It only took a few hours but the folks at the DNC have dug up some more timely quotes where all the Democrats shown previously praising McCain in his campaign video are attacking the presumptive GOP nominee for his recent shift to the right.
Barack Obama told FOX St. Louis affiliate KTVI today he won’t make the same mistake Dems have made in the past by ignoring rural U.S.A.
“I think that in rural communities, the main job for any candidate including me is to show up and I think that people make a mistake. Democrats oftentimes are just focused on the big urban areas - St. Louis, Kansas City - don’t go to these rural communities, and people don’t get a chance to find out what you’re about,” he said.
The response came when the interviewer asked Obama if he was concerned about race impacting his chances this election. The questioner pointed out that the last African American to run statewide, Alan Wheat, lost by huge margins to John Ashcroft in certain districts, and many concluded the reason was race.
While Obama didn’t answer that aspect of the question, he did make it clear he intends to bring his campaign to rural communities. “Absolutely we are going to be doing that,” he pledged.
The candidate’s next scheduled event will be held Thursday in Kaukauna, Wisconsin - population 12,743, according to the city’s website.
At a town hall in Roseburg, Oregon, Barack Obama took on Republican John McCain on both foreign policy and domestic issues - over and over and over again. All the while, Obama assured the crowd that the differences between Hillary Clinton and himself “pale in comparison” with differences Democrats have with the presumptive Republican nominee.
For the second day in a row, Obama took issue with George Bush’s appeasement comments as well as John McCain’s questioning Obama’s ability to keep the country safe. “If George Bush and John McCain have a problem with direct diplomacy, led by the President of the United States, then they can explain why they have a problem with John F Kennedy because that’s what he did with Krushchev, or Ronald Reagan, ’cause that’s what he did with Gorbachev, or Richard Nixon ’cause that’s what they did with Mao. That’s exactly the kind of diplomacy we need to keep us safe,” Obama said defiantly.
Obama then moved onto domestic issues, criticizing McCain’s health care plan and likened it to the president’s policies over the past eight years. “Like George Bush, he’s offering a plan that works great if you’re already healthy and wealthy, but if you don’t have health care or if you’re struggling to pay for it, John McCain’s only answer is a tax cut that won’t guarantee coverage and wont make it affordable,” he observed, adding, “I don’t think that the American people can afford to double down on the failed health care policies of the Bush years, I believe we need to end them.”
And he didn’t stop there - during the Q&A, Obama dismissed McCain’s record on fuel efficiency and the environment. “For him to come to Oregon as an environmental president, but his big strategy is to do more drilling and to have a gas tax holiday for three months, that’s a phony solution,” he said. “John McCain has consistently been opposed to fuel efficiency standards, to raising fuel efficiency standards on cars. How is he gonna meet any of these targets? Maybe he’s kind of imagining it the way he did imagining get out of the war in Iraq,” he said caustically.
For good measure, Obama noted McCain has not announced plans to fix Social Security or to reduce college tuition costs. Obama concluded, “He hasn’t said, because this is not something that he thinks necessarily is a priority.”
If there was any doubt that Obama believes the Democrats will unite to take on John McCain, he made it clear today. “So that’s the debate that we’re looking forward to having and I believe that whoever the Democratic nominee is, that the other person is going to be standing right next to ‘em making the case for fundamental change for America.”
The McCain camp, of course, weighed in on Obama’s Oregon Offensive, saying the junior senator from Illinois showed “weak judgment” by his willingness to bring the Iranian president to the world stage, and defended the Arizona senator’s commitment to increasing fuel standards, by sending out a list of times the Republican has voted for strengthening CAFE standards.
Barack Obama hit his 48th state today with campaign stops in Montana (this is a personal count for Obama and does not reflect the number of states where he’s campaigned).
“This is some pretty country,” Obama observed. “I think I need to learn fly fishing. Get some waders, go out there, clear my head. We may have to come back to Missoula. There’s no doubt about it,” he said to about 8,000 people at the University of Montana at Missoula.
Both Democrats are campaigning in “Big Sky Country” today, and both Obama and Senator Clinton will speak at tonight’s Mansfield-Metcalf dinner in Butte. The candidates are fighting for each of the state’s 16 pledged delegates, up for grabs in the state’s primary on June 3rd. Montana, a rural red state with a largely caucasian populace, is the kind of state where Barack Obama has done well in past primaries, where his ability to appeal to Independent voters has played well in similar states.
“I didn’t know if it was going to work – me coming out here – black guy, funny name, you know, big ears,” he said with a smile. “What we knew was if we were going to be able to compete, it would have to be a grassroots movement that people would have to get organized and make it happen, and that’s what’s happened, that’s why we’ve won twice as many states as the other candidate in this race,” he said, referencing Senator Clinton, who has done well in more traditional Democratic states like California and New York and in states where there is a large working class population like Ohio.
Even though both candidates are duking it out for delegates in what has become a long primary for the Democrats, Obama predicted the party will unify prior to the Democratic convention in August.
“Listen, I admire Sen. Clinton – she is a tenacious candidate, she is a terrific senator and so we are gonna be unified by the time we get to Denver in August. We will be unified,” he said. “My difference with Sen Clinton is not on policy for the most part, it’s that I don’t think she understands how profoundly we have to change Washington in order to bring about the changes that need to happen,” he observed. But even Clinton, Obama said, is better than McCain.
“Whatever differences I have with Senator Clinton, they pale in comparison with the differences I have with John McCain,” Obama said to cheers. “He wants to continue this war in Iraq maybe for another 100 years; he wants to perpetuate the same tax breaks for the wealthy that he himself called irresponsible when George Bush first passed them.”
Flanked by ten admirals and generals and a slew of American flags, Obama spoke about his readiness to be Commander-in-Chief — a qualification the Clinton campaign has said on the stump and in television ads that Obama does not possess.
It’s his judgment, Obama says, not necessarily the Washington experience that qualifies him for the role. “Instead of a serious, substantive debate, we’ve heard vague allusions to a ‘Commander-in-Chief threshold’ that seems to be about nothing more than the number of years you’ve spent in Washington. This is exactly what’s wrong with the national security debate in Washington,” he said in front of reporters in Chicago. “The real Commander-in-Chief threshold doesn’t have to do with years tallied up in Washington, it has to do with the judgment and vision that you will bring to the Oval Office,” he continued.
General Tony McPeak - a retired Air Force commander and Obama supporter - said Obama has both the sound judgment and the temperament to lead the nation. “Good news and bad, Senatorn Obama was up in Iowa, maybe not so up in New Hampshire. But he was the same Barack Obama on the one day as the other. Steady, reliable. You know no shock Barack kind of guy. No drama Obama. So when that phone rings, when that red phone rings at 3am, you want a guy with this kind of temperament to answer that telephone.”
But then Senator Obama said that he thinks both of his adversaries, Republican and Democrat, are also qualified to be Commander-in-Chief. When asked directly if he thought Hillary Clinton was prepared, he responded unequivacably, “Yes. As I do – as I believe Senator McCain is, and as I believe I am.” He then qualified that statement, saying Senator Clinton has played politics with the issue. “Keep in mind though I think it is fair to say that Senator Clinton has deployed this as a political strategy. The disingenuousness of it was revealed when they started saying that well, maybe he can be Vice President. Which by the President Clinton’s own criteria that it means I must be qualified to be commander in chief. Apparently the thinking is that you know I might not be ready on day one but maybe on day 15 I would be prepared,” he said.
He cited numerous officials who served under former President Bill Clinton who now support Candidate Obama as evidence that he is ready. “The Clintons understand this. This was a last minute gambit prior to Texas and Ohio, because in their own terms that had said that their campaign would end if they didn’t win,” he said, explaining that this strategy fit into the Clinton’s “kitchen sink” campaign strategy.
But Obama does see a silver lining to this line of attacks. “This issue would have come up in the general election anyway. So we mind as well surface it now. I didn’t except Democrats to be making these arguments against fellow Democrats. They typically come from Republicans against Democrats. Certainly if Senator Clinton were the nominee John McCain will make the exact same argument against her. But if it’s, since I intend to be the nominee and I’m going to be running against John McCain, it’s an argument that we would have to deal with at some point,” he noted.
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The Fox News Sunday panel chimed in on the topic this morning. What do you think?
Rocky River, OH — Continuing to take heat from Democrats for saying last month that “he would be fine” if the U.S. remained in Iraq for 100 years or longer, Sen. John McCain tried again Monday to clarify his statement.
“My friends, the war will be over soon. The war for all intents and purposes, although the insurgency will go on for years and years and years. But it’ll be handled by the Iraqis not by us. And then we decide what kind of security arrangement we want to have with the Iraqis,” McCain told a town hall meeting in the Buckeye State this morning.
His latest remarks come in response to repeated attempts by Sen. Barack Obama and other Democrats to argue that McCain supports maintaining troops for a 100 year war in Iraq. Instead, McCain has repeatedly said on the trail during the past few weeks that he is talking about a long-term post-war military presence similar to the ones the U.S. has with South Korea, Japan and Germany–where the U.S. has maintained troops for more than 50 years.
“You might know that we have major base in Kuwait because the first the gulf war, after we won, we had a base arrangement with the Kuwaitis. In Korea we’ve had as you know, ever since the Korean war we’ve had a military presence in South Korea,” McCain said. “So my Democrat friends like to distort that comment, but the fact is that…every single day (the situation) is improving and we take American young men and women out of harms way.”
McCain’s remarks also come as a group of anti-Iraq war orgs (MoveOn.org, Americans United for Change, and VoteVets.org) announced plans on a conference call today for a multi-million dollar ad campaign to target McCain.
“From now through the election, every second we get we will continue to hold him accountable for his failed policies,” said VoteVets.org Chairman Jon Soltz.
The groups have launched a new ad featuring a female Iraq veteran, Rose Forrest, holding her infant son and asking whether McCain if he is making a similar “commitment” to her child. (script after jump)
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Richmond, VA — Delivering a harsh rebuke to war critics, Sen. John McCain said Monday that it “almost insulting to one’s intelligence” to question how long the U.S. will keep troops in Iraq.
“Anyone who worries about how long we’re in Iraq does not understand the military and does not understand war. The question is not how long we stay in Iraq, the question is whether we are able to reduce casualties, eliminate them, have the Iraqi military-as they are today-take over more and more of our responsibilities,” McCain said after a rally at the Virginia Aviation Museum.
The surge proponent ratcheted up his rhetoric today, accusing his Democratic rivals’ of having a fundamental misunderstanding of what it takes to fight a war.
“The argument is really almost insulting to one’s intelligence to say how long we’re in Iraq,” McCain said, noting that the U.S. has maintained thousands of troops in Germany, South Korea and Japan for decades. “The question is, will we be able to succeed with this strategy, which is succeeding, and withdraw American troops to bases out of harms way, eliminate the casualties, and have this counter-insurgency succeed—which we are on the path to doing.”
His comments come on the same day Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he is considering a summer pause in the draw down of American troops in order to better evaluate the impact of a smaller presence on the current mission.
McCain said he had not been fully briefed on the Gates remarks, noting that he is waiting for U.S. Iraq Commander, General David Petraeus, to return to Washington in April and deliver an updated report from Iraq, adding “I know that we will be guided by the recommendations of General Petraeus.”
Party politics may be important, “but it’s not more important than what’s good for the country.” That’s what Joe Lieberman said Monday, as he crossed party lines and endorsed Republican John McCain for President.
Lieberman was the Democratic vice-presidentical candidate in 2000, and now calls himself an Independent Democrat. So why isn’t he backing a Democratic candidate? The Connecticut Senator says none of them asked for his support. Besides, he thinks the Party has abandoned a tradition of strong defense policy.
So when his long-time friend John McCain came calling, Lieberman decided he’d support a Republican this time around. Both are hawkish on the war, they’ve traveled the world together, and they’ve worked together on major issues like climate change and establishing the 9/11 commission. McCain calls his colleague “courageous” for backing him regardless of the consequences.
Indeed, the endorsement is not sitting well with some leading Democrats. But Lieberman shrugs it off, saying Democrats probably view him as an “eccentric uncle.”
Could Lieberman show up as a vice-presidential candidate again? This time on the Republican ticket? Lieberman insists he’s happy as a Senator. But McCain says if he’s elected, his old friend would continue to be an advisor, and would certainly play a role in a McCain presidency.
After catching heat for immediately taking the issues of Iraq and Immigration — two of the most interesting issues for Republicans — off the table before yesterday’s GOP debate in Johnston, IA, moderators at today’s Democratic debate did not cross off any issues. Instead, we’ve started with a budget question, which, we’re told, is the issue that most interests Iowans. Having met my share of Iowans, I know they’re not THAT boring…
http://bourbonroom.blogs.foxnews.com/
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