Campaigns play gotcha

In the game of gotcha, the presidential campaigns are trading charges that the other candidate messed up.

Democrat Barack Obama's campaign says that Republican John McCain flubbed the timeline of the war in Iraq.

In an interview with CBS, McCain said that the US-backed revolt of Sunni sheikhs against al Qaeda was connected with the surge of US reinforcements last year.

"Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening," McCain said in an answer that was not aired by CBS on its newscast Tuesday night, but was released in a transcript and in a video of the entire interview posted online. "I mean, that's just a matter of history."

But Obama's campaign pointed out that the "awakening" started well before President Bush announced in January 2007 his decision to send 30,000 additional US troops.

Democrats also said this afternoon that Congressman Pete Hoekstra botched a defense of McCain on the awakening timing.

“Actually I met with some of the Sunni tribal leaders in the fall of 2006. But I met with them in Jordan. It was at the same time that diplomatically General Petraeus was reaching out to the Sunni tribal leaders and trying to encourage them to become partners with the Iraqi Government and with US military forces,” Hoekstra told reporters on a conference call today.

But Petraeus, Democrats pointed out, was at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., at the time and didn't take command in Iraq until February 2007.

UPDATE: Adding to the din, a liberal media watchdog group complained today that CBS spliced and diced to not air the disputed statements.

“It goes without saying that this violates the most basic tenets of journalism, and CBS should be ashamed,” J. Jioni Palmer, spokesman for Media Matters, said in a statement. “This is an appalling breach of the public’s trust, for which there is no excuse. CBS has yet to substantively address its decision to mix and match their questions with McCain's answers letting the Senator off the hook for his false statements on an issue as important as Iraq."

On the other side, McCain's campaign today accused Obama of misstating what he said exactly one year ago about meeting with the leaders of Iran, North Korea, and other unfriendly regimes "without precondition."

Obama told reporters in Israel today that he had said he would meet those leaders only after appropriate "preparations."

But McCain's campaign pointed out that the question he was asked at a Democratic debate last July in Charleston, S.C., did not mention preparations.

"[W]ould you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?" Obama was asked.

He replied: "I would. And the reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them -- which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration - is ridiculous."

It was only later that Obama clarified his position that meeting without preconditions did not mean meeting without preparations.