Maliki Walks Things Back

Says that the words about a concrete date for a pullout were misconstrued via the translation and that

his remarks did not indicate that he was endorsing Obama over presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain.

"Who they choose as their president is the Americans' business. But it's the business of Iraqis to say what they want. And that's where the people and the government are in general agreement: The tenure of the coalition troops in Iraq should be limited," he said.

The Iraqi PM must have received a call from his good friend George.

(Thanks to Hot Air)

UPDATE:Well it didn't take any huge analysis effort to figure this out:"Maliki Aide's Statement Came After U.S. Call"

Comments

[Maggie45]

It's still not getting a lot of exposure, though. I think the nutroots are just going to ignore it.

[Peter]

I would like to know who, besides Obambi misquoting and lying about what McCain said, does not advocate a limited tenure of American troops in Iraq.
While it is possible that we and the Iraqis negotiate future basing after the fight is over, these troops will have no fighting role within Iraq without the Iraqis requesting such.

[Bill Brown]

Good for you, Baldi. I follow individual stocks, but not the Dow.

[Tully]

Please note: Maliki's "I am not endorsing" comment directly followed the disputed part of the interview, IN the interview. Also note that Der Spiegel apparently quietly changed the text of their own English-language article to drop the phrase "Assuming that positive developments continue" from the middle of the disputed (and misrepresented) passage. Now NYT has their own translation, and it doesn't match Der Spiegel's version(s) either.

Yes, Maliki's "clarification" likely came after a call from George. But Der Spiegel and otheres did indeed editorially "reinterpret" his original remarks to mean things not said, indeed, things specifically disclaimed during the interview. Not that this will change the minds of the over-parsing GOTCHA nutroots.