The Straight Talk, Flip-Flop Express
John McCain has decided to take up the Mitt Romney’s campaign theme of flip flopping. This time McCain is flip flopping on Iraq, not, say, on torture, as he has in the past. He’s appealing, I suppose, to a Republican base that needed reassurance both about torture and independents who wish us out of Iraq soon. Yes, schizo.
Of course we’re talking about John McCain here, and the subject about which he is flip-flopping is the subject on which he is most popular among Republicans. You see, Republicans like it that John McCain is all for continuing what they see as the stand tall and tough anti-terror policies of George Bush. Let’s forget for only a little moment that those policies have only created more terrorists, especially the policy of invading, occupying and ruling Iraq in a show of policy incompetence that hasn’t been seen in US history. John McCain knows that the Republican base is so mesmerized by the hollow warnings about terrorism by the Bush Administration that they’ll support anyone who echoes Bush, and so John McCain a few weeks ago decided to one up the President. He decided to announce that it was his prediction that America would be in Iraq for 100 years. 100 years.
This didn’t play to well with the sane contingent of the American public. So John McCain is now flip-flopping on the issue. Yes, the man who claims to be a true straight-talker, is flip-flopping on the biggest issue facing voters, the Iraq War. From ABCNews:
ABC News’ Bret Hovell and Ron Claiborne Report: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Monday continued a subtle but consistent effort to walk back a comment about the Iraq war he made in January when he said the US would keep troops in Iraq for 100 years to help provide stability if it was needed.
The comment has dogged the all-but-official nominee of the Republican party for weeks.
Democrats jumped on McCain’s remarks to paint him as a war monger; McCain has since tried to clarify his language.
At a Monday town hall meeting outside of Cleveland, McCain, referenced the rhetoric — unprompted –after being asked about what specific progress he was looking for in Iraq.
“By the way that reminds me of this 100 year thing,” McCain told the 800-plus crowd. He went on to characterize the conversation he had in Salem as a “back and forth” over the war and how long American troops would be there.
Then McCain took a step he hasn’t before.
“My friends, the war will be over soon…” McCain told the crowd. “The insurgency will go on for years and years and years. But it will be handled by the Iraqis, not by us.”
“And then we decide what kind of security arrangement we want to have with the Iraqis.”
I cannot find anywhere John McCain claiming the Iraq War would be over soon. Certainly he has not drawn back his “100 year” statement to this extreme before, where it is now not a sure thing that Iraq would be our MidEast base for 100 years, much as South Korea has served in the far East for the last 55. That’s how I always took McCain’s “100 years” statement. But now everything is up for negotiation. I guess that’s a lot like his support for torture and the Bush Administration. Up for negotiation.
Let’s make no mistake. This is a flip flop on the part of John McCain. And John McCain in flip-flopper mode is getting play this morning. You can also read about it in Marc Aminder’s column at the Atlantic, on Firedoglake, at MCDAC blog, from Medina, Ohio, and all around the left wing blogzome. Heck, they’re even covering this statement on the right hand side of the blog world, but the American Power blog, for instance, is defending the straight talk flip flopper John McCain. They’re playing their roll like good little trained puppies.
Why did John McCain flip flop? Well, some would say the keys to that issue reside in this Time Magazine piece wherein John McCain acknowledges that Iraq will be a key to whether he is elected President. He is characterized with a good deal of fatalism in the article, and it reads almost as if John McCain is sticking to his stances in order to look as if he stands tall and never wavers. I recommend the piece, but I don’t think it explains John McCain’s flip flopping. I think that is explained by the horrific news that . . . .
Romney is returning! John McCain knows he’s got to get it straight as he’s going to be faced by the most inept and flip flopping campaign ever run, and so this flip flop on that “100 years” statement about Iraq is just a preemptive strike against the resurgent Mitt Romney.
I support John mCCain 100% He is a great leader and is going to protect our country from terrorists and othe undesirable people.
John mCCain/David Duke 2008
I hope the Democrats take this “100 year” thing and ram it right up his straight-talking ass.
OT, a little: One interesting defense of the Keating Five affair came in a recent Chicago Tribune editorial (I’m too lazy to link to it), which basically argued that trying to obstruct justice was a good experience for McCain because it taught him a lesson. This sounds like framing Dubya’s formative years as an underachieving drunk as a setup for “redemption.” The Tribune, of course, is softening up its readers for its inevitable endorsement of McCain. (The paper has endorsed no one but Republicans for president for well over a century.)
As for Romney, I wouldn’t read too much into what amounts to an offhand remark by one of his sons.
I think McCain/Duke sounds like a great ticket.