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Top Surrogates Square Off on Foreign Policies
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ShareJuly 15, 2008 6:29 PM
ABC News' James Gerber Reports: Two senators who double as top surrogates for Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama presented vastly different assessments of U.S. foreign policy Tuesday, attacking their Senate colleagues and often each other during back-to-back speeches in Washington, D.C.
Speaking to a foreign policy think tank shortly after Obama issued what his campaign billed as a major foreign policy speech leading up to his trip later this month to Iraq and Afghanistan, McCain surrogate Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., sharply criticized the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, arguing the nation faces an enemy who "can not be placated by sweet reason or appeals to the better angels of our nature."
McCain's friend and surrogate attacked Obama's pledge to withdraw troops from Iraq within 16 months after taking office, arguing that Obama needs to understand his policy would have consequences beyond the region.
"What Sen. Obama seems to not be recognizing is that in an interdependent world, what happens in Baghdad affects our interests and the interests of people" across the world, Lieberman told a crowd of less than 200 at the Mayflower Hotel for a U.S. Center for Global Engagement talk.
Lieberman, who ran for vice-president in 2000 on the Democratic ticket, has faced criticism for supporting the presumptive Republican presidential nominee while caucusing with the Democrats in the Senate.
The former Democrat described McCain as "a devoted and principled internationalist" who will be "trusted and respected by our allies and respected and feared by our enemies." Upon entering office, argued Lieberman, McCain will "sound a certain and clear trumpet of American leadership and global engagement."
Speaking on behalf of Obama, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., who is rumored to be a strong candidate for vice-president or a potential Secretary of State in any Obama administration, followed Lieberman with an extensive rebuke of McCain, including a scathing assessment of the Bush administration’s foreign policy, which, he argued, is largely replicated by the presumptive Republican nominee.
"In recent years, Iran and not freedom has been on the march in the Middle East," Biden said, adding that "radical recruitment is on the rise, not demise."
Biden said the nation is less safe due to "the President and John McCain’s obsession on the war on terror" and criticized President Bush and Sen. McCain for "lumping together" the disparate factions in the region, evidence, he says, of their "profound confusion."
"George Bush and John McCain have fixated on a small number of radical groups that hate America, turning them into ten-foot tall giants, existential monsters that dictate every foreign policy decision," said Biden, who has taken on a more high-profile role in Obama's campaign this week.
"If they can't identify the enemy or describe the war we’re fighting, it’s very difficult to define whether we've won or lost," Biden said.
Biden, the chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, also criticized McCain for putting too much emphasis on Iraq.
"If John wants to know where the bad guys live, come back with me to Afghanistan," Biden said. "We know where they reside. And it’s not in Iraq."
Biden also echoed Obama’s arguments for leaving Iraq and redeploying American forces to Afghanistan, which he said "will enhance, not diminish, our prospects for leaving behind a stable situation in Iraq."
"This election in November is a vital opportunity for America to start anew," Biden said. "It will require more than a good soldier; it will require a wise leader."
July 15, 2008 in Hunter, Duncan, Kucinich, Dennis, Tancredo, Tom, Thompson, Fred | Permalink | User Comments (31)
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Finally, somebody shows some real courage! Thank you Senator Biden!
Posted by: Martha | Jul 15, 2008 6:38:08 PM
Joe...your days are numbered. When this is all over all you'll have to do is show up for roll call in the senate. Your chairmanship will be gone.
Posted by: linda n carolina | Jul 15, 2008 6:46:09 PM
What I want is a debate between John McCain and Obama on foreign policy. I want know what John McCain calls a "success" in Iraq. Because I fear no matter how much there's an improvement on the ground the Republicans and McCain will never find it good enough to withdraw troops.
Now he wants to expend the surge and add on to Afganistan. This is getting beyond asinine.
Posted by: Vanessa | Jul 15, 2008 6:48:36 PM
I am a HUGE fan of Biden.
I think that it will be McCain/Romney vs Obama/Biden in the general election.
Remember my prediction...
Posted by: Michelle | Jul 15, 2008 6:53:03 PM
If I were Biden I'd tell all of these people who are singing his praises NOW (for VP, of all things, are you kidding me) to go to you know where.
Posted by: Tom | Jul 15, 2008 8:03:44 PM
What you meant to say was that Obama echoes Joe Biden's arguments! Joe has forgotten more about foreign affairs than Obama will ever grasp! It is repulsive that Joe has been relegated to speaking out for Obama when he is far more fit to be president than Obama!
It is a cruel joke that the best people running for the Democratic nomination were pushed out of the race early by the two least qualified people, and now we are stuck with the least qualified of those two!
Posted by: Cacatua | Jul 15, 2008 8:10:31 PM
Biden makes a superb case. Bush/McCain is inflating extremist elements in the Middle East, the way the right wing pumped up the Soviet threat to gargantuan heights way beyond what they actually had. Plus a "War on Terror" is unfocused, open-ended language doomed to failure by its very vagueness and confusion. It only guarantees huge buildups in the military/defense budget but makes us less safe and weaker.
Posted by: hopesprings52 | Jul 15, 2008 8:20:13 PM
I think that Biden is a great assest to the Obama campaign. As someone falsely stated above, Obama is not echoing Biden's statements, Biden is reinforcing Obama's.
McCain keeps changing his foreign affairs policies every way the wind blows!
Posted by: Jennifer | Jul 15, 2008 8:41:00 PM
Biden makes a superb case.
Posted by: hopesprings52 | Jul 15, 2008 8:20:13 PM
====
You are absolutely correct. Unfortunately, it is not 0-bama who is capable of making such a case without hints written on his sleeves.
Posted by: fat cat | Jul 15, 2008 8:45:02 PM
Both Obama and Biden share the same views on foregin policy. Why should it matter if Obama can't make the "case" to you?
Posted by: Vanessa | Jul 15, 2008 8:58:01 PM
Obama makes more sense on this issue. McCain has less spending. Ron Paul was right on both.
Posted by: Carmen | Jul 15, 2008 8:59:26 PM
So, we have two wannabes that could never make it as a Presidential nominee.
Now, the two are stumping and stabbing as fast as furious as they can to bolster their own stock as a VP.
Politics as usual...
Posted by: Jayhawk | Jul 15, 2008 9:17:45 PM
What is Biden talking about when he speaks of enhancing ... "our prospects for leaving behind a stable situation in Iraq"? And if Iran has been on the march in the Middle East in recent years, just how will leaving Iraq affect that outcome? Biden is well respected on foreigh policy and he certainly knows what the crucial situations are. McCain is equally in tune to what the crucial situations are for leaving a stable Iraq and achieving progress and success in Afghanistan. The crucial decisions to be made do not seem to point to troops leaving Iraq in "16 months-max", nor to any easy permanent solution for the troubles in the Middle East. Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel, and all the other countries in the region who depend upon the rest of the world to help find solutions are going to need our participation in that arena. Our own security depends upon that. John McCain knows that as well as Biden. Lieberman fully understands the big picture. Biden, McCain, Lieberman, any of the three would make a better President. Obama is not ready, no matter how much Biden tries to prop him up.
Posted by: georgia | Jul 15, 2008 9:30:50 PM
How can Biden say this with a straight face? "This election in November is a vital opportunity for America to start anew," Biden said. "It will require more than a good soldier; it will require a wise leader."
..... what has Obama done to show he is a "wise leader?" ... this is just silly politics.
Posted by: Cynthia Jones | Jul 15, 2008 11:10:04 PM
I'm sorry, I thought the surge was working and violence was lower with more political gains being made in Iraq.
But the guy who wanted to halt the surge and pull out now wants to halt the surge and pull out?
Well, how did his last prediction of the war go? Did Iraq have renewed insurgents with more manpower and violence leading to a civil war?
Maybe in someone's world he was right before and should be trusted now. But I can't see how.
Posted by: Gekkobear | Jul 15, 2008 11:52:59 PM
so bush and mccain are obsessed with the war on terror and that is a bad thing?
The military doesn't know where the enemy is. Is he saying the people trying to kill us in Iraq is not our enemy?
it would have nice of you to point them out to the soliders while you were there. And to think NATO and US commanders haven't been able to figure out where they are. Wow - I guess we owe a lot of people an apology for killing all those good people in Iraq who for some reason was shooting at us.
You think maybe you could tell Obams where they are since he is ready to invade our ally Patistan to find them.
While you seem to know some much you think you could tell Congress where their ### is so they could get their head out of it and quit holding the American's hostage on energy independence. I personally don't appreciate being held hostage and forced to go green and conserve especially when Congres has failed to even get us 1/10 of the way there. Guess you guys think the wind wil power our bikes to work until you can figure out how we are going to get everyone a vehicle we can use without gas
Posted by: sue | Jul 16, 2008 2:34:13 AM
I tell you Biden and Obama will "relight the beacon" that was America for our grandparents.
add Edwards reforming the attorney general's office
and Clinton or Richardson as sec of state
Gore and Schwarzenegger overseeing and restarting America's "engine" with a new energy push.
Powell, Hagel, Petraeus, Webb, Gates, Baker figuring out our military issues and homeland security.
and we are well on our way to resolve this hole of a platform that Bush and now McCain have been trying for too long.
Posted by: dl | Jul 16, 2008 8:28:40 AM
and sue
most of the people we killed in Iraq...
weren't shooting at us.
but you keep going with that very sad argument.
Posted by: dl | Jul 16, 2008 8:30:19 AM
david from texas
the real story is...the surge has yet to wrok.
violence quelled...
bad promises to the insurgents made...
just like we did back in Iran adn afghanistan...
italways comes back to bite us in the a##.
McCain, Bush and the surge is based on old style conflict resolution...where we make promises that are built on lies (power and money that does not exist) and then those same people come back and hurt us with the opportunities we gave them...
same thing will happen now with the insurgents...
it happens every time...when will people like yourself learn that.
Posted by: dl | Jul 16, 2008 8:34:03 AM
Many of the people killed in Germany weren't shooting at us either.
Most of the people we killed in Japan weren't shooting at us either.
The same can be said for any war as, by nature, war involves killing and death.
War is never good, but the nature of war does not improve the abilities of Barack Obama or Joe Biden.
Nothing does.
Posted by: Jayhawk | Jul 16, 2008 8:39:46 AM
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