NOT FOOLED BY OBAMA

Media, Non-Partisan Groups, And Even Obama Himself Set Record Straight On His Distorted "100 Year" Attack
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Yesterday, Obama Acknowledged That Sen. McCain's Plan For Keeping Troops In Iraq Would Be Similar To The U.S. Troop Presence In South Korea:

"At The End Of The Exchange Obama Admitted That He Understands McCain Is Talking About The Korean Style Bases And Not A Hot War Like Iraq..." (Sunlen Miller, "Obama Claims Characterization Of McCain's Statement On Iraq Is Fair," ABC News' "Political Radar" Blog, www.abcnews.com, 3/31/08)

Question: "But I think that [Sen. McCain] talks about it in the spirit of Germany and Japan..." Obama: "And we've been in South Korea for 50 years. And he's used that as an example..." (Sen. Barack Obama, Press Conference, 3/31/08)

At The Same Time, Obama Continued To Distort Sen. McCain's Position As He Has Consistently Done In The Past:

"[R]ather Than Sticking To An Airtight Retelling Of McCain's Words, Obama Deviated From McCain's Comment On More Than One Occasion." (Teddy Davis and Talal Al-Khatib, "'We Can Run The Youtube Spot,'" ABC News' "The Note's Sneak Peek," 3/31/08)

Obama: "John McCain -- I mean, we can run the YouTube spot -- has said that we will stay there as long as it takes and, if it takes another 100 years, he's up for that commitment." (Sen. Barack Obama, Press Conference, 3/31/08)

Obama: "[I]t's certainly different from saying that we would have a high level of combat troops inside Iraq for a decade or two decades or, as John McCain said, perhaps 100 years." (Sen. Barack Obama, Press Conference, 3/31/08)

Obama: "And when it comes to foreign policy, John McCain says he wants to fight a hundred year war, a hundred years he says, as long as it takes." (Mike Dorning, "Obama Fires Away At McCain," Chicago Tribune's "The Swamp" Blog, www.chicagotribune.com, 2/9/08)
Obama: "[W]e are bogged down in a war that John McCain now suggests might go on for another 100 years..." (Sen. Barack Obama, MSNBC Democrat Presidential Candidate Debate, Cleveland, OH, 2/26/08)

Obama: "[Sen. McCain] says that he is willing to send our troops into another 100 years of war in Iraq..." (Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks On Primary Results, Houston, TX, 2/19/08)
Non-Partisan Fact Check Groups Call Democrat Attacks On Sen. McCain's "100 Years" Comment False:

Non-Partisan Factcheck.Org Calls DNC Attacks On "100 Years" Comment A "Serious Distortion" And "A Rank Falsehood." "The DNC's message portrays McCain as bent on fighting an 'endless' war in Iraq. DNC: We can't afford four more years with a President who fights an endless war in Iraq. ... On the war, McCain scoffed at Bush's call to leave troops in Iraq for 50 years, saying 'Make it a hundred!' That of course is a serious distortion of what McCain actually said to a town-hall meeting in New Hampshire back on Jan. 3. ... There's little doubt that McCain is less ea ger than either Clinton or Obama to bring troops home without further suppression of insurgent attacks. But it's a rank falsehood for the DNC to accuse McCain of wanting to wage 'endless war' based on his support for a presence in Iraq something like the U.S. role in South Korea." (Factcheck.Org Website, www.factcheck.org, Accessed 3/25/08)

Non-Partisan Politifact.Com Calls Obama Attacks On "100 Years" Comment "False." "Obama twisted McCain's words in the Cleveland debate. He said, 'We are bogged down in a war that John McCain now suggests might go on for another 100 years.' As we explain above, McCain was referring to a peacetime presence, not the war. So we find Obama's statement False." (Politifact.Com Website, www.politifact.com, Accessed 3/25/08)

Numerous Media Outlets Agree That Democrats Have Mischaracterized Sen. McCain's Position:

The New York Times Reports That Democrats "Mischaracterize And Distort" Sen. McCain's "100 Years" Comment. "But the timetables, flippantly tossed out, have been condensed into sound bites by his Democratic opponents, turned into fund-raising appeals and mashed into YouTube parodies. Many of the sound bites mischaracterize and distort what was said in Mr. McCain's six-minute exchange on Jan. 3..." (Kate Phillips, "McCain Said '100'; Opponents Latch On," The New York Times, 3/27/08)

The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder: "[D]emocrats imply that McCain wants to keep US troops in Iraq for 100 years under the same conditions they're fighting right now. Which is simply not what McCain said. McCain explicitly said that US presence in Iraq long-term would be predicated on the absence of violence and on the establishment of stability in the region." (Marc Ambinder, "100 Years Of Solitude? McCain And Iraq," The Atlantic's "Marc Ambinder" Blog, www.theatlantic.com, 3/31/08)

The Associated Press: "[Sen. McCain] and the Democrats vying to run against him in the fall are engaged in a debate of sorts over how long U.S. troops should stay in Iraq and under what circumstances. That's a genuine point of contention. But Hillary Rodham Clinton and especially Barack Obama have distilled McCain's position into sound bite oversimplifications, suggesting he foresees a war without end in anyone's lifetime." (Calvin Woodward, "Dems Take McCain Out Of Context On Iraq," The Associated Press, 2/29/08)

Fox News' Carl Cameron: "[M]cCain has never said he wants war and never advocated 100 more years of war-making in Iraq. In January, he indicated at a New Hampshire town hall meeting that maintaining a postwar presence in Iraq would be fine..." (Fox News' "Special Report," 3/31/08)

National Review: "Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have suggested that this means McCain 'wants to fight a 100-year war,' in Obama's words. This is so obvious a distortion that it must backfire against Democrats over time, especially if they nominate Barack Obama, who has so loudly advertised his commitment to civil discourse..." (Editorial, "The 100 Years War," National Review, www.nationalreview.com, 3/26/08)

Obama Is Adopting The Same Old School Political Tactics He Claims He Opposes By Distorting Sen. McCain's Remarks For Political Advantage:

An Unnamed Obama Advisor Admitted That The Obama Campaign Planned To Use Sen. McCain's Remarks As A Political Tool. "'It's seldom you get such a clean shot. It's such a remarkably clean shot,' said a senior Obama adviser, who asked that his name be withheld so that he could be candid. 'The 100 years' comment is a frame,' the adviser explained, to nail home the message that McCain is 'more of the same.'" (David Paul Kuhn, "Dems To Hammer McCain For '100 years,'" The Politico, 3/25/08)

Democrats Hope To Use Sen. McCain's Comment "As The Linchpin Of An Effort To Turn McCain's National Security Credentials Against Him." "Though it's not exactly an accurate representation of McCain's views, Democratic strategists view the '100 years' remark as the linchpin of an effort to turn McCain's national security credentials against him by framing the Vietnam War hero as a warmonger who envisions an American presence in Iraq without end." (David Paul Kuhn, "Dems To Hammer McCain For '100 years,'" The Politico, 3/25/08)

Democrats See Sen. McCain's "100 Years" Comment As Their Equivalent To Sen. Kerry's "$87 Billion" Comment. "Some Democrats see the '100 years' comment as this year's equivalent of 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry's infamous 'I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it' remark -- a statement that Republicans used over and over again to underscore their contention that Kerry was a liberal 'flip-flopper.'" (David Paul Kuhn, "Dems To Hammer McCain For '100 years,'" The Politico, 3/25/08)

"Democratic Strategist Bob Shrum Said It Was Clear To Him What McCain Really Meant -- After All, McCain Spelled It Out At Length. His Candor Gave His Opponents A Huge Opening To Portray It Otherwise." (Ron Claiborne, "McCain's '100 Year' Remark Hands Ammo To War Critics," ABC News, www.abcnews.go.com, 3/31/08)

The Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer: "But a serious argument is not what Democrats are seeking. They want the killer sound bite, the silver bullet to take down McCain. According to Politico, they have found it: 'Dems to hammer McCain for '100 years.'" (Charles Krauthammer, Op-Ed, "A Rank Falsehood," The Washington Post, 3/28/08)

Krauthammer: "As Lenin is said to have said, 'A lie told often enough becomes truth.' And as this lie passes into truth, the Democrats are ready to deploy it..." (Charles Krauthammer, Op-Ed, "A Rank Falsehood," The Washington Post, 3/28/08)

"This Statement Has Been Used Ever Since By Democrats In Their Quest To Win Over The Anti-War Vote That Makes Up Much Of The Democratic Party's Base." (Bonney Kapp, "Obama V. McCain On The 'Hundred Year War,'" Fox News' "Embeds" Blog, www.foxnews.com, 3/31/08)


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