I’m back home in Pennsylvania and I’m pretty fried. It’s amazing how much you can lose feel for the state of the race just by getting off the 24-hour news cycle for a few days. I haven’t seen any political television coverage since last Tuesday and I haven’t read even a third of the horse-race articles that have been written since then. I just spent a little time catching up and it seems like the McCain campaign is reeling from the news that Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki essentially endorsed Obama’s plan for Iraq. Perhaps a million people are going to show up on Thursday in Berlin to see Obama give an historic speech at the Siegessäule. I don’t want to get cocky but I suspect that John McCain will soon regret his challenge to Barack Obama to travel abroad during the campaign. There’s also no explanation for why Czechoslovakia was not placed on Obama’s itinerary. McCain is quite fond of that country and speaks of it often…almost as if, like Iraq’s fabled WMD program, it exists.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
We can still go to Czechoslovakia in our dreams. ;0)
We’ll always have Bratislava.
Welcome home.
that al-Maliki’s endorsement of Obama’s plan has raised a hissy fit with interesting timelines and players.
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(CBC News) – Ali al-Dabbagh, the chief spokesman for al-Maliki, said in a statement that the prime minister’s comments were “not conveyed accurately” by Der Spiegel.
Al-Dabbagh said al-Maliki did not endorse a specific timetable but instead discussed “an Iraqi vision” of U.S. troop withdrawals based on negotiations with Washington and “in the light of the continuing positive developments on the ground.”
He added that Maliki’s comments has been “misunderstood and mistranslated,” without detailing which parts were affected.
The Iraqi spokesman’s statement was released not by the Iraqi government but by the U.S. military’s Central Command press office in Baghdad.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Oui, Thanks for the link. CBC news, under Harper’s “New” government, has become a shill for Bush. They mislead.
please see my diary: Hissy fit – Der Speogel stands by its reporting of the al-Maliki interview; has released full transcript.
CENTCOM pulled a coup, shutdown the elected al-Maliki’s office? Oh for the promo on spreading democracy.
They’re not succeeding. I doubt Iraqis will be amused thinking they were a sovereign state.
Gordon Brown backs Obama’s 16 month timetable and as well Obama’s plans for Afghanistan.
Will CENTCOM also roll back on Gordon Brown?
I believe you’ve got it!
The essential facts re WMD were correct all along — it’s just that Saddam moved them to Czechoslovakia. And I wouldn’t put it past him to give some to East Germany, too.
You fail to mention the most serious threat of our times: the USSR.
You’re right. How could I forget the godless atheists? President Reagan will be so pissed, if he remembers how.
No. over the decades we’ve been looking down the wrong tunnel.
In time we’ll come to know Pakistan is Taliban.
that’s the destination…. a country called:
Af/Pakistan.
And we’ll ask ourselves why did we not learn from the follies of the USSR.
Oh wait, we’re the suppliers – we funded the other side who returned to bite.
throughout history the AF/Pak tribal areas defeated great military powers. We’ll suffer the safe fate.
We took the baton from France in VietNam. Are we going to take the baton from the USSR in Afghanistan? Scares the hell out of me.
Well Booman, you might think a million people showing up to see and hear Obama is a good thing but the spin here that you missed is that if he is seen as ‘too popular’ in Europe that is a bad thing and could even help McSame. The way the ‘news’ here tried to create a flap about him speaking at Brandenburg Gate, portraying it as egotistical on his part cause you have to ‘earn’ the right to speak there and it should be reserved for American presidents. Nice little bit of propaganda going on there for sure.
Yes very truly up is down nowadays with the ‘news’ media.
And Welcome Back.
leader of a failed government. Until he “endorsed Obama’s plan”. Now he’s seen on the blogs in a different light.
Pelosi was the clueless, ineffectual leader of a failed House. Until she favored Obama over Clinton and she became unassailable.
Maybe if Dick Cheney says that Obama’s kids seem very bright we’ll forgive him and his oil baron friends all their transgressions.
‘the blogs’?
which ones?
booman,
John McCain campaign is reeling that they went after Obama to go to Iraq and Afghanistan.
I am on a fishing vacation, but the al Maliki comment is just to much to ignore.
This predicament has put the halt on Bush/McCain and the bumble of the WH on this story is hilarious.
Hope to see you next year in Pittsburgh. Since it is just across the state from ya.
ice
yeah, it’s getting worse with the UK basically agreeing as well.
exactly. Gordon Brown practically giving an “unauthorized endorsement”. This has deflated anything left for the GOP and their reasoning in staying over in Iraq. They want us out and out we must go.
Riffing on “Czechoslovakia” lost a little of its zing after Sam Nunn said it too last week in Indiana.
Chuck Todd: GOP panicked, Maliki sticks with “timetable”
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=BqCtoREx88I
BooMan,
I thought you’d be interested in one particular moment from the final panel (basically an NN Meta Q&A). I can’t name all the panelists but it included Aravosis and Adam B.
A pissed-off lady asked why Nancy had been allowed to escape questioning about impeachment. The BS reply was that the first question WAS about impeachment. As you noted in your Nancy post below, the first question was actually about inherent contempt!
Essentially the defense was that that it wasn’t the proper setting to be confrontational. If so, the event should have been titled “Lob the Speaker Softballs until Gore Shows Up to Redirect Attention Away from Her Many Failures”.
It was a kick meeting you.
To expand just a bit. She also complained about the lack of follow-up that allowed non-answers (or wrong ones as in your FISA example) to stand.
Evidently this event was a carefully designed Kabuki show. NN gets props for hosting the speaker and Nancy gets props for daring to confront the Rabid Bloggers on their own turf. A good show, but (pre-Gore), of value mainly in the Meta sense of what it unintentionally revealed…
They needed a room that big to accommodate the Impeachment Elephant.