It's 11:39 and it's still not posted. Grrrrr....

My view on the surge debate is that both McCain and Obama are right. And both a little wrong.

McCain's claim is that he said the surge would be good, Obama didn't, the surge has accomplished good stuff, so he was right. I think that's a reasonable point, so I will say that he was right about the surge. There's a lot of stuff the surge was supposed to do that it didn't, but the Generals at the time were saying that they needed more troops (Bush is lying when he says he listens to the Generals on the ground, he never did before the surge), so sending more troops was a reasonable position and good things have happened because of it.

The problem with McCain's point is that he's going too far with it. He's saying that *everything* that's good has happened because of the surge. That puts Obama in the position where if he did concede the point, he'd look like he was also conceding on everything else. So every time someone asks about the surge he has to mention all the other things that reduced violence. He has to emphasize those things to the point that, yes, sometimes he doesn't emphasize the role of the surge as much as he could.

McCain says the surge helped. Obama says the other developments helped. The truth is that both things helped and they're both right. But nobody is going to get a political ad out of "we're both right to some degree," so they've gone to the extreme sides of the arguement, with McCain being more extreme.

All of this is complicated by the other thing that Rachel routinely mentions, that McCain is trying to act like the Surge is the only decision on the war that either candidate ever made, so he should not only win this point but win the entire debate about the war. Since that's the only thing he has to hold onto at this point, he's gone totally nutbar about trying to convince everyone that he's winning this round.

Rachel Maddow is the reason I pay for a membership to get her PODCAST ITS 7:30 A.M the next day and still no podcast what's up?

Allow me to add to the bucket of polite complaints about the absence of a podcast at 8am next morning. I am like a baby left alone in the woods, wandering scared and confused about the world, without TRMS.

That green960 link works!

THE VAIN IN MCCAIN'S NOT MY ONLY DISTAIN?

Being a super power includes domestic policy which attends to the needs of those right here in the US of A. Difficult to imagine a president who divorced his wife because she was disfigured in a car accident developing meaningful health care policy. If he can't take care of his own wife, how is he going to take care of yours?

And on foreign policy...

Senator McCain said he would keep our men and women in Iraq for 100 years if he needed to with no intended goal. So far what we've accomplished is a great deal of death and the balkanization of a country based upon false precepts for forcefully entering it. What's so super about killing your own people (and tens of thousands of people in another country) for no reason?

Senator Obama, on the other hand, visited Afghanistan, where we really need troops, because that's where the Taliban continues to wage terror. Right now, we're swinging blindfolded at a terrorist pinata with a very big stick.

Sorry your whiteness is so threatened by someone who's not running for office. I'm more concerned about the precepts of the platform of someone who is.

Ah, now he's explaining himself--"surge" is right there in "counterinSURGEncy," and anyway surge means more than just surge, at least when it's convenient.

He told reporters during an unscheduled stop in a supermarket that, what the Bush administration calls "the surge" was actually "made up of a number of components," some of which began before Bush's order for more troops. It's all a matter of semantics, he suggested.

"A surge is really a counterinsurgency made up of a number of components. ... I'm not sure people understand that 'surge' is part of a counterinsurgency."

http://www.azstarnet.com/news/249662

Wow. Just wow.

Rachel, do you know why the news media is letting Mr. McCain get away on foreign affairs and military experience and executive decision experience? Because, the press lacks the military experience to know any better. The lack of military, Mr. McCain has the press fooled on the surge, he has made executive decision while in the military and I can go on and on. Their is a different between command and executive decisions. Mr. McCain made command decisions as a field commander who leads troops. I am willing to bet you a lot of three and four stars generals are pissed that he has put himself at their level resposibility. I look at general Clark hiss and grit his teeth at the notion that Mr. McCain, as a Captian in the U.S. Navy was making decision that only three and four stars generals makes. It is rare for two stars generals to negotiate foreign policy for the President of the United States. Here are some exmaples the Current CIA Director three stars general even at NASA. Colin Powell, NSC Adviser back in the eighies a three star general, as Chairman of the Jiont Chiefs a four star general. The six Party Talks with North Korea general was a full general. I spent a few days in the army, I as an elisted man know that. Mr. McCain was an 06 a Captian in the navy equal to a full colonel in the army, air force and marines. The rank 06 and below carry out policies and not set policies. You really can say 08 and below.

The surge, if you spent a couple of days in the army or marines as groung pounders. The only way you would know that the surge has worked you, have to leave or draw down to pre-sure troop levels or below. If the place remain clum, the surge has worked. If you spent a day or two in the army. This is the reason the president don't want to leave, he don't want to take that chance of the place going up in smoke.

The last thing about Mr. McCain you guys wont touch because you lack the military. I did not go to Vietnam althought I was in the army. The military teaches you to eliminate the enemy three ways, you kill, you seriously wound the enemy so he can't return to the battlefield or you capture and hold till the war is over. But, the press made him an hero and the press is stuck with its hero claim.

Rachel reserach it and ask some retired three and four star generals what a 06 does in the military. Ask what rank you have to be in shaping america's polices or make executive decisions.

It could be fallout from the new Microsoft update. My PC's been mysteriously spinning its disk drive at odd moments ever since--sounds like a helicopter.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008055840_apidsoldierfr...

"Don't ask, don't tell" applies only to sexual preference, apparently.

"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."--Pete Townsend

As many of you know OBAMA gave his speech in Germany today and as soon as he did the news boards went crazy . Well if you want a real good laugh check on the chat over at ABC news some of this stuff had me and my co works rolling http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/comments?type=story&id=5439242 . OH YEAH RACHEL YOU STILL ROCK

EVERY LITTLE THING THAT IS MENTIONED ABOUT OBAMA THAT UNDERLINES HIS NON QUALIFICATIONS ,YOU GUYS ARE SO QUICK TO CALL PEOPLE SARCASTIC NAMES AND INSULTS ,WHICH LEAVES ME ONLY ONE THING TO DO , WHICH IS TO COME RIGHT BACK AT YOU WITH INSULTS ,,,,,, LATER ON YOU OBAMA NUTZ ,,, LET IT RAIN MCCAIN !!!!!!!

I WILL BE HERE ON THIS SITE TILL THE ELECTION ,SO I CAN POINT OUT YOUR IN EXPERIENCED CANDIDATES FAULTS,,, OBAMA IS A EMPTY SUIT , AND THE ULTIMATE FLIP FLOPPER,,,,MCCAIN ROCKS !!!!!

alrighty ,you guys give me a reason why obama sat in the pew 20 plus years loving and learning from his mentor rev. wright,,, whats the deal obama nuts . until he attempts to explain or beg for forgiveness,, he has only a snowballs chance in hell to become leader of the u.s..... rain mccain !