Q: A lot of people now say the surge is working.
McCAIN: Anyone who knows the facts on the ground say that.Q: If it’s working, senator, do you now have a better estimate of when American forces can come home from Iraq?McCAIN: No, but that’s not too important. What’s important is the casualties in Iraq. Americans are in South Korea. Americans are in Japan. American troops are in Germany. That’s all fine.
Video:
Now I don’t know about McCain, but to me its very important, troops are still dying, and families are still losing loved ones.
But lets not forget the Spin by the McCain camp:
On a conference call, McCain’s aides defended the candidate’s “not too important” line.
Advisor Randy Scheunemann said McCain was calling the question of whether he, John McCain, had an estimate “not too important,” not the question of when troops will come home.
“The question was about an estimate,” said Senator Joe Lieberman.
Watch the video above and see if you hear it that way. McCain, asked about an estimate, responds, “No, but that’s not too important. What’s important is the casualties in Iraq,” appearing to oppose the casualties with the question of timing, as he has in the past.
It’s unclear from the campaign’s earlier statement, from Tucker Bounds, whether this was how the campaign heard it initially, but even McCain blogger Michael Goldfarb approvingly quoted Marc Ambinder, from a piece in which Marc wrote that “The context makes it clear that McCain is reiterating his position that the presence of troops isn’t the issue; instead, it’s the casualties they receive.”
But that’s no longer the official campaign interpretation, so perhaps it’s time for an update on that (high quality) new campaign blog.
An Estimate, yeah right, he doesn’t give an estimate, it was a statement of him not caring how long the war goes on.
The Obama Camp Strikes Back with John Kerry:
John Kerry, who’s served in the past as Obama’s heavy-hitter on national security, expressed incredulity at McCain’s remark this morning that the timing of troops return is “not too important.”
“It is unbelievably out of touch and inconsistent with the needs of Americans and particularly the families of troops who are over there. To them it’s the most important thing in the world when they come home,” he said. “It’s a policy for staying in Iraq.”
Kerry and Obama aide Susan Rice also both said McCain is “confused”* — a line some in McCain’s camp will surely take as a shot at the candidate’s age.
“He confuses who Iran is training, he confuses what the makeup of Al Qaedais, he confuses the history going back to 682 of what has happened to Sunni and Shia,” Kerry said.
Rice cited a “pattern of confusing the basic facts and reality that pertain to Iraq.”
UPDATE: Asked if “confused” was a shot at McCain’s age, Rice responded: “What I meant by that was very simple: That on critical factual questions that are fundamental to understanding what is going on in Iraq and the region, Senator McCain has gotten it wrong, and not just once but repeatedly.”
Kerry called the suggestion it had something to do with age “unfair and a ridiculous.”
“There are plenty of Senators and Congressmen in Washington, D.C., who understand the difference and don’t make the mistakes that he has made with respect to those policies,” Kerry said, mentioning John Warner. “They know who the Sunni are and they know who the Shia are.”
