Yesterday was the 5^th anniversary of the Iraq invasion.

Yesterday, and the day before that, John McCain confused Sunni and Shia, Iraq and Iran, and didn’t have a clear picture of what Al Qaeda is. He did this while speaking in Jordan, in an interview, and published in campaign documentation. He even had help from that turncoat Lieberman, who whispered the correct information. But a few hours later, McCain blew it AGAIN -- IN A PREPARED TEXT. He got the whole picture wrong 4 times publicly in 48 hours.

If Obama or Clinton had done this, they would have been SKEWERED. McCain mostly got a walk. It’s the war hero thing, I bet. Now don’t get me wrong, he IS a war hero. But he’s also 71 years old.

Some have contended that he “misspoke”. OK, it happens.

But there is something called “muscle memory”. You know what this is: it’s the ability to think “call mom” and your fingers do the walking on the phone -- because you know the number so well that you don’t think, you just do. Muscle memory is controlled by the brain, not directly by any muscles. Muscle memory is a cool neurological construct. Our brains allow us to do a lot of things from memory. And certain things are inculcated as memory, and we generally don’t get them wrong. We do not misspeak the ideas and concepts we own, in the same way that we do not misdial.

The Iraq issue should be intellectual muscle memory to John McCain. THIS IS HIS ISSUE. Security. War. The Middle East. This is his platform.

I don’t think he doesn’t actually know. I think it’s something else entirely.

A couple evenings ago I heard Bernard Lewis and Dennis Praeger speak. Professor Lewis is 92 years old. He spoke haltingly, he shuffled from the table where he sat to the podium. But he was brilliant. (And believe me, I have an incredibly high bar for defining “brilliant”). While I vehemently disagreed with a lot of what he said, his arguments held together, he knew his facts, during the post-lecture discussion he was easily able to pull the facts he needed to make his interpretive points. But you could tell that 10 or 20 years ago, his mind was even more brilliant. Age, however, has taken its toll.

And that’s the deal with John McCain -- I think he knows the information; he just can’t access it because he forgets. Campaigning is hard. It’s tiring. If he’s getting this stuff wrong now imagine what will happen after the conventions when he has to debate the Democratic nominee, and campaign at their pace. (No more bbqs for the press at his Arizona digs.) Age matters.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Being in one’s 70’s isn’t old -- especially not in my family. People work, they contribute, they are still smart.

But “President of the United States” is not “a job” -- it’s the most powerful political position in the world. And whoever is doing it shouldn’t need a lot of naps. If he forgets the information he “owns” -- what will he be unable to process in terms of new information? What about issues like economics, which he readily admits he knows nothing about?

A few other facts on John McCain -- all of which have citations from McCain’s writings, specific Senate votes, or his campaign literature. Drop me a line if you want a specific page citation -- I’m a little short on time this morning.

• McCain cheated, A LOT on his first wife. In fact he took up with his second wife while married to his first wife.
• He would change the tax code so that health insurance premiums would no longer be tax deductible to ANYONE (including business). Everyone would have to buy individual policies, and no insurance company would be required to accept people. Therefore, if you have a pre-existing condition and current group insurance -- you’re DONE under the McCain plan.
• McCain is a big fan of NAFTA and CAFTA, and voted to allow China into the WTO.
• McCain’s 2007 record was to vote the Bush position 95% of the time. (This actually from Congressional Quarterly, one of my favourite sources).
• He wants to privatize Social Security, and raise the retirement age.
• He used to support Gramm-Rudman, and other fiscally conservative policies -- up to and including voting AGAINST the Bush tax cuts because they were fiscally irresponsible. But oh -- not since he’s running for President….
• Two words: KEATING FIVE (and if you don’t know what it is -- look it up and see how McCain had to give campaign contributions back, had improper relationships with business people, and ran aground of Senate ethics legislation, back when “Senate ethics legislation” didn’t even mean much.)
• He has a lot of financial issues this campaign related to potential misuse of funds -- but since the FEC is lacking a quorum, you won’t hear much about it, although I’ll be doing more McCain lists so you can see the full skinny on it.

Just thought you’d want to know….