First, this is the second anniversary of Michael joining CNN… so you have an added excuse to lift a glass today!
Second, a round-up of blog reaction to yesterday’s challenge…
ThinkProgress has a page up about it. (They are, of course, unofficial Friends of the Site, though they don’t know it… but they are the media arm of CAP, so…)
Anyway, ThinkProgress’ assessment:
Yesterday, CNN’s Michael Ware dismissed Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) recent assertion that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) travel to Iraq in order to get a better sense of the war. Ware said that U.S. officials’ trips to Iraq are usually “divorced from reality” adding that its “impossible” to “get much of a real picture.” Ware then noted that McCain’s own trips to Iraq have not helped him get a sense of the realities in Iraq:
WARE: I’ll issue a word of caution, too. I mean Senator McCain has been here, what, more than half a dozen times. And we’ve seen him get assessments of Iraq terribly wrong. So I wouldn’t be hanging my hat on the fact that your opponent has only been here once.
From Washington Monthly’s Political Animal blog:
But let’s break down his [McCain's] substantive “point,” if we can dig it out. He’s saying that you cannot show proper judgment about Iraq unless you physically set foot in the country. But, as Michael Ware notes, McCain has been in Iraq multiple times, and yet has screwed up assessments of the situation on the ground over and over again, most recently… yesterday:
(The same blog also has a post about the Dexter Filkins review I linked to the other day, and an additional link to a paper about the Sadrist movement, if you are interested…)
But I think my favorite comes from a blog called TAGG … which stands for The Angry Gay Guy. (Love it!) Here’s his take on it:
FRIDAY, MAY 30, 2008
Proving my point….
This what I wrote back in April…TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2008
The first presidential appointment…
Whoever the new Democratic president is, his or her very first act should be the creation of a new Iraq czar. And as far as I’m concerned there is only one candidate for the position. And that person is Michael Ware of CNN.There is not another soul in the world who is as knowledgeable, perspicacious, intelligent, honest, probing, analytical, critical, and, most importantly, correct about all things relating to the situation in Iraq. He always tells the truth without prejudice or spin. And he is apolitical.
He is THE go-to guy, bar none.
And today he once again proves my point…
I dunno, I’m seeing a campaign ad forming here… Neverland… divorced from reality… terribly wrong… Hmm…
