Now, can you cite how many of these mistakes Obama said repeatedly? I’m not going to begrudge either candidate a slip of the tongue, but McCain is on the record of making some of those same mistakes over and over, on different days and different occasions, and even refusing to back down on his assertions when his mistakes were pointed out.
Does your handy little talking points e-mail regurgitation here mention how often Obama did the same, or were they all simply one-off goofs? And can you honestly assert that a one-time error is the same as one that’s made repeatedly?
Not to mention that at least a couple of those “gaffes” are strictly a matter of opinion. One may cherish the notion that JFK’s “weakness” provoked the Cuba Missile Crisis, but its far from a fact. A bit of padding stuffed in to bulk things up a bit, make a more impressive litany.
But I rise in defense at your suggestion that** Sam’s** Parade of Obama’s Oopsies is an example of “e-mail regurgitation”. I haven’t the slightest doubt that friend Sam tracked all of these examples down in his spare time, there being not a lot to do in Canada in the three weeks of Not Hockey Season.
Well, so did I. Quite the array of wing-nut hosers, eh? But why didn’t you include the stunnning stupidity of mistaking Sioux City for Sioux Falls? Good God, man, can we afford such a blundering doofus?
I didn’t include it because that one was so obviously just a minor slip of the tongue that I thought it was silly to call it a ‘gaffe’. There were quite a few supposed ‘gaffes’ that I didn’t quote for the same reason.
Because McCain, knowing this, issued a challenge for many more debates with Obama soon after the primary season so no matter what lesser number Obama agreed to, he could frame as Obama being afraid to debate him.
[QUOTE=Sam Stone]
[li]Obama doesn’t have a basic understanding of how the military works. Quote: “I’m going to call in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and give them a new mission, and that is to bring the war in Iraq to a close”. The Joint Chiefs are not in the chain of command. They are advisors to the President. Obama apparently did not know this.[/li][/QUOTE]
However, each member of the board is the officer in charge of his branch of service and is in the chain of command in that capacity, and the POTUS presumably would make no significant military policy decision without consulting the Joint Chiefs. Obama was merely simplifying.
And I believe that Obama would be correct. If the President of the United States dies with two years or less of her of his term left in office, the Vice President will serve for those two years as President and then may still be elected to serve as President for two additional four year terms. That would be a total of ten years.
Obama didn’t even say “the President can serve for 8-10 years”, what he actually said was this:
He didn’t say “the President,” he said “I”, as in “me personally.”
Obama will still be a US Senator on the Senate Foreign Relations Committe whether he’s elected President or not. It’s true that he personally will be dealing with those leaders in one capacity or other over the next 8-10 years. Sam misrepresented what Obama said.
Having said that, yes, it is technically possible for a POTUS to serve 10 years if he he starts as a Veep and takes office with two years or less left to serve by the POTUS he replaces. Obama, of course, would not be starting as a VEEP, but he didn’t SAY he’d necessarily be dealing with those leaders as a POTUS.
This thread is turning into a perfect example of what I’m talking about. Did you even read my message before jerking your knee? I posted that list, and immediately after it said that I don’t believe those are all true ‘gaffes’ in the sense of errors in knowledge or obvious screwups. I don’t for a second believe that Obama thinks there are 58 states. But then, I don’t for a second believe that McCain doesn’t know the difference between the Sunnis and the Shia. I’ve seen him talk about that region in reasonable depth enough times now that I am satisfied he knows the region pretty well. He’s been to Iraq five times. He’s personally talked on several occasions with both Sunni and Shiite leaders. He’s had numerous briefings about the region from the Department of State, the CIA, and the military. He has been present for hundreds of hours of debate on the subject, and listened to speeched by a number of major Iraqi leaders.
Frankly, I don’t think there’s anyone in the Senate who doesn’t understand the basic geopolitics of the region. It’s just too important an issue, and they all get asked about it enough times by the press and their constituents that they all have to have a basic grasp of the facts. And certainly those Senators who are on the Intelligence and Armed Services Committees.
My point is that there are Republicans who think that McCain’s mangling of Sunni/Shiite is just a verbal malapropism, but Obama’s 58 states are the sign of a moron. And Democrats think McCain’s gaffe means he’s a doddering old fool, but Obama just conflated “57 stops” with “58 states”. A view I happen to agree with, btw.
In fact, both of these guys are pretty smart (Obama more so). There’s no GW Bush here - fratboy with a silver spoon in his mouth. Anything you hear them say that sounds jaw-droppingly stupid is more likely either a misinterpretation, a misquote, or just a brain fart due to exhaustion or having to speak extemporaneously all day with microphones in your face.
But I expect most of you to argue with me. You’ve already accepted the ‘McCain is a doddering fool’ meme, and you’re running with it.
For the record, my contention was not that McCain was a doddering fool, but only that I haven’t seen any evidence that he has a better grasp of the ME or foreign policy issues than Obama does.
He’s made the Iran/al Qaeda mistake more than once, by the way, and his gaffe on the timing of the surge showed a genuine gap in knowledge, not a slip of the tongue. The Iraq/Pakistan border comment obviously was a slip of tongue and shouldn’t be shown any more regard than Obama’s 57 states comment.
Two errors of McCain’s have disturbed me; the rest have been the oral equivalent of typos. One is the Iran/Al Qaeda error, and the other is the Surge/Awakening error. One he has corrected when he has had Joe Lieberman or someone else at his side to point it out to him, but it really does suggest that there’s some kind of disconnect there. The other McCain can claim some degree of truth only for extremely large values of Surge. He would have done better to admit some kind of oops, or to let it slip away.
As far as the debates go, McCain is a lot faster on the draw with a quip, Obama is better at the inspirational line, although he’s by no means incapable of a joke himself. Obama sounds and looks better at this point, although as a young man, McCain was absolutely drop-dead gorgeous to look at, and is still a very handsome man for his age. I’ll give the smarts nod to Obama (even his worst enemies don’t try to claim he’s stupid), but McCain’s ability to crack a good joke even when he’s very pissed off may win him the debate war yet. It’s a hard call.
McCain confused Sunni and Shia on FOUR SEPARATE OCCASIONS. And yet I am supposed to believe that he understands the difference between the two. If you believe that, I have a time-share to sell you in Czechoslovakia.