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McCain and Romney Go All Day Long
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ShareJanuary 26, 2008 7:09 PM
ABC News's Bret Hovell reports: The war of words continued Saturday between Republican rivals Mitt Romney and John McCain over the issue of experience and judgment in the handling of the Iraq war.
It started Saturday morning in Ft. Myers, Florida, when McCain, the Arizona Senator, criticized Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, for having supported setting a timetable for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
"Governor Romney wanted to set a date for withdrawal similar to what the Democrats are seeking which would have led to a victory by Al Qaeda in my view."
"That is not the case, I’ve never said that," Romney responded from Lutz, FL, a few hours north of where McCain spoke. Romney said that McCain was "trying desperately to change the topic from the economy and trying to get back to Iraq."
The Romney position on timetables, which McCain said was similar to what Democrats supported, came from an appearance on ABC's Good Morning America in April of 2007.
"Well, there's no question that the president and Prime Minister al-Maliki have to have a series of timetables and milestones that they speak about," Romney told GMA's Robin Roberts at the time. "But those shouldn’t be for public pronouncement."
But leading Democrats vying for their party's nomination have been much more forceful and specific about the withdrawal timetable they would implement. Sen. Hillary Clinton has said she would start withdrawing troops within 60 days of taking office, Barack Obama has said all the troops would be out by the end of his first year in office.
Romney's comments back in April did not go nearly that far, and he supports the current surge strategy that is in effect.
Romney called McCain’s comparison "dishonest."
"To say something that’s not accurate is simply wrong and he knows better," Romney said, as he called on McCain to apologize.
McCain's team went into action formulating a response, which McCain delivered at his next stop in Sun City, FL.
"Now I understand that Governor Romney has changed his position again as he has on several other issues," McCain told a crowd at a town hall meeting. "But my friends, I was there. He said that he wanted a timetable for withdrawal that would have meant disaster."
Romney’s campaign called McCain’s words "stunningly false."
"This statement is especially egregious because Senator McCain knows in his heart that he is engaging in a blatant distortion towards a fellow Republican who is also committed to helping the men and women of our military achieve a successful result in Iraq," said Romney spokesman Kevin Madden.
The point counterpoint spanned several hours and a wide swath of the State of Florida, three days before the crucial primary here.
Throughout the next four hours, the McCain campaign released four different statements on Romney’s position on the war. In a written statement, McCain said Romney and others had been "hedging" their bets on the Iraq war with the statement he made on GMA, "positioning themselves politically by being deliberately vague on their support for General Petraeus’s new strategy."
"The fact is, like on so many other issues, Governor Romney has hedged, equivocated, ducked, and reversed himself," the statement read.
And the Romney campaign alerted the media that they would have one of their supporters, Ben Ginsberg, at McCain’s evening event to answer any questions about Romney’s record.
The battle for Florida may end Tuesday night, but yields to a fight over 22 states a week later, on Super Tuesday.
January 26, 2008 in Hunter, Duncan | Permalink | User Comments (7)
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Got to see the video McCain vs McCain. McCain said that he was confident the Iraq war would only last a few months. A few years later he states that those who originally thought that the war would only last a few months didn't understand the complexity of this war. Huh?
Posted by: greg | Jan 26, 2008 7:18:20 PM
Opps, correction to the above, the Group was formed in 1988, the year after the October 1987 Crash. Amazingly, McCain had no knowledge of this important Group that manipulates the Markets.
Posted by: hmmeadors | Jan 26, 2008 7:20:43 PM
McCain is clearly threatened by Mitt Romney and the old buzzard is lying through his yellow teeth, as usual. He needs to just admit that he is a big fat hipocrit.
Posted by: m_marie | Jan 26, 2008 7:25:07 PM
We can not let foreign governments influence our senators and definitely not our President.
Someone, anyone, please ask him about this guy and why would John McCain, who has told us that he has 'changed his ways' regarding amnesty would be hanging out with this individual who said that he wants Mexican-Americans to the third, the 7th generation to think Mexico first, to have their loyalties to Mexico before America.
I want a president of the United States of America. The clintons sold our secrets to China, John McCain would give everything else to anyone who came in.
Amnesty John is at it again.
John has no experience running anything. He has been in Washington DC soooo long he has lost touch with America.
John McCain is NOT presidential at all!
Posted by: Apollo | Jan 26, 2008 8:30:46 PM
Apollo as a former McCain supporter in 2000, I have to say I reluctantly came to the same conclusion and as you and left the sellout that is John McCain. John is SO desperate to be president that he'll sell anybody out including his country to get his crack at power. It's embarrasing to see that this is what John had in store for America in 2000. And even furthermore when he cowers into George W. Bush's failed polices. It a shame. Perhaps McCain has more Clinton in him that most people care to acknowledge. I mean why does he keep bragging about the fact that he and Hilliary are so close, and that if he's the nominee, they'll run a "respectful" campaign against one another. Sounds like somebody's not worried if Hilliary gets in the White House to me. As a Republican I find that VERY troubling. And I see it as just enough to tip my support to somebody else. Rudy, McCain, Romney, Huckabee... NOT a conservative in the bunch!
Posted by: ugh! | Jan 26, 2008 8:39:05 PM
I caucused (sp?) for McCain in Washington in 2000, as well. It was refreshing to see the straight talk going (yes, our vote was so late, it didn't matter, but I still stood my ground on conviction) which is why his campaign using foreign government officials for any reason kills me.
WE are America, John McCain's mccain/feingold bill was supposed to clean up the outside influence of politics, but John lets governments work for him...on the inside!!!!
Unethical? You bet!
Posted by: Apollo | Jan 27, 2008 8:36:06 PM
Could the above comments critical of McCain be any more sophmoric? Romney really has his Mormon cohorts out in force. And they clearly have nothing better to do than write disingenuine blogs all day. There's no canidate so artificial, duplicious, or desperate to claim the white house than the pro-choice Mormon from liberal Massachusettes. In fact, Romney is so desperate to win, he's wasted over 20 million of his own money. Between his trips to the tanning bed and the hair salon he meets with his focus groups to figure out exactly what he should say at the next town hall meeting.
Shallow and Capricious? Absolutely
Posted by: Jonathan | Jan 28, 2008 9:04:39 AM
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