Dan Abrams: Do media give McCain a free ride on foreign policy gaffes? David Edwards and Muriel Kane

Published: Thursday July 17, 2008





Print This Email This A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll showed that Americans believe by 63% to 26% that John MCain is more knowledgeable on world affairs than Barack Obama. However, MSNBC's Dan Abrams believes this is just proof of "the media's reluctance to hold John McCain accountable the same way they might Barack Obama." "McCain has made gaffe after gaffe when it comes to foreign affairs," Abrams pointed out on Wednesday. "And yet the DC media and pundits have for the most part shrugged it off." Abrams then ran through a sampling of some of McCain's recent errors, including referring to "President Putin of Germany," saying it is "common knowledge" than Iran is training al Qaeda, saying "Somalia" when he meant "Sudan," claiming that "we have drawn down to pre-surge levels" in Iraq, and repeatedly referring to "Czechoslovakia," a nation which no longer exists, rather than the "Czech Republic." Abrams turned for comment to White House correspondent April Ryan, who agreed that "this plays into what many are concerned about -- John McCain's age -- and they kind of slough it off." She also suggested that "a lot of it's because of [Obama's] rock star status. People are looking at him as this new upstart and want to hit him, more so than this man who is assumed to know better." Abrams noted that it isn't just about Obama. Even during the 2000 primaries, George W. Bush was complaining, "John McCain says something about the 'ambassador to Czechoslovakia.' Well, I know there is no Czechoslovakia, but yet it didn't make the nightly national news." However, GOP strategist Brad Blakeman, the president of Freedom's Watch, insisted, "They're innocent gaffes. When you are as accessible as John McCain ... you're bound to make mistakes. ... Everybody knows he didn't mean what he said." "It's fair enough in the sense that these are minor mistakes," Abrams agreed. "But ... if Obama had made the kind of mistake that John McCain made when Joe Lieberman had to correct him about Iran and Iraq ... and he repeatedly keeps making this mistake on Czechoslovakia ..." "For three-quarters of his life it's been Czechoslovakia!" Blakeman interrupted, perhaps inadvertently drawing attention once again to McCain's age. "The public isn't stupid. They know people make mistakes ... but his overall policy is correct, and that's what the American people understand." Abrams' final response was, "If and when Barack Obama makes a similar mistake, it better be treated that way as well." This video is from MSNBC's Verdict, broadcast July 16, 2008.

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