Eisenhower Letter of Resignation?

The first of the 2008 debates between John McCain and Barack Obama is over. One of the points of the media is that McCain got the facts about Eisenhower's second D-Day letter wrong. I beg to differ. John McCain stated that the second letter was a letter of resignation. Well, let's have a look at the text of the letter:

Our landings have failed and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.

While clearly not a letter in which Eisenhower resigns from office, it may still be a letter of resignation. Let's look at the definition:

res·ig·na·tion
–noun
1. the act of resigning.
2. a formal statement, document, etc., stating that one gives up an office, position, etc.
3. an accepting, unresisting attitude, state, etc.; submission; acquiescence: to meet one's fate with resignation.

I think Eisenhower's second letter does in fact show that he is meeting his fate for the failure of D-Day with resignation. So in that regard, McCain is correct. Maybe even nuanced. But the left never considers that sort of thing for the right. To themselves, only they are the masters of subtlety and nuance.

In any case, McCain clearly remembers the letter as one of resignation, but over time he may have forgotten that it was not a formal resignation letter.