Sometimes I wonder why politicians choose to speak out when they do. Because if John McCain wanted his comments he made yesterday to fade from the minds of those in the media, then why respond to Barack Obama. The hole only gets deeper when you give the media something to blog, talk, and write about. This is what McCain said Thursday. 

“I can tell you that it is succeeding. 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 and it’s long and it’s hard and it’s tough and there will be setbacks.”

The problem with the statement is, according to the Obama campaign, troop level in Iraq is at about 155,000 right now, well above the 130,000 that would mark a return to pre-surge levels.

Democratic Spokesman Damien Lavera responded. ”Either John McCain doesn’t know the facts on the ground in Iraq or he is continuing the Bush Administration’s pattern of intentionally misleading the public. Either way, he is the wrong choice for America’s future.”

A McCain advisor said Thursdays statement was only a problem with the verb tense. Senator Jon Kyl said the Obama campaign and reporters are “trying to nitpick the tense of the verb about the surge troops being home.” 

Obama takes this one. McCain is primarily running his campaign on his experience with foreign policy and the Iraq War. It’s important he gets his facts straight. It doesn’t look good for McCain to have the Obama campaign correct him, especially when McCain continues to make the arguement that Obama has a lack of experience regarding this issue.