PolitiFact repeated mischaracterization of "maverick" McCain's misstatements on Al Qaeda and Iran
SUMMARY: Echoing claims made by John McCain's campaign, PolitiFact.com again characterized as a momentary lapse McCain's admittedly false claim that "[i]t's common knowledge and has been reported in the media that Al Qaeda is going back into Iran and is receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran." PolitiFact repeated its earlier claim that "McCain recovered quickly" but failed to note that McCain made the misstatement more than once during a press conference and did so as well the day before in a radio interview.
In a March 20 article regarding recent misstatements overseas by Sen. John McCain, PolitiFact.com again echoed the McCain campaign by characterizing as a momentary lapse his admittedly false claim at a March 18 press conference in Amman, Jordan -- "It's common knowledge and has been reported in the media that Al Qaeda is going back into Iran and is receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran." PolitiFact examined the Al Qaeda-Iran misstatement as well as McCain's likening of the Jewish holiday of Purim to Halloween, and wrote that Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) "twice bailed out his friend, correcting misstatements by McCain before they became big stories. In fact, having been so quickly corrected, they might not even be worth mentioning. But since McCain is often so quick to point out that he's the presidential candidate with the most foreign affairs experience, we felt it fair to give his comments some scrutiny." PolitiFact also repeated its March 18 claim that "McCain recovered quickly, but we rate his statement False for saying everyone knows that Iran and al-Qaida are working together." In fact, as Media Matters for America noted the first time PolitiFact made the claim, McCain did not "recover[] quickly": He made the misstatement more than once during the press conference, as well as the day before during a March 17 interview with nationally syndicated radio host Hugh Hewitt -- facts PolitiFact again did not note.
Moreover, the assertion that the misstatements "might not even be worth mentioning" echoes a reluctance PolitiFact previously expressed to highlight McCain's falsehood; in its March 18 item, PolitiFact prefaced its discussion of McCain's remarks by saying "We're not trying to pile on Sen. McCain over his misstatement."
PolitiFact also continued a longstanding media practice of referring to McCain as a "maverick," writing that Lieberman's correction of McCain's errors "sheds some light on McCain's close relationship with fellow maverick Lieberman, who reached across the political aisle to endorse McCain." In fact, McCain has a lifetime rating of 83 by the American Conservative Union and has shifted rightward on high-profile issues such as immigration and taxes. And far from defying his party, McCain has aligned himself with President Bush on major issues. Indeed, The Washington Post reported on March 6 that White House officials said that "McCain and Bush are on the same page on the big issues, such as terrorism, Iraq, immigration and taxes." PolitiFact itself wrote on October 3, 2007, that McCain's "backing of the overall U.S. mission in Iraq has made it difficult for McCain to differentiate himself from the president, pollsters say. It also has helped tarnish his most prized political asset, the maverick reputation that won him the New Hampshire primary in 2000."
PolitiFact also highlighted McCain's "gaffe" of "liken[ing] the Jewish holiday of Purim to Halloween." According to the article, McCain said at a press conference in Israel later that day:
Nine hundred rocket attacks in less than three months, an average of one every one to two hours...Obviously this puts an enormous and hard to understand strain on the people here, especially the children. As they celebrate their version of Halloween here, they are somewhere close to a 15-second warning, which is the amount of time they have from the time the rocket is launched to get to safety. That's not a way for people to live obviously.
PolitiFact explained that "[o]ther than the use of costumes, there is little similarity between Purim and Halloween. And a rabbi who spoke to PolitiFact said the comment exposed McCain as someone who does not understand the meaning and import of the Jewish holiday." According to the article, Lieberman said at the same press conference, "[I]t's my fault that I said to Senator McCain that this is the Israeli version of Halloween. It is in the sense because the kids dress up and it's a very happy holiday and actually it is in the sense that the sweets are very important of both holidays."
According to its website, PolitiFact.com is a project of the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly intended "to help voters separate fact from falsehood in the 2008 presidential campaign."
From the March 20 PolitiFact article:
SUMMARY: Sen. John McCain makes two gaffes during a trip overseas, but thankfully, good pal Sen. Joe Lieberman is there to bail him out.
Sen. John McCain's weeklong overseas trip to Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Britain and France in March 2008 was a bumpy one for accuracy. Thankfully, he had Sen. Joe Lieberman for a traveling companion.
Lieberman twice bailed out his friend, correcting misstatements by McCain before they became big stories.
In fact, having been so quickly corrected, they might not even be worth mentioning. But since McCain is often so quick to point out that he's the presidential candidate with the most foreign affairs experience, we felt it fair to give his comments some scrutiny. Plus it sheds some light on McCain's close relationship with fellow maverick Lieberman, who reached across the political aisle to endorse McCain.
McCain's first misstatement came on March 18, 2008, in Amman, Jordan.
"It's common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaida is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran; that's well known. And it's unfortunate," McCain said during a news conference in Jordan.
Lieberman, who was also at the news conference, spoke softly in McCain's ear, and McCain corrected himself to say "Islamic extremists" were going into Iran.
Most experts do not believe Iran is helping al-Qaida because their respective religious affiliations are at odds with each other. Both sides are Muslim, but the Iranian government is Shiite while al-Qaida is Sunni. And al-Qaida adheres to a fundamentalist form of Sunni Islam that considers Shiites to be apostates. It's not likely the two groups would work together, certainly not "common knowledge." McCain recovered quickly, but we rate his statement False for saying everyone knows that Iran and al-Qaida are working together.
The second gaffe came a day later in Israel during a news conference with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak when McCain likened the Jewish holiday of Purim to Halloween.
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Lieberman to the rescue. Count these two incidents as reasons McCain might like to have the independent from Connecticut as a running mate.
When are all these organizations and/or so-called journalists gonna stop making excuses for John McCain and look into a possibe REASON for his constant false statements.
The man is 72 years old, has had a spotty medical record, and just might be in the initial stages of Alzheimer's disease.
Each of the few times I've seen his "mistake" reported it's been presented as though it were a one-time slip of the tongue. Most of the few who are aware of it would never know that it's a falsehood that he was repeating at least three times.
How could anyone find this less significant than isolated comments a candidate's minister made several years ago?
"...it's been presented as though it were a one-time slip of the tongue."
And when that's not the story, the "story" is that McCain is being attacked in a smear campaign.
That's a very good question, as to how is it that McCain's comments about Iran/al qaeda are so unremarkable, compared to comments made by someone who is not a candidate for the Presidency, or even an active participant in the campaign.
Factor in the extraordinary importance of the subject of McCain's comments: The nature of the "insurgency" in Iraq, which as of now is directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of 4,000 U.S. Troops in that place.
Any and every comment by a presidential candidate, that might indicate some kind of ignorance or misunderstanding about Iraq's "insurgency", should be so important as to require immediate and repeated follow-up questions, and an explanation from the candidate, assuring the American People that he/she truly understands what U.S. Troops face in Iraq.
For someone to think that Iran has something to do with the saudi-funded and directed al qaeda, is about as serious a misunderstanding in these matters as there can be.
Also, we see McCain's apologists in the "media", in defending the man's apparent ignorance of the Iraq "insurgency", defending him on the grounds of his "foreign policy" credentials.
First, who cares about such credentials, when it is a particular fact about Iraq that is being called into question?
Also, this thing that people call "foreign policy experience", with regard to the presidential candidates, is empty and ridiculous... there is no such thing as anything so vague and general as "foreign policy experience"... all Foreign Policy is "nation specific", which is to say we have a unique and different relationship with each and every nation in this world, and there is so little that can be said about Foreign Policy in general, as to make the term meaningless... all Foreign Policy should be discussed in terms of particluar nations, or else it is just meaningless talk, demonstrating nothing more than the talker's dim and undefined impressions of the world.
And Mr. McCain's Iran/al qaeda comments seem to indicate he has a rather dim and undefined knowledge, of something very specific and very important.
p.s. and FYI: in today's online NYTimes, you'll find an article headlined "Two McCain Moments, Rarely Mentioned"... for those of you interested in the "leading-edge" strategy of Mr. McCain's campaign, you'll find it in that NYTimes article... because as you read it, you'll be amazed when you learn that Mr. McCain is not in fact a Republican, but is in truth a closet Democrat... that's what the "two moments" tell us: He once supposedly considered joining the Democratic Party, and he was once supposedly considered by Sen. Kerry to be his running mate in 2004.
Whether either or both of these "two moments" are simply fictions, or contain anything sincere, is not my point here. They are in fact "two moments" that are supposed to make you think that John McCain is a closet Democrat, just as much if not more of a Democrat than you and I and the millions upon millions of people who are going to decide this election, most likely by voting Democrat.
That's the man's strategy this fall: Run away from Republicans and all thinmgs "conservative", because they are electoral losers presently, evidenced by the 2006 historic national elections, and the '08 Primaries so far.
And oh yeah, the "two moments" crap that appears in the NYTimes, is by-lined elisabeth bumiller, who has a nice resume of being cited here at MMFA, if you care to advance search for it.
Worrier,
Even if a McCain Lieberman ticket won, beside the war, wouldn't that put a more liberal group in the Executive Branch? Wouldn't you agree that McCain Lieberman would have the effect of toning down the rhetoric between left and right in a way Obama has been positioning his campaign?
Wouldn't that be something. Lieberman a VP candidate for both parties! I wonder if the base would accept it? It surely would knock down the conservatives a peg or two, while making a bid for those independents.
It sure would.
So would the ticket of the reanimated corpses of George Lincoln Rockwell and John Wilkes Booth.
McCain also probably calls yarmulkes "those beanie-things those guys like to wear." At least they look better than that red baseball cap McCain is wearing in the clips of his "visit" to Iraq. He about looks like an Alzheimer's patient that just stumbled off of a bass boat...
Hahaha... Funny!
I agree that he needs to replace that "deer in the headlights" look.
Col. Harlan Sanders
"And when that's not, the story, the "story" is that McCain is being attacked in a smear campaign."
Really, so are you claiming he didn't say what he said (multiple times) or what he said was actually true?
oscar the grouch,
"Yep, JSM's misspeak ranks right up there with HRC's recollections of her trip to Bosnia several years ago."
Good try, however you can't seriously compare HRC's one time mispeak of an event she has accurately described on many previous occasions (not to mention in one of her BOOKS) to JSM's multiple conflations of a well established lie.