Nouri al-Maliki had best watch out for Obamabus, because it hungers, and my first question just got answered: Maliki denies the report from Der Spiegel, saying that his words were “misunderstood, mistranslated and not conveyed accurately,” according to CNN.

Maliki became a quick friend to Obama as soon as that report came out, but now will he, too, go under the bus along with grandma?

Update: Via Gateway Pundit we have the original statement made by the Obama campaign on the ‘mistranslated’ remarks by Maliki:

Senator Obama welcomes Prime Minister Maliki’s support for a 16 month tieline for the redeployment of U.S [sic] combat brigades. This presents an important opportunity to transition to Iraqi responsibility, while restoring our military [sic] and increasing our commitment [sic] to finish the fight in Afghanistan.

It’s not a good idea when you’re trying to present yourself as a great diplomat, to go and fall so easily for an agenda-driven ‘mistranslation’ of an important allied leader by some European magazine, I should think. Oops.

P.S. What exactly was “increasing our commitment” supposed to mean? Does “commitment” come on a sliding scale for Barack Obama? That is, do some commitments not really mean he’s committed, but others do? Which of the commitments he’s made on the campaign trail need increasing so they’ll stick?

[Administrative note: I meant to Red Hot this, but put it up front by mistake. I then moved it back to Red Hot, but by the time I got it there, it already had a comment. So then I just moved it back. Apologies for the ping-pong at posting time.]