McCain Kills Iraqi Marketmen

Okay, McCain didn't kill any Iraqi market workers (Yellow Journalism is coming back in style, I can feel it), but then again they didn't kill him either (Bush would probably call this a victory for democracy). Know why? Because he had about 30 heavily armed Marines flanking him. Now I'm not one to fault McCain for not wanting to die - who doesn't? It's a different story, however, when that same person says you could walk through the marketplace freely and without an M16 and an armored Humvee.



Let me follow that by saying this: I like John McCain (as far as Republicans go anyway). He's willing to admit when he misspeaks, and he's intelligent and considers an issue from multiple sides and I respect that. The reason why this particular misspeak is so interesting is, in fact, because it came from McCain. The fact that a former Vietnam PoW would understand the reality of death and still bluff that he would be willing to walk around the marketplace alone says how desperate the conservative leadership has become.

I tend to wonder how McCain felt about how the 60 Minutes feature on him turned out. He'd probably laugh it off because he's a good guy (Bush would probably have half the staff kidnapped and transferred through extraordinary rendition to Pakistan and tortured), but I was surprised to see that McCain allowed that kind of access to him at a time when his poll numbers are diving faster than an Iraqi during a car bombing.