Wed Jul 30, 8:21 AM Pacific • posted by Jed Lewison

McCain Camp Admits Their Ad Was False

Wow. This is just the strangest campaign in the world. Ben Smith:

McCain campaign backs off 'cameras' charge

McCain's camp, accused in the New York Times and the Washington Post this morning of distorting Obama's canceled trip to a military hospital in German, seems to have backed off the core of the charge: That he canceled the trip because "the Pentagon wouldn't allow him to bring cameras."

"It does now seem that Barack Obama snubbed the troops for reasons other than a lack of photo-op potential," writes McCain blogger Michael Goldfarb this morning, contradicting his campaign's televised ads and his candidate's statements.

But as the media swings around to contradict McCain's story, the campaign is trying to stay on offense, blaming the press for the confusion:

So basically they campaign now seems to be trying: our ad wasn't true, but we don't take responsibility for the falsehood because the press screwed up? But how does that explain the fact that they linked to an outdated version of Lynn Sweet's blog that had only stayed up online due to a server snafu?