Obama lashes back at Bush, McCain
Cites Iran, Iraq as examples of failed policies
Senator Barack Obama struck back yesterday at President Bush and Republican rival John McCain, asserting that failed Republican policies have made the country less secure and welcoming a general election showdown on foreign policy. McCain answered right back, saying he'd be happy to debate and calling Obama naive and reckless.
"If George Bush and John McCain want to have a debate about protecting the United States of America, that is a debate that I am happy to have anytime, anyplace, and that is a debate that I will win, because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for," Obama said, adding that the Iraq war is in its sixth year, Osama bin Laden is still at large, Al Qaeda is stronger than ever, Iran is emboldened, and Hamas is in control of Gaza.
"Those are the failed policies that John McCain wants to double down on," Obama said during a town hall meeting in Watertown, S.D.
Obama was responding to remarks Bush made to Israel's parliament Thursday that compared talks with rogue regimes to the appeasement of Hitler before World War II. While the White House officially denied the remarks were aimed at Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate took them as a direct criticism of his pledge to use diplomacy to improve ties with unfriendly regimes - and as a direct challenge on national security, the issue Republicans have ridden to the White House the past two elections.
"After almost eight years, I did not think I could be surprised by anything that George Bush says, but I was wrong," Obama said. He said that instead of celebrating the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding, the president flouted tradition and launched a political assault before a foreign audience.
"That's exactly the kind of appalling attack that has divided our country and that alienates us from the world," Obama said. "And that's why we need change in Washington. They are trying to fool you and trying to scare you. They're not telling you the truth, and the reason is they can't win a foreign policy debate on the merits. But it's not going to work."
McCain, who used the blowup over Bush's speech to argue again that Obama is inexperienced in the ways of the world, did not back down at all yesterday, saying that no issue is more important than national security.
The Arizona senator said he would not add to the prestige of dictators by meeting with people like President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran.
"It is reckless to suggest that unconditional meetings will advance our interests," McCain said at a gathering of the National Rifle Association in Louisville, Ky. "It would be a wonderful thing if we lived in a world where we don't have enemies. But that is not the world we live in, and until Senator Obama understands that reality, the American people have every reason to doubt whether he has the strength, judgment, and determination to keep us safe."
Earlier yesterday, McCain's campaign described Obama's response to Bush as a "hysterical diatribe" full of "the same tired, partisan rants."
Obama answered that McCain was complicit in Bush's policies, which he said had strengthened Iran over the last eight years, citing the US invasion of Iraq in particular.
"Iraq used to be a counterweight to Iran," Obama said at a later news conference. "We eliminated that."
The Illinois senator also accused McCain of fear-mongering and hypocrisy, citing an opinion piece published yesterday in The
But in a video of Rubin's interview with McCain two years ago for a British TV network, McCain suggested the United States should be willing to talk to Hamas officials in Gaza.
"They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse, but practice," McCain said at the time. "But it's a new reality in the Middle East."
The McCain campaign insisted yesterday that he had not changed his stance toward Hamas, and accused Rubin of intentionally leaving out McCain's response to a follow-up question in which he said "part of the relationship is going to be dictated by how Hamas acts, not how the United States acts."
"There should be no confusion," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement. "John McCain has always believed that serious engagement would require mandatory conditions and Hamas must change itself fundamentally, renounce violence, abandon its goal of eradicating Israel, and accept a two-state solution. John McCain's position is clear and has always been clear: The president of the United States should not unconditionally meet with leaders of Iran, Hamas, or Hezbollah." 