anbar Awakening.
The traditional media has been in Obama Gaffe Watch since the Democratic nominee left the U.S. If you listen to the talking heads, the perils of Israel on Wednesday for him could be Obama’s final comeuppance. Footage at eleven. That’s where Terry
Moran began on Monday night, and Couric continued, complete with a McCain save. You even
have Democrats like Dee Dee Myers bemoaning the positive press swirl around Senator
Obama.
When Obama stuck to his guns on being against the surge, the traditional
media decided he was wrong, watched and waited. Wingnut talk radio was all a twitter about
it. The thought that Obama believes military policy should be set by civilians
is also making their heads explode. However, when Obama talked about the Sunni
awakening and and the Shia government getting tougher, as you see in Couric’s
interview, John McCain thought he had him. Depends on your version of
history. Turns out McCain got himself, yet again, but CBS was there to save him.
So maybe
Andy McCarthy should regroup.
Kevin
Drum has the timeline and the bottom line:
Say what you will about the surge, which does indeed deserve a share of the
credit for reducing violence and increasing security in Baghdad. But it pretty
obviously wasn’t related to either the Shia militia stand-down or the Sunni
Awakening, since both those things began before Petraeus took over in Iraq
and before the surge was even a gleam in George Bush’s eye. American troops
played a role in the Sadr ceasefire and (especially) the Awakening, but the
surge itself didn’t — and without them, the surge would certainly have
failed. Obama has it exactly right.
Obama didn’t get it wrong. But that was the press spin, complete with a convenient Couric edit.
McCain needs to regroup yet again. It would seem
the traditional media does too.
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