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Is McCain Lying, Stupid or Both?

Posted by Phoenix Woman, Firedoglake at 5:14 AM on March 20, 2008.


McCain keeps publicly making the false claim that Iran, a majority Shiite country, was supplying the mostly Sunni militant group, Al-Qaeda.
Lieberman Corrects McCain on Iran

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One day after Joe Lieberman corrected him in public for once again stating his oft-repeated false claim that Iran, a majority Shiite country, was supplying the mostly Sunni militant group, al-Qaeda, McCain unbelievably repeated the false claim again:

For the third time in two days, the Arizona Republican has pushed the definitively false statement that the terrorist group Al-Qaeda was getting assistance from Iran, even though he was publicly ridiculed for the same false assertion on Tuesday.
This time, in a statement from his campaign honoring the fifth year anniversary of the war, McCain wrote:
"Today in Iraq, America and our allies stand on the precipice of winning a major victory against radical Islamic extremism. The security gains over the past year have been dramatic and undeniable. Al Qaeda and Shia extremists -- with support from external powers such as Iran -- are on the run but not defeated."
On Tuesday, the senator, appearing in Israel, made a nearly identical assertion that al-Qaeda was leaving Iraq to retool and regroup in Iran.
[...]

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who was accompanying McCain on the trip, was forced to lean over and whisper in McCain's ear that it was Shiite extremists, not Sunni al-Qaeda, that was going to predominantly Shiite Iran.

So he's still repeating a spiel he knows -- and has been told, in public yet -- is wrong.



There are three possible explanations:


1) He is knowingly and deliberately telling an untruth -- that's known as lying, for you rib-stuffed members of the press corps who have trouble seeing the many flaws in Mister Not-So-Straight-Talk.

2) He is dumber than paint and/or has debilitatingly severe memory-loss issues to go with his known anger-management problem.



3) Both of the above.

Honestly, that last one seems to fit best the known facts. Which makes it all the more amazing -- and sickening -- to see America's press corps covering for him.

Digg!

Tagged as: iran, iraq, lieberman, terrorism, sunni, shia, al qaeda, mccain

Phoenix Woman is a regular blogger for FireDogLake


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Yeah BUT ...
Posted by: redbridge on Mar 20, 2008 5:52 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
his diction and pronunciation are MUCH better than GW's

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RE: McCain is
Posted by: BLOOMIE on Mar 20, 2008 7:24 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The old warrior is in the fog of old age. In addition to his paucity of ethical values. He is, nowadays, just on old political hack, so it should be no great surprise that he lies about any old thing that suits him. I'm not sure he even knows that he's full of fecal matter. I am sure that he doesn't care any more than his buddy Darth Cheeney.

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RE: McCain is
Posted by: anninroosevelt on Mar 20, 2008 1:11 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
McCain is nearly 72. I am nearly 72. I am not old. Probably, McCain is not old. My conclusion is that he has his message worked out (terrorism = Iran, "no surrender") and has no political need to deviate. It is better to be justifiably critical of someone with whom you disagree, than to make your point with ridicule. We in the opposition can do better than that -- at least I hope we can.
Ann in Roosevelt

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RE: McCain is
Posted by: earl on Mar 21, 2008 6:23 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
McCain is as confused as the public who are working for him. That worries me. What if the senile bastard becomes President but has to enter a facility catering to dementia as Reagan should have done? What will this country who wants something entirely different from what he's offering, but were able to pull it off an election miracle,just like Bushie forces did, do?

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Tell a lie...
Posted by: JoshuaLudd on Mar 20, 2008 7:07 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Loud enough and long enough it will become the truth... especially if the mainstream media doesn't do too much to correct you.

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» RE: Tell a lie...sickofsleaze Posted by: wilmafromkansas
» RE: Tell a lie...Goebbels said it. Posted by: surfreality
McCain/Bush collaboration
Posted by: weslen1 on Mar 20, 2008 8:10 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Look! Bush's time is running OUT. He's only got 10 months left to get his invasion of Iran underway and complete the bankruptcy of the U.S. so he can complete his plans for the North American Union. All those times you've seen Bush and McCain with their heads together, grinning like Cheshire Cats, what do you think the joke was? Well, I think they were discussing the Iran Invasion talking points. You KNOW how the GOP and the Bushies WORK. Lie and lie and lie again and each time you repeat the lie, more and more people believe it. "It's COMMON KNOWLEDGE." "Bush said it. Cheney said it. It's all over the tv and the radio and the MSM. They can't say it if it's NOT true!"
Yesterday, Bush told everyone who heard his speech that "We HAD to go to WAR in Iraq to PROTECT THE IRAQI PEOPLE FROM THE CRUELTIES OF SADDAM HUSSEIN!!!" These people, from Bush all the way down to Condisleeza and Piggy Perino, have NO CONSCIENCE!! Check out General Betray Us!! Now that the election is getting closer and he's scared of losing his job, he's saying maybe the "surge" wasn't so successful after all. Bush is running off at the mouth about all the troops he's allowing to come home, even as he replaces each one who returns with 2 or 3 or 4 new ones without even a WORD from MSM.
YES!!! McSame BS Express has his talking points down pat and no TRUTH BUG is going to distract him from spreading his and Bush's DISEASE.

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they WANT war
Posted by: Grandma Crabby on Mar 20, 2008 8:38 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Face it folks, they are going to invade Iran. McCain is lying and knows full well what he is doing.

This is just more propaganda being fed to an ignorant public to convince them that we MUST attack Iran for our own safety!

It's all bull, but when have facts had anything to do with their policies? They want the oil.

VideoProductionTips = Learn Internet Video

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Why do Republicans insist
Posted by: Ellie1 on Mar 20, 2008 8:54 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
that their candidates be senile or stupid? And why do red state Americans keep voting for these idiots?

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Just Close Your Eyes
Posted by: QQOblivion on Mar 20, 2008 8:58 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
And McCain is ahead in the polls, sadly, beating either Obama or Hillary if the election were held today.

I have accepted that McCain will win, possibly in a landslide, and that this will lead to war ON AMERICAN SOIL, perhaps even nuclear war.

Just close your eyes. It will be all over soon...

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varykino
Posted by: varykino on Mar 20, 2008 9:09 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I think these reasons for his inscrutable behavior are more likely:

1) McCain is suffering from the onset of senility or worse (Alzheimer's) -- best case scenario

or

2) He IS lying and "they" actually ARE planning to attack/bomb Iran before President Bush leaves office -- worst case

Short of impeachment of Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, there's not much we can do to prevent # 2, but we can be vigilant and keep an eye on Mr. McCain before casting a vote for him due to option #1.

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BOTH!
Posted by: Quannah on Mar 20, 2008 9:38 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
n/c

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McCain is owned by the Israelis
Posted by: Doubtom on Mar 20, 2008 10:58 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Israel takes care that our presidential aspirants don't look toooo stupid. Well, alright they screwed up with IdiotBush, but with McInsane they've made sure to have their Israeli Senator, Lieberman, accompany McPain wherever ever he goes so they can delicately correct him when he gets his Sunnis and Shiites mixed up.
Yeah, he's ready to hit the ground running on the first day of his presidency, largely due to his extensive experience and his in-depth knowledge of Sunnnis, Shiites and Al Quaeda. (as long as he has his jewish lap-dog alongside to point out the difference).
Maybe he'll make Lieberman his VP; the weasel Lieberman has already tried out for that office once. This would allow AIPAC to take a break from working so hard to influence our government to accept that Israel's interests are the same as our own.

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McCain is no genius-neither is he a dummy
Posted by: blackie4aces on Mar 20, 2008 11:51 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
McCain is not stupid. He is also not brilliant, but he is definitely not stupid. Just as he is pandering to Parsley and Hagee to secure the vote of the Christian Jihadist fringe, just as he pandered to Bush in 2000 after Bush and Rove kicked him in the nuts from behind, he is now pandering to the love-it-or-leave-it-my-country-right-or-wrong crowd and keeping all options on the table-one of which is bombing the shit out of Iran.

McCain can't stand George Bush, but that didn't stop him from making public kissy-face with li'l Georgie in 2004 when he thought it was in his interest to do so. The same can be said for his feelings about the religious right whom he condemned only eight years ago as ignorant bigots (true). From a military standpoint with which McCain has some working familiarity I have little doubt that he does not favor attacking Iran. That will not, however, inhibit him from playing to the testosterone drunk morons in the right wing of his party who still don't know a Shi'a from a Hindu. He is committed to staying the course in Iraq because he is afraid that if he leaves Iraq, it, and possibly the whole region, will go up in flames, which it will very likely do. The surge is only working in the sense that the level of violence is down slightly as a result of paying off the Sunni resistance to the tune of $24 million a month and the concentrating of American troops in and around Baghdad, a high profile area, which in addition has already been pretty well ethnically cleansed. McCain's problem, then, will be how to extricate himself from Iraq and at the same time look like a "winner." The longer the U.S. stays in Iraq the stronger the Sunni tribes will get because of the flow of American money, arms, and training. McCain's gamble will be to stay long enough for the Sunnis to be able to defend themselves from the depredations of the Shi'a, but not allow the Sunni to become strong enough to conduct offensive operations against the numerically superior Shi'a. The Kurds have a different agenda. They are threatened by Turkey and well may be threatened by the Shi'a and/or the Sunni over the oil money to be had in the north of the country. McCain's aggressive rhetoric in regard to Iran, which could really upset this delicate balancing act should they do what would come naturally to them-support the Iraqi Shi'a-is to forestall through intimidation and threats that potentiality as long as possible.

The bad news is that none of the potential Commander-in-Chiefs will be able to get out of Iraq right away. When the U.S. pulls out of Iraq there will be a war. It will be fought over control of the oil resources-very big bucks-and to some degree old hatreds going back a long way. But it will be mostly about money. Whoever is president is going to try to string this thing out long enough to establish a modicum of apparent stability, enough such that major violence does not break out for a year, or preferably two, after the U.S. disengages. That will create at least the pretense that what followed was the Iraqis' fault. America's position in the region was blown the minute the American boots hit the ground. The plan was initially to control the Iraqi oil. As soon as America leaves Iraq, all influence, much less control, is lost. In the meantime the new administration will try to buy time to scramble around and tie up petroleum supplies elsewhere, probably in Central Asia.

In the end, whenever the end is, America loses big, Iran wins big as the price of oil now is over $105 a barrel and it will control its own fields and have great influence over Iraq's fields, which combined will constitute the largest reserve in the world. They will have tremendous leverage on the world petroleum price. We have George Bush and the Neocon cabal to thank for this.

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neither lying or stupid
Posted by: slimjim66 on Mar 20, 2008 12:20 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As he so boldly conned millions of Americans to vote for him stupid he is not.when he has considered 100 more years of war,lying he is not .
no this Republican Candidate is simply old and
senile . last thing this country needs , is a President who wears depends when answering the
phone at 03:00 in the morning ...

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STUPIDITY
Posted by: fg on Mar 20, 2008 1:53 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Our system of government depends on an informed electorate. Not only is the American electorate in the main uninformed, but to some extent, at least, improperly educated, decadent, psychologically unstable (many Americans have taken/take drugs), senile, hedonistic and so on. So it would be
more to the point to say the American electorate is clueless--or "stupid" if you prefer.

As for McCain. of course he's stupid, just like Bush.

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DoubtTom, who the hell are you?
Posted by: Opinionator on Mar 20, 2008 2:25 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
McCain owned by the Israelis with a Jewish lap dog? I haven't heard such blatant anti-Semitism since Hitler was alive. Have you ever met or known a Jew? McCain is a very poor choice for the Republicans and I would rather not vote than vote for him. I am not the only one who feels that way. Obama, here we go!

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realist
Posted by: technocrat on Mar 21, 2008 4:15 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Come on, folks, you insist on hanging on to the silly notion that We the People have a say in anything. McCanned, Capitol Hill-ary, or Obams, no diff. The bank-led corporatocracy is in absolute control and until It is unmasked for what it is, dethroned and dragged face-down through the cobblestone streets, and strung up in full public view and made to acknowledge, apologize, and attempt to make retribution for the vast and unfathomable damage it has wrought to people and planet, things will continue to head downhill at a pace that will make runaway global warming seem like it's standing still.

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Lying, misguided and easily led....
Posted by: Smiff on Mar 24, 2008 2:52 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...but probably not stupid.

These appear to me be prerequisites for the job.

How else would the string-pulling hawks and dollarcrats be able to drive their anti-humanity agenda?

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