LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
2010 Webby Award Winner for Best Political Blog
 
May 26, 2012
Log in / Register

 Choose a size
Text Size

Trending:     gay marriage     barack obama     ndaa     robert scheer     chris hedges
Most Read

TED: 'A Money-Soaked Orgy of Self-Congratulatory Futurism'

Truthdiggers of the Week: 400,000 Canadians Launching the ‘Maple Spring’

Russia and Exxon Mobil Sign Arctic Oil Deal

I Can't Hear Myself Think

A Rare Admission That Money Trumps Everything Else

Most Comments
Most Emailed

Reports
Why Bain Questions Matter
OSHA Struggles When Tower Climbers Die

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Arts & Culture
Better Than We Found It
The Good-Natured Dictator

Digs
Financial Meltdown 101

Truthdig Bazaar
Empire: Impressions of China (Imago Mundi series)

Empire: Impressions of China (Imago Mundi series)

By Orville Schell, James Whitlow Delano (Photographer)
$35.00

more items

 
Ear to the Ground

McCain Ties Victory to a Losing Issue

Email this item Email    Print this item Print   

Posted on Apr 7, 2007
McCain
washingtonpost.com

John McCain will attempt to resurrect his struggling presidential campaign by launching a coordinated effort to reaffirm his support for the Iraq war. While his rosy take on “progress” in Baghdad just blew up in his face, the candidate has effectively painted himself into a corner.

Still, McCain’s enthusiasm for the unpopular war best explains his poor showing in polls and lack of fundraising success, and it doesn’t seem likely that upping the volume on a losing message will help matters.


Washington Post:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will launch a high-profile effort next week to convince Americans that the Iraq war is winnable, embracing the unpopular conflict with renewed vigor as he attempts to reignite his stalling bid for the presidency.

With the Virginia Military Institute as a backdrop, McCain plans to argue in a speech on Wednesday that victory in Iraq is essential to American security and that President Bush’s war machine is finally getting on track after four years, aides and advisers said.

McCain’s rosy assessment of safety on Iraq’s streets after his recent visit to a Baghdad marketplace was mocked by many, prompting him to tell a television reporter that he “misspoke” and now regrets the comments. But, in the interview to be broadcast [Sunday], the senator sticks by his defense of the overall war effort, predicting that failure in Iraq would be “catastrophic.”

Read more

More Below the Ad

Advertisement


New and Improved Comments

We are launching a major overhaul of our comments section.

In addition to more robust spam filtering and moderation, new features include the ability to rate other comments, sort how they are displayed and respond directly via e-mail or in a thread.

Unfortunately, commenters will lose their existing Truthdig identities. It's a pain, we know, but on the plus side you will now be able to log in with a plethora of options, including Google, Twitter, Facebook and Disqus accounts.

Before launching this system we spent months in discussion with our top commenters. We listened to the feedback and we hope you like what we've come up with.

Please direct any problems or concerns to us via our contact page.

By Peter RV, April 8, 2007 at 4:20 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

As all demented people, McCain is “reality challanged”. His recurring nightmare is that the killings in Iraq might stop and ruin his Napoleonic ambition. It is a very well known fact that Luny Bits are full of great military leaders.
  Let’s hope that this “catastrophy” of his does occur for the sake of all of us.

Report this

By trantieungoc, April 8, 2007 at 9:25 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Cheapest propaganda scheme used by a no brainer !

Report this

By ShockandAwe, April 8, 2007 at 8:53 am Link to this comment

Iraqi Army? Defeated.
Saddam? Deposed.
Democratic Elections? You betcha.
WMD? None found, but oh well.

How much more winning do we have to do?

Also, the neocons keep saying that “losing” in Iraq would be “catastrophic” but we’re consistently kept in the dark as to why.

Is it radical Islam? Iran taking control of Iraq’s oil? What?

If they just tell us what EXACTLY we’re supposed to be afraid of, I’m sure they could rally more support for this war.

Tell us what to fear!

Report this

By Carl Baydala, April 7, 2007 at 4:03 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I’m not really sure what the strategy is, supporting an unpopular war with an unpopular belief.  I guess the strategy is that two wrongs make a right. Or, maybe that acting like someone who believes strongly in something will translate into political and electoral pluses for him. The general population is against the war in my judgment, while the people who make money at these things vigorously support it. I guess he is counting on the war economy to triumph in the end; wars equals money equals jobs. I suppose in the long run this strategy is as good as any.  And, if McCain wasn’t there to carry the ball I’m sure someone else would.  For now it is his territory to defend.

Report this

By vet240, April 7, 2007 at 3:00 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

“McCain’s rosy assessment of safety on Iraq’s streets after his recent visit to a Baghdad marketplace was mocked by many, prompting him to tell a television reporter that he “misspoke” and now regrets the comments.”

McCain doesn’t regret the comments, he regrets the fact that those comments point out just how out of touch he is with reality.

He is either suffering from dimmentia or he is a tool of the Party, in place to placate the extreme right wingers (32%) who still follow bu$h blindly.

Either way, I have lost any respect for him I might have had in the past. Maverick my ass, he’s a self-serving egomaniac.

I’m afraid McCain has contracted a serious case of Cheney-vitus. He needs to get his Bush pumped out!

Report this

By DennisD, April 7, 2007 at 2:46 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I thought all those mirrors that distort reality were just at carnivals, there must be thousands all around Washington.
President/Commander in Chief & McCain - just doesn’t go together anymore than it does with Bu$h. John - there’s a pasture with your name on it, go now before you make a bigger fool of yourself than you already have.

Report this

By Quy Tran, April 7, 2007 at 1:13 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

A nearly decomposed corpse is trying to speak up !

Report this

By Ernest Canning, April 7, 2007 at 11:40 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

So McCain is about to launch a major propaganda effort to convince the American people that “the Iraq war is winnible.” 

I ask you, Mr. McCain, just what is this grand prize the American people can “win” as a result of this illegal war of aggression that has costs the lives of more than 650,000 Iraqi citizens, the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars that could have been spent here at home on schools, medical care and job creation, not to mention the loss of our country’s most precious resource—the lives of our sons, daughters, wifes, husbands, mothers and fathers? 

We know that you are seeking the support of Bush’s “base,” you know, the group dubya referred to as “the haves and the have mores.”  We know that this “base” includes the military-industrial complex, Halliburton, Bechtel, Blackwater and the oil cartel; a base which has recognized and can expect to continue to receive huge profits the longer this imperial adventure continues, especially given the sweetheart of a deal in the form of the new oil law that is being forced upon the puppet regime in Iraq.  But, even if we are to buy into the notion that a “winnable” Iraq war is something more than a pipe dream, what is the grand prize that the average American who has lost a good paying job to outsourcing under NAFTA and the WTO, not to mention a son or daughter to this imperial adventure, can expect for “winning” in Iraq? 

Surely, Mr. McCain you are not going to tell the American people that by “winning” we eliminate Saddam’s links to WMD, al Qaeda or 9/11—the original reasons (lies) your buddies in the administration gave for launching this war of aggression.  Surely, you are not attempting to tell us we are going to win “democracy” for the Iraqi people after a sham election where Iraqis were compelled to vote on a constitution that only a select few had seen before the vote—a constitution which made permanent the Bremer edicts that privatized Iraq’s economy, placing it in the hands of the multi-national corporations who were free to fly in cheap foreign labor from South Asia, leaving most Iraqis out of a job; a constitution which prevents the supposedly “sovereign” Iraqi government from asking foreign troops (that means us) to leave and which renders contrators, like the mercenaries from Blackwater, immune from Iraq’s laws even if they murder Iraqi civilians in cold blood?

Oh, I get it.  You’re going to tell us that, despite the overwhelming evidence that invading Iraq created far greater numbers of citizens in that region of the earth who are prepared to take up arms against us, we can accomplish the illogical—that we can somehow “win” the endless, Orwellian “global war on terror?”

Perhaps it is time to step back and apply a bit of logic.  What is a terrorist?  No doubt, during America’s Revolution, there were those amongst the British who perceived the Minute Men who were picking off their troops from hidden positions as terrorists.  We now refer to them as patriots.

When you invade someone else’s nation; steal their resources, take over their economy, impose a new political system, destroy their homes, kill, capture and torture their relatives, maybe, just maybe mind you, a few of the occupied will take up arms against the occupier.  Does that mean that everyone who takes up arms against this illegal occupation is a “terrorist?”

Report this

By Duris Maxwell, LL.B, April 7, 2007 at 11:11 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

If John McCain showed up at a party and 1) all the “ugly” lights were turned on, 2) there were dead and spilled drinks on all the tables, 3) there was stuff all over the floor, 4) there was no one else there except, 5) some guy sweeping up, 6) and another guy loading a set of drums out of the hall, McCain would just sit for hours with that ‘One Flew Over The Coo-Coo’s Nest’ smile on his face waiting for things to get better.

Report this

By chelemer, April 7, 2007 at 9:28 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

The propaganda minister of the Third Reich said the exact same thing in 1943 - Nazi Germany must win otherwise it would be “catastrophic”.

Report this

By Kush K, April 7, 2007 at 8:59 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

This shameless politician, who happens to be an ex soldier, is now betraying his own.  Political success has eaten to the core of this man to the point where the guy has completely sold out.  McCain has no drop of principle left in him.  He is worst than Mechiavelli. 

Glad that all his compromises are blowing up in his face.  He courted the extreme religious right and shamelessly genuflected before Falwell.  Despite his croynism McCain failed to impress the religious right who are not that stupid as McCain thinks they are.  They know that a man who has no integrity should never be trusted.

His straight talk express has become the new B.S. express.

This old man is completely deluded and thus knows not what he says.  He can do whatever he wants to restart his campaign.  The fact is he looks old and exahuasted with a perpetual swelling on his left cheek.  The man looks awful.  People are not going to elect such a awful, miserable old man, come what may.

Instead of siding with his own (the soldeirs) he has betrayed them. McCain does not care how many more of these young people are killed in Iraq as long as the Military Industrial complex and big oil benefits.  Exactly what Bush says and does.

McCain is going to lose big time.  Having no conscience or principal he is going to find a way to justify his own lack and betrayal.

Report this

By G.Anderson, April 7, 2007 at 7:47 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Mr. McCain is still fighting the Vietnam war, with all the same B.S.

The truth is there right before our eyes, we don’t need Mr. McCain to tell us what were seeing.

What we need you Mr. McCain is to try and understand why we lost. It’s because we were lied to right from the start, and that’s why our policies failed, because they were based on delusions.

More manipulations will not change anything.

Report this

By Joe, April 7, 2007 at 5:58 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Poor (I am a hero) McCain, linking his political future to the Bush War! Is he that out of touch with reality? He was a potentially good candidate once!

His latest photo-op lying stunt in Baghdad was bad enough, but he just signed his own political death warrant. Define war, John - is it the same as invasion or pre-emptive strike? Define victory, John - is it when the Iraqis split into three regional governments or is it when the US runs out of troops? Define defeat, John! Is it when you lose your bid for the republican nomination because you are no longer conservative?

Ah yes, we knew John when he was well!

Report this
Newsletter

Get Truthdig in your inbox


 
 
 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
Copyright © 2012 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.