Morning with John McCain

Mark Kleiman writes:

The Reality-Based Community: Note to John McCain: Ummm ... Senator? About this?

I'm afraid that it's a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq-Pakistan border. And I would not announce that I'm going to attack Pakistan, as Senator Obama did.

1. Iraq and Pakistan do not share a border. They'd like to share a border, they've tried to share a border, but 1000 miles of Iran and Afghanistan keep getting in the way. That was a mistake, Senator. You've been making a lot of those lately.

2. Barack Obama never announced that he was going to invade Pakistan. That was a lie, Senator. You've been telling a lot of those lately, too.

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And, of course, Mark Ambinder's reaction is to say that Barack Obama doesn't know much about foreign affairs--that his need for daily paper is "a reflection on Obama's learning curve" and to endorse the Republican line-->"John [McCain] doesn't need daily talking points."

John McCain does too need daily talking points. John McCain needs talking points more than anybody I have ever seen.

Why oh why can't we have a better press corps?

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UPDATE: Matthew Yglesias writes:

McCain's Gaffes: Mike Allen and Jim Van deHei finally take note of McCain's frequent gaffes. Interestingly, they view his proclivity for misstatements primarily through the lens of age -- perhaps McCain's getting old and losing his grip. To me, though, if take a broader look I think it's just a campaign that's not doing a good job of briefing people. We've seen Carly Fiorina not realize McCain disagrees with her about whether insurance companies should cover birth control, and several different McCain surrogates promise to "fully fund" No Child Left Behind even though that's not actually McCain's position.

Are they lazy? Are they arrogant? Understaffed? Have they just decided that these kind of mix-ups don't matter? I couldn't say for sure. But it's not a personal issue with McCain, it's reflective of a broader trend in his campaign toward people being unprepared.

Comments

[monopole]

Once Pakistan annexes Czechoslovakia they'll have a common border with Iraq!!

[Captain Dan]

We do not have a better press core because newspapers are owned by the wealthy who are almost exclusively Republicans.

[William Smith]

Personal or personnel, it's still should be held on McCain's head. You can delegate authority but not responsibility. You'd think that 7 years of Bush would have taught people that...

[Mike]

Silly question (perhaps), but do you think McCain knows that he lied about Obama's position on Pakistan?

I'm not sure which vice is worse: lying, or unwittingly hiring liars and then not having the sense to "trust, but verify". Personally, I think the higher up you go (in gov't, business, or any other institution), the worse the latter vice becomes.

[CN]

They don't care about positions. Thats not how they are going to try to win this election.

They are going to use the usual Republican tactic of mudslinging in huge quantities. (P.S. They won't care if 90 percent of what they say in this effort is lies, either).

[jhe]

"But it's not a personal issue with McCain, it's reflective of a broader trend in his campaign toward people being unprepared."

Sorry, that is a personal issue with McCain. It's called poor leadership.

[bartkid]

>Are they lazy? Are they arrogant? Understaffed? Have they just decided that these kind of mix-ups don't matter?

I believe this falls under the "That's NOT a bug, that's a FEATURE" diagnosis.
I think it is standard operating procedure for the R team to obfuscate their true position (cf. Clean Air, Patriot Act, FISA, etc.) whether they are in power or campaigning.
And, I think the majority of the lapdog media is complicit in it when I see 'D sed this, R sed that' stories.

[SvN]

You do not have a better press corps because you are willing to read, watch, quote and discuss whatever idiocy the media stuffs into the pipeline.