This has occurred to me too. In his statement today John McCain said that “we have drawn down to pre-surge levels.” But of course that that’s not remotely accurate. We won’t even be fully down to pre-surge levels this summer. And now in response to criticism on this point, the McCain camp is now attacking the Obama campaign and any press outlet that picks this up for “nit-pick[ing] the tense of the verb.”
Now, I think it’s true that gotchas over verb tense can often be a bit much. I know from experience that you can say all sorts of funny stuff while speaking extemporaneously. But, c’mon. This is McCain’s signature issue. It’s almost the totality of his campaign — Iraq and the purported success of the surge.
This is hardly nit-picking.
