After a secret meeting with Roger Ailes, the head of Fox in which he was promised "fair" treatment, Sen. Obama appeared on the Factor for a one on one interview with the newly reformed curmudgeon Bill O'Reilly. The first segment was broadcast on Thursday night in a questionable time slot just prior to Sen. McCain's acceptance speech at the RNC.
Bill O'Reilly began the questioning by allowing that in his opinion, the democratic candidate had been proven right in his pre-war opposition to the invasion of Iraq. The host then asked why his guest refused to acknowledge the success of the change in strategy known as "the surge". Obama reluctantly said that the surge had succeeded "far beyond anyone's expectations" but when pressed to take the next step and admit that he was wrong in opposing the increase in troops, he suddenly got very nervous and resorted to evasion, ultimately refusing to make any admission.
It should be pointed out that John McCain made the original argument for the new strategy against his own party even challenging Bush ultimately convincing him to allow Gen. Petraeus to implement his counter-insurgency plan. McCain not only predicted success but risked his political career on it. It was during this period that he answered critics with the statement that,"I would rather lose an election than lose a war."
McCain was also faced with a similar situation of being on the wrong side of an issue when he joined with democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy to co-author a comprehensive immigration bill aimed at approaching border security as well as path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. When he was faced with an uproar demanding border security first, he went before the microphones and made a very simple statement. " I realize that the American people, with good cause, do not trust the government on this issue and demands border security first. I get it. I was wrong and will now place border security as the first priority."
Is America better served by a leader who acknowledges mistakes or one who stubbornly refuses to do so?
The Edge
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