Katie Couric asked John McCain a great question the other day on CBS: You claim you know how to win wars? Which wars have you won?
Watch it here:
I asked the press to put this very question to John McCain about ten days ago, albeit in a little bit more colorful language. You can watch that here. There is no good answer for this because John McCain is taking credit for many things he had no part in or was only minimally involved with. He is way overplaying his so-called national security credentials.
Some might think I'm going a bit too far in pointing this out, but we should also remember John McCain crashed five different planes in his time in the service. He also finished 894th in his Annapolis class of 899. God bless him for serving anyway, but it's hard to take that record and brag about how you have won all these wars.
John McCain has a service record he can be proud of, that anyone could be proud of. His resistance at the POW camps was down right heroic. But when you put yourself out there as the man who knows military strategy and winning wars, we have to look at your record and see what's really in there.
And when you look, there is not some secret stash of wars that John McCain led troops into and won because of his national security know-how. There just isn't and when he pretends there is, it looks like forced braggadocio. If he sticks with his actual service record, he would have something everyone could agree was a big asset for him. He served with tremendous courage and honor. He doesn't also have to claim to be Dwight D. Eisenhower. Leave well enough alone.
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Katie Couric Calls Out McCain On His Claim of Winning Wars
Posted Jul 24th 2008 3:01PM by Cenk Uygur
Filed under: Young Turks, John McCain, Katie Couric, Video
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Reader Comments ( Page 2 of 6)
16. I look for character & character flaws that supercede the obvious political presence.
xxxx
yeah, but you have to make them up to prove your points. I'll bet you don't have any, right?
So Obama gently bitch slaps a hostile reporter and doesn't even get lint on his suit but to you he loses. He's only half black, dude and he's still a genius or nearly so. Just vote for the white part - it's impor'a'!
Clif Kuplen at 1:22AM on Jul 25th 2008
17. 2. mcsame got so confused about his 'surge' that he tried to say it started before the anbar awakening. CBS edited that answer out and substituted one where mcsame calls obama a traitor.
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Did he really do that? Do you have the transcript? Why would CBS do that and hurt Obies feelings?
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First, that sure as hell isn't 'liberal' media when they give the mcbush a free pass once again on a glaring senior moment, or a just plain out and out lie.
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More like equal time when they cover up for Obie making a "mis-speak" or one of his "lies"? CBS is so far in the tank for Obie that actually watching their coverage and then saying they're covering for McCain? I think not.
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And worse, the mcbush tries to come out and 'clarify' the statement, so now either the awakening was the mcbush's idea or surge means sunnis go first for a few months and then the military strategy is eventually born.
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That was the original plan wasn't it? That the Iraqi's would be relieved to be out from under Saddam, but since the Sunnis are a minority religion and were suffering a disproportionate number of casualties, their renunciation of AlQ (who was never in Iraq) and tipping off US forces or doing it themselves achieved the same end though longer than expected.
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Or there was a 'secret surge'? The mcsame isn't very clear on that, much like the iraqi pakistani border he's defending from the czechoslovakians and Putin and the germans. He never said if al qaeda comes over that border but maybe.
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That makes no sense other than to use some bandwidth to make a point only you recognize, but someone will figure it out, I just want to see the connected dots.
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One problem: it can't be called a 'surge' until the troop levels return to pre 'surge' numbers and they are now about 30K above that, so it's an 'escalation' not a 'surge' and it's an 'occupation' and not a 'war'.
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Fantasic job of circular reasoning. It can't be what it is until things are like they were before things are like they are now. That levels are 30K above what they were then now is not a "surge" but an "escalation". Not that a sudden "escalation" could also be called a "surge" but a "surge" most assuredly is without equivocation, an escalation. Regardless, it is what it is and it has succeeded so you can call it anything you care to but "successful" is undeniable.
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Fubar accomplished!
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Watched "Private Ryan" huh? Of course you can't claim personal experience with usage of that term, but in the "modern" post '64 era it was "SNAFU" which adequately defines the "empty suit's" 143 days of service as Head of the Banking Committee, "his committee" or did CBS, ABC or NBC cover up that little SNAFU? Oh, BTW, Equiring minds want to know why John Edwards and his babymamamamma baby were exchanging "jabs" at a hotel in Los Angeles while his children's mother (the one we knew about) is back home riddled with cancer but the left damns McCain for divorcing his wife, then remarrying...can we say PTSD? Maybe other people get divorced...John Kerry taking the divorce papers to his wife while she was still in the hospital bed, but he is noble beyond belief? "Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive."
Clif Kuplen at 3:35PM on Jul 24th 2008
Ded at 1:46AM on Jul 25th 2008
18. How pathetic admitting that retreating and losing in Iraq is a good policy
xxx
fuck yeah! stay there a million years!
BTW: How is that Quisling Useful Idiot Pacifist Disorder working out for you?
Eesa makka me more like-a you molto subito! So how much for the pizza?
Clif Kuplen at 2:22AM on Jul 25th 2008
19. Watched "Private Ryan" huh?
xx
no. I lived the history of the last half century, I didn't see it in a movie. Fubar has been in common parlance since at least world war two. It makes me wonder how old you could possibly be. Your obsession with national enquirer type stuff tells me about how bright, though.
Clif Kuplen at 2:30AM on Jul 25th 2008
20. Did he really do that? Do you have the transcript? Why would CBS do that and hurt Obies feelings?
xxx
the transcript was in NBC's possession and I saw it on Olbermann. Today it was all over the news and mcsame is trying without much luck to cover his ass.
Why do you always have to get news from me? Don't you have a television, radio, newspaper, computer, holy visions, something?
Maybe you're just not curious. Some people aren't so they wind up not learning much and not being able to do too many things too well.
Clif Kuplen at 2:34AM on Jul 25th 2008
21. Question for Clif.
When did Bill Maher become a journalist?
He has always been a comedian on social issues until he branched off into political satire.
Does his HBO show on Friday nights somehow bestow the mantle of "journalist" on him. I have never
seen a "journalist" freak out on live TV like old Bill Maher did one time when somebody heckled him.
If you've played before a crowd I am sure you have dealt with hecklers but without freaking out on stage.
M2D5 at 10:01AM on Jul 25th 2008
22. >>>16. I look for character & character flaws that supercede the obvious political presence.
xxxx
yeah, but you have to make them up to prove your points. I'll bet you don't have any, right?>>>
I'll bite Clifford,
Unlike you I have to shake the cobwebs out of my head on occasion. I'm uncomfortable being cynical like I mentioned. I ask myself if I'm viewing an issue in an honest fashion, that gives me credibility unlike your asault gun, rapid fire responses. I'm not comfortable being at war with people of opposing viewpoints on this blog 24/7. I actually consider what they're saying.
My first impression of the interview (Obama & Couric) is one of credibility & scrutiny.
All the major networks realize their credibility is zilch at the moment. If nothing else, their professionalism biased or otherwise tells them this. I knew before they embarked on Obama's world tour we'd see an interview like this, it had to happen. It's called "saving face" Clifford.
What more obvious topic to pin Obama down than the one of the "surge" or whatever you prefer to call it. Couric didn't know how he would respond, she just knew she had to be tough with at least one aspect of an interview, that was her saving grace & CBS.
His insecurity & lack of integrity are apparent in not knowing how to blend in gracefully admitting what the entire world knows, it was actually a softball question if he'd answered honestly, he couldn't do that. To him that would show weakness, he wasn't the messiah you think he is. Isn't this one of the major reasons you hate GW so much? You feel he's unable to give in? You constantly bash him for his steadfast approach to hardcore issues. The Couric question wasn't hardcore, it was actually a subtle slowball that Obama made into a big issue with his dishonesty. This is what I see in your candidate. Like every core issue he's sidestepped on betraying himself & his party, he has no core, just wild ambition.
I look at it objectively Clifford, that's why I step back & question myself. American voters should do the same.
Your objectivity is zero man. You're so enamored with his supposed brilliance you've lost your capacity for rationale. That alone lessens your credibility in searching for the deeper meaning.
This campaign is like the "Battle of the sexes". Remember Billie Jean kicking Bobby Rigss ass on the tennis court? That was supposed to be a victory for feminism, what a joke. The old man is facing off again with the young contender, you should appreciate that Clifford.
I think the American public this time around is slowly unraveling the big picture frame by frame. My money's on the old man, not the superficial fool....
Bobby at 10:01AM on Jul 25th 2008
23. One other thing Clifford,
I'll help you a tad more with your incapacity to insight.
If you think the "coverup" of McCain's gaffe in the other Couric interview wasn't intentional you're naive as hell.
It was the perfect "coverup" throwing the bait to a no mind like "mad dog Olberman" allowing him to get CBS off the hook with their biased coverage.
"Look everyone!! CBS is sucking up to the McCain camp"!!!
Even the Huffington Post bit on it.
You guys are mechanical as hell, you bit on it too...
Bobby at 10:24AM on Jul 25th 2008
24. M2D5
I think Bill Maher and Billiam the Snowman were class mates at HSU (Hypocritical Statements University). Maher graduated Mega Dum Libde.
Paul Sparcello at 11:38AM on Jul 25th 2008
25. I wish we had some real candidates to vote for this fall, and not these 2 buffoons. I don't think either one of them are fit to be POTUSA.
Sarah at 12:31AM on Jul 26th 2008
26. 22. Question for Clif.
When did Bill Maher become a journalist?
xxx
when bill islamoreilly did.
Clif Kuplen at 12:51PM on Jul 25th 2008
27. His insecurity & lack of integrity are apparent in not knowing how to blend in gracefully admitting what the entire world knows, it was actually a softball question if he'd answered honestly, he couldn't do that.
xx
that is wrong. It was not a softball question at all, it was a rather inept attempt at a gotcha and katy got busted.
The sunni awakening would have to have happened for the surge to have been contemplated.
According to the *original* history, not your second shot at it, the anbar awakening precipitated the thinking that the surge would work.
Now, since toodles is in on this, I'm going to say one thing to him, but to you too.
Surge and escalation are two different concepts.
A surge is only different from an escalation if it swells and recedes.
That is the definition of surge, and the only way it is different from 'escalation'. And as of this writing, it is STILL an escalation.
Trying to reframe an escalation as a surge and then trying to rope a candidate into pretending that the ONLY measurement was body count is only compelling if you either weren't paying attention or just don't have any curiosity or memory.
What were the objectives of the surge as iterated in 2006? How many were met? Has the surge subsided?
So the idea that this was anything other than corporate media playing gotcha is crap.
Also think about what would happen if Obama got an edit over his answer to the surge and another one were substituted that said essentially mccain is a traitor.
smells different when it's incoming, huh.
I guarantee you'd be fuming with rage and calling obama a commie muslim, the closest you can come to calling him what you really want to call him.
that's the double standard you guys keep clinging to that Obama has let go. Listen to mccain talk about obama and listen to Obama if he ever has to reference mccain, which isn't all that often, except to admonish him for perpetually taking the lowest road available.
It is historically unprecedented before the little admiral for a candidate himself to call his opponent a traitor. It just sounds emotionally unstable, panicky and hysterical if you're not a party stooge. Coming out of the mouth of a guy who looks ten years older than he is makes it worse.
Clif Kuplen at 1:07PM on Jul 25th 2008
28. media is corporate not liberal. When will mcsame submit to ed schultz and Bill Maher? Why is mcsame such a coward?
xxxxxxxx
Because they are about as significant as you are. When will Obama submit to O'Reilly or Hannity or or or or ? I guess Ellen and Tyra is sufficent?
xxxxxxx
the transcript was in NBC's possession and I saw it on Olbermann. Today it was all over the news and mcsame is trying without much luck to cover his ass.
xxxxxx
False we have 6 tvs here at work in the lobby one is on CNN Headline News Espn and FOX haven't heard a peep all day. Customers complain when we put on MSNBC.So dont know what you are watching besides huff and Air.
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when bill islamoreilly did.
xxxxx
Not a journalist never claimed to be has an opinion show.A number one rated.
Satire Friday at 1:12PM on Jul 25th 2008
29. Sheesh, McCain was not president during any of those wars he named! He was one of 100 U.S. Senators, I don't care what committee he served on. Leave it a fossil like McCain to dwell on the past. He is now also trying to run the old 'red menace' scare with Obama's trip to Europe - hey, John, it is 2008, not 1958. Maybe he can get his grandkids to help him surf the internet so he can at least be in the 21st century!
David S. at 1:14PM on Jul 25th 2008
30. "when bill islamoreilly did."
Funny, I never saw Bill Maher doing a local news report on the 6:00PM evening news on Boston TV station or any other. Oreilly was doing that in Boston long before anyone ever heard of Rupert Murdoch or there was a Fox News network. Sure you aren't getting confused as to who actually worked as a news reporter and who worked as an entertainer on stage? I know, I know, it's not a matter of being factual but a matter of politics.
M2D5 at 1:19PM on Jul 25th 2008