McCain: Rival tried to legislate Iraq failure
Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2008
John McCain told fellow veterans on Monday that his Democratic rival Barack Obama tried to legislate failure in Iraq and has refused to admit he erred when opposing the military increase there last year.
McCain said Obama placed his political self-interest ahead of his country’s, a theme the Arizona Republican has often repeated. In Orlando, Fla., McCain said at a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that Obama’s positions changed as his political ambitions grew.
“With less than three months to go before the election, a lot of people are still trying to square Sen. Obama’s varying positions on the surge in Iraq. First, he opposed the surge and confidently predicted that it would fail. Then he tried to prevent funding for the troops who carried out the surge,” Mc-Cain said.
“Not content to merely predict failure in Iraq, my opponent tried to legislate failure.” Obama has acknowledged that the surge reduced violence in Iraq but says it has failed in its political goal of facilitating a reconciliation among contentious Iraqi factions. The Illinois Democrat proposes to withdraw U. S. combat forces from Iraq within 16 months; McCain opposes any timetable for withdrawal.
Iraqi leaders have been pressing the U. S. for a timetable for withdrawal.
“It is hard to understand how Sen. McCain can at once proclaim his support for the sovereign government of Iraq, and then stubbornly defy their expressed support for a timeline to remove our combat brigades from their country,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton. “John McCain is intent on spending $ 10 billion a month on an open-ended war, while Barack Obama thinks we should bring this war to a responsible end and invest in our pressing needs here at home.” McCain said victory in Iraq is in sight, but much depends on the next president’s judgment.
“The lasting advantage of a peaceful and democratic ally in the heart of the Middle East could still be squandered by hasty withdrawal and arbitrary timelines. And this is one of many problems in the shifting positions of my opponent, Sen. Obama,” McCain said.
The Republican nominee-inwaiting said Obama’s political ambitions have blinded him to reality. He also said Obama has refused to change his positions to reflect new success.
“Even in retrospect, he would choose the path of retreat and failure for America over the path of success and victory,” McCain said. “In short, both candidates in this election pledge to end this war and bring our troops home.
“ The great difference is that I intend to win it first.” Obama was scheduled to speak with the veterans today. President Bush plans to attend on Wednesday.
At a later event along Florida’s Space Coast, McCain criticized Obama’s initial plan — since abandoned — to pay for part of his $ 18 billion education program by delaying NASA’s Constellation Program, which is developing the vehicle and rockets to go to the moon and later to Mars. His campaign has since taken that cut off the table. “Sometimes it’s difficult to know what a politician will actually do once in office because they say different things, at different times, to different people,” McCain said in Cocoa Beach, standing beside Republican Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida and Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. “This is a particular problem when a candidate has a short, thin record on the issue, as is the case of Sen. Obama.” TOUGH BATTLE AHEAD Obama took in $ 7. 8 million Sunday at three fundraisers in San Francisco, telling a VIP dinner crowd — many of whom paid $ 28, 500 to attend — that he would win the presidency in November but to expect a tough battle with Republicans in the meantime. “John McCain, all he wants to do is talk about me,” Obama told supporters. “They know they can’t win on the issues. So what they’ll do is they’ll try to scare people: ‘He’s risky. He’s risky. We’re not sure. ”’ In April, at another San Francisco fundraiser, Obama made his infamous remarks about bitter small town voters who “ cling” to guns and religion. Obama avoided any such characterizations Sunday but did say many voters are angry and confused. “The fact of the matter is, at a certain point, when government has not been serving the people for this long, people get cynical. They tune out,” he said. “And they start saying to themselves, a plague on both your houses. They are willing to consume negative information more frequently than positive information, for good reason. They’ve seen how promises haven’t been kept.” Obama has maintained a strong fundraising pace, raising $ 51 million in July to McCain’s $ 27 million. But his campaign has also been spending at a rapid clip and the senator from Illinois has turned down public funding for the general election campaign, requiring him to keep up a robust fundraising schedule for the fall. CHOICE FOR RUNNING MATE Obama has all but settled on his choice for a vice presidential running mate and set an elaborate rollout plan for his decision, beginning with an early-morning alert to supporters, perhaps as soon as Wednesday, followed by a trip to swing states by the new Democratic ticket, aides said.
Obama’s deliberations remain closely held. Aides said perhaps a half-dozen advisers were involved in the final discussions in an effort to enforce a command that Obama issued to staff: that his decision not leak out until supporters are notified.
Obama had not notified his choice — or any of those not selected — of his decision as of late Monday, advisers said. Going into the final days, Obama was said to be focused mainly on three candidates: Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware.
Some Democrats said they still hoped that he would choose Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York or Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas.
By all indications, Obama remains likely to choose someone relatively safe and avoid taking a chance with a game-changing selection. A similar strategic choice now faces McCain, who has been under pressure from some Republicans to make a more daring choice.
Obama’s advisers said he reached his decision while on vacation in Hawaii. They said it marked the end of what proved to be an unexpectedly intense process, condensed because he did not want to start actively vetting potential running mates before Clinton quit the race in June.
By contrast, McCain, who had wrapped up the Republican nomination months earlier, began his process in late spring.
That gave Obama’s team of lawyers less time to review candidates, and several Democrats said it appeared that the list of candidates who were deeply vetted was limited to about a half-dozen people. (Campaigns typically check the background of candidates who are not necessarily in play, as a way of gaining favor with various constituencies or to keep the other party off balance. )
The team of advance workers and aides involved in planning the rollout — timed to galvanize Democratic voters as Obama heads to Denver next week for the party convention — have not been told who Obama will be selecting.
If all goes according to plan, the announcement will be made with text and e-mail messages to supporters early in the morning, in time to capture coverage on the morning news shows and take advantage of a full day’s news cycle.
Obama and his new running mate will then begin a crosscountry tour. Current plans call for them to be on the trail together for most of the time between the day of the announcement and the day Obama arrives in Denver, a week from Wednesday.
Obama’s schedule calls for him to awaken today in Orlando, Fla., and by the end of the day be in Raleigh, N. C. By Wednesday, he is scheduled to be in Virginia.
The Obama campaign has cautioned against reading anything into his schedule, saying it could be changed in an instant to accommodate the plan to introduce the running mate.
Aides said the announcement would come at the earliest on Wednesday morning, and no later than Friday.
Obama’s advisers said they wanted to time the announcement to get maximum publicity going into the convention, after a stretch in which Obama was on vacation in Hawaii and McCain made good use of having the political stage largely to himself. Information for this article was contributed by Philip Elliott of The Associated Press and Adam Nagourney and Jeff Zeleny of The New York Times.
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