Best of The Streak: McCain Labels Obama a ‘Flip-Flopper’ Citing Months-Old Quote

First appeared July 16, 2008

ST. LOUIS — Also from Tuesday’s town hall meeting in Albuquerque, Sen. John McCain attacked Sen. Barack Obama for flip-flopping on the success of the so-called “troop surge” in Iraq. Undoubtedly, McCain was referring to the New York Daily News report that the Obama campaign had scrubbed criticism of the surge from his Website. McCain quoted Obama blasting the surge, and attributed Obama’s change of heart to his desire to secure the Democratic presidential nomination. In comments that were not a part of the presumptive GOP nominee’s prepared remarks, McCain attributed a statement to Obama from earlier in the day:

“But incredibly, today — [Obama] goes on to say today — quote, ‘I had no doubt we would see a reduction in violence from the surge.’”

McCain then drew big laughs and applause from the audience when he added:

“My friends, flip-floppers all over the world are enraged. It gives new meaning. It gives new meaning.”

Later, on the Straight Talk Express jet, McCain spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace reiterated that Obama made the statement earlier Tuesday. A call to the McCain campaign press office seeking the source of the quote was not returned.

Funny story. It turns out Obama said no such thing yesterday. He did, however, say something very similar in January at a Democratic primary debate in New Hampshire:

“Now, I had no doubt — and I said at the time, when I opposed the surge, that given how wonderfully our troops perform, if we place 30,000 more troops in there, then we would see an improvement in the security situation and we would see a reduction in the violence.”

Why the confusion? The most likely answer is that whoever was writing McCain’s remarks Tuesday — we know he doesn’t spend much time on the Internet — came across this blog post, published yesterday morning by the National Review. Here’s the headline:

Obama: ‘I Had No Doubt… We Would See a Reduction in Violence’ With Surge

There is no question that Obama has softened his rhetoric on the surge — perhaps the dreaded “flip-flop” label can be fairly applied here. But the fact that this statement was made months ago demonstrates that Obama has been saying for quite a while that the surge has been working in some respects — and at a time when Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was still considered a shoo-in for the nomination by most pundits. This clearly hasn’t been an out-of-the-blue position change, as many conservatives would have it.

Oh, and note to the McCain campaign: it might be a good idea to read the entire post — not just the headline and the date — when trolling the Net for damaging quotes from your opponent.

Now that the roller coaster that was 2008 has come to an end, we thought it would be fun to look back at some of our most popular, thought-provoking and entertaining posts from The Streak over the past year. This post was chosen by TWI staff as one of the most memorable of 2008.