Here's to Foreign Policy and War Experience

I hope by now the whole country is aware of this gaffe, if indeed it was a gaffe.

Mr. McCain said several times in his visit to Jordan — in a news conference and in a radio interview — that he was concerned that Iran was training Al Qaeda in Iraq. The United States believes that Iran, a Shiite country, has been training and financing Shiite extremists in Iraq, but not Al Qaeda, which is a Sunni insurgent group.

Mr. McCain said at a news conference in Amman that he continued to be concerned about Iranians “taking Al Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back.” Asked about that statement, Mr. McCain said: “Well, it’s common knowledge and has been reported in the media that Al Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran. That’s well known. And it’s unfortunate.”

It was not until he got a quiet word of correction in his ear from Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, who was traveling with Mr. McCain as part of a Congressional delegation on a nearly weeklong trip, that Mr. McCain corrected himself.

I can understand a slip of the tongue, saying one thing while thinking another, but this assertion by McCain occurred more than once over two days, having been uttered on a radio show as well. Here's McCain's own press release:

In a press conference today, John McCain misspoke and immediately corrected himself by stating that Iran is in fact supporting radical Islamic extremists in Iraq, not Al Qaeda -- as the transcript shows. Democrats have launched political attacks today because they know the American people have deep concerns about their candidates' judgment and readiness to lead as commander in chief.

On its face, this is a bullshit statement--McCain didn't correct himself; Lieberman corrected him. We have already endured seven long years of massive and destructive fuckups by a similarly addled mind and goddamn it we need to have a chief executive who is lucid, quick on his/her feet, and knows the details of the region and people where we are at war. To untangle the rats' nest of foreign policy idiocy, economic policy incompetence, and constitutional dismemberment we cannot afford anyone who is marginal on any aspect of what is vital to our nation.