For the record, Josh Marshall is once again wrong in describing the new DNC ad against John McCain as “[c]ompletely honest.” McCain said he’d be ok with US troops staying in Iraq 100 years “[a]s long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed.” That may be unrealistic, but the ad omits the relevant context, suggesting that McCain is proposing staying for 100 more years of conflict at the current level:

During his appearance on “Meet the Press,” DNC chairman Howard Dean was forced to admit what McCain actually said, but it’s not in the ad.

Update 4/30 10:06 AM — More flailing spin from Marshall here:

As you’ll remember, there was some jousting a few weeks back over whether it was accurate to say that McCain is willing to continue the ‘war’ in Iraq for 50 or 100 years. This is because McCain adds the caveat that it’s fine with him because he thinks that the occupation will soon be like our longstanding presence in Germany, Japan and Korea in which we have a substantial troop presence but no soldiers dying in hostile action since the population and governments are content to have us there. So is it really ‘war’ or only ‘occupation’ or ‘presence’?

Once again, Marshall is acknowledging the missing context and then raising second-order questions that don’t justify the content of the ad.

Update 4/30 5:00 PM — Via Yglesias, more of the same in a new ad from MoveOn: