Obama, McCain Spar on Iraq, Economy as DNC Takes Aim at McCain
April 27: Barack Obama center, attends a church service at St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Indianapolis.
Barack Obama and John McCain clashed Sunday over Iraq war policy and the economy as the Democratic party aimed a new attack against McCain with an advertisement questioning a remark he made over keeping troops in Iraq for up to 100 years.
In an interview that aired Sunday, Obama praised the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, for the progress he has made in taming sectarian violence there, but said he would set the goal of removing troops in Iraq even if Petraeus — who was nominated this week to take charge of U.S. Central Command — recommended against it.
“I think Petraeus has done a good tactical job in Iraq. I think as a practical matter, obviously, that’s where most of the attention has been devoted from this administration over the last several years,” Obama said on “FOX News Sunday.”
Asked what he would do if Petraeus recommended against withdrawing troops from Iraq — an Obama campaign pledge — Obama said “it would be stupid” not to listen, but in the end, he would keep the goal of withdrawing troops.
“I will listen to General Petraeus given the experience that he has accumulated over the last several years. It would be stupid of me to ignore what he has to say. But it is my job as president, it would be my job as commander in chief, to set the mission, to make the strategic decisions in light of the problems that we’re having in Afghanistan, in light of the problems that we are having in Pakistan, the fact that Al Qaeda is strengthening, as our national intelligence estimates have indicated, since 2001,” Obama said.
He added: “What I would do is I would say — what I will do is say, ‘We have a new mission. It is my strategic assessment that we have to provide a time table to the Iraqi government. I want you to tell me how best to execute this new assignment, and I am happy to listen to the tactical considerations and any ideas you have, but what I will not do is to continue to let the Iraqi government off the hook and allow them to put our foreign policy on ice while they dither about making decisions about how they’re going to cooperate with each other.’ ”
McCain’s campaign fired back a statement over the exchange, saying Obama’s statements were “a complete contradiction of his record.”
“Are we to believe Senator Obama has the strength to take recommendations from General Patraeus, who has advised against immediate withdrawal, when Obama has repeatedly shown that he can’t stand up to the left-wing interests in his party?
“Again, Senator Obama said he would raise taxes on hardworking families during an economic downturn, which makes it clear that he doesn’t understand the American economy. His inconsistencies raised many more questions about Barack Obama’s strength than they answered, and American families cannot afford leadership that can’t deliver,” McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said, according to a campaign statement.
Later in the day, McCain took Obama to task over comments he made regarding taxes.
During the FOX interview, Obama criticized McCain, saying McCain switching his position from opposing President Bush’s tax cuts to later supporting them.
“Somewhere along the line, you know, his conscience took flight because he was looking to get nominated for the Republican — as the Republican nominee,” Obama said.
McCain fired back: “I think that my record is very clear of having had a vigorous proposal for tax cuts, for spending restraint. My efforts at bringing about a restraint in growth of spending are very clear while Senator Obama has supported the spending increases and sought pork barrell projects … causing spending to be completely out of control.”
Focusing on Obama’s support of raising taxes, including the capital gains tax, McCain said Obama “has no understanding of the economy and that he is totally insensitive to the hopes and dreams and ambitions of 100 million Americans who would be effected by his almost doubling of the capital gains tax, not to mention his desire to increase the cap on social security, which again would have a devastating tax increase effect on Americna families. He is out of touch with the economy.”
Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee’s new ad leveled against McCain is part of a half-million-dollar, three-week national cable television campaign aimed at linking the Arizona senator to the policies of President Bush.
The ad set to begin airing Monday accuses McCain of wanting to remain in Iraq for “maybe 100″ years, a link to a remark McCain made in January while campaigning in New Hampshire. The ad concludes, “If all he offers is more of the same is John McCain the right choice for America’s future?”
Since then, McCain has repeatedly said he has no intention of extending the war into the next century, but would keep a U.S. military presence in Iraq much as the United States has in Germany, Japan and South Korea.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Sunday that McCain is “wrong” and “out of step” with public sentiment on the war.
“We’re not arguing that he’s going to be in war for a hundred years. We don’t think we ought to be in Iraq for a hundred years under any circumstances,” Dean said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“Think of the hundreds of billions of dollars that are being spent in Iraq which we need right here at home to preserve American jobs. … Secondly, if Senator McCain believes that you can occupy a country like Iraq for a hundred years without having a long war and violence and troops being hurt and killed, I think Senator McCain is wrong,” Dean said.
Citing a poll, Dean said 70 percent of Americans do not want troops to stay in IRaq under any circumstances, adding, “He is out of step with the American people.”
The Democratic candidates have also acknowledged they would keep non-combat troops in Iraq to ensure its stability. But they have said they would begin withdrawing combat troops promptly upon becoming president, a step McCain has said would be precipitous.
McCain first uttered the comments about the 100 years in Iraq in response to a question during a January town hall meeting in New Hampshire, saying he’d be “fine” with a long-term U.S. commitment in Iraq.
“President Bush has talked about our staying for 50 years, maybe 100. We’ve been in Japan for 60 years, in South Korea for 50 years or so. That would be fine with me as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or killed,” McCain said at the time.
As recently as March, Obama linked the troop presence to ongoing war, but has since tailored the message to ongoing troop presence, versus continued fighting.
The DNC has been organizing a drumbeat against McCain at the state party level to coincide with McCain’s travels across the country.
Meanwhile, Obama has become a Republican target. The North Carolina Republican Party aired an ad, over McCain’s objections, that uses remarks by Obama’s former pastor to portray Obama as too extreme. The ad points out that the two Democrats running for state governor have endorsed the Illinois senator.
Freedom’s Watch, a conservative group, and the National Republican Congressional Committee are running ads in Louisiana criticizing Obama’s health care proposal and linking him to a Louisiana congressional candidate.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
With the likes of Pelosi, Reid, Kennedy and now Howard Dean running the
democratic party, and putting up a wimp like Senator Obama and HIllary for President what on earth are responsible Americans to do. They have really given us no choice but to vote McCain. Everyone with an ounce of intelligence knows what Senator McCain meant when he mentioned 100 years. Only an idiot like the democrats would try to make something out of nothing. The democrats sure don’t give the American people any credit for having any brains, well I guess they did get elected so whose to blame. We are. Need I say more. Obama will hand our Country to Iran on a silver platter and we will be to blame. Wake up all you people, America needs you to be strong, Stand together and protect America. She belongs to us the people not the Democratic party.
I hope you will post this as I wrote the first comment on this subject but it was never posted. Am I blackballed by a democrat on your staff?????
If the dems want to win next nov they need to tell howard dead to keep his mouth shut! He make me feel 3% more ignorant everytime I hear him speak.
Personally, I think that Mr. Obama does not have the experience nor the expertise to to be the commander in chief of our country. Mr. McCain on the other hand, even though I disagree with many things he says, has had both military experience and knows the way things work in Washington. As far as being a republican or democrat goes, I don’t really care what they call themselves. Each individual must be judged on their own merits.
Ealy,
Not too many in the military make over 100K a year. As a 14 year veteran of the Marine Corps, I can certainly attest to that. But let me tell ya, living in or around a big city with a family to support and making 100K a year is nothing special at all. I can attest to that as well.
This is why Obama is out of touch and will ultimately not be elected. He wants to claim middle class people are rich, snobby SOB’s and that they owe more money to the government. Somehow he thinks the government does a good job with the money it handles. Now out of touch is that??!!
Caution to North Carolina voters: The 2 Democrats running for governor have endorsed Barack Obama for president.
To chuck,
Regardless of whether or not Dean’s 70% figure was correct, why are you assuming that because the majority of Americans support a withdrawal of troops, they must therefore be unpatriotic? Yes, there have been recent polls by ABCNews stating a 41/56 split on those supporting troop numbers in Iraq and those who favor pullout (or according to you, “care nothing about the security of our nation). Being patriotic means caring about the welfare of your country’s soldiers and citizens. You honestly believe that continuing to put our armed forces in harm’s way, in a country where we have no business to be in is the “patriotic” thing to do?
However, I did enjoy your hinting that the poll respondents were “from a selected militant terrorist group of Obama supporters.” Gave me a good laugh.
Charlene P,
so exactly how many milliions of Americans make over 100k a year that you know of?? these are the people obama proposes to raise taxes. im in iraq right now and and i have accumulated tons of friends both military and civilian. the honorable general petreaus who is doing a fine job ill add, is the only person i know of that makes that kind of money. as for Mr. Hanawalt, obama propose that we put more troops in afghan. and pakistan where terorist tend to relax worry free instead of focusing solely on iraq. i love how u guys pick and choose words spoken from Obama. the man has a common sense plan for this country that of course isnt 100% fullproof jus the same as any plan. no matter how u twist his words and label him a terrorist because of his middle name, the people have spoken and this race is won already.
If it wasn’t so frustrating I would find it humorous that Obama’s key campaign slogan is “change”. His strength is politics. He has not proven himself in any way to have the strength or experience to handle the huge job of being Commander in Chief. The only thing he has proven himself to be good at is to make promises, many of which are ridiculous, and others that are frightening (like announcing a date to the terrorists regimes of the world as to when the US will no longer be a nuisance to them in Iraq.) He is no different from other Democratic politicians. He makes promises, as if as the President of the United States he will have a magic wand to solve the unique problems of each American. The one promise that he will surely keep, however, is the promise to raise taxes on millions of us. Great. Yippee.
To Mr. DNC Chairman Howard Dean:
The American people would like to see the details of the group polled that indicate that 70% of the Americans do not want troops to stay in Iraq “under any circumstances”.
DNC Chairman Howard Dean cited a poll indicating that 70% of Americans do not want troops to stay in Iraq “under any circumstances”. It is difficult to believe that 70% of Americans are unpatriotic and care nothing about the security of our nation. Or perhaps this poll came from a selected militant terrorist group of Obama supporters. Regardless, Howard Dean is trying to instill, by lie and deceit, the “gain power at any cost” attitude into the American voters.
Before you vote for any candidate based undocumented propaganda, please the check integrity, knowledge, experience, qualifications, rancid baggage, etc. of the candidate.