Cafe Talk | Talking Points Memo | The Not-So Straight Talk Express

The Not-So Straight Talk Express

By freaktown - June 9, 2008, 12:16PM

via John Cole

John McCain on Tuesday of last week

Senator Clinton has earned great respect for her tenacity and courage. The media often overlooked how compassionately she spoke to the concerns and dreams of millions of Americans, and she deserves a lot more appreciation than she sometimes received.

John McCain just three days later

Holly Bailey and Jon Meacham: Want to back up a little bit and talk about press coverage. One of the things that you mentioned in your speech in New Orleans was that you felt that the media hadn’t recognized or had overlooked some of the attributes that Hillary Clinton had brought to the race. And I wondered—

John McCain: I did not [say that]—that was in prepared remarks, and I did not [say it]—I’m not in the business of commenting on the press and their coverage or not coverage.

John McCain: Change you can believe in!!

Spread the word.

But in all fairnes, at his age, you can't expect him to remember things he said three whole days ago.

Comments (4)

Politico has the McCain Camp's response which is something like, "those newsweeks folks are liars!"

Presented with video showing that the GOP nominee did in fact read the remarks as they were prepared, McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said Newsweek's account of McCain's answer is "paraphrased and unclear."
Rogers said he was not questioning the magazine's transcription, but pointing out that they included brackets.

But, given that he was responding to a direct question about a portion of the speech, it's unclear what else McCain could have been alluding to when noting twice that he "did not." That he also pointed out that the same section had been "in the prepared remarks" only clarifies that he was referring to the passage in question.

Newsweek's Bailey said the McCain quote as included in their q-and-a posted online was verbatim.

Rogers said McCain "answered the way he did because his point in the speech wasn’t so much to smack the press as to compliment Sen. Clinton for the tenacity and compassion she showed in her campaign, and as he said, he’s never been a fan of complaining about his own press coverage."

Posted by freaktown
June 9, 2008 1:10 PM | Reply | Permalink

Alternate Universe, Earth, U.S. - Feb. 3, 2009:

Air Force Chief of Staff: "Mr. President, the war is not going well. Most of our Stealth bombers never made it to their targets and we..."

McCain: "Stealth bombers? What are you talking about?!"

"Sir, you ordered a first strike against the Russians yesterday evening. We've launched our LGM-30 Minutemen, all our sea-based SLBMs and sent our Stealth bombers on their sorties nearly two hours ago. Don't you remember?"

"Lemme at them Commies! If Kruschev thinks he can take Cuba..."

"Mr. President. Mr. President!"

Posted by Ripper McCord
June 10, 2008 12:15 AM | Reply | Permalink