One fellow TPM reader compared Barack Obama's 18 month plan to withdraw forces from Iraq to John McCain's "timetable", referring to McCain's comments to the effect that troops would stay in Iraq for 100 years in bases similar to those in Germany and other countries.

This is comparing apples and oranges. Obama's withdrawal timetable deals with combat troops, while McCain makes no mention of keeping fighting troops in Iraq for 100 years He makes it clear that our troops would stay during that long period of time only if no troops are dying or being injured.

Even if you think it is naive to think violence will ever stop, that is not the point. The point is that McCain spoke clearly, and some of us are trying to distort his words.

I don't even have to re-pring McCain's exact words since it's been printed zillions of times by fact-checking sites such as Factcheck.org, which found accusations against McCain so misleading that they called it a "smear."

Apples and apples; oranges and oranges, please.

It would take 17 years for offshore drilling to affect gas prices (savings of "a couple pennies per gallon").
 Experts agree that offshlre drilling will bring no cuts on gas prices for about another 17 years, and when it does, the savings are estimated to be "a couple of pennies" per gallon, according to an EIA expert.

 Brooking Institute's David Sandalow notes,

“Drilling offshore to lower oil prices is like walking an extra 20 feet per day to lose weight,”...“It’s just not going to make much difference.”

See detils here:

So McCain needs to shut up about the urgent need to lift the ban on ffshore drilling. It will provide no relief whatsoever to the current gas crisis.

And I already hear news about top Democrats, including Durbin, working on a compromise with Republicans to begin such drilling.

Honestly, I would not be surprised if Obama pivots on the issue, as a result of pressure from McCain on the subject. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11649.html

Most Obama supporters possess the unique ability of praising everything their candidate says.

Case in point: A few days ago, when it was said that Obama had moved to the "center," many Obama supporters praised this "center", saying, "every successful politician has moved to the "vital" center during the summer. Long live the center! was the nearly unanimous chorus.

But go to any liberal blog today, in the wake of Obama's denial of this alleged shift to the center, and all you will hear is this: "I told you Obama was consistent on Iraq all along! His position never changed! He is a progressive!"

Oh yeah? Well, if it never changed, why the hell did you praise him a few days ago for "moving to the center"? How can one move towards anywhere without changing one's position?

You guys have to grow a spine and start reaching conclusions on your own. Nothing is uglier than an uncritical mind.

Either you have good things to say about moving to the center, or you don't.