“And it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,” Obama said.

The comments were posted Friday on The Huffington Post, creating a wave of criticism from Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. John McCain, and other politicians as the April 22 Pennsylvania primary draws near.

…

Now, Obama is spending time explaining his remarks.

“Obviously, if I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that,” Obama said in a phone interview on Saturday with the Winston-Salem Journal. “But the underlying truth of what I said remains, which is simply that people who have seen their way of life upended because of economic distress are frustrated and rightfully so.”

He continued, “People feel like Washington’s not listening to them, and as a consequence, they find that they can only rely on the traditions and the things that have been important to them for generation after generation. Faith. Family. Traditions like hunting. And they get frustrated.”

If their is legitimate criticism to be made of either McCain’s or Obama’s remarks it is that their points were not made as clearly as they could have been. But neither man said what their partisan opponents are spinning it as.

Repack, I’ll give you three circumstances under which we should leave Iraq:

1) It is no longer in our strategic interests to remain.

2) The lawful Iraqi government asks us to leave. (See Saudi Arabia and the Philippines) for examples.)

3) We are defeated on the battlefield and are forced to retreat.

McCain’s point was that calendars are no way to measure these kinds of things. And he was right.

Sean, you may be right. I’m going to have to go back and look at that statement by Obama and re-evaluate it. Until then, I’ll stop using it, on the chance you might be right and I might be wrong.

J.

How many Iraqis do you figure we’ll hgave to kill to get to a “peaceful presence?”

And if we can’t leave while it’s violent, and won’t leave when it’s peaceful, where is the contradiction to the 100 years?

BTW, who pays for all this at a $2B a week?

And Obama was not disparaging anyone with his “cling to religion and guns” comments.

Can we drop both of those now?

The answer to all these questions is, of course, no.

My apologies…

J.

The actual statement:

Question: “President Bush has talked about us staying in Iraq for fifty years…”

J.

Oh yeah, that’s right McCain says maybe in a hundred years.

Go and look it up, if you like.

You probably won’t like it, though.

J.

Ha ha! Funny joke makes disastrous war in Iraq not real!

This whole thing is just another example, by BOTH sides, of how childish and ridiculous the level of political discourse has become.

List the important things that the government does that affect your life. Is who did or did not store or throw out flags in the top 100?

Here’s an UPDATE: If the flags were left there for over a week and no one appears to be coming to get them that’s called “storage.”

If the Republican claim on this issue was legitimate the Republicans would have had a “stakeout” and gotten photos in an all-out “sting operation.” I woulbe be another example of what the Republicans find time to do — avoid speaking on the issues because its the Bush McSame issues – NO CHANGE.

Hey, it’s Joe Biden! How ya doing, Joe?

J.

Look up “brainless dweeb seizing on any old crap in hopes of reelection of party which has trashed his country”

Look up “unforced error.”

J.

Update: I just spoke with the person at Invesco who found the flags. He thinks both sides are exaggerating a bit. He claims the majority of the bags with flags were near the trash and it was probably an “oversight” by the Democrats rather than a nefarious plot against the flag, but he doesn’t believe anyone was coming to get them. “The flags were there for a week and a day and no one came looking for them,” the person said.

Bush’s favorite notepad

Aftermath of the ’04 RNC