Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting, made a simple mistake yesterday while speaking in Amman, Jordan, but he was quick to correct it and make an apology.

Unfortunately, reporters were there to write down everything he said, and it's our responsibility to pass it along.

Mr. McCain, expressing concern about Iran's rising sway in the Mideast, said, "Al-Qaida is going back into Iran and is receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran."

Sign up to be a citizen contributor covering events and sharing your thoughts on the Pennsylvania primary campaign using your mobile phone.
Visit our VoxPop section to learn more and join up today!

Well, that isn't entirely correct. Iran is a predominantly Shiite Muslim country and has been at pains to close its borders to al-Qaida fighters of the rival Sunni sect.

Iran has been accused by the United States of funding, training and arming Iraqi Shiite militants in their uprising against the United States. But there have been no allegations by Washington and no evidence that al-Qaida has benefited from Iranian assistance.

Fortunately, Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut who was traveling with Mr. McCain, had his back. Mr. Lieberman stepped forward to whisper in the candidate's ear, after which, Mr. McCain said: "I'm sorry; the Iranians are training the extremists, not al-Qaida. Not al-Qaida. I'm sorry."

It's getting so no one can tell the extremists from al-Qaida.

You don't need a voting machine to make things fair in Michigan. You need a time machine.

Here's the dilemma: Thinking that their votes in the Democratic primary wouldn't count back on Jan. 15, a lot of Democrats and independents decided to vote for one of the Republicans.

Now there's talk of some kind of do-over election for the Democrats. And it's been suggested that voters seeking to cast a ballot would have to sign a statement saying that they hadn't voted in the GOP primary.

Yeah, that'll work. Let me also sign that statement saying that I never had a beer while I was a teenager.

And even if it were a perfect world and all signed statements were as truthful as a morning newspaper, there are still people crying foul. "I wouldn't have voted for a Republican if I'd known there would be another Democratic primary this summer!"

Political mavens quoted by The Associated Press predict such an effort would most affect voters leaning toward Barack Obama, since his supporters were more likely than Hillary Clinton's to have crossed over to vote in the GOP primary. (Especially since her name was on the ballot, and his wasn't.)

According to exit polls, 7 percent of GOP primary voters said they were Democrats and 25 percent said they were independents or something else. That means nearly 61,000 people who voted in the GOP primary were Democrats, while more than 217,000 were independents.

Presuming, of course, that exit polls are as reliable as signed statements.

Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, stirred up a hornet's nest in 2005 when he spoke out against the war in Iraq. Yesterday, the Vietnam War veteran created a buzz by endorsing Mrs. Clinton.

Mr. Murtha said Mrs. Clinton "will forge a consensus on health care, education, the economy, and the war in Iraq."

There's no way to measure the power of Mr. Murtha's endorsement as far as influencing voters, but he is a pretty good fund-raiser. And in a race this close, it's worth noting that Mr. Murtha is one of those all-powerful superdelegates.