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Obama Tries to Call Out McCain on OBL

August 19, 2008 7:37 PM

At a town hall meeting in Raleigh, NC, just now, Sen. Barack Obama, R-Illinois, repeated a new attack against Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that calls out McCain's pledge to follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of Hell as bluster and bravado.

"Our troops have done everything that’s been asked of them," Obama said, per ABC News' Sunlen Miller. "But what they need now is civilian leadership and a commander-in-chief that is putting in place a strategy that is as excellent as the work being done by our troops, that we are going to make sure that the Iraqis are carrying their share, and paying their own way and dealing with their own political issues. So that we can focus on Afghanistan and taking out Osama bin Laden.

"John McCain says he'd 'follow him to the gates of Hell'?!" Obama said incredulously, recalling McCain's May 2007 pledge. "All he's got to do is go to Afghanistan and Pakistan! We shouldn’t have been distracted in the first place!"

It was a more folksy version of an attack that he first used before the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention this morning in Orlando, Florida, where Obama said, "A year ago, I said that we must take action against bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights and Pakistan cannot or will not act. Senator McCain criticized me and claimed that I was for "bombing our ally." So for all of his talk about following Osama bin Laden to the Gates of Hell, Senator McCain refused to join my call to take out bin Laden across the Afghan border. Instead, he spent years backing a dictator in Pakistan who failed to serve the interests of his own people."

The attack attempts to both weaken McCain's advantages on national security issues, and emphasize the war in Afghanistan as a necessary but forgotten war, and the war in Iraq as a war of choice -- a poor choice, at that.

- jpt

August 19, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (69)

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By the way, McCain finally made his appearnce on an Oil Rigg today. The reason it was postponed until now was becasue there was an OIL SPILL in the Mississippi River! This is what some call irony but I call THE MCCAIN CAMPAIGN!
IDIOTS!

Posted by: roxanne | Aug 19, 2008 10:30:51 PM

decentAmerican |
Yet, the soldiers in Iraq have donated 60,000 to Obama and just 10,000 to McCain. Now, go ahead and trash them!
Can you explain to my why this is the case? Buller....Buller....Buller? Anbody?

Posted by: roxanne | Aug 19, 2008 10:28:36 PM

Cindy McCain has claimed falsely and repeated constantly that she's an only child - even th she knows - she's got a half sister. Heartless!!

what else are the McCains hiding??
America beware!!!

Posted by: chad22 | Aug 19, 2008 10:09:36 PM

mike
you will eventually learn the whole story about mccain pow.it will shock most.

Posted by: rodney | Aug 19, 2008 10:07:38 PM

debra
just an after thought---do you realize that a large percentage were repub crossovers and just wanted to stop obama and failed.

Posted by: rodney | Aug 19, 2008 10:05:41 PM

McCain always says he doesn't like to talk about his experience as a pow and then launches into some diatribe about how he would be so great on the economy or something because he was a pow.

Its like all those people who start a sentence with 'I'm not a racist but' and then go on to spew the most racist garbage you ever heard.

Posted by: Mike | Aug 19, 2008 10:04:53 PM

Jake, don't you mean "Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois"?

Posted by: tvalent2 | Aug 19, 2008 9:57:02 PM

Jake, I think you meant Obama, D-Illinois.

Posted by: tvalent2 | Aug 19, 2008 9:56:27 PM

McCain's advantages on national security issues are in the eye of the beholder. Right now McCain is running off the fumes of the Schmidt/Rove attack ads. McCain was quick on the trigger when it came to Russia. Our troops are over stretched with both Iraq and Afghanistan. Was it smart for McCain to threaten Russia without the ability to back it up? Does America needs a campaign of fear taken right out of the pages of the cold war or Rove play book? When John McCain says “he'd 'follow him to the gates of Hell', his Republican pollsters must have cheered because those of us who have family heading to Afghanistan are not. We are not interested in Republican polled sound bites or rhetoric. With Barack Obama you get the sense that he will work with allies and reach across party lines to find a solution.


Posted by: Cooday | Aug 19, 2008 9:55:54 PM

flash
when they say mccain has the experience to lead i start to wonder----5.5 years as the crown prince of the hanoi hilton gives him that experience i think not.but we will deal with that later---as for abl---mccain plays to the dummies

Posted by: rodney | Aug 19, 2008 9:46:36 PM

Jay:Obviously you do not keep up with Chicago politics.

Posted by: The Unshrub | Aug 19, 2008 9:45:58 PM

So deceptive, so phony, he is a sure loser in November for his nothingness.

Posted by: Jokerous | Aug 19, 2008 9:45:23 PM

Just because mc-more-war was a pow does not mean he should be president. The guy used to have a spine but now is nothing but a flip-flopper and a panderer. He's also an OLD fart. The real straight-talker, John Murtha said that the Presidency is no place for an OLD man. There's a reason they make pilots retire at age 60. mc-more-war needs to retire with his millionaire wife. (The one he had an affair with after his first wife waited for him to come back from the war.) Obama 2008!!!

Posted by: pt | Aug 19, 2008 9:43:50 PM

McCain's advantages on national security issues are in the eye of the holder. Right now McCain is running off the fumes of the Schmidt/Rove attack ads. McCain was quick on the trigger when it came to Russia. Our troops are over stretched with both Iraq and Afghanistan. Was it smart for McCain to threaten Russia without the ability to back it up? Does America needs a campaign of fear taken right out of the pages of the cold war or Rove play book? When John McCain says “he'd 'follow him to the gates of Hell', his Republican pollsters must have cheered because those of us who have family heading to Afghanistan are not. We are not interested in Republican polled sound bites or rhetoric. With Barack Obama you get the sense that he will work with allies and reach across party lines to find a solution.

Posted by: Cooday | Aug 19, 2008 9:42:43 PM

McCain has an advantage on national security issues? What planet are you living on?

McCain says he knows how to win wars.

Heh. heh. heh.

Maybe he should point us to one he "won". Or maybe he's just another armchair quarterback.

Posted by: Flash Override | Aug 19, 2008 9:40:28 PM

hey mary---if they are all that loyal why dont they send her one dollar each a very small sum and get her out of debt---oh i forgot it is her money she is out.

Posted by: rodney | Aug 19, 2008 9:40:12 PM

Hillary received over 18 million votes in the primary elections. More than Obama. This is a fact look it up.

Posted by: maryintampa | Aug 19, 2008 9:36:50 PM

Why does cindy mccain call herself an only child? Get the real story at npr.com . Why did her father leave his millions to cindy and nothing to the other daughter???

Posted by: pt | Aug 19, 2008 9:35:46 PM

Mike -

There's plenty of irony to be found in McCain claiming (after a five year detour through Iraq), that he'll pursue OBL to the "gates of hell" but the following's one of the best.

Obama said during one of the debates that if he had actionable intelligence on OBL's whereabouts and Pakistan refused to act, he would. Clinton and McCain huffed, puffed, hyperventilated and jumped on him for being wreckless, naive and irresponsible.

A short time later, the military did have actionable intelligence on the whereabouts of several AQ leaders in Pakistan. They were taken out by a drone without "permission" from the Pakistanis.

As has frequently proven to be the case on the Middle East, Obama was right while McCain and Clinton were wrong. "Experience" doesn't amount to much if it's not accompanied by judgement.

Posted by: Brooklyn Democrat | Aug 19, 2008 9:34:19 PM

It all comes down to whether or not you think we should continue the bush policies. If you think the war should continue indefinitely, while we spend $10,000,000,000 a month, and you think that bush has done well with the economy then mc-more-war is your man. If you think that it's time we start to get out of Iraq and do some positive things for the average American instead of just the top 1% then vote for Obama.

Posted by: pt | Aug 19, 2008 9:33:30 PM

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