You know the story by now: John McCain made a series of bizarre-but-categorical comments about how safe Iraq has become since the start of the president’s escalation policy. In just the last two weeks, he’s insisted that parts of Baghdad are safe for Americans to walk around in and that Gen. Petraeus travels the city “almost every day in a non-armed Humvee.” Confronted with reality, McCain stuck to his guns, so to speak, and insisted that the media was wrong, not him.
Apparently, McCain has since come around to a slightly less absurd perspective.
In two interviews before the Army took McCain and 60 MINUTES on the heavily guarded visit to the al-Shorja market last Sunday, the senator said security had improved in Iraq. Upon his return, he also told a news conference he had just come back from a neighborhood one could walk around in freely. The remarks made headlines and he now regrets saying them.
“Of course I am going to misspeak and I’ve done it on numerous occasions and I probably will do it in the future,” says McCain. “I regret that when I divert attention to something I said from my message, but you know, that’s just life,” he tells Pelley, adding, “I’m happy, frankly, with the way I operate, otherwise it would be a lot less fun.”
See? McCain isn’t a ridiculous hack; he was just having “fun” by repeating a series of ridiculous war assessments and berating reporters who dared to challenge him. Indeed, looking back, McCain “regrets” the comments, not because he was lying to millions of Americans about an ongoing crisis, but because the comments were a diversion from his broader message.
And here I thought McCain’s hack-like tendencies couldn’t get any more pathetic.
I’m curious about the timing of all of this. Just 13 days ago, McCain told Bill Bennett how safe parts of Baghdad are for Americans who want to go for a stroll. Ten days ago, McCain told CNN that Petraeus travels the city in a non-armed Humvee. Six days ago, McCain stood by his comments during a press conference and antagonized reporters who questioned him.
At some point this week, McCain chatted with 60 Minutes and said he “misspoke.” Alright, which day? At what point did McCain come to this sudden realization, after repeatedly arguing otherwise? And what, pray tell, led him to change his mind?
Of course, McCain’s faux-regret not withstanding, the senator’s broader message isn’t changing at all.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will launch a high-profile effort next week to convince Americans that the Iraq war is winnable, embracing the unpopular conflict with renewed vigor as he attempts to reignite his stalling bid for the presidency.
With the Virginia Military Institute as a backdrop, McCain plans to argue in a speech on Wednesday that victory in Iraq is essential to American security and that President Bush’s war machine is finally getting on track after four years, aides and advisers said. […]
It is a gamble at a critical time for the former front-runner for the Republican nomination, the political equivalent of a “double-down” in blackjack, as one person close to the campaign put it. A candidate once seen as the almost inevitable winner, McCain is struggling in the polls and this week placed dead last in fundraising among the three top Republican and three top Democratic contenders.
McCain’s supporters say that though he is not declaring “mission accomplished,” he has little choice but to enthusiastically renew his support for the war.
We’ll see how that works out for him.