Wrong

From MSNBC's "Race to the Bottom White House" on Tuesday:

JAY CARNEY: Well, David, I would guess that voters would look forward, and their interest, still, even though they by a small margin believe the surge is successful, as Stephen pointed out, they still want this war to end overwhelmingly. They still think it was a bad idea to go in. And so I think that redounds to Obama's benefit.

But what I see here is a case of both candidates having a severe case of George W. Bushitis, which is the refusal ever to admit you were wrong about anything. I mean, as Rachel points out, John McCain made some, in retrospect, very foolish statements about going into Iraq and how easy it was going to be.

Now, a lot sooner than a lot of people in Washington, and certainly a lot sooner than anybody in the Bush administration, he saw problems and he came up with ideas of how to fix it by a surge in troops. Now, Barack Obama, clearly, when he said back when the surge was on the table that, you know, the surge might actually have the reverse effect, not reduce violence, but increase violence, he was wrong. He was wrong. And he should say-I mean, he could say-we would reward him at least in the media for saying he was wrong and he looks back and now thinks differently.

Right, because if people warn you to wear a helmet when you ride your bike, they owe you an apology if you make it home safely without wearing one. If you don't get AIDS from unprotected sex, if you don't strike a gas main digging a hole near your house, if you don't wreck your car driving home drunk... lots of people need to tell you that they were wrong.

Carney's logic is that Obama was as wrong to warn that something bad might happen as McCain was in stating flatly that something fantastic would happen.

Of course, McCain was wrong about an entire war, but don't let that enter the equation, Jay.