…why John McCain will not be the Republican nominee:
John McCain Tries Maverick Again, Slams Bush
John McCain (R-AZ) dusted off his ‘maverick’ label yet again and the one-time staunch defender of the Iraq war slammed the Bush administration for misleading Americans into believing the conflict would be “some kind of day at the beach.”
“I think one of the biggest mistakes we made was underestimating the size of the task and the sacrifices that would be required,” McCain said. “Stuff happens, mission accomplished, last throes, a few dead-enders. I’m just more familiar with those statements than anyone else because it grieves me so much that we had not told the American people how tough and difficult this task would be.”
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.”
So McCain urges Americans to stay the course in Iraq, but his contribution is to publically?slam our Commander-In-Chief, thereby giving the Democrats and liberal MSM more ammo to undermine the war effort.
It’s one thing to say that you disagree with Dubya’s Iraq strategy, It’s quite another to say that he?was intentionally misleading. The difference is apparently lost on McCain.??
August 24th, 2006 at 11:54 am
Sounds to me like McCain is betting Iraq keeps going downhill. Wouldn’t it be nice if his 2008 campaign had quotes from the last 6 years saying “I told you so”? What an opportunist.
August 24th, 2006 at 2:12 pm
I don’t see where McCain is saying Bush intentionally mislead the public. If you follow McCain’s speeches over the years, you will know that he has said that the public wasn’t prepared by the Administration of the difficulty of Iraq. This only got news because of the increased spotlight McCain is in because his ’08 run.
As Ryan Sager pointed out on RCP yesterday, any move that McCain makes to distance himself from Bush will be viewed as disloyal by the base. Even though McCain is more hawkish than anyone of the other ’08 contenders on Iraq (openly calling for more troops).
August 24th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
There is a distinction here. McCain is saying that the Bush Administration misled the public regarding what to expepect after the “larger war” was concluded.
Now if he had only said he disagreed with their policy decisions, I would have no problem. Heck, I might even agree with him. It’s that he is saying the Bush administration intentionally sugarcoated the hard truth of the situation that make me angry.
It’s mostly the way he says things that tee’s Republicans off so much. Like he is always trying to make “The Daily Show” highlights. Being POTUS as a Republican means that he will be the leader of MY PARTY, in addition to the country as a whole. I want to see McCain display more leadership in that respect before I will change my mind about
him.
…and I promise with you that untold numbers of Republicans agree with me here.
August 25th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
Here’s the long and short for me:
If McCain is the GOP nominee – I vote Libertarian.
See here – I couldn’t agree more.
That is all.
November 3rd, 2006 at 2:43 am
Dodge
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