McCain Mocks Obama for Comment on Al Qaeda in Iraq at Debate
John McCain tried to capitalize Wednesday on what he sees as a weakness for his potential Democratic opponent, Barack Obama — his positions on Iraq.
McCain ridiculed the Illinois senator for a comment he made in a debate with Hillary Clinton on Tuesday night. Obama was asked if he would send soldiers back to Iraq to quell an insurrection or civil war if Al Qaeda in Iraq re-surges there. He responded that as president, he would take action “if Al Qaeda is forming a base in Iraq.”
McCain, who has staked much of his political fortunes to political and military successes in Iraq and his own national security credentials, suggested his anti-war colleague’s response was either naive or uninformed.
“When you examine that statement, it’s pretty remarkable,” McCain told a crowd in Tyler, Texas.
“I have some news. Al Qaeda is in Iraq. It’s called ‘Al Qaeda in Iraq,”‘ McCain said, drawing laughter at Obama’s expense.
The dig triggered a back-and-forth that continued long-distance through much of the day.
Obama quickly answered back, telling a crowd at Ohio State University in Columbus, “I do know that Al Qaeda is in Iraq.”
“McCain thought that he could make a clever point by saying ‘Well let me give you some news Barack, Al Qaeda is in Iraq,’ like I wasn’t reading the papers,” he said. “But I have some news for John McCain, and that is that there was no such thing as Al Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq.”
While an Illinois state senator in 2002, Obama gave an anti-war speech that the Iraq conflict would strengthen Al Qaeda’s ability to recruit.
Noting that McCain likes to tell audiences that he’d follow Usama bin Laden to the “gates of Hell” to catch him, Obama said Wednesday: “All he (McCain) has done is to follow George Bush into a misguided war in Iraq.”
McCain said he had not watched the Democratic presidential debate on Tuesday night but was told of Obama’s response to the Iraq question.
Obama did not say whether he’d send troops in the event of an insurrection but responded: “As commander in chief, I will always reserve the right to make sure that we are looking out for American interests. And if Al Qaeda is forming a base in Iraq, then we will have to act in a way that secures the American homeland and our interests abroad.”
The exchange previewed the likely flash-points for the candidates if they do in fact face off during the general election.
The latest head-to-head Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, taken Feb. 21-25, showed McCain besting both Democratic candidates in a hypothetical general election — but a race with Obama looks more competitive.
The poll showed McCain with a 46-to-40 percent advantage over Hillary Clinton, but with a slim 44-to-42 percent lead over Obama. Most recent head-to-head polls show Obama beating McCain by a hair and McCain edging out Clinton in a general election. The poll’s margin of error was 3 points.
In an effort to highlight his own security credentials, McCain has throughout the primary season repeatedly attacked both Obama and Clinton for saying they would withdraw troops from Iraq.
“And my friends, if we left, they (Al Qaeda) wouldn’t be establishing a base,” McCain said Wednesday. “They’d be taking a country, and I’m not going to allow that to happen, my friends. I will not surrender. I will not surrender to Al Qaeda.”
He said that withdrawing troops would be “waving the white flag.”
In the debate, Clinton did not answer the question about re-invasion of Iraq on grounds it contained “lots of different hypothetical assessments.”
For years, McCain has urged sending more troops into Iraq, even before President Bush adopted such a strategy about a year ago.
“I knew enough from talking to the men and women who are serving that this new strategy was what we needed, and I’m telling you, it is succeeding,” McCain said. “So what needs to happen, we need to continue this strategy. It should be General Petraeus’ recommendation, not that of a politician running for higher office, as to when and how we withdraw.”
He was referring to Gen. David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq.
As he began a swing through Bush’s home state of Texas, which holds a presidential primary election on Tuesday, McCain made sure to play up a line he always uses.
“I also think it might be nice for President Bush to get a little credit that there’s not been another attack on the United States of America,” he said to applause.
FOX News Molly Henneberg and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
If there was ever a time when we do not need a novice in the White House, it is now. Using this high office for a training ground for a prospective president is out of the question. What we need is true & tried men & women running for this office as never before. There is so much at stake we dare not fail to elect the one person who can carry us forward, and win this war in Iraq & Afganastan. Weakness has never gotten a nation in this world where we are now, with the possibilities of becoming even greater in the eyes of the world. Folks, cast your ballot for a “Wionner” & never for a “Loser”.
I am LOVING this !!! You DEMs can’t even get out of you own bloody way. The whole country is watching and you’re leaders are giving each other wedgies. Even the “first spouse” hopefuls seem hell-bent to ruin the party’s image. And now NADER!!! This is priceless!!!!
You’ve got two candidates, neither of whom has a prayer of beating the Apostate Sheriff, John McCain. And now, Ralph Nader, the Republican’s Sweetheart of 2000 has returned for “Election Year at Ralph’s - Part II” to make sure the DEMs don’t win again. Ralph is out to make a point to you folks (just wait), and that is, if it were a smooth-talking blue-eyed Irishman O’Bama, nobody would be giving his ass the time of day. Hillary’s a tough, worn out old shoe, walked on, beat up, re-soled, full of holes and filth…. and 9 years later, the well still stinks from the piss of the Clintons and their infamous entourage. So, you’ll drink the tainted kool-aid and nominate Obama all right, but then what? Can you get the country to buy his excuses about his drug use (remember America’s first “black” president… “ ..but I didn’t’ inhale…”), his horrible Senate attendance record, his shamelessly ungrateful affirmative-action “free ride” bi*ch wife, his affairs and finances (… “I did not have sex with that woman…”) or his total lack of relevant experience? The country’s case of delirious Obamania will be over soon, thank God. How then are you going to feel about putting lipstick on your pig?? Don’t forget that endorsement from Louis Farakkahn, good as gold!!! That’ll wind the hearts of the undecided moderates, won’t it.?
Take a big step back. Have you stopped for a moment to consider what the rest of the world thinks of Obama. Remember, the rest of the world, where they can’t afford our tennis shoes, tattoos, or iPods and haven’t any understanding (or use) political correctness. It’s widely known, but seldom spoken, that traditional Asian cultures teach that biological Africans are a less evolved sub-species of homonids. Sad, but true. What about the Muslim world? Barack will say he is not a Muslim anymore, he abandoned the religion. Do you know how what the Kuran says about Muslims who have forsaken Allah to worship another god? Look it up! So, between the Asians and Muslims, fully half the worlds population will either consider our Democratic presidential candidate a genetically inferior sub-human, or they’ll want to kill him. Or both!! Great for Foreign relations, eh?
Forgetting world affairs and our responsibility as the sole surviving (and reluctant) superpower; here at home, if a Democrat wins, your taxes will go UP, the illegals will ALL become legal (and eligible for Medicare, SSI), your personal level of safety at home and abroad, will go DOWN, and freedom of religious expression for most Americans will be further impinged. What rational thinking person wants any of this???
So, you DEMs, try hard to polish your turd. All I can say is GOOOOO RALPH !!!! The Republicans should be funding this shenanigan of yours, if they aren’t already. Make us proud (again) !!! And I’ll be thanking the rest of you on November 8 for “Not Paying Attention”.
So let me get this straight in my mind: President Bush woke up one morning in the White House, and said to himself, “hmm… I’m bored, what am I going to do today? Oh I know! I’ll go invade Iraq unilaterally without any input from the UN, and for no apparent reason . I have nothing better to do… Laura? Get me the Commanding General of the Army on the phone”…
The half truths of the Democrats are breathtaking. I’m voting McCain in November.
According to Obama: “But I have some news for John McCain, and that is that there was no such thing as Al Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq.”
Not true…look in the Library of Congress under the Congressional Record Issue: AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF MILITARY FORCE AGAINST IRAQ RESOLUTION OF 2002 — (House of Representatives - October 08, 2002)
Section of Record: House
“Whereas the current Iraqi regime has demonstrated its continuing hostility toward, and willingness to attack, the United States, including by attempting in 1993 to assassinate former President Bush and by firing on many thousands of occasions on United States and Coalition Armed Forces engaged in enforcing the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council;
Whereas members of al Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq;
Whereas Iraq continues to aid and harbor other international terrorist organizations, including organizations that threaten the lives and safety of American citizens;”
Congress and its own intelligence reports, independant of Bush, Cheney, or McCain briefings,
concluded the same, that Al Qaeda was in Iraq. It is also important to remember that foreign countries had their own independant reports as well as each individual member of congress usually hire their own intelligence gatherers. Not to mention, that defected Iraqi’s were also stating that Al Qaeda was in Iraq. Please read “Saddam’s Bombmaker” written in 1999 (before the anti-bush campaign led by liberals began) by Khidhir Hamza.
“Before he defected to the United States in 1995, Hamza was the director general of Saddam’s secret program to build a nuclear bomb, a three-decade effort that nearly succeeded. When he fled, Hamza took the secrets of the weapons program with him, disclosing them to the Central Intelligence Agency in detailed briefings and later going public with his story in interviews, lectures and TV appearances. For now, Hamza has the unusual distinction of being the highest-ranking Iraqi scientist ever to defect and live to tell about it.”
Now, all of a sudden, Obama is acting like he would have been much wiser than all of these hundreds of people and their hundreds of intelligence gatherers and the various other countries and their intelligence gatherers…that Obama would have definately seen right through all of these misfits and believed Saddam Hussein. Think People Think
Here are the facts as I understand them based on research that I have personally done:
Fact - Obama is a very liberal politician. Fact - He is not a Muslim. Fact - Obama is a practicing Christian. Fact - Obama is a long time member of a large black church in the Chicago area that teaches and follows a black separatist doctrine. Fact - Obama was educated at Ivy league schools and is a lawyer by education. Fact - Obama is a very good public speaker and debater. Fact - Obama has been a state legislator. Fact - Obama is a first time US senator. Fact - Obama has written a couple of books. Fact - Obama is a lawyer politician who has never had any experience at anything other than working in the public arena and law. Fact: Obama’s wife said in a speech that this is the first time that she is really proud of her country. Note - At the time I thought that was a slip of the tongue. Fact - Obama’s wife wrote a thesis in college lamenting that despite her achievements in life up to that point in time she would never be accepted as a member of society at large because she is black. Note: After checking this out I realized that Mrs. Obama’s comments in the speech mentioned above may not have been a slip of the tongue and that she more that likely still views herself as the victim of a racist US society.
Fact: I am a middle class male. Both my maternal and paternal grandparents were immigrants. One grandfather was a barber and the other worked in a brewery. Most of the ladies in the family worked in the garment industry. My father did not graduate from high school. He joined the army and stayed for 26 years. He eventually earned his GED while in the army. He and my mother raised a family of four children on an army sergeants pay. By the time I was sixteen the family had moved a total of 22 times, four of those moves were transatlantic (by slow moving military transport ships with voyages lasting ten straight days at a time). I was married at age 18 and a father by 19. My wife and I managed to raise two children and get them through college. Along the way my wife and I both managed to earn or college degrees. It took me ten years going to school part time whenever I could find the time. I spent my time in the military and got a job working for a corporation. For most of my life I have worked an average of ten hours a day and most weekends. My wife and I have worked very hard to support ourselves and our family. We do everything we can to make sure that we are contributing members of society and not a burden. We made sure that we met our obligation as parents to bring up children that once cut free from the apron strings were contributing members of society in good standing. Most of my friends and peers have similar stories to tell.
We are American citizens. Nobody in our family uses a hyphen to designate our ethnic, cultural, or racial origin. I don not feel guilty about who I am. I do not feel guilty about whatever happened relative to historical events in the United States prior to the arrival of my ancestors on US soil. I don’t owe anything to anyone and none of my fellow citizens owe me anything . My only obligation in this life is to continue to be a contributing law abiding member of society.
Based on my experience in life I don’t see how on earth Barak Obama can represent me as my president. He can not relate to who or what I am and I can not relate to who or what he is. Yes he is a smart, well educated man. But I can not find any common ground with a guy that for all all intents and purposes has never had to do a single day of really hard work. He is young and very inexperienced at anything other than being an articulate Ivy league lawyer- politician. His speeches do not inspire me. He has talked a lot about change, but he has not talked about the changes that I would like to see and most of those changes have to do with tangible issues (e.g. like reigning in a run away banking and financial system, putting an immediate stop to illegal immigration, cutting my tax burden, realistic solutions to energy dependence, finding a way to stop the flow of jobs out of the US, etc).
Barak has talked bout changing America block by block, county by county. Well, my block does not need to be changed. The block that needs to be changed is the block (and there are thousands like them across the US) where my father-in-law was robbed and assaulted. During the robbery his hip has broken and his health has been in steady decline ever since that event. Before the assault he was a proud, independent, self supporting and contributing member of society. Now he is in assisted living, barely able to stand up on his own and will likely be in a nursing home before the end of the year.
Mr and Ms Obama are correct in one thing. Hard working productive and self sufficient people in the United States are hungry for change, but I don’t think the change people like me are looking for can be met by Ivy league educated attorney politicians who don’t have to live and work out here where the rubber meets the road.
God doesn’t have to declare His faith and He rules over all nations. If God were exposed as a Mormon or a Muslim, He would still have my popular vote, because I like His policies and politics over yours any day.
Is John McCain so old that he no longer cares that his prospective opponent was answering a stupid hypothetical question that was asked by Russert? What happened to the straight talk express? Very Clintonesque, but disingenious if he wants to attract anyone with the a mind of their own. At least his people can do the math and understand that Obama is going to be the nominee. How come the media is not covering the fact that Hillary would need to win ALL OF THE REMAINING STATES BY A 70%-30% margin to pass Obama in the popular vote and in voted for delegates. Only the deluded Clintonites think that is possible and only they are arrogant enough to think that the super delegates would override the voters to install her as the nominee.
It amazes me how easily duped and naive people are. Hello…does anyone think that Barack Hussein Obama is a name that will be unbiased?
WAKE UP America Obama is a fraud. Someone get him a shirt that says “open mouth insert foot.” He is no longer trying to win based on great speaking abilities, he is now banking on charm and charisma. As a military mom and wife I support the war on terror wherever the terrorists try to hide. WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP!!!! This guy is a soothsayer……….
This is from CNN, believe it or not: A ticker article about Obama’s problems with Muslim association:
If there is confusion — and opportunity for political mischief — it derives at least in part from Obama’s rich cultural background. His mother was a white woman from Kansas, his father was Kenyan and he spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, a largely Muslim country.
“My grandfather, who was Kenyan, converted to Christianity, then converted to Islam,” Obama said Sunday. “My father never practiced; he was basically agnostic. So, other than my name and the fact that I lived in a populous Muslim country for four years when I was a child, I have very little connection to the Islamic religion.”
Obama has become careful in denouncing the links, lately noting that some rumors about him also have been insulting to Muslims. Jim Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute, said many Arab Americans are drawn to Obama because of his cultural background.
“It is clear he wants to have a broader relationship with the Muslim world,” Zogby said. “He has a biography that connects him to the Muslim world.”