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Playing the Age Card? Obama Camp Calls McCain "Confused," Jumps On McCain Comments on Iraq
June 11, 2008 11:55 AM
Poll after poll shows that more voters trust Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on matters of national security than they do Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois. Hoping to bridge that chasm, the Obama campaign and Democrats harped on comments McCain made on the Today show this morning, repeatedly calling the 71-year-old presumptive GOP presidential nominee "confused," seeming to feed into concerns voters might have about the Arizonan's age.
This morning, asked if he has a better estimate of when American forces can come home from Iraq now that the surge is working, McCain said, "No, but that's not too important. What's important is the casualties in Iraq. Americans are in South Korea, Americans are in Japan, American troops are in Germany -- that’s all fine. American casualties and the ability to withdraw."
The Obama campaign pounced. On a hastily-arranged Obama campaign conference call Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., Dr. Susan Rice, and former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig, all assailed McCain.
Kerry called the remarks "unbelievably out of touch and inconsistent with the needs and concerns of Americans," particularly the families of troops in Iraq. "We cannot support the level of American troops in Iraq; our military is overstretched, it's reduced our ability to respond to events around the world, and to the situation in Afghanistan. Senator McCain, it is important when they can come home."
Kerry went so far as to say McCain "doesn't seem to know a lot about foreign policy and Iraq itself."
Rice said McCain's comments reveal a "real confusion and lack of understanding of the situation in Iraq" and the larger region. Jumping on gaffes McCain made in the past, Rice said McCain's "repeatedly…confused Sunni and Shi'a," and said he's been "confused about who the leader in Iran with maximum power is." Rice also said McCain "seems very eager" to engage Iran militarily….This is troubling to say the least, and it's reflective of a pattern of lack of understanding and lack of strategic depth."
Mark Salter, a top adviser to McCain, said McCain hasn't been remotely confused on the big picture in Iraq.
"He saw it with unbelievable prescience and unbelievable clarity," Salter said. "He outlined in 2003 precisely what Gen. Petraeus has done so successfully in Iraq. Sen. McCain knows enough about Iraq -- from his many visits there and his career in the U.S military -- to stand up and advocate, when it was a tough thing to do, a counterinsurgency, a policy he was criticized by Democrats and Republicans for advocating, and one that is manifestly, inarguably succeeding. That's a position he had the experience and wisdom to recognize, and one that Sen. Obama and Sen. Kerry -- as has happened so many times in their careers -- were wrong about."
Salter said McCain has had a "level of clarity and understanding on Iraq that obviously Sen. Obama and Sen. Kerry have never achieved on this subject -- or Ms. Rice."
**
Asked if the word "confused" was meant to invoke McCain's age, Rice said, "what I meant by that is very simple -- on critical, factual questions that are fundamental to understanding what's going on in Iraq and the region, Sen. McCain has gotten it wrong. And not just once but repeatedly."
Rice mentioned a recent incident when McCain mistakenly said troop levels had returned to pre-surge levels. "I'm not ascribing it to any particular function, I'm completely unable to do so," Rice said. "I'm simply pointing out a pattern."
She invited a reporter to offer another word to convey what she saw as McCain's "lack of understanding, misunderstanding, ...they all amount to the same thing. There is a gap. Between reality and sen McCain’s characterization of reality and that’s disturbing from somebody who has staked his candidacy on judgment and experience."
Kerry said to a reporter that it was "unfair and even a little bit ridiculous to assume that because you use a word that is used about every day in America life and people’s policies and apply it to John McCain and you jump to the conclusion that is about somebody’s age."
Kerry said there are plenty of senators and congressman older than McCain "who understand the difference sand don’t make the mistakes he’s made with respect to those policies," he said, citing Sen. John Warner, R-Virginia. "They know who the Sunni are and they know who the Shi'a are, and they know exactly who's training who. And they don’t make those kinds of mistakes."
Danzig added, "I don’t think it's a question of age," saying McCain was wrong five years ago when he voted to authorize use of force against Iraq, when he was five years younger.
McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds issued a statement saying the Obama campaign "is embarking on a false attack on John McCain to hide their own candidate’s willingness to disregard facts on the ground in pursuit of withdrawal no matter what the costs. John McCain was asked if he had a ‘better estimate’ for a timeline for withdrawal. As John McCain has always said, that is not as important as conditions on the ground and the recommendations of commanders in the field. Any reasonable person who reads the full transcript would see this and reject the Obama campaign’s attempt to manipulate, twist and distort the truth.”
Democrats on Capitol Hill joined the charges as well.
"When asked this morning about American troops coming home from Iraq, John McCain said 'that's not too important,'" said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Illinois, the House Caucus Chairman. "Senator McCain, to the men and women who are serving their second, third, or even fourth deployment in Iraq, and to their families, it is incredibly important. Once again, John McCain has displayed a fundamental misunderstanding about the situation in Iraq, our strained military, and American troops and their families."
Democrats not surprisingly avoided mentions of other sections of the Today interview, including anchor Matt Lauer's praise of McCain for "courage" for having backed the surge when the rest of the country was opposed to it, McCain pointing out that he was pushing the Bush administration to add more troops early on.
They also shied away from using McCain's complete answer to Lauer's question about withdrawal, which included McCain saying, "we will be able to withdraw. Gen. Petraeus is going to tell us in July when he thinks we are. But the key to it is we don't want any Americans in harm's way. And that way they will be safe. And serve our country, and come home in honor in victory. Not in defeat, which is what Sen. Obama's proposal would have done…We are succeeding and it's fascinating that Sen. Obama still doesn't realize that."
The fuller answer can be seen HERE
- jpt
June 11, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (495)
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How can you tell when a lawyer is lying? The same way you can tell when Obama is lying. When he moves his lips. I'm a non-partisan voter but although I don't care for McCain, I'll vote for him any day over some one who doesn't even know how many states we have. My first grade grandson can help him on that. Since we can't attribute Obama's numerous gaffes to advanced age, I would have to say it must be stupidity. How many fallen vets do we have in the audience? Leno would love to have him for president, new material every day.
Posted by: Ron Powell | Jun 13, 2008 8:59:19 AM
Obama must have been a protege of Bill Clinton. He has lied so much and been protected by the liberal media for so long that he actually believes himself.
He is no more qualified to lead this country than Ray Nagy is to lead Old Orleans. Hillary as his veep? Dumb and dumber...would Obama install Osama in his Cabinet? Probably would, by proxy.
Come on Obama, tell us the truth for a change, even the people in Chicago know what you're about. "Change we can believe in" my a--.
Posted by: Ron Powell | Jun 13, 2008 8:31:41 AM
At least McCain loves his country.
Posted by: Toby | Jun 12, 2008 11:59:13 PM
Hillary Clinton was "delusional" for thinking she could win the popular vote and convince the superdelegates she was a better candidate. She won the vote, but 352 Dems Elders got him the presumtive nominee status anyway. Clinton was also "stirring for a fight" because she wanted votes to count, and "thinking she was entitled" for exercising her right to run for president. It's easy to win elections if you push the candidates out before election day. Obama's a thug, he's done it before. The way Obama-campaign uses the internet to disgrace the election process should be addressed. Members of the Internet community must stop this type of characterizations and force the Obama into debating where presumptive presidents candidates are suppose to debate - out in the open - candidate vs. candidate.
Posted by: Sylvia Johnsen | Jun 12, 2008 12:06:52 PM
McCain is clearly confused !!!
He has flip flopped so many times.
As a republican, I am ashamed.
Will the real McCain pls stand up and stop embarassing us.
Posted by: Linda | Jun 12, 2008 11:09:15 AM
SEN McCAIN SAYS SEN OBAMA IS INEXPERIENCED, CAN SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT ARE THE SO CALLED EXPERIENCE THAT SEN McCAIN HAD!!!!!!
Posted by: LORD BENNY | Jun 12, 2008 10:41:14 AM
Here's our biggest problem: hundreds of millions of dollar spent on these endless campaigns, and we get one candidate who at times does seem to be bordering on senility while the moron Lieberman stands behind him ready to whisper "corrections" in his ear when McCain gets confused. On the other side we have a candidate showing disturbing signs of not being the sharpest tool in the shed when he seems confused about the number of states in the union or calls for more Arab translators in Afganistan where of course no one speaks Arabic. Can these two REALLY be the cream rising to the top. It's scary in my opinion.
Posted by: Mike | Jun 12, 2008 10:35:07 AM
How can he said something fool like that while he admits ``i hate war``.
Posted by: Mk | Jun 12, 2008 8:48:57 AM
People like to cite examples of an occasional Obama gaffe as somehow equivalent to, or even "worse than" the kind of persistent confusion evidenced by McCain on the campaign trail. This is ludicrous. Anyone can get tired and misspeak. Anyone can say something stupid once in a while. With reporters breathing constantly down their necks, both of these candidates are subject to constant scrutiny, and it's not surprising that we end up hearing about their every out-of-place word.
The difference is that most of Obama's "gaffes" tend to fall into the "jumbled words" category of misspeak, whereas most of McCain's tend to fall into the "jumbled ideas" category. This is a major difference.
For example, Obama *knows* that there aren't 57 states - he was saying that he had visited "47" states (something he repeats often) and it came out wrong). McCain, on the other hand, mixed up the relationship between Al Qaeda and Shi'a/Sunnis on _more than one occasion_. This would seem to indicate that he *might not know* the difference, or that he might be having some difficulty keeping his facts straight about the differences.
Thus, the "57 states" gaffe is a "misspeak." The "Shi'a/Sunni" gaffe - because repeated and not corrected - seems more like a "misunderstanding." These are not in the same class of gaffe, and they are not worthy of the same level of concern. I don't care if McCain says "beer-mark" instead of "earmark" - that's a "misspeak," not a misunderstanding.
But I DO care if he says that it's "not too important" when troops come home from Iraq. That was neither a misspeak nor a misunderstanding, but McCain's true position. And yes, it is confused. His war is a MISTAKE. There's no talking your way out of a "gaffe" of that degree.
Posted by: thisniss | Jun 12, 2008 6:14:57 AM
Obama is DUMB:
"I see many fallen vets sitting in the audience today"
"Beautiful Great Lakes of Oregon"
"57 or 58 States"
"Truman was a great peace negotiator"
Obama is a LIAR:
"I never heard Wright say those things"
"My father was a goat herder"
"My uncle liberated Auschwitz"
"I only worked for Rezko for 6 hours"
"Selma got me born"
The stupid liar trying to make it look as if he holds some advantage in the intellect department just does not hold water. McCain's 135 IQ trounces Obama's 112.
Even the Democratic caucus rules were called "affirmative action", just like Obama's ejumification. If delegates were assigned like electoral college votes, Hillary would've won 7 weeks ago.
Posted by: pharmacist | Jun 12, 2008 5:39:06 AM
Everyone knows who he or she is voting for, so WHY SPEND THE MONEY ON THESE CAMPAIGNS?
Posted by: johnnyappleseed61 | Jun 12, 2008 2:22:53 AM
Does anyone know how we get "natural gas"? Our public transportation in Riverside, CA uses ONLY natural gas, and NO BLACK STUFF comes out of the back. Why can't we use natural gas in our cars?
Posted by: johnnyappleseed61 | Jun 12, 2008 2:21:33 AM
It's better to call McCain confused rather than stupid. I think "confused" is extremely GENEROUS.
Posted by: ChayaFradle | Jun 12, 2008 2:12:44 AM
Kerry keeps "forgetting" he wanted McCain for his VP.
Posted by: RL in Illinois | Jun 12, 2008 12:02:21 AM
Here's what we know about McCain's timetable: talk to the General in July and "maybe 100 years" like Japan, Germany & South Korea. So from this we can gather that he has no timetable and actually it appears the troops will be there for a really long time but it's okay for him as long as no one dies.
Posted by: cincyr | Jun 11, 2008 11:48:05 PM
Confused. Why are you opposed to the surge? Because it worked? Do you want the US to lose? Do you want the terrorists to continue to murder Iraqis? Do you want them to develop a base from which to attack the US? How many people are you ready to have murdered so that you can feel justified in your irrational hate for Bush and for the US?
Posted by: Don Meaker | Jun 11, 2008 11:29:08 PM
Obama will destroy America. Do not trust him at all.
Posted by: rdotx | Jun 11, 2008 11:08:08 PM
Barack Obama gave an interview in April to a Chicago television station and talked about his policy on Iraq.Obama tries to explain that he has never called for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq, but wants to complete the mission there:
Q: But you’ve said troops should be withdrawn (from Iraq).
A: No, no, I’ve never said troops should be withdrawn
Really? This is what his website offers for his Iraq policy: Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months. Obama will make it clear that we will not build any permanent bases in Iraq. He will keep some troops in Iraq to protect our embassy and diplomats; if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda.
Duh!
Posted by: plin-plan | Jun 11, 2008 10:31:51 PM
Democrats are grasping at straws here - they know that the surge that McCain advocated is working, calm and order is being restored in Iraq (finally). Their great idea of giving up and getting out asap is looking pretty foolish. They're taking statements of of context to try to distract and confuse people from the real issues that matter.
Posted by: PhillyPhoton | Jun 11, 2008 10:13:05 PM
What an Ignorant approach for Sen.Obama’s campaign to take. They are fully aware of the Anhauser Bush buy out bid. They knew that that would be on Sen.McCains mind, yet they are trying to trick people into thinking its due to age. They are attacking the elderly and have forgotten that many people who supported him are just as mature as Sen. McCain. In the case of Democratic senators many were older.
Posted by: distantobserver | Jun 11, 2008 9:47:04 PM
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