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Comments

• [1] Paulo from Paterson, New Jersey March 19, 2008 - 11:31AM

  I think using the terms "gaffe" and "confusion" really give McCain more of a benefit of the doubt than he perhaps deserves. You assume that this is not intended to be deliberately misleading in order to conflate Iran with al-Qaida.

  
  
• [2] Mark from Washington Heights March 19, 2008 - 11:40AM

  How about McCain's confusion over whether or not CONDOMS help prevent the spread of AIDS?

  And then, in the dark about this subject, he just takes the president's policy without even knowing what it is! This was mind-blowing, embarrassing, despicable.

  From the NY Times:

  http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/03/16/mccain-stumbles-on-hiv-prevention/?st=cse&sq=mccain+AIDS+gaffe&scp=1

  
  
• [3] Marco from Manhattan March 19, 2008 - 11:47AM

  Bin Laden's eldest son Saad bin Laden lives in Iran as well as at least two of bin Laden's wives.

  
  
• [4] hjs from 11211 March 19, 2008 - 11:48AM

  maybe there is hope for the dems after all.

  
  
• [5] chris feldmann from brooklyn March 19, 2008 - 11:48AM

  Paulo is exactly right. This is no gaffe. McCain's just clueless.

  http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/184202.php

  
  
• [6] Steve from Manhattan March 19, 2008 - 11:49AM

  TPM reports that McCain has made this mistake several times - including on Hugh Hewitt's radio show: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/184202.php

  
  
• [7] Johnny S from Cranford, NJ March 19, 2008 - 11:49AM

  We're at war against Islam, so Iran, Iraq... it's all the same.

  
  
• [8] Paulo from Paterson, New Jersey March 19, 2008 - 11:51AM

  Well, amazingly, it IS possible to misspeak about things you might even know a lot about. My mother periodically accidentally calls me by the name of my uncle because we're so much alike, but I wouldn't say that she doesn't know my name! I would not assume this to indicate he doesn't know what he's talking about... the question is whether this was a slip of the tongue or intentionally misleading.

  
  
• [9] RC March 19, 2008 - 11:51AM

  Why would the Iranians arm Sadr? Isn't he a Shite nationalist and does not want Shite's in power who are Iranian puppets? Isn't the current government exactly the government the Iranians want? Why would they try to destabilize a government that is friendly to them?

  
  
• [10] Marco from Manhattan March 19, 2008 - 11:52AM

  Nearly 10% of Iranians are Sunni, by the way.

  
  
• [11] Neal from NYC March 19, 2008 - 11:53AM

  Unfortunately far too many Americans see the world as "us" and "them". Anyone that's not "us" is the enemy so that don't care if McCain understands the differences in ethnicity and religious sects.

  
  
• [12] Paulo from Paterson, New Jersey March 19, 2008 - 11:54AM

  Saying that it doesn't matter which one is working with Iran is like Eisenhower saying he can't find Berlin on a map! Call me crazy, but we should know some details about our enemies... that's a pretty basic principle of warfare and anybody who says "well, they're just the bad guy. who cares about the details?" is obviously not a military person and would hopefully never be put into the position of making decisions regarding military matters.

  I'm not saying that's McCain's position, but that caller seemed to imply that it didn't matter.

  
  
• [13] Susan from Kingston, New York March 19, 2008 - 11:55AM

  Bush and his cronies are plundering Iraq for its oil and anyone who stands in the way of it is a terrorist! We need to bring our troops home!

  
  
• [14] Paulo from Paterson, New Jersey March 19, 2008 - 11:55AM

  Post #10:

  There's also more than 25,000 Jews in Iran too... so that must mean Iran supports Israel?

  
  
• [15] Marco from Manhattan March 19, 2008 - 11:57AM

  Post 14

  I was just pointing out that there is a large Sunni minority in Iran. Iran gave asylum to man al Qaeda escaping from Afghanistan including as I pointed out bin Laden's eldest son (who still lives there...no longer under house arrest).

  
  
• [16] Jeffrey Slott from East Elmhurst March 19, 2008 - 12:00PM

  "May end well..." Unbelievable statement from you, Mr. Lehrer. Thousands of American soldiers dead, ten times that many Iraqis dead, families disrupted, lives ruined permanently.

  Yes, let's say everything ends up hunky-dory as Bush claims it will. But at what price?

  And who are you or Bush to determine that price?

  
  
• [17] Neal from NYC March 19, 2008 - 12:04PM

  Mostly it's a calculated mistake, McCain is playing to his base - the crowd that believes all Islamic Middle Easterners are terrorists and extremists and we should continue the war indefinitely, that is as long as we don't raise taxes to pay for it.

  
  
• [18] AWM from UWS March 19, 2008 - 12:06PM

  He's running as the candidate who would best handle the war. He's running for President in a time of war.

  The current administration didn't know enough about the region before we invaded Iraq, actually, they didn't know anything. The war is in its 5th year... we have lost 3,990 soldiers.

  At this point, after everything, he HAS TO know these things, end of story.

  
  
• [19] Martha Rosler from brooklyn March 19, 2008 - 12:08PM

  mc Cain's heedlessly ignorant comment was not a result of "tiredness," but typical of his lack of knowledge about, well, most everything (remember his remarks about economics?), Even so, as president, he would presumably only be more tired, and older.

  http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/18/mccain-iran-al-qaeda/

  cites several instances of Mccain's self-touting on foreign policy experience and goes on:

  "Of course, McCain’s supposed prescient understanding of foreign policy has been proven faulty over and over. Today, as the Washington Post’s Cameron Barr and Michael Shear report, McCain further undermined his claim to be the best qualified on matters of foreign policy, when he repeated a mistaken claim that Iran was training al Qaeda fighters [...]

  Pressed to elaborate, McCain said it was “common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that’s well known. And it’s unfortunate.” A few moments later, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, standing just behind McCain, stepped forward and whispered in the presidential candidate’s ear. McCain then said: 'I’m sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda.'

  He made the same assertion on right-wing Hugh Hewitt’s radio show last night."

  
  
• [20] Martha Rosler from brooklyn March 19, 2008 - 12:09PM

  sorry, Steve [6} you got there first!

  
  
• [21] stanley dorn from g village March 19, 2008 - 12:13PM

  I think its a tribute to your show that you attract such a thoughtful audience from all sides of a given issue. I take issue with comments of two callers and maybe wish you had said something: one caller said there was no difference between Al Qaeda and Shiite extremists because both were trying to kill US soldiers in Iraq and would try to kill us here. Though this latter part is often thrown about, I have no belief that its true (the attacks of 2001 notwithstanding) and think it deserves comment.

  Another caller had served in Iraq and said our failure is in not choosing one side and sticking with them. To me this raises the fundamental question of which side in a country with at least three large and distinct ethnic populations we deem to be the "right" one and what we think we can accomplish .

  I have great respect for Brian and the crew. Thanks.

  
  
• [22] Phil Huling from Hoboken March 19, 2008 - 03:36PM

  I am totally dismayed with Brian Lehrer chiming in agreement with the presidents statement that this war in Iraq could end well. That with "even unleashing all this horribleness" if the out come is a regional repulsion for Islamic extremism then this war was worth it. This is a twisted sympathy for what most observers see as a hideous fiasco. The Iraqi citizens be damned. Happy fifth anniversary Brian.