Today Greg Sargent posts a piece titled "Obama Reiterates: Combat Troops Out Of Iraq In 16 Months".

No ifs, no buts.

But Claire McKaskill told MSNBC Tuesday, as reported yesterday by the Kansas City Star, the following:

“Barack Obama has never said this is written in stone,” ...“He’s always said ‘I will obviously take into account what commanders on the ground say.’ ”

Obama, then, shouldn't be saying that it probably take 16 months to withdraw, because of course, commanders on the ground might disagree with the 16 month plan.

Who to believe?

What does www.barackobama.com tell us about Obama's plan to withdraw our troops from Iraq?

Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months. Obama will make it clear that we will not build any permanent bases in Iraq. He will keep some troops in Iraq to protect our embassy and diplomats; if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda.

Do you see any reference to the importance of the opinion of generals on the ground? No, because this plan was written during the primaries, wherein the main target were liberals, as opposed to the General Elections, where moderates are seen as the most important block.

Obama is your typical politician.

Today, progressive blog Thinkprogress.org claimed that McCain said it does not matter "that I don't know the price of gas."

But this is false. McCain was not asked about the current price of gas. He was asked whether or not he remembered the last time he personally pumped his own gas, which could have been 30 years ago, for all we know. McCain had, after all, his right arm repeatedly fractured by captors in Vietnam. His legs were both fractured as well.

At any rate, this is the exchange Thinkprogress is citing:

    WICKSOL: When was the last time you pumped your own gas and how much did it cost?

    MCCAIN: Oh, I don’t remember. Now there’s Secret Service protection. But I’ve done it for many, many years. I don’t recall and frankly, I don’t see how it matters.

Moreover, McCain said this to an interviewer on June 18th, less than two weeks ago.

“The price of a gallon of gas in America stands at more than four dollars. Yesterday, a barrel of oil cost about 134 dollarsm” said McCain.

link.

Andrew Sullivan and John Cole have both reluctantly issued corrections to the story. Thinkprogress' article maintains the false version unchanged.

Let's attack McCain on his tax debt, his flip-flops, etc. Not based on made-up slip-ups.

Question to those in the fringe left who argue that our nation is less safe now than it was years ago. How come Obama's top foreign advisors want Richard Gates to be Obama's Secretary of Defense?

I applaud Obama for moving to the center and recognizing that some of Bush's picks have been very wise.

Today the Sunday Times of UK reports:

Richard Danzig, an adviser to Obama on national security and a former navy secretary, said: “My personal position is Gates is a very good secretary of defence and would be an even better one in an Obama administration.”

And...

Ivo Daalder of the Brookings Institution in Washington, a foreign policy adviser to Obama, said: “Robert Gates is one of the best defence secretaries we have had in a long time and it makes a lot of sense to keep him.”