McCain in self-congratulatory mode

November 25, 2007

On ABC’s “This Week,” John McCain was in self-congratulatory mode. It was actually kind of embarrassing.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Yet one of them, Governor Richardson — he’s coming up next — says there’s no way, no way the government is finally going to get its act together and make these compromises unless we tell them we’re going to leave and give a date certain.

MCCAIN: No, that was what they said six months ago, that there was no way we were going to succeed militarily unless we told the Iraqi government that we were leaving.

Look, their record is wrong on this. My record is right, of opposition to the failed strategy that former Secretary Rumsfeld was employing, and advocacy of the one that’s succeeding now. (emphasis added)

Now, it’s hard to say whether McCain knows better (in which case he was lying), or whether he actually believes this nonsense (in which case he’s delusional), but either way, for McCain to suggest his record on Iraq has been right all along is just absurd.

His record is actually one of one mistake after another. There’s the pre-war predictions…

Sen. McCain on CNN on Sept. 24, 2002: “I believe that the success will be fairly easy.”

Sen. McCain on CNN on Sept. 29, 2002: “We’re not going to have a bloodletting of trading American bodies for Iraqi bodies.”

Sen. McCain on [MSNBC] on Jan. 22, 2003: “We will win this conflict. We will win it easily.”

…and his post-invasion assurances. In December 2003, McCain praised Bush’s strategy as “a mission accomplished.” In March 2004, he said, “I’m confident we’re on the right course.” In December 2005, he said, “Overall, I think a year from now, we will have made a fair amount of progress if we stay the course.”

McCain concluded his misguided bragging by saying, “It’s got to do with experience.” If he meant experience in getting the entire war policy backwards, McCain’s experience is second to none.

I think for politicians admitting they are wrong is about as disastrous as admitting that they intend to raise taxes. Honesty has no reward in our system.

  • Jen, I welcome hearing politicians admit their mistakes. I admire John Edwards for admitting that he blew it when he voted to authorize Bush’s adventure in Iraq. It drives me nuts when Bush says he “can’t think of one” when asked about his mistakes. Or when he says “We’ve never been about ‘stay the course'” in Iraq.

    But I’m crazy enough to think that we need to raise taxes to get the budget under control, and I would like for a politician to say so.

    Just so they don’t raise my taxes. 🙂

  • I’m concerned that if the level of violence continues to decline, that the Republicans are going to declare victory, excoriate the Democrats for being quitters when victory was just around the corner, as Bush the sage so wisely advised us through the years, that the media will trumpet their boasts and praise them endlessly, and that the American people will forget all the horrors of the war and thump their chests in triumph.

    And Bush will have his legacy.

    It won’t matter what it cost in blood or treasure, that the war was waged on lies, that Iraq won’t become a shining beacon of democracy, that we lost all those years as the energy and global warming crises mounted, that we got no health insurance and our infrastructure continued to rot away, that millions can’t afford to go to college – no – none of that will mattter because we’ll have “won'” the war in Iraq. And that will trump everything.

    And it all could happen just in time for the 2008 elections.

  • I’m not sure why the media keeps treating McCain as though he was especially credible, other than the fact maybe they’re chagrined that even after they wrote him off months ago, his campaign has refused to die.

    I was disappointed that Stephanopoulos did nothing to challenge McCain on his comments, either about the war or about his “let’s be civil about this” approach to the campaign – you know, the one that came right after his completely inappropriate response to the “how do we beat the bitch?” question. He more or less just gave McCain a platform to speak, leaving the impression that nothing he said was untrue or disingenuous or in any other way wrong.

    It was Richardson who got the third degree, of course, and he really wasn’t prepared with enough facts to challenge either McCain, or the stuff Stephanopoulos was throwing at him.

    In other words, a more-or-less typical morning on the Sunday talk circuit…

    hark – we can’t be afraid of victory in Iraq – either real victory, where there is a government united in efforts to bring the country together and maintain stability, or the fake kind, where the Bush administration makes a quick exit timed to affect the elections, and which will fall apart sometime after November 8th.

    As the administration begins to draw down troops because we cannot sustain these levels much longer, we are going to see less and less violence, I think. While Bush can make it appear that this is all the result of the surge working, I think we can point out that we’ve been saying for years now that reducing our presence would also reduce the violence. That puts Bush in kind of a corner, doesn’t it? How can he declare victory without then addressing plans to bring the troops home? What kind of victory is it if the “winners” can’t come home?

    I think the economy is likely to be as big, if not bigger, an issue, than Iraq by the time Election Day rolls around – and I don’t see anything the GOP can offer that will help them win. Except an affinity for and expertise at stealing elections, which is something I think we do need to worry about.

  • Woops! Looks like McCain forgot to phrase his answers in the form of questions (and answers). He’ll never get on Jeopardy talking like that. Let me just rework that statement into proper McCainese for him:

    Is their record is wrong on this? Yes.

    Is my record is right? Yes

    Did I oppose the failed strategy that former Secretary Rumsfeld was employing? Yes.

    Was I right in advocating of the strategy that’s succeeding now. Yes.

    There we go. Now, isn’t that better? (Yes.)

  • STEPHANOPOULOS: […] Richardson […] says ***there’s no way the government is finally going to get its act together*** and make these compromises unless (we tell them we’re going to leave)

    MCCAIN: No, that was what they said six months ago, that ***there was no way we were going to succeed militarily*** unless (we told the Iraqi government that we were leaving.)

    Aren’t they talking about two entirely different things? A political success (Richardson) and a military success (McCain). Apples and oranges? Or is my English *that* bad?

  • OT.

    From Think Progress:
    Family Security Matters — the right-wing front group that deemed ThinkProgress “one of the most dangerous organizations in America” — writes that “multiculturalism exposes the U.S. to terrorism.” “In our nation’s quest to prove to the world that we are inclusive and tolerant,” FSM writes, “we have, literally, allowed those who want to kill us into some of the most sensitive areas of our government, areas where they put our national security at risk.” 5:20 pm

    The truth, all the truth and nothing but the truth. Just look whom we’ve put in charge of the White House, DoD, DoJ, Homeland Security, etc, etc, etc… If we weren’t so tolerant, a half-wit bubba from Texas would have never got half as far as he had…

  • CB, did you ever do a post about how the president of Oral Roberts University resigned/was fired?

    I’m thinking you may have missed the story…

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