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Obama Disagrees With Nevadan Assailing McCain's Vietnam Service

August 17, 2008 2:10 PM

RENO, NEV. - At a town hall meeting at Wooster High School just now, a questioner whom Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., had called on, assailed the Vietnam service of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

"He was the fattest prisoner that got off the plane!" said the man. "He doesn't want to talk about how he turned in all those names."

With some impatience in his voice, Obama interrupted the man to ask if he had a question, and after the man offered a couple queries, Obama said, "Respectfully, I'm going to disagree with you when it comes to McCain and his service. I think his policies are terrible, I think his service was honorable."

The crowd applauded.

The moment stood in stark contrast with a moment in the 2004 election, when a town hall questioner told President George W. Bush about his then-opponent, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., "'We got a candidate for president out here with two self-inflicted scratches, and I take that as an insult.'"

"Well, I appreciate that, thank you," said Bush, who himself did not serve in Vietnam.

- jpt

August 17, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (187)

User Comments

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Even Cnn this morning was forced to admit that Obama's performance was disappointing and NBC has been spreading Obama campaign website spin verbatim claiming that McCain must have known what the questions were before hand (you know Obama usual make excuses and blame someone else when he doesn't do well.) The "discussion" only proved what many have been saying that Obama can not take McCain even in a debate despite all the hype of him being some sort of supernatural speaker.

I thought his "specficity" comment was telling....you know the one followed up with it is above his pay grade to make a decision. Very pathetic considering that as president of the US, it would be his job to actual make a decision on abortion. It reminded me strongly of all his "present" votes. The guy has no backbone and lacks the ability to stand on an issue without flip flopping around so typically wimps out.

Posted by: chattyway | Aug 18, 2008 11:51:36 AM

Obama leads in the polls because the media wants him in not for the good of the nation but for some other reason...and even with their bias and flat out lies for Obama, the polls are showing a tie which means that McCain is ahead if history of the polls and what actually occurs in booth continues as it has in the past.

Posted by: chattyway | Aug 18, 2008 11:43:30 AM

Change is coming and you McCain supporters need to get used to it.

Obama 08

Posted by: Kenny | Aug 18, 2008 11:41:09 AM

Ted wrote:

``Obama is a sheep in wolfs clothing, look to Raina Odinga 07 campaign, a socialist and alledgedly his cousin, they are sharing crib notes! Even if he isn't related Obama ackowleges speking regularly with this man, imprisoned for yrs for treason in his own country. ``

I wonder how McCain supporters think we are stupid enough to buy into their cooked up stories against Obama. These are flat out lies and nobody`s buying them. Obama does not know the man you are talking about let alone speak to him.

If you think the Democrats are stupid enough to put such a candidate up for election then you are definitely living in a fantasyland.

Posted by: Keith | Aug 18, 2008 11:33:47 AM

All you neo-cons that continue to bash Obama in hopes of changing a person's mind about him are going to be terribly disappointed come this fall, when he is elected. You can either be part of the process to fix this country or part of the problem.

Posted by: Bill Dull | Aug 18, 2008 10:52:11 AM

Obama is a passanger poised to ride the wave of negativity the campaign launch. He seldom smear direct himself; for example during the RFK-remark which the Obama-campaign wanted to live over the weekend and the way they did that was to have Obama say "such comments had nothing to do in a campaign", and the very next day when the Kennedy-son stipulated comment should not be misinterpreted, Obama said "she didn't mean it, lets move on". Meanwhile Obama got what he wanted, a weekend of malicious blogs calling Clinon an assassine, murderer etc.

In that case the Obama-campaign did not come out very well, it was too late in the primaries and people recognised the technique. He still does it though. How many times did Obama use the word "confused" about McCain in his Larry King interview, even if Obama says they are not running on ageism, they are - shamelessly.

Hypocricy, we see it; even if Obama does it well it's way below most people's pay grade.

Posted by: Sylvia Johnsen | Aug 18, 2008 10:47:59 AM

Hey S. Adams:

Obama is a thoughtful man...that should give you a clue of what type of President he will be. All his answers were on point and if he utters umms and errs and come up with good judgement calls ..He is not a Yes and No kind of guy. He ponders his answers and then delivers an on point statement. He does not rush to give his answers because he's thinking of all the possibilities.

Posted by: YES We CAN | Aug 18, 2008 10:43:49 AM

To Websurfer:

The empty $3000 suit was smart enough to become the Democratice Nomination, and has led McCain in the polls since the primaries. He must be doing something right. And by the way, Psst....in case you didn't know...he wants to go after Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, not just change the location of the war

Posted by: YES WE CAN | Aug 18, 2008 10:39:43 AM

Even Mr. Teleprompter Obama can think on his feet enough to know that even the slightest hint that Obama does not honor McCains service would be the last nail in the coffin for Obama. As it is, I really tried to look at the Faith Forum on Sat night with an open mind but I really think Obama did not do well. List his wife and typical white granny as 2 of the 3 people who he would seek advice from? Clarence Thomas not smart enough at the time to be a Supreme Court Judge?(paraphrasing sorry).
Boy Obama can pander with the best of them. I really don't think he can handle the job of President.

Posted by: BabsNJ | Aug 18, 2008 10:32:04 AM

Obama is a very smart man and he knows that attaching McCain's military service in anyway will hurt Obama. Remember, the swiftboats attached Kerry because Kerry attached is fellow serviceman calling them murders and liars. There is comparison between McCain and Kerry whether you like McCain or not.

Posted by: Jack | Aug 18, 2008 10:27:32 AM

Re: Most cars today have a 100,000 mile tune up schedule. They also have tire inflation monitors.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Your SUV Landrover or Lincoln may have all those devices...But my little Escort does not. I keep it tuned up and my tires properly inflated to get my 38 miles per gallon on the highway...it's a 5 speed too !!!

Posted by: Buddy in Pa | Aug 18, 2008 9:59:09 AM

Democratic voter registration is up in every state in the union, that means numbers, voters who were silent & didn't feel their voted really counted. many people have kicked themselves in the rear for allowing the last 8 years under a Republican, people are motivated and will elect Obama because of his depth of the issues and the solutions needed, Come November i can start looking for healthcare for me and my family and for every other citizen also. Change that is going to happen!

Obama 08

Posted by: Elitist | Aug 18, 2008 9:40:25 AM

This just shows that Obama has a lot more class than McCain. I seriously doubt McCain would have reacted similarly - in fact, we've seen him take the low road numerous times. All this after a vow to run a clean campaign. You can't count on mccain keeping his word because he can't remember what he says from day to day.

Posted by: Not fooled | Aug 18, 2008 9:38:36 AM

I don't think Obama's defending McCain, he just DOESN'T WANT TO SINK TO THEIR LEVEL!

Posted by: Brad | Aug 18, 2008 9:30:36 AM

Democrats need to get serious and start nominating candidates that can win back the White House. Did you really think Obama could win? Do you also think that elephants can fly?

Posted by: Jane | Aug 18, 2008 8:48:34 AM

Obama will lose the election only because evil never dies. The Republicans are going to win, they will get away with it and we will be at war with half the planet, and our economy will just get worse every day, and it's all because of prejudice. Fear defeats Honesty, we cannot have a good president, we deserve Bush, we deserve McCain, we deserve who we vote for.


Jocko is right on the money except that the American people did not vote for Bush in either 2000 or 2004. Both of those elections were stolen. However the American people are to blame for allowing him to remain in office. Although there have been millions of us in the streets protesting against his illegal administration, there have not been nearly enough. We could have gotten him out of office if we had had the intensive nationwide protests that this coup d'etat deserved.

Posted by: Gerty | Aug 18, 2008 7:12:18 AM

Obama makes a misleading statement about taxes and claims income tax cuts don't go to the middle class and the poor.

Know this folks Obama is playing loose with the truth.
More than 50 percent of wage earners do not PAY income taxes. This means that the POOR don't pay income tax. That is why they don't get an income tax cut.

Posted by: websurfer | Aug 18, 2008 6:32:40 AM

What the Swiftboater was probably trying to get at is why has Senator McCAin consistently stonewalled efforts by POW families to have records opened up.

In some cases McCain has been downright surly and hostile toward the families.

The underlying elephant in the room being that McCain did something he didn't cop to as a POW and he doesn't want that information released.

THAT's the elephant in the room that Obama doesn't and won't touch...for obvious reasons.


Posted by: ranger rick | Aug 18, 2008 6:18:36 AM

Hey Vanessa,
Obama has his surrogates do his dirty work and then Obama can repeat the smears while he chastises his thugs.

That is the Obama clean campaign style.

Obama sits back and takes "the high road" while his flunkies like Gen Wesley Clark do Obama's heavy lifting. Obama knows how to USE people for his benefit.

Posted by: websurfer | Aug 18, 2008 6:14:39 AM

McCain always changes his position on every issues. He is a flip-flopper.
Obama '08

Posted by: I.A.T.SMITH | Aug 18, 2008 6:11:35 AM

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