- Daily Photo: Obama Jokes Around at G-20
- Blackwater gets replaced in Iraq
- Daily Photo: U.S. Marines Look Out for Taliban in Afghanistan
- Hillary Clinton the Tomboy and Her "Ah-Ha" Moment
- Obama Administration Sudan Envoy Headed to Region
- Daily Photo: Potential Flashpoint in Iraq
- Clinton Says New Afghanistan-Pakistan Plan Depends on Diplomacy
- Exclusive: Three Israeli Airstrikes Against Sudan
- Additional 4,000 Troops to Be Ordered to Afghanistan
- Daily Photo: Navy Submarine Trains in the Arctic
- Alarm Over North Korea Missile Prep
- Anti-Terror Stimulus? US Offers Rewards for Top Terrorists
- Daily Photo: Pakistani Women in Refugee Camp
- Condoleezza Rice Appears on "The Tonight Show"
- Diplomat and Aid Group Sound the Alarm on Darfur Camp Situation
- auto industry rescue
- Ballotwatch
- Biden, Joe
- Bush, George W.
- Clinton, Bill
- Clinton, Hillary
- Dodd, Chris
- Edwards, John
- Giuliani, Rudy
- Gravel, Mike
- Huckabee, Mike
- Hunter, Duncan
- Inauguration
- Iraq
- Kucinich, Dennis
- McCain, John
- Obama, Barack
- Palin, Sarah
- Paul, Ron
- Romney, Mitt
- Tancredo, Tom
- Thompson, Fred
- Veepstakes
- Vote 2008: Democrats
- Vote 2008: Republicans
- Washington
- White House
« Previous | Main | Next »
McCain: Obama More Worried About '08 Campaign Than Losing a War
Email
ShareJuly 22, 2008 4:05 PM
ABC News' Jennifer Duck Reports: Sen. John McCain used some of his strongest words yet comparing his judgment to his opponent’s saying Sen Barack Obama "would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.”
“This is a clear choice that the American people have. I had the courage and the judgment to say that I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Sen. Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign,” McCain said in Rochester, New Hampshire today around the same time Sen. Obama was speaking with reporters overseas.
McCain continued to attack his Democratic opponent on the surge.
“He was wrong then, he's wrong now, and he still fails to acknowledge--he still fails to acknowledge that the surge succeeded. Remarkable. Remarkable,” McCain said. “He's just received his first briefing ever from Gen. Petraeus. And he declared his policy towards Iraq before he left, before he left.”
Obama was asked during a press conference in Amman, Jordan if voters should give McCain credit for his support for the surge.
“I will leave it to the voters to make that decision. And, you know, my hope is to avoid a colloquy with the McCain campaign over the next four or five days,” Obama responded.
“I think that Senator McCain deserves great credit for caring deeply about the safety and security of the American people," Obama added. "And I think he's made a series of decisions based on his best judgment of what would be good for American safety and security. I've differed with him on a range of those judgments. But I think that in each instance he's made those decisions based on what he thinks makes the most sense.”
Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M, told reporters on a conference call that Obama is “frighteningly inexperienced” when it comes to foreign affairs and national security policy. Wilson also said McCain would like to have troops out earlier than the 16 month time frame Obama has proposed.
"He would like troops to come home earlier than 16 months if the conditions allow it," Wilson, who is a surrogate for McCain, said on the call. "Senator Obama has said it's a 16 month timeline no matter what."
McCain was later asked if he agrees with Wilson.
“I think that they can be home dependent on conditions on the ground,” McCain told a small group of reporters. “The surge has succeeded. It has succeeded. We are winning the war. If we’d have done what Senator Obama wanted we’d have lost.”
McCain regularly holds town hall style speeches across the country and today one anti-war New Hampshire resident caused a McCain-friendly crowd to boo as she asked three questions about the invasion of Iraq. McCain calmed the crowd admitting those questions are on many Americans minds.
The Arizona Republican admitted the first four years of the war were “badly mishandled” but continued support for a conditioned based withdraw.
“Everybody recognizes, including Prime Minister Maliki, that we have to have conditions based withdraw. And we’re going to withdraw. We will withdraw. The fact is whether we withdraw in victory or whether we withdraw in defeat,” McCain said. “We have succeeded. Sadr City is safe, Mosul is safe, Basra safe. The people of Iraq—and I have been there—are leading normal lives.”
McCain said, “there will continue to be spectacular attacks” adding Al Qaeda has not been “completely defeated” but they have been “set back enormously” because of the surge strategy.
ABC News' Sunlen Miller contributed to this report.
July 22, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (104)
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
Heather Wilson lost her primary this year and will be leaving office at the end of her term.
Posted by: Jen | Jul 22, 2008 4:43:08 PM
McCain worries more about "winning" a stupid war than he does keeping the United States a great nation.
Plus, McCain is the one that has sold his soul for the presidency. The man has given up any and all morals he ever had to get elected. "Straight Talk", bushshit.
Posted by: JR | Jul 22, 2008 4:46:52 PM
McCain is more worried about election than bankrupting us and ruining any credibility on the world stage that we may have left.
Posted by: Ben Straub | Jul 22, 2008 4:51:04 PM
The MAINSCREAM media has failed the US so badly that covering for their errors is what many of us now focus on. Notice they do the bushbabys bidding by failing to list any war dead count either from IRAQ or Afghanistan, which was never added to the WAR ON TERROR totals ever. Now you will only see the monthly dead from the new Afghani front and perhaps you can forget the 5000 or so previously dead soldiers. Did you get the newsie story about how all the participants in the PAT TILLMAN cover up now employ the ronnie rayguns, don't know and can't remember defense? Wonder which MAINSCREAM outlet will total the cash payouts to the IRAQI insurgents to quit fighting in order to pretend the surge worked? FILM AT ELEVEN folks right after the DESPERATE NETWORK show...
Posted by: daddyblue | Jul 22, 2008 4:55:32 PM
McCain has got to be the worst presidential candidate in over twenty years.
Posted by: R | Jul 22, 2008 4:55:58 PM
Obuma is ONLY concerned about winning in November, as well he should!
He is tied with McCain, and Obuma is sinking lower everyday. Sweet!
Posted by: HP Boston | Jul 22, 2008 4:57:22 PM
Wait, losing what war? Iraq? We won remember? MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. We even put Saddam's neck in a noose. A real victory will be getting our men and women back home.
Posted by: ted | Jul 22, 2008 4:57:47 PM
McCain has got to be the worst presidential candidate in over twenty years.
Posted by: R | Jul 22, 2008 4:55:58 PM
--------------------
And OBUMA THE WORST EVER!
Posted by: HP Boston | Jul 22, 2008 5:00:34 PM
The surge was a great success. The results are almost 1,000 more dead American troops and another several hundred billion more $$$$. That's all. With successes like this, we truly need Democrats in charge to "lose" more wars.
Posted by: hiendurance | Jul 22, 2008 5:01:10 PM
Disgusting thing for McCain to say. He should be ashamed. A more accurate statement would be that McCain is more concerned about the future of Iraq than about the future of America.
Posted by: HonestAbe | Jul 22, 2008 5:03:44 PM
The GOP doesn't know the meaning of CLEAN. All they know is how to play dirty and hide behind their so called religious moral values; that is their brand. Sure abortion is against the law of God but so are 1. LYING TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 2. LEADING A CORRUPT GOVERNMENT 3. GREED OVER FOREIGN OIL.I just hope and pray the majority of Americans are tired of it!!!! and see them for what they really are HYPOCRITS!!! All McCain talks about is winning and losing the war but NEVER NEVER defines winning. Maybe because their is no winining when it comes to Terrorism because there will all ways be Terrorist in this world, especially from places like the middle east.
Posted by: dems for the white house | Jul 22, 2008 5:03:56 PM
~ McCrackers is a Senile Disgrace" But go on" Stupidity is a Freedom too" Vote for our destruction" Vote Lucifer McCain
Posted by: Jim | Jul 22, 2008 5:05:10 PM
~ The GOP's hands are dripping with the Blood of our young soldiers" I guess one dead Son a day is a Success?? It is if your a Bloody war monger like McCain!!! If he gets Elected there surely is no God.........
Posted by: Jim | Jul 22, 2008 5:09:02 PM
There is no definition of "winning" in Iraq that can be explained publicly. But Bush, Cheney and the oil company executives like Lee Raymond know that we won the war as soon as we invaded. The problem for them is to keep it going longer so they can sop up more hard earned money from the middle class in exorbitant energy pricing.
Posted by: hiendurance | Jul 22, 2008 5:09:40 PM
McCain can try to slam Obama all he wants. The fact is that McCain has reversed course on his convictions and adopted Bush's policies because he can't figure out any other stategy that will win for him. He is engaged in a sisyphian task, however, because no matter how you paint it McCain wants to stick with the old and Americans have had enough and are going to go for the new, and that means Obama. McCain may have bucked his party on some things in the past, but now that he's lost in trying to figure out a winning strategy, he's clinging to his security blanket of the neocons and far right and it's just not going to work. George Bush has f-cked McCain in every way he can.
Posted by: MikeinPhilly | Jul 22, 2008 5:13:07 PM
Regarding McCain's comment that “there will continue to be spectacular attacks” adding Al Qaeda has not been “completely defeated” but they have been “set back enormously” because of the surge strategy, have we found any Iraq-Al Qaeda connection yet that would be affected by the Surge strategy or is he referring to a future surge in Afghanistan as Senator Obama has suggested?
Posted by: Tom Olson | Jul 22, 2008 5:13:20 PM
okay which candidate never mentions his push to go into the war?
which candidate never says the war was a mistake?
which candidate never mentions that this surge cost us 200,000,000,000 dollars and we don't know whether it will work
which candidate flipped on almost every principal they had to get the right wing base?
which candidate thinks it is more important that his surge look like it worked at the expense of afghanistan and pakistan falling into chaos?
which candidate...
this is joke mcCain... when the surge wasn't working on it's own he used the exact playbook from afghanistan and started giving millions and guns to muslim extremists (insurgents) to fight with us against the taliban...
the exact same thing we did in afghanistan and ended up with al qaeda and osama bin laden
he is an old man who is stuck in bad old outdated war strategy from the 80's. which brought terrorists back on our soil and gave them their biggest recruitment tools they have ever had.
Posted by: dl | Jul 22, 2008 5:15:29 PM
About the only thing McCain can say is repeated whining and finger pointing. It's so pathetic! Every statement he makes is a criticism of Obama but you don't hear Obama returning the mud slinging! If McCain expect to win the election by mudslinging and criticizing his opponent, he's a sorry case for president. Haven't we had enough of Bush finger pointing at others and blaiming everyone else for his mistakes? It doesn't take much charactor to deamonize someone else, is that all the Republicans have to offer? - A disenchanted independent.
Posted by: Gerry | Jul 22, 2008 5:24:06 PM
It was John McCain who voted to send our soldier to war with a country which was no threat to us, a country which DID NOT have ANY weapons of mass destruction, AND IT IS John McCain WHO HAS SAID THAT HE WOULD MAKE THE SAME DECISION AGAIN. John McCain said that even with the faulty intelligence,(LIES)the war was premise on, that he, John McCain still felt that war with Iraq was justified, AND THAT HE WOULD DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN.
This is even though John McCain knows that the Iraq war has resulted in 4000 of our soldiers DYING in IRAQ!!! THIS IS WHAT YOU CALL TERRIBLE JUDGEMENT!!! JOHN McCAIN SAYING THAT HE WHO WOULD STILL SEND SOLDIERS INTO A WAR HE KNOWS WAS BASED ON A LIE!!!
Posted by: PAUL | Jul 22, 2008 5:26:09 PM
Obama wants to lose a war in order to win a political campaign. Obama will sell his mother to get more votes. He will call his grand mother a racist in order to get more votes.
Obama does whatever the politics demand.
Obama supports Al Qaeda if it assures him to get elected.
Posted by: Some One | Jul 22, 2008 5:30:01 PM
Post a comment
