Shocking. Not that he’d distort it; that’s politics. What’s shocking is the fact that the reporter presses him on it and clarifies what McCain meant (which Obama already knows, natch), backing him into the very stupid assertion that Maverick wants a Germany/Japan-type occupation of Iraq that’s somehow going to cost us $150 billion a year for decades and decades and decades. “It’s seldom that you see such a dirty lie,” said Krauthammer of this subject not long ago. Prepare yourselves to see it again and again and again.

Exit question: He wants to know how Bush and McCain define victory. How does he define it?