McCain Tries To Cover Surge Mistake With Attack

In a quote to the AP, John McCain's rapid response man delivered the campaign's first reaction to the news that the Arizona Republican bungled the history of the surge and its purported impact on Sunni sheiks in Anbar province who rose up against Al Qaeda.

As the Huffington Post reported Tuesday night, the "Anbar Awakening" began months before the surge was ever announced -- something McCain himself acknowledged during a press briefing in early 2007.

"Democrats can debate whether the awakening would have survived without the surge," spokesman Tucker Bounds told the AP late Tuesday night, " ... but that is nothing more than a transparent effort to minimize the role of our commanders and our troops in defeating the enemy, because to credit them would be to disparage the judgment of Barack Obama and praise the leadership of John McCain."

The new line of defense fits with earlier charges that the McCain campaign made on Tuesday against Obama. Senior foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann told reporters on a conference call, "He refuses to credit General Petraeus and General Odierno for their leadership, he disparages their strategic judgment, and trumpets his own."

Obama, for his part, has actually been at pains to repeatedly praise the efforts of troops in Iraq. Speaking at a news conference in Jordan on Tuesday, Obama began by saying, "First and foremost, we were extremely impressed by the extraordinary dedication and devotion and skill of our men and women in uniform."

But the Illinois Democrat repeated his claim that those men and women have been deployed in the wrong front. After noting that he traveled to Afghanistan before Iraq "because it is the central front in the war against terrorism," Obama said, "The message we heard from Iraq's leaders is that they're ready to do more, and they want to take more responsibility for their country. And I believe that the best way to support Iraqi sovereignty and to encourage the Iraqis to stand up is through the responsible redeployment of our combat brigades."

Comments

[ComnCents]

03:30 PM on 07/24/2008

The Rs are Surge Happy:

Surge of lobbyists
Surge of wealth for the rich
Surge of oil prices
Surge of food prices
Surge of US debt
Surge of discontent with government
Surge of negative campaigning
Surge of media manipulation
Surge of foreclosures
Surge of paranoia
Surge of racism
Surge of war crimes

I would continue but I have a Surge of finger weakness.

[LaPointeBreak]

08:17 PM on 07/23/2008

Good thing for us mindless public that McCain and his surrogates can take anything and spin it into their cocoon, "The Surge worked, all success in Iraq is based on the Surge, McCain is responsible for the Surge, therefore McCain is da man." They are so sure of themselves they can't help themselves from speaking for Obama. Better yet, they have a crystal ball that reads the thoughts of everyone on the planet and more particularly, Obama. Too bad the crystal ball doesn't work on what McCain will say next.

[egal]

02:14 AM on 07/24/2008

It's RETROACTIVE surge success.

You know, like the way Bush's administration doesn't have to base anything on reality, adhere to the Constitution, or suffer the consequences of their crimes.

[sherbug]

07:37 PM on 07/23/2008

I remember during the Primaries when Obama continued to say "a war that should have never been fought and a war that should have never been waged." , McCain retorted by saying something like we are in Iraq now, so since we are there, lets not worry about if we should have been there at all.

McCain now want to regress in time and wait while everyone praises the surge. To that I say, the surge is over, so lets worry about getting out.

I also find it amusing that McCain thinks Obama is going to fall for the bait to say he was wrong. I credit Obama with more sense and I'm surprised McCain doesn't. If Obama uttered those words, that phrase would be edited onto everything that came out of Obama's mouth and run in endless television ads. I say to that, Obama will say he was wrong about the surge, if you say you were wrong about going into Iraq in the first place.

[LAB10]

05:24 PM on 07/23/2008

The MISTAKE was going in and refusing to come out! No one cares about the crap that happened in between! Don't go--that was Obama. Get out---Obama again. Mac just wants to stay---forever! Obama has gotten it right and Mac has gotten it wrong.

[BigTallMatt]

04:49 PM on 07/23/2008

Everything out of the McCain campaign this week, the berating of Obama's policies on Iraq, the smears about dishonoring Petreaus, the screaming of "but... but the surge worked!!" to the rooftops, it's all the same disingenuous tactic, which is conflating the success of the military in carrying out tactical orders with the relative "correctness" of those tactical orders. For exampe, they assume that because the military did a good job at carrying out the surge, that must mean that the surge was a good idea to begin with. To paraphrase: "You should elect John McCain, because the military is really good at carrying out his flawed policies."

Unfortunately, John Q. Electorate doesn't understand this distinction, which leads to the misconception that somehow John McCain would make a better commander-in-chief. The moment the Obama campaign can break the public from this logical fallacy is the moment that John McCain is no longer a viable commander-in-chief.

[ebanks84]

04:37 PM on 07/23/2008

It's insane that mcsame is trying to run us all crazy. He's changing history with his lies; surely running his blood pressure up with the anxiety of Obama's trip; and getting all the "rethugs" in an uproar trying to make him NOT look like an idiot.

If anybody in their right mind votes for this man, they are L U N A T I C and deserves whatever he brings them, which will be more lunatic WAR!

The polls are run by liars, the people they poll are liars, and we, the people, know better. Obama will wash out mcsame. It will be a slaughter, and the rethugs need to rethink their thuggishness if they want to have an inkling of a chance.

[Verified]

04:20 PM on 07/23/2008

"...nothing more than a transparent effort to minimize the role of our commanders and our troops in defeating the enemy, because to credit them would be to disparage the judgment of Barack Obama and praise the leadership of John McCain."

Sigh.

The McCain campaign seems to know a lot about transparent effort.

Now I'm waiting to hear how it is Barack Obama's fault that John McCain doesn't know Czechoslovakia hasn't existed in 15 years. I've worked a long time with elderly people and I am close to becoming one myself. This man is LOSING IT, no matter how much he likes to parade his mother around to prove he still has some years left.

[janvoght]

09:48 PM on 07/25/2008

this above all is the truth of the matter...but the "american hero" status seems to create a reluctance for most to admit the most obvious of truths. mc cain is undoubtedly an undeniable hero, and should receive all the accolades for that. even wes clark was not allowed to report that the military experience that mc cain boasts, does not make him the type of leader America needs now, and desparately, to restore the world's faith in America, as well as address the urgent issues so badly neglected for two repub terms now.
obama '08

[cliffprice]

03:30 PM on 07/23/2008

CtJean (Posted 01:21 PM on 07/23/2008), in response to the clear violation of CBS's licensing agreement, warns:
“Is anyone as scared as I am about this? Remember the stealing of two elections: 2000 and 2004. This is the tip of a very cold iceberg.”

He is so right! Although many others and I are concerned about some of Obama’s opinions (FISA) and gaffes, I don’t believe that anybody in our political history has stumbled as much and as egregiously as McCain does on a daily basis. The fact that McCain’s poll ratings are so high can only be attributed to blind infatuation and denial of reality. Apparently, these are the same people who blindly voted for Bush/Cheney in 2000 and 2004. The current dismal poll ratings for Bush and especially Cheney now reflect how wrong these voters were.

Unfortunately, we are forced yet again to select between the lesser of evils.

[OriginalScreenName]

02:41 PM on 07/23/2008

Obama should turn this around with "Yes, our troops performed brilliantly as they always do, but McCain continues to downplay the role of the Iraqi's stepping up to take control of their own country. Which is strange considering that's been the entire goal of this post-Sadam era. Why does McCain want a never ending occupation?"

[Harbinger08]

06:10 PM on 07/23/2008

Oil.

[LiverpoolEd]

01:54 PM on 07/23/2008

Very Presidential indeed. Now he has cancelled his press conference today because he knows he'll get hammered on his statements the last two days.

[gnostic19]

01:17 PM on 07/23/2008

any explanation of the surge by Obama in a way that doesn't devote 100% credit to Petyreaus and teh troops will be slammed as being unpatriotic and unbecoming a President. Obama has to figure out a way to frame his argument in a way that explains that there were various elements that contributed to the decreased violence that we have today.

[Sixtwo]

04:40 PM on 07/23/2008

Obama has "framed his argument" in a way that any high school student can understand. People hear what they want to hear! The simple fact is, the U.S. ALONE did not achieve the improvements in Iraq--there was a three-pronged effort! If the U.S. is so smart, why are we in Iraq!

[Verified]

04:46 PM on 07/23/2008

Well said, gnostic.

It's typical tortured Republican logic to at first say that we spent years training Iraqi troops and then claim that the Iraquis played no role in reducing the killing of American soldiers. (thrump - sound of my head exploding).

Or to say that the so-called surge is a success when there were still more than 500 Iraqi men, women and children killed last month. Haven't heard Wolf or Katie asking about that.

I am reminded of the time that Bill O'Reilly went into the black-owned restaurant in Harlem and was surprised to find the employees and customers didn't have bones through their noses and weren't wearing hoodies and constantly dropping f-bombs. It's as if the MSM types blindly accept the notion that Iraqis will bludgeon each other to death and spit on corpses once our calming civilizing military presence is gone.

[thepoliticalcat]

01:12 PM on 07/23/2008

The "Anbar awakening" is nothing but bribing the Sunni minority with arms and money to keep them from killing our soldiers. All we've achieved is that the Sunni are now almost as well-armed as the Shi'a, so that when -- not if -- the civil war breaks out, maximum carnage will be achieved.

[DoomtoNeoCons]

02:23 PM on 07/23/2008

TRUE my bro came back from Iraq with stories about gaurding breifcases full of cash for the various Sunni warlords! It's insane!

[gconners]

03:30 PM on 07/23/2008

The surge didn't occur in a vacuum. As written, we're bribing and arming the Sunnis not to attack us. But, also, most neighborhoods have been ethnically/religiously divided and many are walled off. Plus, Al-Sadr ordered The Mahdi Army to stand down. The point of the "surge" was to give the government of Iraq breathing room to settle differences among the various factions. How can the surge be considered a success if the Iraqi government has accomplished next to nothing?

[chosenson]

02:40 PM on 07/23/2008

And we didn't need a ton of additional troops to accomplish that!! We could have done that without a "Surge".

Anyone can google "YouTube City of Walls" and find press reports on the huge walls built around the Shia and Sunni enclaves in Baghdad and Sadr City to stop these two factions from killing each other. This is one of the main causes for decrease in violence. We did not need a "Surge" to build those walls either.

To all of the above, add the Shiite government's crackdown on Sunni Militia. Yes, the Surge helped, but all of the other factors contributed greatly to decrease in violence. How much did the Surge help? How can we measure the effect of the Surge? No one knows exactly. Could the decrease in violence be attributed to THE WALLS, the crackdown on Sunni militias by the government and the Sunni Awakening? Of course. Obama made a very credible observation.

[TuFu]

01:11 PM on 07/23/2008

With McAlQueada's terror campaign everyday going lower and lower into McLaden land who needs enemies.
Each day his talking points show panic, Rovian turdballs that are destroying the Republican Party. If it keeps up there is not going to be anything left but a cesspool of hate, smears, bigotry. Death knell of the elephant in the room.

[doctorwang]

01:39 PM on 07/23/2008

"a cesspool of hate, smears, bigotry"

sounds pretty much like the last 7 1/2 years

[fair1234]

01:08 PM on 07/23/2008

I am starting to feel sorry for Mccain because he his stooping so low that even MSM is protecting him by not reporting all of his hourly gaffes and he is just too blind to see it. Mcstupid is desperate and he is really hurting his election chances with his own mouth.

The republicans are all running around like a chicken missing their head. I was listening to conservative talk show host Shmidt yesterday and he said horrible things like Saddam Husein and Barrack Husein over and over in one sentence and then he kept saying Barrack Osama Husein Obama and I just wanted to screammmm. I called the show and the girl who I guess screened calls asked me what I was going to say.

I never called before and told her I disagree with the host and she said that Shmidt was joking and then she put me on a ten minute cell phone hold so I hung up. I think they were never going to let me through...regardless, I am just shocked at how much these conservative Repubs are afraid of Obama that they would smear him in every way possible in hopes of Mccain winning!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bongogirl]

05:05 PM on 07/23/2008

I agree with you. I really feel sorry for McCain. McCain never received mental health treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It's not looking good for the republicans. Desparation does not look good on you when you wear it all of the time.

[fair1234]

01:07 PM on 07/23/2008

I am starting to feel sorry for Mccain because he his stooping so low that even MSM is protecting him by not reporting all of his hourly gaffes and he is just too blind to see it. Mcstupid is desperate and he is really hurting his election chances with his own mouth.

The republicans are all running around like a chicken missing their head. I was listening to conservative talk show host Shmidt yesterday and he said horrible things like Saddam Husein and Barrack Husein over and over in one sentence and then he kept saying Barrack Osama Husein Obama and I just wanted to screammmm. I called the show and the girl who I guess screened calls asked me what I was going to say.

I never called before and told her I disagree with the host and she said that Shmidt was joking and then she put me on a ten minute cell phone hold so I hung up. I think they were never going to let me through...regardless, I am just shocked at how much these conservative Repubs are afraid of Obama that they would smear him in every way possible in hopes of Mccain winning.