Citizen Jake

In the comments David writes that yesterday’s McCain comment regarding Iran and Al-Qaeda might have been more of a slip of the tongue then anything else. David’s giving McCain a little bit more benefit of the doubt then I’m inclined to, especially in light of the fact that McCain made the same mistake three times in two days. And further, right-wing blogs are up in arms defending McCain, saying what the Senator said was correct. Powerline, RedState, The Weekly Standard, etc.. Matthew Duss has more on that front, but the point is that it might not have been a mistake. In right wing circles at least what McCain said is correct.

Ezra Klein notes this comment by Max Bergmann:

That is not a gaffe. That is called believing something that isn’t true. It is called being confused. And being confused about the differences between Shia and Sunni when claiming that you should be elected president of the United States on your foreign policy knowledge and experience, is simply not okay. This is a big deal.

Exactly. I’ll also recommend reading this from Josh Marshall.

I’d like to note a point made my NBC’s Chuck Todd (via Atrios):

…this was not a one-time slip and so, you know, this just shows you how much bank — how much of the foreign policy experience stuff he’s got in the bank, because had Clinton or Obama done something like this, this would have been played on a loop, over and over, and would have absolutely hurt them politically.

As Blue Texan notes:

It’s almost impossible to imagine the wingnut/media outrage circus if Obama or Clinton had claimed Iran was training al Qaeda. I see Sludge Report headlines like, HOW CAN WE TRUST OBAMA TO FIGHT THE WAR IF HE DOESN’T UNDERSTAND THE ENEMY?, a series of passive-aggressive NOT READY FOR PRIMETIME posts from Glenn Reynolds, declarations by Tweety that the race is already over, grim-faced former generals expressing their disapproval on MSNBC, Fixed News playing the clip over and over and over…

Whats frustrating about Chuck Todd’s comments is that he’s actually IN THE MEDIA. I admire his ability to be self-aware but he is in position to change things and yet most likely will chose not to.

When I first heard this I remembered that a reporter had gone around a while ago asking members of Congress about the differences between Sunnis and Shiites but I couldn’t recall the specifics. Brendon Nyhan helpful remembers that it was CQ’s Jeff Stein.

Via Firedoglake, here’s video of the most recent incident:

And finally, to bring the Democratic nomination into the picture, I would certainly gain new respect for Senator Clinton if she followed Mark Kleinman’s advice (via Drum):

Given McCain’s buffoonish performance in Jordan, wouldn’t this be a good time for Hillary Clinton to say, “Gee, I thought he was ready to be Commander-in-Chief, but it sure doesn’t sound like it. The least we should expect from the President is some basic knowledge about who our enemies are.”

McCain’s supposed “strength” is foreign policy. The fact that he appears to be clueless about it (along with domestic policy, which leaves him with what exactly?) should be mentioned by Democrats more then once.