A McCain Gotcha? Not So Fast

Politico’s Ben Smith, who has done some terrific reporting on this year’s presidential race, has an item up on John McCain and evil. In it Smith suggests McCain is fudging facts — or at least being careless — for dramatic effect. The headline on the brief story, which occupied a spot on Politico’s highly-trafficked front page, read :”McCain Cites Questionable ‘Evil’ Story.” Did he? At the Saddleback Forum on Saturday night, Rick Warren asked McCain: “Does evil exist? And if so, should we ignore it, negotiate with it, contain it or defeat it?” McCain’s response was not a surprise: “Defeat it.” And after speaking about the evil of radical Islamic extremism, he offered this short anecdote as an example:

Not long ago in Baghdad, Al Qaeda took two young women who were mentally disabled and put suicide vests on them, sent them into a marketplace, and by remote control, detonated those suicide vests. If that isn’t evil, you have to tell me what is.