WILL McCAIN'S LATEST GAFFE MAKE THE FRONT PAGES?

McCain doesn't know when the Surge started and so far only the liberal blogosphere is pointing this out. According to HuffPo, CBS didn't even broadcast the segment below despite its enormous significance. HuffPo also points out that the officer McCain spoke of himself provided evidence that the Surge started in September 2006:

The fact remains, however, that the military official cited by McCain, then-Colonel Sean MacFarland, described the Anbar Awakening in September 2006 -- four months before the "surge" was even announced -- noting that tribal leaders were "stepping forward and cooperating with the Iraqi security forces against Al Qaeda." Moreover, a military review written by MacFarland notes that his unit actually left Anbar before most of the surge troops arrived; his success in the region came between June 2006 and February 2007.

Matt Yglesias, Spencer Ackerman and Ilan Goldenberg also pointed out this major blunder and there's an article in Foreign Affairs by Colin H. Kahl that also provides a correction to McCain:

The Awakening began in Anbar Province more than a year before the surge and took off in the summer and fall of 2006 in Ramadi and elsewhere, long before extra U.S. forces started flowing into Iraq in February and March of 2007.

So much for McCain's "strong suit."