His big mouth will be his undoing for sure

That's out of context - he said the estimate isn't important, as in a timeline. However, we all know exactly what that timeline is, since McCain won't win the election, the deadline is Bush's last day in office.

I'm getting somewhat tired of the "out of context" cry, especially if context doesn't change the meaning.

He somehow thinks comparing wartime in Iraq with peacetime in Korea is exculpatory of the attitude that it's "not important" when the troops come home.

If you insist they can't leave until they've won, and that after they've won, it doesn't matter when they come home, aren't you saying that you aren't going to try to bring them home at all for God knows how long?

I think Josh Marshall at TPM sums it up nicely:

Their other point [aside from saying they were quoted out of context] is that McCain isn't saying that bringing the troops home isn't that important, he's saying that precisely when they come home isn't that important and that reducing the number of casualties is more important than the precise date when they come home. But this highly strained argument seems premised on the assumption that journalists should report not what you say but your own highly generous after-the-fact interpretation of what you said.

I would say that in the context of Iraq when they come home and whether they come home are actually inextricably combined. Presumably US military personnel won't be in Iraq 20,000 years from now. At some point they'll come home. But staying for many decades is, in the context of most of our lives, the same as staying forever. On the latter point McCain doesn't say that reducing casualties is more important than getting people home. He's saying one is his focus and the other isn't very important.

^ That's a good point. But, he thinks the question is unimportant, because he is well aware that the U.S. is working for a status of forces agreement with Iraq; that it is not dissimilar to Korea. He is unlikely to change his tune in this regard. He would like to see a U.S. presence there indefinitely to protect the country's interests.

That is not a view I hold. But tweaking the meaning a little to get people to somehow jump to the conclusion that he thinks the soldiers themselves are unimportant is unjustified if you are being honest. Reporters absolutely should report what the candidates say; and only what they say. But if reporters are to not allow a "highly generous after-the-fact interpretation" then they also should not allow their own commentary, interpretation or titling.

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McSame