In this case McCain is the "forein policy expert"

Lies of omission are pretty bad, but CBS must have been pressurised by McCain's staff. What a load of pusillanimous pushovers. But then again, what's new?

I don't think this will destroy McCain's candidacy. But it's part of a drip drip erosion of the corner stone of McCain's CV - his purported foreign policy experience. This was the only major metric in which he was ahead of Obama, and with more idiocies like these, and Obama having a gaffe free foreign policy trip, this remaining foundation is looking very shaky.

but they damn sure airbrushed him, made him look better than he deserved.

drink French wine and spit on the flag and folks would still argue that he is a true American patriot.

What McCain is is predisposed to war for the answer to everything.

This won't sink the campaign, but as WashStateBlue mentioned in a previous post - just another cut in his death of a thousand cuts.

It won't destroy his candidacy, but it might give him a slight ding, which when combined with others could erode perceptions about his foreign policy competence.  To address an annoying antagonist upthread, there is a difference between misspeaking and rewriting history, which is what McCain was doing either intentionally or unintentionally.

I am new to this site and the amount of trolls is pretty surprising. Are they Republicans masquerading as former HRC supporters?

CBS owes all of us an explanation, that's for sure.

They're covering this on MSNBC, now (and NOT just on Olberman).

Leave it to souyousay to troll the diary and spam the comments section with nonsense.

So much for intelligent discussion.

This has the potential to be a very big scandal, IF the MSM actually follows up on the story and questions CBS about it.  

Here's what I would like to know -

who decided to switch the video?  Was it Couric?  Was it the producer?  

Why did the person switch the video?  What was the rationale?  And, here's where it could get very interesting - did the McCain camp pressure CBS to not air McCain's outrageous lie?

Will CBS hold Katie Couric responsible?  She was the interviewer and controlled the editing that made it to air.  Dan Rather was drummed out of CBS for questionable documentation but Couric can edit a news piece (labeled live) to erase a serious mistake?  

Chances of this being a story in the corporate media?  Nill.

Gaffes Happen has become the official teeshirt of McCain's campaign and he may come to regret 'whining' for more news coverage.

Politicians put their foot in their mouth on a regular basis.  Sometimes it may be the result of long hours on the campaign trail, sometimes because they simply can't keep their facts straight and sometimes because they can't keep their lies straight.  Many times it's simply because they do not understand or refuse to acknowledge the facts.

From the controversial Couric/McCain Interview:

Couric: "Senator McCain, Sen. Obama says, while the increased number of U.S. troops contributed to increased security in Iraq, he also credits the Sunni awakening and the Shiite government going after militias. And says that there might have been improved security even without the surge. What's your response to that?"

McCain: "I don't know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened. Colonel McFarland was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening."

Per Col. MacFarland,  the Anbar awakening was already well under way through organized efforts by the tribal leaders well before the surge began.  These events took place months before the surge was even announced.  Per McCain, the surge 'began' the Anbar awakening.

"But now that the population and the tribal leaders are beginning to make common cause against al Qaeda, the tide is -- the table is turned completely against al Qaeda, and now it's the al Qaeda forces that need to be worried about living in those neighborhoods." [Col. MacFarland, 09/29/06]

"And I really do think that the dynamic in Ramadi has changed and changed in an important way. You know, any previous reports from my predecessors that you, you know, may have heard notwithstanding -- the tribal dynamic is new here. It's got legs, it's moving forward and it's because success begets success." [Col. MacFarland, 09/29/06]

McCain also neglects the fact that although the surge helped to support an awakening already in progress, the new troops headed for Baghdad, not Anbar. He also gives little credit to the pre-surge ongoing Sadr truce and makes no mention of the ethnic cleansing and mass migration.  

The Couric interview gets even more interesting as McCain tries to multi-task not answering a direct question and distancing himself from the numerous failed Iraq policies under the Bush administration - all in the same breath:

Couric: "Sen. Obama also told me, Sen. McCain, that the money spent on those additional troops, on the surge, might have been more effective had it gone to Afghanistan or even to a better energy policy in the United States. What's your response?"

McCain: "The fact is we had four years of failed policy. We were losing. We were losing the war in Iraq. The consequences of failure and defeat of the United States of America in the first major conflict since 9/11 would have had devastating impacts throughout the region and the world."

Why did McCain evade an answer to her question?  
Why did McCain support a president responsible for "four years" of  failure?

"no one has supported President Bush on Iraq more than I have." [John
McCain, 03/28/08)

"The fact is that I have agreed with President Bush far more than I have disagreed. And on the transcendent issues, the most important issues of  our day, I've been totally in agreement and support of President Bush." [John McCain, 06/19/05]

"I am proud of this president's strategy in Iraq." [John McCain, upon receiving endorsement from President Bush, 02/13/08]

Thanks to the Internet, gaffes and old quotes are a living history of our thought processes, how well we think, what we think and when we think it.  Even Carly can't change  history...or the facts.

"To say that John McCain was aligned with President Bush on the prosecution of the war in Iraq is to change history." [Carly Fiorina, McCain Campaign Advisor, 07/13/08]

Perhaps, considering the above along with mainstream media's major political and ethical gaffe of not reporting the full McCain with regard to his voting record on veteran issues, his actions during the MIA/POW hearings to open up trade with Vietnam, and media's total lack of reporting on the nine out of ten chance, per studies on Korean POW, that he most likely suffers from PTSD, McCain should quit whining about his fair share of news coverage and not look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Among U.S. servicemen taken captive during the Korean War, as many as nine out of 10 survivors may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental disorders more than 35 years after their release, psychologist Patricia B. Sutker of the New Orleans Veterans Administration Medical Center and her colleagues report in the January AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY."

'Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, can result from wartime trauma such as suffering wounds or witnessing others being hurt. Symptoms include irritability or outbursts of anger, sleep difficulties, trouble concentrating, extreme vigilance and an exaggerated startle response.'

http://www.reuters.com/article/featuredC risis/idUSN17282413
What are the odds of McCain not suffering from some degree of PTSD?