Before he runs for the general election? He doesn’t appear to be in primary mode. Why else ignore CPAC? He is the only Republican presidential candidate who didn’t show up and he scheduled a private reception for attendees after rejecting the organizers offer to speak at the conference.
Plus, announcing on Letterman? It may play up his “maverick” schtick but we live in serious times and we are taking this seriously. And laughing it up while you diss the troops isn’t very presidential. I’m getting sick and tried of these presidential candidates calling the sacrifice of our troops, a waste. And he didn’t say that if we pulled the troops, then the lives that were lost would have been a waste. He said that they were a waste, not will be a waste:

“Americans are very frustrated, and they have every right to be. We’ve wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives.,” McCain said on Letterman’s show in New York Wednesday.

I think it shows a lack of respect for the sacrifice of the men and women who gave their lives to free the Iraqi people from tyranny, which is shocking coming from a vet. Though, now he’s backpedaling:

“Last evening, I referred to American casualties in Iraq as wasted. I should have used the word sacrificed, as I have in the past. No one appreciates and honors more than I do the selfless patriotism of American servicemen and women in the Iraq War. We owe them a debt we can never fully repay,” McCain said in a statement.

I don’t doubt that he views their lives as sacrifice but I bet he also sees that we are throwing those lives away because we haven’t achieved victory. There have been many mistakes in the execution of this war and it’s going to be a harder war to fight than we originally thought but this war is necessary and those who fight in it should know that what they are doing serves not only our nation but the Iraqi people. Those presidential candidates that don’t realize that, don’t deserve to be commander in chief.
And what is so stupid about this is that he should have learned from the Obama incident, especially when those of us on the right made such a stink about it. Isn’t he even trying to get our vote?
It’s no wonder that conservatives like Santorum won’t support him.