« The Center Cannot Hold, and It's A Center-Left Center | Main | University » The Iraq-Pakistan Border21 Jul 2008 12:14 pm John McCain, like all decent Americans, is concerned about the trouble on the Iraq-Pakistan border. Ali Frick, like a typical liberal, derides this on the grounds that there is no such border. But if she had McCain's years of foreign policy expertise and extensive conversations with John McCain she would have access to this double super-secret map of the CENTCOM AOR:
I won my school's geography bee, so I know what I'm talking about. Here's the last time I tried to help McCain out with a map. Comments (64)
Isn't that the kind of gaffe they were telling us Obama would make on his trip which would sink him because of the media attention ? 
Awesome post Matt. Your wit will be sorely missed at The Atlantic.
So the new URL will be www.perezyglesias.com?
Matt, you've just got blinders on. Here's how McCain sees it: 1) We get a puppet gov't in Iraq that let's us stay for 100 years, with permanent bases, no legal control over anything our troops or contractors do with over there, and gives no-bid contracts to only American oil companies. 2) We attack Iran, annexing it to Iraq so the same puppet gov't controls both. 3) We have an Iraq-Pakistan border! See, it's so simple.
That's it. I'm convinced. Obama's gonna win in a landslide. He's going to carry all 57 states. And he's going to be President for the next 8-to-10 years.
Matt, it's on the map showing all 57 states. Barry's got a copy.
The Iraq-Pakistan border is just a bit wider than normal. And under separate jurisdiction. Oh, Al, with your 'scientifically proven' airing yesterday, you've used up all your three bullshit links for the week. What a shame.
Thomas and Al: the difference between MattY and you guys is that MattY will consider this vaguely amusing for a few days and milk it for some entertainment value. You and Al, on the other hand, have been counted on to scream "57 states!!11!!!" repeatedly, to the point where you might actually believe the whole talking point.
Must be tough being Al, having to watch your candidate time and time and time again showing himself to be a babbling old fool who can't keep basic facts straight in his supposed area of expertise.
It's of a piece with recent GOP style. There are GOP guys going around talking about the Chinese drilling for oil off Cuba. LOTS of Republicans.
Tyro, I'm pretty sure they already believe it.
Do we need to secure the Iraq/Pakistan border against the Meshicans, too?
As far as I can tell, that red line represents the maximum range of Barack Obama's jump shot. Nuthin' but net on the first three point shot he throws? C'mon, that's JFK playing touch football right there.
Must be tough being Al, having to watch your candidate time and time and time again showing himself to be a babbling old fool who can't keep basic facts straight in his supposed area of expertise. Who's my candidate, LFC? I've said repeatedly that I'm not voting for McCain (because of McCain-Feingold).
I'm about as anti-McCain as you can get, but while the map is pretty funny, I think in context he pretty clearly meant to say "Afghanistan/Pakistan" border instead of "Iraq/Afghanistan" he was asked a question about whether Afghanistan was a precarious and urgent sittuation, and after kind of flailing around a bit and getting back on an anti-Obama talking point (Obama is willing to invade our ally Pakistan), McCain then expressed concern over the "Iraq/Pakistan". In context, it makes perfect sense for him to have meant "Afghanistan/Pakistan," but it would be kind of a non sequitur to begin talking about a border between Iraq and Pakistan during a question about Afghanistan's military sittuation.
OMG! Look what the McCain camp is trying to call a translation error. This is beyond spin. This is complete and total fabrication, also known as lying. Don't Al and Tom think 8 years of having a Liar in Chief is enough? You can watch video of Maliki's chief spokesman saying they want us out in 2010. See, McCain really is just like Bush. No facts on the ground will change what he knows, and what he knows is that we're staying for 100 years.
NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy, who has been traveling with the McCain campaign, notes that the candidate has until today danced around questions about increasing the troop commitment in Afghanistan. During yesterday's press avail, McCain stepped up to the line, but backed off: "I think we need to do whatever is necessary, and that could entail more troops. We need to do a lot of things in Afghanistan. A lot of this has to do with Pakistan and the safe haven areas that I have visited in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
You are making it like he doesn't know the area. He had been talking about Iraq and had a slip up of words. Obama said he would be president for 10 years.
Obama said he would be president for 10 years. This shows a pattern Obama is bad with numbers. 1. President for 10 years. 2. 57 states 3. 10,000 died in a tornado in kansas 4. 100 million died in burma.
It's a good thing we have David to keep us informed on the latest RNC chain emails going around.
"Obama has no business or economic background and has admitted he is bad with numbers." Oh I don't know. He figured out a way to acquire a multimillion dollar fortune that didn't involve adultery.
Can everyone just f'ing grow up? Either it's just a slip up of words or it's a sign of their stupidity/ignorance/senility/unreadiness FOR BOTH OF THEM. Let's just stipulate that either (a) BO actually knows that there are 50 states and that there are 4 years in a presidential term and that McCain knows that Czechoslovakia split up and that Afghanistan and Pakistan are neighbors, not Iraq and Pakistan and then move on to something real or (b) that BO is too ignorant to be president AND McCain is too senile to be president and therefore we are all well and thoroughly f'ed. Arguing which of these two is true is more interesting and illuminating than "ha, ha, [guy I'm vehemently opposed to] said something dumb which proves that all you supporters of him are fools" back and forth.
He had been talking about Iraq and had a slip up of words. Just like Sunni vs. Shiite vs. AQ uttered several times, including once where he had to be Lieberman's sock puppet in order to figure out he misspoke. Or when he didn't know what Gen. Petraeus was in command of. Or when he said that the invasion of Iraq would be easy. Or maybe how he lied when he said that there were no oil spills due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita? Or how he said he doesn't support privatization of Soc Sec? (He just supports the exact same policy that USED to be called "privatization".)
True. He's cursed with an inability to keep anything he says straight, or maintain a position.
I'm not prepared to concede that McCain realizes that Czechoslovakia split up. He keeps using that name; it isn't an isolated gaffe.
If you'd like, zaleriana, you can determine if the first two from my list are slips or real lapses. There is no arguing the last three. They are substantive.
Obama called Maliki the president of Iraq. Maliki is the prime minister of Iraq. The president of Iraq is Talabani. Obama said the leader of Canada is the president of Canada. Canada has been under parliamentary system for 140 years. It is our biggest trade partner and he called the leader the president of Canada. Canada doesn't have a president.
McCain never confused shiites and sunnis that is a media myth.
I must say that Al really is the perfect storm of poor political judgment. It's bad enough to vote for Bush twice and then vote for McCain, too. But to vote for Bush twice and then refuse to vote for McCain, because of McCain-Feingold? This may be venturing into Godwin territory, but the only analogy that comes to mind would be a Soviet hardliner who loyally supported Stalin through thick and thin, but turned against Khruschev because he decentralized the economic ministries. McCain is the running dog of liberalism, tovarisch! We must eradicate his Yankee imperialist campaign finance reforms!
What if it's repositioning for the favored Bush-Cheney position of invading "the Iraq-Afghanistan border"? We aren't starting a third war with no clue what we want to do after we win, noooo....we're just stabilizing the border between the two countries we occupy.
"McCain knows that Czechoslovakia split up" I'm not so sure. I think McCain may well think that the Czech Republic is "the country that Czechoslovakia used to be." In other words, he may not realize that the old Czechoslovakia consisted of two parts that have separated to form their own independent countries.
Obama said his uncle liberated Auschwitz. How can that be Auschwitz was in Poland occupied by the soviets. This was like Ford's gaffe. The soviets occupied Poland for decades after world war II. Compare the media outrage of Ford vs Obama.
David, since Obama isn't going to assume office having to deal with the WW2 invasion of Europe, I'm not worried. On the other hand, it's pretty important for McCain to know that you can't sent Iraqi troops across the border into Afghanistan. It also might help him to know that Al-Qaeda isn't a Shi'ite organization. But, hey, if McCain is your kinda guy, go for it.
What I think McCain's problem is is that he's simply past the point where he's capable of learning anything new. It's quite unlikely that Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, along with Shi'a/Sunnis inter-factional issues were major concerns for McCain up until the past 10 years, and he simply hasn't been able to absorb both that and the changes in Europe after the Cold War simultaneously. He just can't keep all of this stuff straight, and it's why Vietnam is his sole frame of reference: it's one of the few things he actually knows and learned about. He's having trouble learning new things, so he just goes back to his familiar frame of reference over and over again. Reagan was the same in many ways, but the voters wanted a person who had learned everything he wanted to learn in the 1960s and was going to bring that frame of reference into the 1980s. I don't think the American people are going to think too highly of someone who's stuck in a much different world than the one that exists today.
I don't want to defend McCain, but I think there is a fairly plausible case to be made that he just mispoke. I believe this because it helps me sleep at night.
Like some other posters, I'm getting concerned about how seriously both sides are taking these silly slips of the tongue... None of these things should mean anything unless they are corrected but stand by their original statement. i.e. "you mean the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, right?" "No I mean Iraq-Pakistan." Without some sort of verification that it's not just a slip of the tongue, the criticism is pretty content free.
Diane Sawyer is the problem. The former Nixon aide who used to lunch with CBS Chairman William Paley (when she should have been working -- or maybe she was)is an absent-minded ditz.
I must say that Al really is the perfect storm of poor political judgment. It's bad enough to vote for Bush twice and then vote for McCain, too. But to vote for Bush twice and then refuse to vote for McCain, because of McCain-Feingold? Didn't vote for Bush twice - only once. Didn't vote at all in 2000 (nor in '96 or '92). In any case, I do appreciate David's compendium of Obama gaffes - there sure are a lot of them. However, I like to concentrate on the one or two that really make Obama look like a moron, like his assertion that there are 57 states. Good times!
Considering how McCain's entire foreign and economic policy is a gaffe, I wouldn't exactly brag about the 57 states gaffe. So Obama has misspoke four times between 2002-2008? OMG!!!111!
Al: "In any case, I do appreciate David's compendium of Obama gaffes - there sure are a lot of them." I prefer Kinsley gaffes myself. Obama made a nice one about bitter people clinging to guns and religion a while back. it was fun chatting about that one for a couple days. unfortunately, however, McCain's Kinsley gaffes have much more serious policy consequences. Some highlights: "I don't know much about economics"; "Phil Gramm is my closest adviser on economics"; "I'm okay with staying in Iraq for 100 years, or a thousand years." All inadvertently true, and all extremely disturbing.
LFC: Nevermind. I haven't inhabited the comments enough to get the full David experience. Please, carry on, but try to avoid stooping to the stupid--McCain provides sufficient substantive material, as you noted. I'm just have "gaffe"-reporting fatigue. It's not as if either of them are misspeaking as often as MY misspells.
McCain left the root of war to go to war. The root of war is when humans mimic and think like animals. This happens on a legalized cockfighting farm in Louisiana USA. McCain should have gone to the root of war and helped destroy it. He has sinned. Because I had legalized cockfighting at home as a child I believed the USA was The Great Satan before Iran ever said this. This is because GOD teaches humans that animals are companions for humans. Legalized cockfighting is inhumane and uncivil. My human and civil rights were violated on a legalized cockfighting farm. War is one step up from legalized cockfighting. The way humans treat animals is the way humans treat one another. Just look at all the wars in the world. The United States is not "one nation under GOD" with legalized cockfighting. Cockfighting will finally be made illegal in Louisiana USA in August 2008. Now I must make it illegal in the world for Humanity and destroy the root of war. PEACE.
Relabel Kuwait as Czechoslovakia...
Obama 328
Perhaps McCain has been taking instruction from John Fahey's tune "Stomping tonight on the Pennsylvania Alabama Border".
Befuddled McCain can be Prez of all Americans because he takes any position that favors the moment. McCain cannot keep track from day to day or even minute to minute what his positions are.
Fun fact: this post has been linked to by the HuffPost, and one of the editors of that site is from MattY's new employers. If I were MattY I'd be very worried, but somehow I think MattY is going to feel right at home.
I co-sign with zaleriana. I think both candidates have made their fair share of slip ups and gaffes. To be honest, I am surprised there aren't more since they tend to keep pretty long hours, and are traveling constantly. But I guess people are more willing to forgive the candidate they like more.
Yeah, and Obama thinks he's campaigned in 57 states. I'm more interested in Rezko, which would be ginormous were it McCain involved with a guy who bought his tiny yard for $600K. But if it's anti-Obama, it doesn't get past the Mging Editor's desk.
Yeah, and Obama thinks he's campaigned in 57 states. I'm more interested in Rezko, which would be ginormous were it McCain involved with a guy who bought his tiny yard for $600K. But if it's anti-Obama, it doesn't get past the Mging Editor's desk.
I want to see Matt do 3 hours of live TV interviews everyday for a year...let's see if he ever misspeaks. McCain is bad, but come on, everybody makes little mistakes when speaking. This is lame.
Every politician has what I call verbal typos, but McBush has makes a gaffe a week. McBush's last Freudian slip volumes he has Iraq on the brain. He does not give a squat about the war in Afghanistan and getting AQ and Bin Laden. He wants to be C-in-C because he wants to prove every one wrong when they said he would never make Admiral. That's why he has been obsessed with commanding Admirals and Generals for over 20 years. One war simply will not do for him in fact he will start a war with Iran, that's the only reason for staying in Iraq at this point. Good article but I disagree with last point. McBush is not as intelligent as Nixon. Remember McBush thought we could win in Vietnam. McBush will stay in Iraq or simple use them to invade Iran. "As Norquist pointed out last year, Richard Nixon used this strategy with great success at the end of the Vietnam War. "He ran in '72 as the guy who was leaving and [Democratic candidate George] McGovern decided he wanted to surrender," Norquist said. "Leaving beat surrendering." In the coming months, the political landscape is now primed for Mc Cain to attempt the same argument." http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1824890,00.html
It is time to go BACK to school in his SECOND childhood.
It is time to go BACK to school in his SECOND childhood.
I recently reviewed a 2003 video of Sen. McCain (YouTube)referring to the Iraq-Pakistan border. To say that this week's reference was a slip of the tongue is possible, but at some point our president needs to avoid slips of the tongue when representing us in the world community.
I am with McCain on the issue of Czechoslovakia. It is one thing to agree for the partition of a perfectly reasonable, if overly elongated, country, but why should we appease those Slavs by changing English language? I would give an ultimatum to Czechs: either they agree to be called Bohemia, with no "Republic", or we refer the them as "(part of) Czekosloveka" (I propose a punitive alteration to the name). Why a smallish country should be referred to with two words if we already have one? After all, who refers to People's Democratic Republic of Korea? Or, "Republic of China"? Bad enough that we talk about Kiribati, while this is a mis-spoken version of Gilbert's Islands. It is also shorter, and we cannot find them on the map under both names. We do not do if often. But how many gallons of ink were spilled by writing "Czech Republic" rather than snappy "Bohemia"?
David has a hard on for McCain, he likes wrinkly old senile men....
When the gaffe occured they were talking about Afganitstan. McCain simply accidentally said Iraq instead of Afganistan when he mentioned the border. So why make such a big deal out of it?
Would anyone expect anything less from John Mc"Needs A"Cain? He did graduate 895 out of 899 in his class.
I think McCain should be awarded the Nobel prize for geography. Never mind it doesn't exist, he deserves it!
Re: to Conejo: If you or I were doing that mistake it wouldn't be a big deal. After all, neither you, nor me is running to be president in charge of, oh, I don't know, maybe the nuclear button? I don't know about you, but I don't want a president that is error prone. I mean, not AGAIN!
You are all soooo geo-politically clueless. Both men were merely expressing their far-reaching visions of a future world and Amerika. John McCain was only reflecting the obvious reality that one day Iraq and Iran will be merged into one federation (under US rule) and thus share a border with Pakistan. Similarly, BO knows that in order to keep the US economy strong, we will need to add a number of states during his 10 years in office, starting with Puerto Rico, Mexico, New York City, Grenada, Talibania and of course Afghanistan among others. These men have such visions because they have stood on the shoulders of giants including Hillary Clinton. You should not all feel so threatened by it.
I like Obama, sure. But, I miss Kerry for Prez. Obama is a brilliant man, but with the mess that we are in, I wish we had someone more experienced to rise the fore... Obama looks like he's fresh outta Springfield or the South Side... and a long ways from the international stage. I also believe that Obama is so phenomenal as a wordsmith and theoretical speaker that he lacks skill in the hard numbers and Economics department. Mind you, McCain is FAR worse than Obama on any concept of Economics as he greatly supports Bush on keeping the USA in eternal bankruptcy...
Y,know, if McFossil wiped Iran off the face of the earth (literally), then Iraq and Pakistan cOULD have a common border....in HIS mind, at least!!!
Didn't Iraq and Pakistan have a common border over by Czechoslovakia? It's not fair to an old man to keep moving countries around.
Yeah, It makes me laugh that the repukes have to search back to a gaff Obama made in May in order to try and counterbalance the repeated and daily gaffs that John McCain keeps making.
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Heads in the Sand
that was Bush you were helping out in that linked post. I know, I know, hard to tell them apart these days.
Posted by Micah | July 21, 2008 12:27 PM