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McCain Defends "Mission Accomplished"

Posted by Michael Link on May 1, 2008 at 02:17 PM

Just how far will John McCain go to defend Bush? Even further than Bush's spokesperson, apparently. This just in, from the Associated Press: "Republican John McCain says President Bush should not be held responsible for the much-criticized "mission accomplished" banner five years ago, but he should be blamed for bungling the early months of the Iraq war."

Let's not forget, as I mentioned earlier today, that "mission accomplished" was going to be in the speech, as well, and that it took Donald Rumsfeld -- of all people -- protesting in order to get it out of there. Specifically, the speech initially said, literally, that "the guns are silent."

That's the context.

Not the bogus explanation they're shopping around now. And that's not to say 'mission accomplished' didn't essentially make its way into the speech anyway. Let's not forget his claim that major combat operations were over. But more than that, what we've got here is a Republican presidential candidate who's willing to do more to protect Bush than Bush himself is willing to go -- for fear of looking out of touch.

So what does McCain have to gain by this? Maybe it's more about his own statements. This is a man who declared "massive victory" in Iraq. Maybe it's because he's the one who said that the war will be "over soon."

Or maybe he's so tied to Bush there's just no way out of it.

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