The Left's Distraction Game - McCain's Task
It's obvious that the liberal media and the Democrats are determined to boil down McCain's position on Iraq to a simplistic distortion of his one hundred year comment. They say that he wants to stay there for one hundred years, or at least decades, although this was never his position. He merely compared Iraq to Germany and Japan and said he would support a troop presence for that long if Americans were not being hurt or killed, not ongoing warfare. Certainly he never said he preferred a long presence for no good reason, what the liberals want voters to believe.
Talking Points Memo writes that Maliki's endorsement of a sixteen-month withdrawal, something it's not clear he did, has forced McCain to abandon "everything he's been campaigning on for the last year," suggesting McCain wants to remain there for a long time or else he will be displeased. See The Big Picture. This is an attempt to distract voters from the fact that Obama opposed the surge, the one thing that might allow us to get out in a short time frame, and not a very good attempt.
It's a classic diversion tactic that the media is all too happy to play along with. McCain's task will be to continue to remind voters that Obama strongly opposed the surge. This single fact can devastate any chance Obama has at earning credibility as a potential Commander-in-chief. The Maliki statement can actually help McCain if he makes clear that the possibility of a quick withdraw only exists because of the surge. Obama preferred to leave the country to chaos.
Obama's campaign and his friends in the media want Obama to receive credit for ending the war in a short time frame with relative peace despite the fact that he had nothing to do with the peace. This tactic will not work. Eventually the facts will overwhelm the blinding bias the media currently possesses in favor of a Obama.
Obama declaring his strong opposition to the surge, despite claims by David Axelrod to the contrary months later. . .
Here is McCain's one hundred years statement . . .
The Ref | 7/27/08 | Permalink