TalkingPointsMemo

Josh Marshall again deconstructs John McCain’s statement about a U.S. presence in Iraq for “100 years,” now that it has become part of a Democratic attack ad that Republicans want pulled. McCain is wrong, Marshall writes, because he doesn’t want to leave Iraq, which isn’t like Germany or Japan, where the United States had long-term troop presences. The blogger adds that Democrats can’t allow McCain and his surrogates to get special treatment from the press that allows them “the right to have their words repeated only in their fullest context and most generous, most amply spun interpretation.” David Kurtz, meanwhile, looks at polling data in the presidential campaign and finds Hillary Clinton doing better against McCain than Obama in attracting independents.