On the advice of more than 50 retired generals and admirals, the House Armed Services Committee agreed yesterday to revisit the utility of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. The discriminatory standard, which has led to the discharge of thousands of capable troops serving in the midst of two wars, has already been rejected by […]
At the risk of belaboring the point, one last thought on John McCain’s decision to redefine what the “surge” policy actually means. Up until yesterday afternoon, everyone, everywhere, knew exactly what the “surge” was. In fact, the White House communications office came up with the word in January 2007, because “troop escalation” didn’t poll well. […]
In June, the McCain campaign started running web ads with pictures of Barack Obama and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad side by side. Under the pictures, the ad’s caption read, “Is it OK to unconditionally meet with anti-American foreign leaders?” The point of connecting Obama to Ahmadinejad was a little ham-fisted, but it’s not as if the […]
I was reading an interview with a Republican insider the other day — I can’t remember where — and he was asked whether he had any optimism at all about the presidential election this year. He said if the race was about John McCain, the GOP had no chance. If the race was about Barack […]
In late May, John McCain announced his belief that U.S. troops in Iraq “have drawn down to pre-surge levels.” That was clearly not the case. But instead of simply acknowledging the error, the McCain campaign insisted the senator was actually right, just so long as we overlook “the tense of the verb.” The same folks […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Dolly made landfall: “Hurricane Dolly was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane Wednesday afternoon, about an hour after it made landfall on South Padre Island, Texas, the National Hurricane Center said. Dolly’s sustained winds decreased to about 95 miles an hour.” * On a related note, because the weather […]
In a dramatic error yesterday, John McCain told Katie Couric that it’s “just a matter of history” that Bush’s “surge” policy “began the Anbar awakening.” That, of course, is backwards. Today, thanks to some efforts by the Obama campaign, the media started picking up on McCain’s bizarre confusion on his signature national security issue, most […]
The surge, coastal drilling, and a “gas-tax holiday.” That’s it. That’s all John McCain has left, and those are the only substantive policy issues John McCain is prepared to talk about as a presidential candidate. In fact, he already doubled-down on the surge, and this week, McCain is doubling-down on a coastal-drilling policy that he […]
The editorial board of the Washington Post continues to be a mysterious group, making strange arguments that are detached from the paper’s own reporting. Indeed, the gap between the quality of the WaPo’s news division and editorial division is greater than at any major newspaper in the country. The Post’s unwavering editorial support for the […]
It seems hard to imagine a presidential candidate, running in the midst of two wars, openly speculate about cutting back on veterans’ healthcare. And yet, here we are. Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain appeared Tuesday to suggest rationing of veterans’ health care may be needed so combat veterans can receive the care they deserve. […]