Obama Campaign Winning Today's Spin War With McCain Over Iraq?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

The Obama and McCain campaigns are battling it out today over whether a McCain comment about Iraq troop levels was a gaffe that betrayed his lack of knowledge of the facts on the ground -- and the early media coverage suggests that the Obama team is winning this spin war.

The comment in question was made by McCain yesterday to reporters. He said: "I can look you in the eye and tell you it's succeeding. We have drawn down to pre-surge levels. Basra, Mosul and now Sadr City are quiet."

Pre-surge troop levels? Not so much, countered the Obama campaign, which pointed out that troop levels are at 155,000 right now, well above the 130,000 pre-surge mark.

The McCain campaign is battling aggressively to limit media pickup of McCain's mistake, telling reporters that they shouldn't be nit-picking about what was merely a "verb tense" mistake. But judging by the first round of coverage in The Washington Post, the Obama team is getting the story told its way...

McCain Asserts Return to Pre-Surge Iraq Troop Levels

Sen. John McCain has attacked Sen. Barack Obama for not traveling to Iraq to see the "facts on the ground." But a recent statement by McCain about troop levels has his opponents raising questions about his own knowledge.

That's exactly the coverage the McCain camp doesn't want, and that the Obama camp does want. Will the rest of the coverage follow suit? It seems like flubbing a fact about troop levels is a bit of a gaffe for someone who regularly attack his opponent's experience and fitness to be commander in chief.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmem...ning_todays.php

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

It seems like flubbing a fact about troop levels is a bit of a gaffe for someone who regularly attack his opponent's experience and fitness to be commander in chief.

I'd say so. McCain has been hammering Obama for days now saying that Obama doesn't know the facts on Iraq. Well, when you want to make this kind of case, you better have the facts damn straight yourself. Or they'll call you on it. Stay tuned for more of this.