Speaking today, Obama engaged in one of the cheapest, dumbest forms of gotcha politics I’ve seen from a candidate this cycle. At the same time, he showed a level fo ignorance that is amazing coming from someone in 2008:

Just yesterday, we heard Senator McCain confuse Sunni and Shiite, Iran and al Qaeda. Maybe that is why he voted to go to war with a country that had no al Qaeda ties.

As for the first sentence, McCain misspoke yesterday and almost immediately corrected himself. Whoopty do. I do not, and no reasonable person can, believe that a small and quickly corrected verbal slip up should be the subject of a legitimate campaign attack. That Obama would lower himself to this seems to me a sign of complete desperation to distract people from Wright. Surely this is a new low for someone who has made elevating the tone such a big part of his campaign.

As for the second sentence, my jaw dropped. The Iraq-Al Qaeda connection wasn’t particularly strong, it wasn’t enough to go to war over per se (and since that wasn’t one of the major reasons we invaded, this is a red herring by Obama), but it cannot truthfully be said that they had no connection. For Obama to peddle misinformation is almost as galling as the lowness of his attack on McCain.

Posted by Apollo in Iraq, Audacity of Hype