McCain boasts: ‘No one has supported President Bush on Iraq more than I have’

April 6, 2008

The AP had an item the other day noting that John McCain is walking a fine line between running on Bush’s ideas and keeping some distance from a wildly unpopular president.

The senator told ABC News on Monday, “The point is, I’m not running on the Bush presidency, I’m running on my own service to the country, my own record in the House of Representatives and the United States Senate and my vision for the future.”

McCain sometimes makes it easy, though, to connect him to the president with a 28% approval rating.

[O]n right-wing radio talker Mike Gallagher’s show this past Friday, McCain struck a different tone, proudly declaring that “no one has supported President Bush on Iraq more than I have.” “Let me emphasize that there are many national security issues that I have strongly supported the president [sic] and steadfastly so,” added McCain.

Later in the interview, McCain reiterated that he has “agreed with the president on many issues,” though he said “there are some issues” they have not agreed on.

“No one has supported President Bush on Iraq more than I have.” Be prepared to hear that quote quite a bit in the fall. Indeed, I’d argue that it’s nearly as damaging as his stated willingness to keep U.S. troops in Iraq for 100 years.

McCain just doesn’t seem to know what kind of message he should embrace. Consider this exchange from last August, during a CNN interview.

CNN: It seems you’ve been painted as being a huge supporter of the president’s Iraq strategy. Is that an inaccurate portrayal?

MCCAIN: It’s entertaining, in that I was the greatest critic of the initial four years, three and a half years. I came back from my first trip to Iraq and said, “This is going to fail. We’ve got to change the strategy to the one we’re using now.” But life isn’t fair.

So, in August, McCain found it “entertaining” to hear that he’s been a huge supporter of Bush’s Iraq strategy. In April, “no one has supported President Bush on Iraq more” than McCain has. Got it.

What’s more, Yglesias added an interesting observation: in some ways, on Iraq, McCain has been worse than Bush.

John McCain’s latest big foreign policy speech was, bizarrely, reported as him positioning himself as more moderate than George W. Bush. Talking to rightwing radio, though, McCain is singing a different tune, emphasizing that “no one has supported President Bush on Iraq more than I have.” He goes on to explain that “there are many national security issues that I have strongly supported the president and steadfastly so.”

In some respects, though, McCain has been a less-than-steadfast supporter of Bush. He, for example, spent most of 1999 and 2000 criticizing Bush for being unwilling to adopt a doctrine of rogue state rollback. Back in 2002 while Bush was unwilling to publicly argue for invading Iraq, McCain was doing it. And while Bush was full of talk about disarmament, McCain was clear from the start that he would settle only for regime change. McCain spent a lot of time criticizing Bush for not sending enough Americans over to Iraq to be killed, and has also been known to criticize Bush for insufficient saber-rattling directed at such countries as Iran, Syria, and Russia. So, really, it’s not fair to say that McCain is just like Bush — he’s been a much more consistent proponent of the worst policies associated with the Bush administration.

Once again, an example of McSame saying whatever he thinks his audience wants to hear, regardless of whether it contradicts something he has said before. He can do this knowing full well that no one will call him on it.

  • I was the greatest critic of the initial four years,

    But in 2002 when the war was in the planning, Mr. Military expert said, “I believe that the success [in Iraq] will be fairly easy.” When Shinseki said we need several hundred thousand troops, McCain said, “I have no qualms about our strategic plans.” In 2004, when asked about the effectiveness of Rumsfeld, he said “I believe he’s done a fine job. He’s an honorable man.”

    It reminds me of the card trick where you predict the first card will be the Ace of Spades, then pick it up and say you’re right even though it’s the six of clubs. Then you predict the next will be the six of clubs. After five or six cards, you show everyone how prescient you are, relying on them to forget the first pick.

  • Yep, but the Corporate Media is doing all they can to ‘create’ an image of McBush to ‘present’ to the American Public that has nothing to do with McBush’s actual reality..an image that is almost directly the opposite of what McBush actually is. Thus, we have the Corporate Fart called Tweety Matthews spluttering, as the Repiglican cum oozes between it’s teeth, that McBush has clearly defined how different he is from Bush and the rest of this kind of Corporate Lies. We have the Ken Doll called Brian Williams, who was on hand while McBush showed up for the MLK event, declaring on TV that McBush got a great reception from the crowd even as he was booed. And on and on …. the Corporate Media really is akin to a kind of Mafia now in our once great country. They create they Corporate generated ‘narratives’ that are wholly made up by the Corporations themselves, narratives that have no basis in actual reality, narratives that the entire Corporate Media ‘reports’ in a choreographed union over and over so that , finally, it becomes ‘reality’. And of course these narratives are to benefit the REPIGLICANS LIKE McBush so that a government BY AND FOR THE FEW, GREED, CAN BE SUSTAINED. Thus they manipulate, deceive, and lie to the American people .. sitting there in there million dollar suites and ties, their dresses, and lie to us thru our TV screens, all the while maintaining a ‘straight face’. These creatures are no longer human, no longer in possession of a soul. Instead, they have made their ‘faustian deals’ to be among the ‘media elite’. As being members of the media elite they then have secret birthday parties for things like McBush and try to hide this fact from the public itself. Please read what is below in order to truly get what the fuck in happening with this Media Mafia controlled by the major corporations like General Electric.

    Daily Howler logo
    THIS IS YOUR PROFESSOR ON YOUTUBE! The saddest part of Patterson’s piece is the part which explains who he is: // link // print // previous // next //
    TUESDAY, MARCH 11, 2008

    THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY EXPRESS: “I honestly don’t know what to say about this.” Those were Brother Greenwald’s words when he posted the videotape of the press corps’ recent fete at John McCain’s crib in Sedona. For ourselves, we recalled a grander affair, conducted during the 2004 Republican convention in New York. A certain saint threw himself a birthday bash—and darlings, forget about Holly Bailey! When the sanctified solon turned 68, the firmament’s biggest stars were there! To his credit (explanation below), Richard Leiby did the play-by-play for the Washington Post. This is your press corps on creme brulee—French tarts, loin of lamb, lobster salad:

    LEIBY (8/31/04): Sen. John McCain tended to his political base Sunday night: the entire national media. The maverick Arizona Republican, once (and future?) presidential aspirant and press secretary’s dream hosted a hyper-exclusive 68th birthday party for himself at La Goulue on Madison Avenue, leaving no media icon behind. Guests included NBC’s Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert, ABC’s Peter Jennings, Barbara Walters, Ted Koppel and George Stephanopoulos, CBS’s Mike Wallace, Dan Rather and Bob Schieffer, CBS News President Andrew Heyward, ABC News chief David Westin, Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons, CNN’s Judy Woodruff and Jeff Greenfield, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, CNBC’s Gloria Borger, PBS’s Charlie Rose—pause here to exhale—and U.S. News & World Report publisher Mort Zuckerman, Washington Post Chairman Don Graham, New York Times columnists William Safire and David Brooks, author Michael Lewis and USA Today columnist Walter Shapiro. They and others dined on lobster salad, loin of lamb, assorted wines, creme brulee, lemon souffle and French tarts.

    […]

    One guest, who asked not to be identified, described invitees as “the Journalistic Committee for a Government of National Unity.” After singing “Happy Birthday” to McCain, many of the guests—Russert, Borger and Shapiro, among others—cabbed to Elaine’s, where Zuckerman hosted a mob scene that included Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, PBS’s John McLaughlin and New York Gov. George Pataki, The Post’s Mark Leibovich reports. By 11 p.m. the Second Avenue landmark—with red carpet outside—was elbow-to-elbow with martini-sipping guests. Thus commenced Campaign 2008 (we think).

    Somehow, it was the singing of “Happy Birthday” which always struck us as most wrong: At any rate, free food! And plenty of pandering! And after they sang “Happy Birthday” to Mac, the gang cabbed it up to Elaine’s.

    If you don’t understand the press corps’ coverage of McCain, perhaps you can find a hint or two in Leiby’s dispatch.

    Last Friday, Jamison Foser did a superlative post about the way this gang of hopeless galoots insists on calling McCain a “war hero”—even when the designation bears no resemblance to the issue at hand. Beyond that, reporters love to work McCain’s “straight talk” slogan into “reporting.” Stephanopoulos sang “Happy Birthday” that night—and soon was asking the saintly solon for “straight talk answers” on ABC’s air. To judge from Leiby’s guest list, E. J. Dionne wasn’t big enough to make the affair at La Goulue (French for “glutton”), but today he describes his ongoing love for the Great McCain—and he shamelessly equates Obama and Farrakhan to McCain and Hagee. It’s hard to be more disingenuous that that, as many others have already noted. But so what? This has gone on for the past dozen years, and may well decide this year’s race.

    But readers, back to the birthday brawl! We first posted Leiby’s text in October 2004, after Ted Koppel attended a fete for Colin Powell instead of prepping for a critical Nightline (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 10/19/04).On that date, we offered links to past HOWLER posts which showed the big stars of the mainstream “press corps” at play with the people they “cover.” We saw Russert at Rumsfeld’s Christmas party, bragging that he had foreseen Saddam’s capture. (He had seen it in a dream!) We saw Koppel attending that Powell bash, then failing on that night’s critical program. We saw Gwen Ifill dining with Darling Condi, then rolling over for her gal pal in a major interview.

    Yes. This is the way your “press corps” works—though Kevin and Josh and Matt won’t tell you. Sedona was just a suggestion, a cook-out, a small affair thrown for the proles.

    By the way—why the praise for Leiby’s report? (It appeared in “Reliable Source.”) Here’s why: The “press corps” didn’t just sing “Happy Birthday” to McCain in 2004—they gave him a subsequent birthday gift. You see, despite the star power at that bash, almost no one reported it! Lloyd Grove did a brief piece in the Daily News, saying McCain had thrown “a smallish dinner” (text below). But almost no one else in the press corps mentioned this event at all. You see, they luvv to do celebrity stories—unless the celebrities involved are themselves. In that case, they know they must hide their behavior—the behavior of their group’s biggest players. The comical story of Jack Welch’s “Lost Boys of the Sconset?” That comical—and revealing—story has almost never appeared in print. Within the clan, housebroken pool boys know they must hide the truth about how the “press” lives and functions.

    They sing Happy Birthday to those they adore—and then, they pimp to get them elected. Dionne is pimping again today, just as he’s done in the past. The comparison to Obama is disgracefully fake. But so what? Saint John gets a toast.

    Lloyd Grove’s smallish dinner: In the Daily News, Grove seemed to get the scope of things wrong. That said, we don’t mean to criticize Grove. Few others said word the first:

    GROVE (8/31/04): McCAIN FOR SOMETHING! The media elite met to eat at La Goulue Sunday at a smallish dinner hosted by media favorite John McCain and wife Cindy.

    The buzz was that the press-friendly Arizona senator, who was celebrating his 68th birthday, is considering another run for President four years from now.

    “This is like any other trade convention—everybody’s talking about what the new power mower might be,” quipped McCain ad-maker Mike Murphy. Among the guests were Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, Ted Koppel and Dan Rather, Barbara Walters, Jeff Greenfield and even New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani.

    “Oh I see,” one diner remarked on surveying the crowd. “It’s a party for the base.

    That was Grove’s entire item. According to Nexis, this was the second longest account of this heady, newsworthy affair.

  • If the American public cannot see through a candidate who twists and turns before their very eyes, I can only conclude that we get the person we collectively deserve.

    For all the bitching about Bush now, enough people were blind enough to vote in numbers that kept the election close enough to steal in 00. For all the evidence of Bush’s incompetence, lies and wrong-headedness in his first term — completely at odds with his claims of success and obvious fearmongering — Americans gave him a solid win in 04. In 06, voters made a statement by shuffling some deck chairs in Congress.

    What’s it going to be in November, America? Have we learned anything?

  • Do you think McCain, on account of his age, is unable to reckon with the new media environment? There was a time when, without the blogosphere to share information, it was perfectly possible for a politician to say one thing on right-wing radio, another thing on Meet The Press, and assume that no one would ever notice. Now the rules of the game have changed, but maybe McCain is too set in his ways to see it.

  • Other politicians must envy McCain. He has the best of both worlds. Pander without paying a serious penalty. When will it end? And they thought Reagan was made of teflon!

  • btw, for those of you who have been (understandably) avoiding cable news, Dan Abrams (9pm, MSNBC) has a running segment “Teflon John.” So there’s that.

  • “No one has supported President Bush on Iraq more than I have.”

    the dnc needs to take some of their money, cut this as a 15-second commercial, and start running it three times an hour from now until nov. 4!

  • McCain and Bush are both spoiled brats of more appreciated fathers, the inevitable watering down of whatever made their families significant in the first place. Without putting a Freudian spin on it (though that works, too), expect the worst from McCain. The son and grandson of four-star generals finishing fifth from the bottom of his Naval Academy class of eight hundred ninety-nine was just the beginning. Complete ignorance of the fundamental distinction between Shi’a and Sunni won’t be the end either.

  • Are the Democrats smart enough to use this in a TV ad? Probably not. All they had to do in 2004 was run ads showing footage of Bush saying that “Saddam wouldn’t let the UN weapons inspectors back into Iraq” (he made this claim more than once), and then juxtapose that with footage of the inspectors actually in Iraq. But no, the Democrats aren’t that smart.

  • Stormskies is obviously on crack and is a conspiracy theory crackpot and typical leftist traitor. He, like most leftist drug and sex addicted crackpots is one who also believes the 1969 lunar landing was a fake, Pearl Harbor was staged (by the Dems under FDR), 9/11 was an inside job and other treasonous drug induced conspiracy theories of the Left. A real koolaid left wing drinker Bill O’Reilly would say. Stormskies is also probably homely looking, on welfare, lives with his mother, views and masturbates to child porn regularly, has a criminal record, and is twice divorced and irrationally blames all the bad things( no matter how trivial or minor )that occur to him in his life on President Bush. Classic case of Bush Derangement Syndrom you might say. He is A real leftwing loser and america hating leftist!

    I hope all you America hating leftist, commie, nihilist traitor scum who hate also the President go to hell as well as all your loved ones. I hope you and yours all are punished for the rest of your lives on this earth with horrible accidents, injustices, diseases and the like for bashing a great man, great leader and a great Christian. People like me can’t wait for the Rapture to join forces with President Bush and all his supporters (the Real Americans and great Real Christians) to do battle with the evil Left once and for all and throw you all into Hell as stated in Revelation to be with your heroes such as Marx, Lenin, Darwin, Che, Mao, Malcolm X, etc.. In the meantime I pray that God will punish you and yours on the evil Marxist, Commie nihilist LEFT. You may want to refer to the following passages in the Bible which sanction this: ,Psalm 58:10, Exodus 20:5, Deuteronomy 30:7 and Deuteronomy 7:10 and 7:15, and Ecclesiastes 3:8 and Revelation 3:21. So unless you are an ignorant heathen atheist or unknowing christian (many of these)this is not un-Christian to say and is actually sanctioned in the Good Book if you care to look for yourselves!

    If it was up to me Patriots like me we would have all you Leftist scum rounded up and holocausted and later hanged en masse in public for treason to America and to our great Commander in Chief, President Bush! Hopefully this will happen some day. Millions of us Pro-Bush and America loving Patriots like myself would run through a brick wall for him and gladly severely punish all who wish him, America and his loyal Patriotic exemplary Christian followers bad or try to do them harm.
    God is on our side and with His help we will not have to wait until the Rapture at Armageddon for us to see that you evil Leftist scum are punished for your malevolence. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah and the Bubonic Plague; either change your ways treasonous Leftie scum or these will occur to you and much worse. We will pray for all this to occur and when our prayers are answered (the complete destruction and eternal damnation of the evil Left) we will celebrate; music to our ears! God Bless America! We celebrate all your misfortunes you traitors!

    ———————————————————————————————————–

    Bush and GOP, and Fox News and Talk radio haters are Destined for Hell and hell on earth for the remainder of their lives and those of their loved ones as well as their offspring! It will be music to our (The Real Americans) ears when terrible things happen to you heathen cretins! Leftists are such wusses it is not even funny; who are you kidding about trying to pass yourselves off as pacifists? That is just a clever disguise used by cowards and traitors and commies for generations; refer to the Bolsheviks and their anti-war stance in WWI which led to Russia’s CZAR premature withdrawal from a popular war in WWI.You guys on the Left (I would estimate around 70% of you all)
    are just modern day Bolsheviks;let’s be real for a change! You just don’t have the guts to admit it. But those of us, (like us) who know our history
    and read your Leftist blogs can’t be fooled by your
    REAL intentions comrades! Sorry to tell ya, but it ain’t gonna happen ever in America so you may as well just toss the Che t-shirts and hammer and sickle flags in the trash where they belong; in the ash heap of history and thus joining the former
    Evil Empire of the USSR in this league. The only good commie is a dead one. Or as the slogan was when I was growing up “kill a commie for your mommy’. We won the Cold War thanks to Reagan and the neocons ; thank God and the rest of the world is much better off for it and the Founding Fathers must be smiling for our efforts to save America from subversion to Marxist-Leninist leftist trash like you all. A great leftist purge (holocaust) in America is needed and I would strongly support the leader who initiates it and would also Gladly serve as a PATRIOTIC soldier in this organization to eliminate the Leftists, Marxists, Anarchists and Commies from US soil.

    We sincerely hope you and yours all are punished for the rest of your lives on this earth with horrible accidents, injustices and diseases for bashing a great man and a great Christian. People like us can’t wait for the Rapture to join forces with President Bush and all his supporters (the Real Americans and great Real Christians) to do battle with the evil Left once and for all and throw you all into Hell as stated in Revelation to be with your heroes such as Marx, Lenin, Darwin, Che, Mao, Malcolm X, etc.. In the meantime we pray that God will punish you and yours on the evil Marxist, Commie nihilist LEFT.. Unless you are an ignorant heathen atheist or unknowing christian (many of these)this is not un-Christian to say and is actually sanctioned in the Good Book if you biblically illiterates care to look for yourselves!

    God is on our side and with His help we will not have to wait until the Rapture at Armageddon for us to see that you evil Leftist scum are punished for your malevolence. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah and the Bubonic Plague; either change your ways treasonous Leftie scum or these will occur to you and much worse. The Neocons are here to stay so if you don’t like it move to Godless Socialist Canada or Wuss-infested Godless Socialist Europe. Now is your chance. The Right has been winning the Culture War since Reagan was in office in the 80’s and the GOP came to power again in 94′ and Dubya in 2000 ;in the near future we are about to rid ourselves of the indulgences of the evil hedonistic, nihilistic and narcississtic evil 60’s
    counter culture by soon completing our own counter-counter culture revolution. We will pray for all this to occur and it will cuz God is on our side and when our prayers are answered (the complete destruction and eternal damnation of the evil Left in America at least for now)) we will celebrate; music to our ears and you all will be nothing more than troglodytes! God Bless America! BTW, I hear France is nice this time of year:) I am sure you’ll find plenty of Godless queers to indulge your hedonistic ways over there or up north of us with the canucks, eh?

  • It’s obvious from the above rantings by Rick just what I’ve said before, if you were ever actually a patriotic American and voted for Bush even once, it’s got to be difficult to live with yourself now. Rick, consult a doctor, please.

  • ps. I agree with Speed. This excuse/lie regarding the invasion has been oft repeated. Sen. Johnny Isaakson repeated it on C-SPAN some months ago with no rebuttal or argument.

    I am baffled as to why Democrats have never once seemed to address this. It would be heartening just to hear someone remember the truth on occasion. The weapons inspectors were warned to leave by George W. Bush because he was afraid they would reveal the truth before he could invade.

  • It’s hard to disagree with Senator McCain, sooner or later he will state that your view is his view (and his view, and her view and their view, etc., …) Man, what wont McCain say to be President?

    I understand politicians can speak out of both sides of their mouth, but this guy gets every body oriface he has into the act.

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