John McCain, appearing to accept Barack Obama as his likely opponent in November, told FOX News’ Bill O’Reilly on Thursday that he will run his general election campaign by exploiting what he sees as the Illinois senator’s “inexperience and lack of judgment.”

The Arizona senator suggested Obama’s willingness to hold talks with nations like Iran and his light record on national security, along with his tax-raising proposals, will lead to his electoral undoing in the fall.

“So I think it’s inexperience and judgment and vision … for the future of this country. And I think that’s what this campaign is gonna be all about,” McCain said when asked what he sees as Obama’s biggest weakness.

“If you are gonna sit down with someone like (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad, who … says they are gonna quote ‘wipe Israel off the map,’ then you enhance their prestige,” he said. “The same thing if you want to talk to Mr. (Hugo) Chavez. The same thing if you want to talk to Raul Castro, who was the henchman in Cuba and still is for many, many years.”

McCain’s appraisal of Obama followed the Illinois senator’s double-digit victory in the North Carolina primary Tuesday and his narrow loss to Hillary Clinton in Indiana.

Sen. Obama’s performance put him within striking distance of the Democratic nomination and has led several pundits and prominent Democrats to declare he is McCain’s inevitable challenger, though Clinton is pledging to fight the race to the finish.

McCain told FOX News the persistent controversy over Obama’s former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright, however, will not be a focal point of his campaign.

McCain walked a fine line when asked about the criticism he’s taken over one of his own pastor supporters — John Hagee. Hagee has come under fire for attempting to link the Roman Catholic Church to the rise of the Nazis and for suggesting Catholicism is a “false cult system.”

“Reverend Hagee is a man who is committed to the state of Israel. He has done a lot of good things,” McCain said. “I do not embrace a view that he stated about … the Catholic Church. I steadfastly rejected and repudiated (that view). I have never been in Pastor Hagee’s church. I know him. But the fact is that I accept his endorsement.”

The presumptive GOP nominee also renewed his call for “comprehensive immigration reform,” saying the country still needs to secure its borders, enact a temporary worker program and deal with the millions of illegal immigrants already in the United States in a “humane” fashion.

Though McCain has taken heat from conservatives for his failed efforts to push an immigration package with Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy, Mass., that they said amounted to amnesty, McCain said Thursday he would not tolerate so-called sanctuary cities — cities that encourage a hands-off approach to local enforcement of federal immigration laws.

“I am opposed to sanctuary cities,” McCain said. “But the sanctuary city problem solves itself when you have comprehensive immigration reform.”

Clinton told O’Reilly a week ago that she would not crack down on sanctuary cities.

 

 

 

 

 

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