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Thursday, May 22, 2008

John McCain simply makes things up:

You might also say he's a liar. Today the news was that McCain was outraged at Obama's "cheap shots" and being "lecture[d]" on veteran issues (specifically, relating to the GI Bill).

But what were those cheap shots and lectures?

There were none, as Mark Kleiman demonstrates, and also points out that:

McCain's speech is convincing only to those who haven't seen the Obama remarks it responds to, which contained no "cheap shot" and did not impugn McCain's motives.

McCain is going for the low-information voter (and there are plenty out there).

posted by Quiddity at 5/22/2008 07:17:00 PM

1 comments

McCain makes his opposition to the Democratic bill perfectly clear:

[The Webb bill] offers veterans who served one enlistment the same benefits as those offered veterans who have re-enlisted several times. Our bill has a sliding scale that offers generous benefits to all veterans, but increases those benefits according to the veteran's length of service. I think it is important to do that because, otherwise, we will encourage more people to leave the military after they have completed one enlistment. ... one study estimates that Senator Webb's bill will reduce retention rates by 16%. ... by hurting retention we will reduce the numbers of men and women who we train to become the backbone of all the services, the noncommissioned officer.

Obama characterizes McCain's motivations as:

[McCain] believes [the bill] is too generous to our veterans.

and:

McCain doesn't want veterans to have a "chance to go to college"

McCain has every right to be mad at such a completely malicious mischaracterization of his position.

That said, Obama baited McCain and McCain jumped at the bait, so the cheap political point goes to Obama.

By Anonymous, at 5/22/2008 8:05 PM