Anchorage Paper: McCain Confused Guard and Army

From David Hulen at the always-valuable Alaska Politics blog at the Anchorage Daily News tonight:

Candidates spend a lot of time talking, and they all misspeak sometimes. But did anyone else notice this, from Wednesday's much-covered McCain-Palin Town Hall event in Grand Rapids, Mich., where Palin answered questions from people in the audience? McCain said this near the end of the clip below, as he's talking up Palin's foreign policy/national security credentials: 

"I also know, if I might remind you, that she is commander of the Alaska National Guard. In fact, you may know that on Sept. 11 a large contingent of the Alaska Guard deployed to Iraq and her son happened to be one of them. So I think she understands our national security challenges..."

The ceremony Palin attended at Fort Wainwright last week didn't involve the Alaska National Guard. Palin's son is in the Army, and his unit - 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division - deployed to Iraq.

Comments

[Roger]

OMG, I can't believe Palin just said that the oil companies are WAREHOUSING the oil underground with their current leases. So in other words, they have all this oil that they are just sitting on and not distributing to the American people.

[angie]

This is seriously not funny. On some level, I do feel bad for Senator McCain. His memory loss and inability to keep things straight is obviously escalating. This is what often happens to people in their seventies and eighties. Our country cannot afford to be in the hands of someone this mentally fragile.

[ernieson]

I'm flabbergasted at the blatant inaccurate statements presented in this video AND the willingness of the sheep in the audience to drink the koolaid and believe Palin and McCain.
Note how she answered the question on international experience-she dodged it.
PITY THE WORLD IF THESE TWO ARE ELECTED. "A nation of sheep begets a government of wolves." Murrow. McCain is showing confusion and dementia. My wife has dementia and even she sees his confusiion of facts.

[Bobby]

Stockpiling oil and knowing about it. I know how to get Bin Ladin and not sharing the information on how to. What a team. Interesting how all the star struck little sheep can't process what they are hearing.

[boomie]

This should be brought to the limelight. It is just more lies and inaccuracies.
remember WMD in Iraq which was never found. Uhmm.

[Matador]

Obviously, McCain tripped over himself here. But the underlying facts are that she IS in charge of the Guard in Alaska, and her son WAS deployed to Iraq.

But this is big news for BIG journalism?

Where the hell are you on the other guy's deliberate misuse of Limbaugh's material, tying it to McCain, and intentionally LYING to the spanish speaking community? Did he think he could lie in spanish and no one would figure it out?

You are all agenda driven liberal pukes who have devoted yourselves to destroying Mrs. Palin and McCain since the day she was announced.

The good news is that your industry is dying each day, and more of you assholes will fill your days by blogging.

Pastie, lilly-livered white beards (are the beards supposed to make you look smart or thoughtful?). Couldn't generate a dime of revenue if your lives depended upon it. I light a $10 cigar every time I hear about the latest round of newsroom cuts.

Cry losers. Your opportunity to spit on the subscribers who pay your salary
is fading fast.

Hardy Har Har. The third quarter is coming to a close. Earnings once again will be down, and more of you will be on the street!

[leapinggnome]

Wow, Matador, you are a raving idiot. Too much of the Republican Kool-Aid.

[gaaaa]

I light a $10 cigar every time I hear about the latest round of newsroom cuts.

Have fun in the cancer ward hope you have good insurence !

[Oddwing]

MaCain lies all the time:

http://simplifyurl.com/1rm

and then denies it.

[tristan]

I saw that and knew he was wrong, but he fucks up or lies so much now that I just felt that everything he says is suspect.
And matador, you're not fooling anyone. You have some shit job in some Hooter's kitchen where they have Rush on the radio so the grinds like you can fantasize about when they'll be rich and can go to stripper bars.
$10 cigars?!!? You think that's an expensive smoke? In your neighborhood, maybe.

[Eyeball Kid]

My profession requires that I talk with people who have dementia every day. I do assessments for cognitive capacity all the time. I know that when people with dementia encounter stressful situations, their symptoms are exacerbated. IMO, that's what's happening to McCain. He's in the middle of a heated campaign, and he's getting confused.

It's a common occurrence, folks. It's part of the cycle of life.

McCain is showing a deterioration of his mental capacity. This is NOT an emotional or psychological problem. It's a physical one. He's literally not the man he was ten years ago. He hasn't the CAPACITY to handle the job.

If you understand this and you're voting Republican in the election, then you're voting for a Palin presidency, because McCain's brain is failing.

And if you're voting for a Palin presidency, remember what one of your heroes, Karl Rove said about the Palin pick: it's purely political. Even Rove knows that Palin hasn't the ability to handle the job.

[shades]

I second Eyeball's theory. I too work with geriatric assessments. I also see people who are very clear in the morning who falter as the day goes on and are quite confused come evening. It's called sundowning. Somebody should check McCain's gaffe's with the time of day. Does he only mess up after 3:00 pm?

[Rufus]

Give the old guy some slack. There are National Guard units that deploy to Iraq.
Just no one took the time to tell him the son was in the Army and not the National Guard.

That being said -- Obama/Rufus 2008!

[Nuffsaid]

When you have to start making excuses for your candidate takes it's time to pick a different canadate.

[DaveK]

Obama: Married to 1 woman for 19 years; 1 car; 1 house; Columbia U grad in PoliSci w/Int'l relations; Harvard Law (magna c.um laude), first black editor of Harvard Law Review, professor of Constitutional Law at U of Chicago, civil rights attorney, senator in 5th largest state for 8 years, then U.S. senator, all before the age of 47. But Americans want the dumb guy: 5th from the bottom of his class. Captured in Vietnam. Anger management issues. Dumped first wife for a rich beer heiress. Owns 13 cars, 7 house, and a family jet. Tied intimately to deregulators who screwed our economy, and admitted he ran for President not out of patriotism or duty but personal ambition. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-GfRmfb274 ) What's wrong with you people?

[Laurie]

What is Biden's excuse for confusing the facts about the stock market crash of 1929 and the fact that Hoover was president and not Roosevelt AND the biggest of all was they didn't even have TV back then, they had radio. Does he get the "I'm old and fragile excuse" every time he sticks his foot in his mouth? At least McCain will understand our soldiers plight in Iraq unlike Obama...maybe he can relate to the fraternity parties on campus but that really doesn't do the rest of us Americans any good now does it?