Politics and Culture

Story from here on Politico.

Though it’s not exactly an accurate representation of McCain’s views, Democratic strategists view the “100 years” remark as the linchpin of an effort to turn McCain's national security credentials against him by framing the Vietnam War hero as a warmonger who envisions an American presence in Iraq without end.

Both Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama began citing McCain’s remark in Democratic debates not long after he made it, and their campaigns have stepped up the focus in recent weeks.

On a recent conference call with reporters, Howard Wolfson, Clinton’s bulldog operative, mentioned four times in two minutes that John McCain “wants to be in Iraq for 100 years.”

“Instead of offering an exit strategy for Iraq, he’s offering us a 100-year occupation,” said Obama last week, in a speech marking the five-year anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

McCain never actually went so far as to call for a century-long occupation. Rather, in response to a New Hampshire town hall questioner who asked about President Bush’s statement that U.S. troops could be in Iraq for 50 years, McCain interrupted and said, “Make it 100.”

“We've been in South Korea ... we’ve been in Japan for 60 years,” he continued. “We’ve been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That would be fine with me. As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed, that’s fine with me. I hope that would be fine with you, if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where Al Qaeda is training, recruiting and equipping and motivating people every single day."

This is the first in my McCain "retort exhort" series which aims to answer Democratic talking points (lies) in a way impressive to the moderately intelligent and open-minded.

I hope the Democrats keep hammering this quote. Eventually, McCain should hold a press conference and say:

I've tried to run a new kind of campaign and Obama has insisted that he wants to do the same. By trying to fool the American people about my position on Iraq, he's making me doubt the sincerity of his declared intention. It's funny, my friends: Obama, of all people, should realize how people use out-of-context quotes to assassinate a person's character. Although I've forbid such tactics in my own campaign, some have taken Pastor Wright's controversial statements and used them to cast Obama's mentor in a bad light.

Therefore, with the integrity of this campaign as well as Obama's own commitment to truth on the line, I ask that Obama, when citing the above quote, put it in its complete context. I think honesty would better help Americans in discharging their most solemn civic responsibility.