This thread has inspired me to send this email to the editors of Meet the Press:
Let us know if they reply…could be interesting.
-XT
There are three poll results on that same page, dating back to June, all asking the same basic question about withdrawal, and all getting having the same result – a majority, not just a plurality, favor a timetable of withdrawal, To believe MCCain doesn’t know this is really pushing my limit of credulity.
Well, I’m not holding my breath. I cited polls from their competition, which makes a reply even less likely.
I don’t usually get involved in political debates because I don’t believe all the facts are ever given to us; politicians are liars, and power trumps money.
This dovetails with my firmly held belief that anyone seeking power - should not have it.
That being said, I once had high hopes for a reasonable, honest conservative in the person of John McCain. To his shame, he has become just another cocksucker kneeling at the zippers of big business and the religious right.
You only have to compare his interviews on the Daily Show before the 2004 election and his subsequent appearances there.
With this missive, for the reasons given above, I bow out of this discussion.
I regret that I was right.
Playing devils advocate, I think you are making some assumptions and then drawing conclusions from them. Your first assumption is that, in fact, John McCain DOES know about these polls…and knows of no others that contridict them. Perhaps that pushes the limits of your own credulity to think that he does not know of them, but I think its reasonable that he might not know of them…while perhaps his staff does.
The second assumption is, assuming for a moment you are correct and he DOES know of them, that he accepts them as accurate and fact…as you obviously do. That he accepts the question as validly put, that he accepts the methodology, and that he finds the conclusions wrt the current mood of the American people in line with what you obviously draw from the poll.
All this said, I will fall back on my standard response to when politicians are (seemingly or factually) caught short…‘Is he a politician? Were his lips moving? Then obviously he was lying!’.
-XT
Yes, I suppose that it IS merely an assumption that a presidential candidate keeps track of what the American people think about the most important issue of the times.
More’s the pity.
One more thing. It’s an even bigger assumption on your part that he understands statistical analysis well enough to accept or reject the results of certain polls based on their methodology.
Are you debating with yourself here?
Am I Samclem?
-XT
True, though you make a good point here. He SHOULD be up to date on the latest polls. Of course, I don’t know what OTHER poll data he could be looking at…or how much stock he puts in that series of polls either.
lol…good point. We all make assumptions.
-XT
No one is a “presidential candidate” yet, except maybe Biden since he’s already announced. At any rate, McCain is only a presdential candidate in the minds of reporters and news junkies (like us).
I saw this interview. Too bad Russert’s stand-in (David Gregory?) didn’t have the poll numbers to counter McCainwith. If they weren’t on the tip of his tongue, I guess I can forgive McCain for not knowing them either. Did McCain lie? Maybe, but we really don’t have enough info to know. Had he blown the poll numbers off as “liberal media bias”, then he would’ve gotten a lot more than a :rolleyes: from me.
He is not an “announced” presidential candidate, but nevertheless he is a presidential candidate. I recognize that is an opinion, but it is widely shared, I think by McCain himself.
Walks like, talks like, swims like, feathers, quacks…a witch! Or a duck.
Yeah, I too have to disagree that the person in question announcing their candidacy is what makes them a candidate. At the very least, they must have had discussions with their family and friends (not to mention staff, other party members, groups who might lend their support) beforehand. Plus, the running process doesn’t start in the lead-up to the election - potential candidates are going to be making the right political moves now, to build up support from the people and from the party…like John McCain is doing, among others.
Like Hillary? 
Yet, I’ve heard numerous Dems on this board say that Hillary running is a Republican wetdream…no basis in reality.
Whether McCain will become a candidate is up in the air. He probably DOES however have trial balloons out, and the Boyo Jim’s point that he probably is at least passingly aware of the various polls reguarding Iraq is at least plausable.
I still don’t think you can conclusively call the man a liar based on this interview though (leaving aside the moving lips thing)…but for my part I can see how its plausable one could do so.
-XT
When defending a failing position you may as well try changing the frame of the discussion.
You’re learning well. Since you’ve now reframed your entire world view, I assume we’ll not see you defending another politician. Correct?
-joe
I too am tired of McCain who seems to have become just another pandering politician.
elucidator is correct that the polls in his cite that asked about a timetable showed that the majority of those polled favored onel. However, I just watched a replay on msnbc.com of the Meet The Press interview and McCain didn’t say where he got the numbers for his claim that a majority didn’t want a time. Maybe his own private poll, or Fox, who knows?
However there was one interesting exchange. McCain compared our actions in moving troops around to the latest hot spot with a video game where heads keep popping up all over the place and you must keep knocking them down. He strongly disagreed that this was a winning method and said more troops were needed so as to simultaneously keep order everywhere.
The interviewer then showed a clip of the RNC chairman, Mehlman, who said that moving troops around was a strategy of “adaptating for victory.”
When directly asked if Mehlman was wrong (translation-full of shit) about moving forces around to put out the latest fire being “adapting for victory”, McCain waffled. He wandered off into a paean about what a magnificent military force we had in Iraq and how dedicated the command was to the US without ever answering the question. And the interviewer let him off the hook.
Yes, to paraphrase Chuck Hagel, John McCain has lost his way.