Why didn't Blitzer correct him? The "agreement" isn't condition based. In fact, the Iraqis are pushing for a complete withdrawal based on no preconditions marching in the streets to protest the agreement in the format it was presented to the iraqi parliament. The US has told the Iraqis to take it or leave it. Careful what you wish for Crocker/McAce/Bushit/Palinaroundwithterrorists.

My guess is that Sadar is betting the clock will run out and Bushit will have to go back to the UN to extend the mandate. Good luck with that one Georgie...

the truth is, he's been like this for a while.

A liar? Well, duh. He's a Republican.

People still operate under the assumption that McCain knows what he is talking about. He doesn't. Hasn't for quite some time now. He believes that his War Hero status gives him the liberty to say whatever he wants, reguardless of any facts to the contrary, and the voters will automatically take his statements at face value, because, well, he was a POW. Anyone who questions his 'facts' gets the the Full Metal McCain treatment. Everytime he sticks his foot in his mouth or gets something wrong, his and the campaign's response is always 'I was a POW'. As if we forgot.

The one thing you always have to remember about McCain is that, more likely than not, is that he hates you. In fact, he hates anyone who doesn't worship at the altar of 'His Maverickness'. Especially when it comes to Obama. Obama, in McCain's eyes, has never shown McCain the respect that the old man thinks he deserves from everyone, everywhere. Gang of 14, immigration, ethics reform. All were instances where Obama did not (according to McCain) worship at his altar and kiss his ass. Obama chose different paths or added something to legislation that McCain did not approve of, and therefore the old man takes umbrage with him. It's been like that his entire life.

He's nothing more than a 72 year old spoiled Navy brat, trying to please 'Daddy'.

That is the thing that drives me insane! How the fuck can these people call themselves journalists when they allow these lies and misrepresentations to go unanswered? They limit the response to someone standing outside an Obama rally so as to appear "fair and balanced" At least Chuck Todd let some truth slip out last night on Hardball when he said there was no chemistry between McNasty and Palin and they looked like two people who had been forced to sit down together.

MCCAIN: The reason why the talks collapsed is because the Democrats insisted on agreeing to tax increases before we sat down.

I thought he WANTED Democrats to have pre-conditions before they sat down to talk with hostile governing bodies.

Make up your mind, Ace.
(about EVERYTHING.)

Wait a minute! I thought McCain was in favor of preconditions?

Golly, do you think The McSiah actually believes that down is up? He seems to reel off this bovex (bovine excrement) without any hesitation or (this may be the key) pause for thought, almost like he thinks this is really what he thinks.

Re Gregory's remark above:

Steve's not accusing McCain of lying; he's implying that McCain is--and has been--genuinely confused about points of fact from as recently as, well, one month ago. To those wondering about someone's fitness to be President, I'd think that "genuine confusion" would be as much a deal-breaker, though of a different sort, as deliberate misrepresentation would be.

McCain is going senile...my poor father was exactly the same way...he was a good guy (mt father) but he wasn't presidential material when he had Alzheimer's, and neither is McCain (but McCain isn't a good guy, he's a creep).

The United States has spent it's past eight years of life, watching in amazement as its "unitary executive"---which, when translated from BushSpeak to Common English, means "petty tyrant"---has ignored our Laws with impunity, broken our Treaties with equal impunity and total disregard for the consequences, and effectively relegated the majority of Citizens to the position of straw-people. Blitzer's interview offered McFool the opportunity to discount the "rumor" that his campaign is effectively a continuation of our "domestic reign of terror"---and McFool rejected that opportunity.

The concern now should not be so much the possibility of a McCain presidency as the extreme probability that the GOP will retain enough control of the Senate as to allow a continuation of Bushist policies via gridlock. It is not beyond question that, given the embarrassment of their electoral humiliation, a united GOP bloc in the Senate will seek to shut the government down entirely, if for no other reason than to promote the political inferiority of the Obama administration.

A defeated, embarrassed, and exceptionally-bitter John McCain, with freshly-honed skills in the fine art of inciting hate for the pure sake of hate itself, will be at the forefront of that effort---as will the politically-castrated Herr Lieberman. The Blitzer interview merely confirms this....

McCain is showing his true persona. He just doesn't care about America. Onkly about winning what he thinks is his right as POW.

I am getting annoyed at folks trying to make sense of what John says or does.

He is not predictable.

He is flip-flop-flip-flop ing like a fish out of water.

Why should he know what's going on? Isn't he just SO proud of his Sarah! He didn't even realize that expensive clothes were a problem...I mean Cindy wears 'em everyday, why should he notice them on Sarah?

Vascular dementia.

Now, can we just get this election over with?

Does it seem to anyone else, at this critical time, that the Corporate Media is going out of it's way to give McEvil and Mrs 666 every fucking chance possible, to help him in every way, to get back in the race ? I mean , what the fuck, he is on every fucking TV show possible .. and almost zero of Obama or Biden ..... And they just sit there letting these two evil secretions spout off all their propaganda and lies without being challenged at all ? What the fuck is this ? And then there is that CORPORATE SLIM called David Gregory on his 'Race for the Whitehouse' show always, always, gumming the McEvil talking points, framing everything that comes out of his cum filled mouth for McEvil ..... trying to help him in every way possible ... what a smary, repuslsive, piece of shit he is ...

Steve's not accusing McCain of lying; he's implying that McCain is--and has been--genuinely confused about points of fact from as recently as, well, one month ago.

Steve is unfailingly polite -- much more so than the modern conservative movement and Republican Party deserve. But I disagree if Steve is saying McCain is confused.

Confusion would be an issue if it were only McCain. As we've seen from his campaign, it isn't. The Republican Party in general and the McCain campaign in particular have a base of support that lives in a fantasy world, and the GOP panders to that fantasy. It simply doesn't matter to them if statements from McCain and his campaign are easily fact-checked -- their supporters will simply chalk it up to "liberal media bias" and go on believing the bullshit because it satisfies a need -- saying critical things of Democrats and liberals.

If McCain wasn't being dishoenst with Blitzer, then he isn't confused, he's completely untethered from objective reality. But then again, he's a Republican.

C'mon stormy... Tell us how you really feel.

@stormskies- Oh you noticed too? They don't want trouble with the ratings when at 8:01 Obama is declared the victor. They would love that shit to go on for weeks. I think early voting has them all fucked this time round.

Like Bush, McShame either doesn't know the facts, or if he knows doesn't care whether what he says squares with reality. There are no hard-hitting followup questions expected, and the media lets the disinformation stand unchallenged. A Reagan legacy.

McCain is certainly showing signs of confusion, and the country has to be deranged to elect him. We don't need another presidency like Reagan's where surrogates, whether his wife or other assorted henchmen, actually run things.

Also like Bush, I can't imagine McShame standing up for Parliment question time as the British PM must. An American president never has to face a hostile opposition with relatively few holds barred. However, I can easily see Obama dealing with a hostile press corps, which is of course what it will become if he gets elected.

McCain's elevated sense of entitlement could easily destroy him if he loses the election. It's not likely to be a pretty picture.

I have to agree with Gregory. McCain isn't showing signs of senility. I might feel sorry for him if anyone in his campaign said something different. McCain is simply spouting the "big lie" or "big lies" of the day. McCain and his campaign aren't senile, they are morally and intellectually dishonest.

The sad thing is that Blitzer and the rest are so used to this kind of dishonesty from Republican politicians, they don't call it.

Last night I watched Brian Williams publicly rebuked Chris Matthews for calling bullshit on a McCain spokeswoman who wouldn't or couldn't honestly defend Palin's confusion about the role of the Vice President. I felt sorry for Williams. What a sellout.

the truth is, he's been like this for a while.

He's been like this his whole life.

"Does it seem to anyone else, at this critical time, that the Corporate Media is going out of it's way to give McEvil and Mrs 666 every fucking chance possible, to help him in every way, to get back in the race ?"- stormskies

Yes! Absolutely. In fact, it seems they're already bored with covering the real time economic collapse and more interested in giving McCain campaign air-time.
Not that it helps McAce. His and Sarah's interviews are such a train wreck that I almost feel Obama should be paying them to stay on the TV. I mean the latest interview with Brian Williams is priceless. It felt more like a parent/teacher conference than a serious interview with a possible president/vicepres.
McAce is drowning in his own vomit.

I think the worst part of the interview was the stuff about Palin. He literally just started saying every talking point soundbite he had. There was nothing connecting his statements, he just rambled "we're reformers...energy...most popular governor..."

Then there is the clip from the Brian Williams interview where Palin says "McCain was endorsed by 4 former secretary of states" and McCain puts up 5 fingers and mutters "Five" in an angry voice. Guy is losing it.

McCain is revealing himself to be one of the most mendacious liars in the country. He knows that most journalists don't enjoy calling someone a liar to their face and that as a powerful person he can bully an interviewer into keeping their yap shut. Add the fact that folks like Wolf know a little about a lot of things and you've got the makings of the never-ending Bullshit Express.

Give Wolf a break. Political discourse, in the context of journalism, requires adherence to a carefully scripted set of rules. It requires at a minimum a mutual respect for the question and anwer. It requires that each player subscribe to more or less the same version of reality. When one of the participants decides that he is no longer interested in playing by those rules, the discourse breaks down. WTF is Wolf supposed to do, tell McCain he's full of shit. That's not a journalist's job.

The best example of what journalists can do is how Chris Matthews handled Bachmann. He became very calm and pointedly followed up. She stupidly clarified. He left it at that, and the 1.3 million dollars only confirms that Bachmann fucked up big time. Wolf followed up as well, but he let it go when McCain moves even deeper into the weeds. Maybe Wolf lacks Tweety's balls, but he did try to his credit.

Bottom line. McCain is now playing in his own universe where he re-writes the rules and history to his satisfaction (another way he's like Bush). In my estimation, one of the casualties of the last few election cycles is an appreciation for common consensus regarding our political reality; there are rules, even if politics is not science. McCain and his campaign have decided to suspend those rules, because if they play by them they lose. But just because McCain refuses to play by the rules, doesn't mean they've gone away. There still is such a thing as political gravity.

Hopefully, if McCain loses and loses badly, and Bachmann is thrown under the Bus, and other's like her that have decided they can say whatever they want in order to win, politicians, journalists, and the electorate will start taking the political universe seriously again. If you break the rules, you will pay. (The biggest blow to Palin's credibility is that she truly is clueless about the complex set of rules that govern political discourse, and it shows in the simplist communication.)

I agree with Steve, McCain should just stop doing interviews if he is going to create his own private Idaho. It's only hurting the Country.

"the truth is, he's been like this for a while."

Confused? It's weird how honest confusion can result in him reciting phony "facts" that are consistently wrong in his favor. Most people's confusion ends up disfavoring them as often as not.

Another example of the alternate reality of the campaign. Candidates disregarding the economic reality--neither would say things will get worse before getting better in one of the debates or that the deficits matter enough to profoundly affect their programs.

McCain/Palin live in bubble that simply is not real. McCain made his way the American way by being a legacy at the Navy Academy graduating 994 out of the 999 graduates and then divorced to marry into money. Palin is in the blissful cloud of evangelical non-reality.

Blizer is wimpy when interviewing anyone and doesn't appear able to think on his feet quickly enough to question fallacious answers. He's among the worst but certainly not the only one.

Look, folks, let's clear this up. I work w/ PTSD and ADHD adults and minors for a living, and McCain is one of the most obvious case of severe PTSD/ADHD I've seen. It's possible that he's fairly intelligent and knowledgeable in some areas, but his prefrontal cortex, which mediates his emotional responses and executive functions, has been so dysregulated by a lifetime of socially reinforced severe ADHD, and an understandably severe case of PTSD, as to make rational, coherent expression of whatever intelligence he has nearly impossible. Simply put, the man is incapable of emotion/impulse control. He can't express an extended thought of connected ideas supporting a central thesis because his unregulated reactivity 'short-circuits' any such effort at extended thoughtfulness. He's not alone; clinically it's amazing how many Americans are in much the same boat, 'tho mostly just due to ADHD. I think what we're going to see post-campaign is an increasingly rapid decline in his functioning; it's quite possible that his severe ADHD and PTSD might be a factor in early onset senility. Wouldn't be too surprising, given how thoroughly these conditions mess up neural wiring (and therefore how integrated a sense of self we have). As a professional I feel sorry for the guy; as a citizen, however, there is no way in hell McCain should ever be anywhere near the levers of power in the White House.

McCain backed out of a CNN interview with Larry King just over a month ago after a campaign spokesman wasn't permitted to dodge questions and smear the opponent without responding to the particular inquisition.

In the waning days of the campaign, McCain knowing he has to do appear before the people if he is going to make a case agreed to allow Palin interview with some guy no one had ever heard of and to sit down himself with Blitzer.

If you don't think that preconditions were agreed to in both instances, your not following reports on how the campaign is treating the media.

McCain repeating to Blitzer that he "knows better," was nothing more than veiled threats, expressing that he shouldn't be asking questions, but rather allowing McCain to make assertions unchallenged. He's done it plenty of time on during this campaign as a way of saying: you're going the wrong direction with this interview.

The aspect that has to be remembered while we debate whether or not Sen. McCain, his campaign and the rest of the GOP are delusional and mistaken or sinister in their dastardly attempts to coerce the public is, though this may be a soap opera fit for daytime American television, this is real.

The world has real concerns when an American presidential candidate days before an election is asked whether he will respect an agreement that asks the United States end an occupation and that candidate suggests otherwise. There are real consequences to a McCain election.

See, McCain, like Bush, creates his own reality while you simply talk about what has happened (out there in your "reality based community").
Just like the rest of the Republicans, the truth is what he wants it to be.
If he wants to interpert the SOFA to say it's conditions based, so be it. All Bush (or McCain) needs to do is issue a signing statement!

That is the fantasyland universive the Republican party has lived in for the last 20 years, aided and abetted by the media, who don't know how to clearly and concisely compare Republican statements with reality. Instead, this will just be portrayed as "differing opinions" on the interpretation of the SOFA, no matter what the language clearly says.