Webloggin » Biden Making It Up as He Goes Along

Update: Here’s some other points where Biden stretched the truth:

John McCain did not vote for tax increase on those making $46,000 and above. Obama did.
Joe Biden absolutely did say that the Obama-Biden ticket was not supporting clean coal. Here’s a video that tells a different story as to what he said in the debate.
Obama did say he would sit down with Ahmadinejad without pre-conditions.
McCain did not originally oppose the Bosnia Resolution as Biden had said. McCain pushed for it.
Top tax rate under Reagan was 28% and Obama wants to turn it back to 39% as in the Clinton years, not to the Reagan tax rate as claimed by Obama.
It won’t take ten years to get oil from new production as it would have a decade ago. Technology has improved as has new discoveries of oil that put the lie to “US only has 3% of the oil narrative”.
Article one of the Constitution refers to the legislative branch, not the executive as stated by Biden.

Senator Joe Biden went toe to toe with Governor Sarah Palin and she held up quite well. I can’t wait to see tomorrow’s headlines after all the media predicted that she would fall flat on her face. Didn’t happen.

What did happen however was that Joe Biden fulfilled his destiny to make things up as he goes along. Such was the case with what General McKiernan had said about McCain’s strategy in Afghanistan.

Biden said the top general disagreed with McCain and the need for a surge. But what actually happened was that McKiernan called for an immediate increase in troops; i.e. a surge. McKiernan did say he wouldn’t use the word “surge” because he needs a sustained effort but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want a surge like increase in troops.

General McKiernan told reporters at his headquarters here that he needs more troops, and not a temporary increase like the one that recently ended in Iraq. “I don’t like to use the word ’surge’ for Afghanistan because I think what we need are increased capabilities on a sustained basis,” he said.

There are about 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan - up by nearly 50 percent in recent years - and President Bush announced a further increase of several thousand last week.

But the general says he needs more combat power and support elements that could easily add up to an additional 15,000 troops, putting the total at more than 50,000. He says senior officials at the Pentagon have confirmed the need.

“There is a brigade combat team that the decision has been made to send here,” said General McKiernan. “There are an additional three brigades, ground maneuver brigade combat teams that are validated requirements.”

General McKiernan says it is not a question of whether he will get the troops, but when. And he says that depends on how quickly U.S. troop levels can be reduced in Iraq, which he called a political decision. He says violence in Afghanistan is up 30 percent, compared to this time last year.

The general also stressed that improved governance and more international investment are needed to defeat the Taliban and other insurgents here. And he said there is one additional element.

“We’re not going to have the right outcome in Afghanistan without some solution to the militant sanctuaries in the tribal areas in Pakistan,” said General McKiernan.

Two months ago John McCain said the following:

An adviser to the campaign told The New York Sun that, in a speech to be delivered in Albuquerque, N.M., the senator will call for an increase in combat troops and the creation of a special Afghanistan tsar to coordinate policy toward the country. “There will be a surge for Afghanistan. It will be moving combat troops in and applying the lessons from Iraq and the strategy that was successful in Iraq and taking that to Afghanistan,” this official said.

John McCain has been consistent on the need for more troops. Call it a surge, call it a sustained increase. One thing that is clear is that John McCain will not call for troop reductions before the job is done; that is the role of Barack Obama and his Democrat allies.

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