July 15, 2008
Posted: 05:00 PM ET
From CNN Correspondent Dana Bash
McCain talks with reporters aboard his campaign bus.
(CNN) — After talking with aides before his speech targeting Barack Obama's changing positions and rhetoric on Iraq, John McCain decided to ad lib a line slamming the Illinois senator as a flip-flopper. The only problem is the evidence he gave wasn't exactly right. First McCain quoted Obama in January 2007, saying that there can't be a military solution to a civil war, and that he knows no military expert who thinks the surge can make a difference. Then McCain said, "incredibly today, he goes on to say today, quote 'I had no doubt we would see a reduction in violence with the surge' — my friends, flip-floppers all over the world are enraged" The problem is that Obama did not in fact say today, "I had no doubt we would see a reduction in violence with the surge."
McCain aides later clarified that he was reading a quote from Obama in January 2008 at a Democratic Debate. "Now, I had no doubt — and I said at the time, when I opposed the surge, that given how wonderfully our troops perform, if we place 30,000 more troops in there, then we would see an improvement in the security situation and we would see a reduction in the violence," said Obama then. McCain aides provided other quotes they insist make the same point — that Obama has changed his rhetoric on whether he really thought the surge would work, after it started working. Another quote they provided was from the Illinois senator's interview with PBS Tuesday. "There was never any doubt that if we poured enough resources in there, that we could lock down Iraq," he told interviewer Gwen Ifill. Filed under: Barack Obama John McCain
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