Posted on 01/26/2008 6:06:51 PM PST by Delacon
Apparently not. I say apparently not, because a very brief AP report on McCain's charge and Romney's emphatic denial ends with this paragraph:
While he has never set public date for withdrawal, Romney has said that President Bush and Iraqi leaders should have private timetables and benchmarks with which to gauge progress on the war and determine troop levels. He has said publicly that he agrees with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, that U.S. troops could move to more of an oversight role in 2008. It is possible that the AP missed something very obvious in Romney's public record here, but I seriously doubt it. It's just as possible that the New England Patriots overlooked some game tape on Eli Manning. The AP, as anyone following this race knows, has been so anti-Romney as to defy parody. If this is the best they can come up with to put a hint of plausibility on McCain's attack, then McCain's case must be very weak indeed. Calling for private timetables and benchmarks with which to gauge progress, etc.. is a world away from McCain's charge. In fact, it is a highly reasonable posture for even the most aggressive proponent of victory. Ah, how far we have come from the heady days of Cindy Sheehan's ascendancy, when everyone assumed that the retreat from Iraq couldn't happen fast enough, and the last politician to deny responsibility for the war would have to turn out the lights. Give the military and the president credit for ignoring the pundits and senile elder statesmen who tried to talk them into retreat.
But McCain's straight talk express swerved into the mud on this one, and the fact that he chose to do so suggests some desperation. He will only get away with it if the MSM who have invested so heavily in his success cover for him.
For his part, Mitt should have the resources to counter this sleight of hand from the straight talker. And the fact that he does illustrates, again, the danger of suppressing free speech as embodied in McCain-Feingold. When the MSM conspires with a candidate to promote a lie and suppress its counter, someone needs to be able to do the end run.
It reminds me of an essay written by Lynn Nofziger years ago during the OJ trial. Nofziger had been falsely indicted for corruption during the Reagan years and fought the rap and won. He pointed out that any time a state or federal decides it wants to take someone out, the resources it brings to the table dwarf anyones capacity to counter them. We shouldn't fault those -- like the Duke lacrosse players who have the resources and fight back. We should applaud them.
Likewise with the candidate who has the resources to counter an MSM that shoots at him on sight but slavishly panders to his opponent.
**Did Mitt Call for Withdrawal in Iraq? **
If he did, he is cooked. That’s a dimocrat line.
A vote for Myth is a vote for an ULTRA-LIBERAL Republican.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
McCain’s false and desperate attack today
McCain is out there today in Florida saying that Gov. Romney favored a time table for withdrawing troops from Iraq. Here’s some of the excerpts from an AP report:
“He said he was quoting Romney as favoring a “timetable” for withdrawal and argued that he was not misquoting Romney, saying, “Clearly, the impression was that he was ready to set a date for withdrawal.”
But Romney quotes circulated by McCain’s campaign didn’t show Romney making that exact comment — nor did aides back up McCain’s earlier comment that suggested that Romney “wanted to set a date for withdrawal.””
This is from the Corner Online:
“UPDATE: As I think about McCain’s effort to now use the battle of Iraq this way - to inaccurately characterize Romney’s statement re Iraq, to refuse to correct himself despite the evidence showing his characterization is false, and now to say —in response to Romney demanding an apology — ‘’I think the apology is owed to the young men and women serving this nation in uniform, that we will not let them down in hard times or good. That is who the apology is owed to’’ — is to use Iraq and the soldiers as the Left does. Jim Woolsey has already been sucked into this. I hope others won’t be.”
Also from The Corner:
“I’m starting to think Sen. McCain should not be allowed to mention the other candidates’ names within 30 days before a primary. I mean, he levels an allegation about Romney that’s just flat not true, and if some organization wanted to run an add calling him on it, they would be in violation of his “reform” of campaign finance regulations. What a racket!”
http://georgiansforromney.blogspot.com/2008/01/mccains-false-and-desperate-attack.html
Romney didn’t parse any words here.
I haven’t served in the military either. Does this mean I’m not fit to post on FR?
“You haven’t served in the military and therefore are not qualified to have anything to do with it” is a Democrat argument.
They don’t even know why they hate Romney so much. The reasons they give don’t make sense but they keep on hating him and hating him - right there with the media and liberal democrats - all in bed together hating Mitt Romney. It’s a mystery.
Romney is a great candidate!!!!!!! Go, Mitt!
I have never been a police officer. Does that mean I cant comment on crime or law enforcement? These are the arguments used by the left increasingly used by McCain supporters.
THanks again for the post showing that Romney understood exactly why you don’t do ANYTHING publicly.
You don’t want your opponent to know what the benchmarks for success are.
McCain Straigth Talk Express Runs Off The McTracks.
Yep. Romney’s a “lifelong” hunter who never had a hunting license.
Another last-minute dirty trick by McCain. Did he apologize to Mitt?
The New York Times is sitting on a story. Maybe it’s nothing.
The MSM has spent years NOT saying anything bad about McCain. They’ve got plenty of stuff saved up.
Your suggestion they can’t turn on a dime presumes they have some recalcitrance to looking like hypocrits. But they won’t, nor will it hurt them to do so, because they’ll put on the big “how could we know, we thought he was a great guy — but there was that whole Keating Five thing, I guess it wasn’t a one-time thing”. it will be easy for them.
Of course, maybe they won’t. In which case we’ll have a President trying to pass Amnesty, appointing FEC officials who will apply McCain/Feingold to the internet, and generally playing nice with the democrats in the senate to prove how bi-partisan he is.
Well, although he never served in the military, George Romney claimed to have been brainwashed by them.
Those tricky, grease tank tread type military. Always snookering the best and brightest.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.