McCain Gaffe? What Gaffe?

clipped from talkingpointsmemo.com

The Token Dem says this McCain gaffe -- in which he responds to a question about troops in Iraq for 50 years by saying, "Why not 100 years?" -- may have critically injured the McCain campaign.

I don't see the gaffe because there's a qualifier, paraphrased as: "as long as America's fighting forces are not harmed or killed." At least in large, ongoing numbers. If you use Korea, Europe and Japan as an example, I think the evidence is overwhelming that our long-term presence has been a stabilizing factor.

Of course, his point of view is what makes him the Token Dem, and McCain won't be much of a cross-over vote-getter.

McCain's frankness and sheer inability to say something other than what he believes, no matter how much run-of-the-mill political consultants may urge otherwise, will appeal to many of us who don't like ... what's the word? Huckersterism.