McCain's Biggest Debate Mistake

I think the biggest problem McCain had in the debate, was not addressing some of the Democratic talking points head on ... Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 or Al Qaeda, Bush/McCain said it was going to be easy, there were no WMDs, Bush tricked Congressional Democrats to approve military action by cooking to books, etc ... These lies have been so effective repeated by the, ah-hem, "loyal" opposition, that they have become accepted truths.

I was stunned to see John McCain let the following accusations go un-answered:

And so John likes -- John, you like to pretend like the war started in 2007. You talk about the surge. The war started in 2003, and at the time when the war started, you said it was going to be quick and easy. You said we knew where the weapons of mass destruction were. You were wrong.

You said that we were going to be greeted as liberators. You were wrong. You said that there was no history of violence between Shiite and Sunni. And you were wrong ...

(What's with the "John" crap? Obama's smugness is sickening.)

Don't get me wrong, I think John McCain did well, overall. I thought it was good for him to rattle off his many experienced and tough (often correct) positions he took in the past. He was correct to bring up the Obama issue of meeting with Ahmandinejad without preconditions, but I felt he didn't explain it well.