McCain

Depois da derrota na angariação de fundos, McCain continua a perder terreno, agora devido às declarações que efectuou em Bagdad:

Senator John McCain has issued an apology of sorts for his remarks after visiting a Baghdad market, saying he misspoke when he declared that his ability to walk freely in the marketplace was a sign of a significant improvement in security in Iraq.

He led a congressional delegation through the Shorja market the weekend before last, with 100 heavily armed U.S. troops guarding the group and attack helicopters and snipers watching over them.

McCain, Republican of Arizona, and another Republican member of the delegation, Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, said the conditions showed that the decision to deploy more than 20,000 additional U.S. forces to Iraq was having the intended effect.

Baghdad residents expressed astonishment at McCain's remarks, saying that he had visited the marketplace, the scene of numerous deadly bombings, under unrealistic conditions. Democrats and antiwar bloggers ridiculed him for blindly supporting the Bush administration's so-called surge policy.

McCain, in an interview for CBS News' "60 Minutes" on Sunday, acknowledged that his critics were right.