This week, McCain claimed that troop levels in Iraq had been “drawn down to pre-surge levels”. He also claimed that Mosul was “quiet”. Unfortunately, neither of these is true. Before the surge, there were 128,569 troops in Iraq, and there are currently around 155,000, and news reports are calling Mosul the “last urban bastion of al-Qaeda”.

But when the Obama campaign pointed out the error, the McCain campaign refused to admit the mistakes. Instead, they unleashed an attack, claiming that the Obama campaign and the media were “nitpicking” about “verb tenses” since the Pentagon has plans to draw down the troops by the end of the year. McCain even denied making the original statement, despite the fact that he clearly said it — during a televised town hall meeting.

So, McCain, while trying to paint an overly rosy picture of the situation in Iraq, lies. When the error is pointed out, his campaign denies that he said what he clearly said, and attacks the person who pointed out the mistake.

Unfortunately, reality still has a liberal bias. Just like Bush’s “Mission Accomplished”, McCain can’t seem to tell the difference between what he wants to be true, and what is actually true (this is sometimes called being “delusional”).

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/05/mccain_the_surge_and_verb_tens.html