"Straight Talk" McCain Bashes Bush's Iraq Optimism, Ignores His Own

[BurtWorm]

From Think Progress:

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/08/22/mccain-hypocrisy/

McCain Faults Admin. For Painting Iraq As ‘Some Kind of Day At the Beach,’ Ignores Own Rosy Rhetoric

The AP reports that Sen. John McCain “faulted the Bush administration for misleading Americans into believing the conflict would be ‘some kind of day at the beach.’”

<McCain> said the administration had failed to make clear the challenges facing the military. … McCain said that talk “has contributed enormously to the frustration that Americans feel today because they were led to believe this could be some kind of day at the beach, which many of us fully understood from the beginning would be a very, very difficult undertaking.”

McCain appropriately criticizes the administration for painting an unrealistic picture of the situation in Iraq, but he conveniently neglects to mention his own rosy assessments as he was cheerleading the nation to war. While McCain hopes the public will see this as another example of his “straight talk,” here are some quotes that McCain wants you to forget:

Hardball, 3/12/03:

MATTHEWS: Are you one of those who holds up an optimistic view of the post-war scene? Do you believe that the people of Iraq or at least a large number of them will treat us as liberators?

MCCAIN: Absolutely. Absolutely.

MATTHEWS: And you think the Arab world will come to a grudging recognition that what we did was necessary? I mean by that the modern Arab leaders, the people that we have to deal with.

MCCAIN: Not only that, they’ll be relieved that he’s not in the neighborhood because he has invaded his neighbors on several occasions.

Hardball, 3/24/03:

MATTHEWS: Do you think it’s working? Do you think we’ll shake them — shake them to the roots so they will give up eventually and avoid a huge bloodbath of people?

MCCAIN: I don’t know how long they’ll hang out. It doesn’t take a large number of people to cause difficulties in house to house fighting we’ve just seen that in southern Iraq. But there’s no doubt in my mind that we will prevail and there’s no doubt in my mind, once these people are gone, that we will be welcomed as liberators. These guys are the real bad guys and they’re telling everybody, we’re going to shoot you and so, of course, we’re not being welcomed cause they’ve got people that will kill them if they do. Once that’s done, I’m confident.

[bryant69]

1. The Amazing Tightrope walking McCain

McCain has to convince Republicanoids that he will retain Bush's crazy foreign policy intact, while convincing Liberals and Moderates (mostly moderates) that he represents a break from the extremism of the Bush years. Lucky for him, the Press loves him.

Bryant
check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[rocktivity]

2. Tweety and McCain--a match made in a mad scientist's laboratory.

Can a blind man leadeth a blind man? Will they not both fall into the pit?

:rofl:
rocknation

[cyclezealot]

3. Its all imagery

Call him Mr Clean because he talks to RUssell Feingold and all else is forgiven. McCain was as much in the Iraq cheering chorus as was any other official neocon.

[VP505]

4. Does this

clown really think he can talk out both sides of his mouth and nobody will notice??? It ought to be really fun to watch, he,he,he.

[thereismore]

5. This needs to be made public. He speaks from both corners of

his mouth. He was for the cakewalk before he was against it.

[L0oniX]

6. He's just another big ass carrot

[civildisoBDence]

7. Zell Miller's head nearly exploded

when he gave his speech at the Republican Nat'l Convention in '04. He said, in so many words, "Nothing makes this Marine madder than calling American soldiers occupiers rather than liberators."

Zell was talking about Americans--I wonder if he and McCain mind that Iraqis see us as occupiers? (The ingrates!)

News and commentary, left to right

[ejbr]

8. McCain is a dick

His opinions are nothing short of wing nutty. He claims the recent ruling barring the president from trashing the 1st and 4th amendment was "an overstep" Isn't that just brilliant? The president isn't the one overstepping, it was the judge. McCain is an opportunistic fuckwad who is as "principled" as Joerge LieberBush.

[mkb]

9. Find Out More To Prevent War

     The most significant fact that isn't spoken very often is
that the ruling elites and the politicians who do their
bidding WANT WAR.  This is a fairly repetitive scenario, but
one that should not be the most difficult to understand.  The
rich profit from war, especially imperial war where valuable
resources exist, and they usually do little or no fighting and
dying either.
     So McCain is just saying he wants to be a ruthless
villain in a smarter way.  Why should people fall for that?  I
don't think you should, if you want peace, prosperity, and
justice.
     The PNAC documents show that the war was planned well
BEFORE 9-11 happened.  The document mentioned a "second
Pearl Harbor" that would be the pretext for this war.  It
should also be stated that the first Gulf War happened to a
large extent because Bush I and his team DID NOT WANT A
DIPLOMATIC SOLUTION.  There is or there was documents to
support these ideas.
     Hopefully this information will circulate so that enough
people realize that war is bad for most of us and good only
for the few who benefit, if we let them.

[Spiffarino]

10. I can't believe I once fell for this guy's bullshit

I actually subscribed to his "Straight Talk" newsletter for a while in 2000. After he let Rove trash his wife, then his adopted daughter, then himself, I decided he was nothing more than a cheap, spineless, political hack.

He's so afraid of the Bush Mafia I half expected him to piss in his pants when he and the Chimp-in-Chief hugged onstage in 2004. And to me, that was McCain's Lieberman moment. From that day on I lost all respect for him as a statesman.

[samsingh]

11. mccain is a mental idiot

[marmar]

12. If he ever really had a soul, it's been sold....

Is there any doubt that McCain is nothing but a garden-variety Repug asshole?

[MethuenProgressive]

13. "Flip-Flop McCain"

We can only hope that the Repugs put up a Giuliani/McCain ticket in '08!

[zonkra]

14. This guy

is the Kevin Federline of American politics. An opportunistic hanger-on, a GOP gigolo. A younger Bob Dole.