War: So Awful He Said It Twice

Apparently much of John McCain's language about how much he hates war was lifted from a 1996 speech by Rear Admiral Timothy Ziemer. Interestingly, back in 1996 McCain didn't love war nearly so much as he has for the past ten or so years. Since that time, though, no matter how much McCain may say he hates war, he also keeps advocating for things like a land invasion of Serbia, war with North Korea, war with Iraq, war with Iran, more troops for Iraq, a ratcheting-up of hostilities with Russia, etc.

UPDATE: And now it seems that perhaps Ziemer was plagiarizing from McCain, and McCain's just been using this sort of language since 1995.

Comments

This has been debunked - read the disclaimer. So, is Matt being sloppy, or is this a Steve Martin in L.A. Story moment, in which Matt pre-wrote the post (pre-recorded the weather forecast)?

Posted by minderbender | March 27, 2008 5:59 PM

Matt, according to Marc, Ziemer appears to have plagiarized an earlier McCain speech.

Posted by Deborah | March 27, 2008 5:59 PM

This one does require a correction, your dedication to never touching a post once it's made not-withstanding.

Posted by MNPundit | March 27, 2008 6:02 PM

Plagiarism is SO February '08.

Posted by How Insane Is John McCain? | March 27, 2008 6:12 PM

There needs to be a nationwide 12-hour moratorium before commenting on any "scandal", especially one that originates on a blog. This is the third major blog I've seen this on, and two of the posts came *after* it was debunked. It's like our very own right-wing echo chamber.

Posted by Jason W | March 27, 2008 6:36 PM

Weak tea, Matt. Poor.

Posted by robert powell | March 27, 2008 6:47 PM

Yeah, in the end this comes down to "Admiral adopts McCain's snappy formulation to express similar sentiments." And even if it went the other way, it would've just come down to "McCain adopts Admiral's snappy formulation to express similar sentiments." Color me unwhelmed.

Posted by Senescent | March 27, 2008 6:48 PM

Nice apology.

Posted by Tabitha | March 27, 2008 7:24 PM

Nice apology.

I must have missed the "sorry" or "I apologize" in the update. Oh well.

Posted by Al | March 27, 2008 7:32 PM

So McCain hates war so much that he's been the same tired, old cliched boilerplate about it for at least 13 years.

Now, that's passion!

Posted by Woody Bombay | March 27, 2008 7:34 PM

Recycling.

He's been recycling the same tired, old cliched boilerplate about it for at least 13 years.

Posted by Woody Bombay | March 27, 2008 7:44 PM

"I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded . . . I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed . . . I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war." -FDR

Featured in the amazing FDR memorial in DC, which everyone should visit!

Posted by JFY | March 27, 2008 8:16 PM

Is McCain's speech from a pre-9/11 world still relevant in a post-9/11 world? I thought that changed everything.

Seriously, the point here is that John McCain has policies and speeches that look back to (because they are from) over ten years ago - whereas democratic candidates are offering change and new thinking to the new battles we're facing.

Posted by zoidberg | March 27, 2008 11:33 PM

I must have missed the "sorry" or "I apologize" in the update.

You are absolutely right--MY owes you a personal apology. It's not as if this is a trivial mistake, either, like advocating starting a war, or something . . .

Posted by rea | March 28, 2008 8:03 AM

If McCain hates war so much, can he recall a single instance when the military option was on the the table, and he was NOT in favor it?

Posted by David Jahns | March 28, 2008 12:00 PM