McCain Mocks Obama's Iraq Comments

AP reports:

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain mocked Democrat Barack Obama on Wednesday for saying he would take action as president "if al-Qaida is forming a base in Iraq."

"When you examine that statement, it's pretty remarkable," McCain told a crowd in Tyler, Texas.

"I have some news. Al-Qaida is in Iraq. It's called `al-Qaida in Iraq,'" McCain said, drawing laughter at Obama's expense.

Obama responded quickly, hitting back hard:

Mr. Obama, in Columbus, responded soon after. "I have some news for John McCain," Mr. Obama said at a large rally at Ohio State University. "There was no such thing as Al Qaeda in Iraq until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq."

Mr. Obama mocked his potential Republican rival as he answered Mr. McCain's charge that he lacks sufficient foreign-policy experience for the presidency.

"I've been paying attention, John McCain," Mr. Obama said, speaking to a crowd of 7,000 in the St. John Arena on the Ohio State campus. "So John McCain may like to say he wants to follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of Hell, but so far, all he's done is follow George Bush into a misguided war in Iraq."

What goes unmentioned is that McCain distorted Obama's original statement by taking it out of context. During the Democratic debate on Tuesday, moderator Tim Russert laid out a hypothetical situation: what if al Qaeda "resurges" as a powerful force in Iraq after U.S. troops withdrew? The Obama statement that McCain is mocking -- "if al-Qaida is forming a base in Iraq" -- came in the context of that hypothetical.

Here's the full exchange:

MR. RUSSERT: I want to ask both of you this question, then. If we -- if this scenario plays out and the Americans get out in total and al Qaeda resurges and Iraq goes to hell, do you hold the right, in your mind as American president, to re-invade, to go back into Iraq to stabilize it? ...

SEN. OBAMA: ... Now, I always reserve the right for the president -- as commander in chief, I will always reserve the right to make sure that we are looking out for American interests. And if al Qaeda is forming a base in Iraq, then we will have to act in a way that secures the American homeland and our interests abroad. So that is true, I think, not just in Iraq, but that's true in other places. That's part of my argument with respect to Pakistan.

I think we should always cooperate with our allies and sovereign nations in making sure that we are rooting out terrorist organizations, but if they are planning attacks on Americans, like what happened in 9/11, it is my job -- it will be my job as president to make sure that we are hunting them down.

Video of the back and forth is here:

Comments

[snruB]

YES!!! Fuck that old man up, Obama!!!

[gonavy]

Are you applying for a job as Obamas speech writer?

That's just the message of hope he is trying to spread.

[indie17]

Please use your anti-Rush sensibilities and don't stoop so low.

[lungfish]

Obama is so articulate. I recall when the thought of him challenging Hillary was laughed at. They aren't laughing anymore. He is attracting backers and money in a very successful campaign...
Dubya the Decider once declared "I don't do nuance."
Obama does nuance better than anyone in the running.
McCain is classless, tasteless and coarse. Not to mention naive for thinking that the company he keeps and the things he says aren't defining him.
Hillary has simply failed to define herself and spent more time trying to usurp Obama's strategy rather than build one of her own. She could have gained a lot of traction by being contrite about her pro-war stance and roundly attacking the Administration and demanding accountability -something Obama doesn't talk about much.
Instead, her opener in the debate last night was an attack on her belief in media bias and her belief that she is losing because she is a woman. Foolish and even stupider if she actually believes it. A lot of people are in her corner and a lot more have defected from her that she would have in her corner now if she had taken the high road.
But neither she nor McCain understand the high road nor do they know how to play it the way Obama does...

[JohnKemp]

As Rush stated today, "Obama does not have supporters; he has followers."

Thanks.

[ChimpmasterDJ]

Rush is aural oxycontin. It's addictive and makes you stupid.

[rich3324]

And Mcain does not have supporters, he has zombies, the living dead.

[MIHOP]

And what did the other asylum guests have to say?

[madfeline]

McCain is suggesting that Senator Obama doesn't know Al-Qaida is already in Iraq.

It was Tim Russert who asked the hypothetical question:

"If this scenario plays out - America gets out in totality - and Al-Qaida resurges and Iraq goes to hell, do you hold the right, in your mind as President of the United States to re-invade, to go back into Iraq to restabilize it." [my transcription]

That's the question that Obama was answering... the one where Russert hypothesizes that America is out and Al-Qaida 'resurges.' It seems to me that Russert was implying that there had been stability, but Al-Qaida comes back in. Senator Obama was replying that yes, if they were gone but came back and 'resurged,' he would reserve that right.

McCain is obviously playing up his mocking to bolster his foreign affairs expertise, but if the matter is going to be dissected and bandied about, then the actual question Senator Obama and Senator Clinton were answering should be made a part of the analyses.

[Ramirez]

It was a stupid question and he shouldn't have taken the bait.

Now Obama is locked into supporting invading Iraq and fighting AQ, but only AFTER we withdraw from Iraq and STOP fighting AQ.

If you're a Democrat this may make sense to you; but the average voter may be confused.

[TAC]

"It was a stupid question and he shouldn't have taken the bait."

It was a stupid question and Obama handled it perfectly. McCoot took the bait and thought he had one of his zingers. Obama turned THAT around and showed how out of touch that geezer is...

[MIHOP]

Once we withdraw, we won't have to re-invade in order to "deal with" AQ, especially if today's level of success is the measure.

As for the Civil War that may erupt, you know, that's the cost of breaking the country. We work with the international community & provide whatever aid we can, but ultimately that's the final price that will have to paid, the tab Bush doesn't want to pick up.

[bb1234]

Obama's idea of foreign policy experience is "I was opposed to the war". He's simplistic and inexperienced. Maybe he'll invite Bin Laden to the White House and "negotiate". He'll try to get to know him and understand his inner feelings and motivations.

[LAcarlito]

Great insight. Maybe I have to rethink my vote for Obama.

NOT.

[helonias]

Hmmmm but George Bush doesn't even care about Bin Laden and even said so.

[helonias]

Perhaps he's read about and knows about our meddling for oil in the middle east for the past 50 years and where its got us to today.

Tell us why we helped overthrow the dem elected govs of Iran and Iraq for the British controlled oil industry if you dare?

[helonias]

We are Lucky he doesn't have as much foreign policy experience as Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.

Right?

[MIHOP]

And Bush's idea of foreign policy was "gee, I've never been to a foreign country. Let's invade one!"

[MSB]

John McCain is worthless.

I'm bothered that we are somehow asked to respect him because he was a torture victim especially when he will not stand against torture in attempting to further his political career.

Can you not be tortured and be simultaneously stupid?

I'm sorry he was a torture victim and I am equally appalled that he is a presidential candidate. I think he is nothing but a power-hungry, increasingly-senile shill.

[JohnKemp]

Yeah, just think what a hero you would find him to be had he been snorting cocaine instead of being held captive in a concentration camp.

[TAC]

"Yeah, just think what a hero you would find him to be had he been snorting cocaine instead of being held captive in a concentration camp."

You mean like Bush avoiding his mandatory physicals when he was in TANG?

[MIHOP]

Aw c'mon. Republicans only care about coke-snorting when a Dem does it. Guess they want the blow for themselves?

Like his role model, McBush is a FRAUD.

[livesimply]

Hello..McCain has admitted to his partying and wild youth too. It just happened about 25 years earlier than Obama's youth.

[helonias]

Well they said everyone who is against torture raise both hands above their head.

John McCain couldn't because he was tortured.

Simple as that.

[MIHOP]

Makes perfect sense to me.

[AGPolitics]

Read these articles:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/26/go-hard-or-go-home-the-m_n_88491.html

and

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=aa0cd21b-0ff2-4329-88a1-69c6c268b304

[MIHOP]

Make perfect sense.

[ystasino]

AT LAST

A democrat who can take on the republican lies:

"There was no Al Qaida in Iraq before Bush/McCain invaded".

"According to our country's intelligence reports Under Bush/McCain Al Qaida has only grown stronger"

"Bush/McCain drove the US into a ditch called Iraq"

"Before Bush/McCain invaded Iraq oil was $27/barrel. To the benefit of Putin and Haliburton now it is $100"

"Bush/McCain were distracted planning the war in Iraq and allowed bin Laden to escape in Tora Bora"

"McCain says he won't strike bin Laden if the Pakistani government tells him so"

[MIHOP]

Hear, hear!

What's Clinton do? She voted for the War because of 9/11! Where have they been? What party do they belong to?

[Ramirez]

Great idea! Make the election about Bush.

It worked in 2000 and 2004, right?

[eddieinc97]

Bush has current approval ratings is in the low 30's. I'd say more than a few, would have a problem seeing the picture of McCain hugging George.

[ctbutte]

lol

[MIHOP]

"It worked in 2000 and 2004, right?"

And 2008 is so, you know, 2004.

The only way the R's take this election is with the SCOTUS or voter suppression. Which should not, of course, be ruled out.

[gonavy]

Your just mad because you didn't have the forsight to buy Halliburton stock.

[TAC]

"Your just mad because you didn't have the forsight to buy Halliburton stock."

You're getting desperate...

[MIHOP]

I specifically avoid stocks like that. I actually have a conscience. Not that flabby, invisible thing Republicans play with on Sundays.

[globality]

Poor senile old fool

[JohnKemp]

Old?

He's only in his 40's.

[Ramirez]

Naw, the other guy.

One candidate was born in the Depression.

The other candidate thinks we're living in it.

[Ping]

The McLobbyist Express.

[vsign]

Obama has not let the voters decide this election.
After his win in Iowa, he did not let any hard questions be asked and instead played the race card or in otherwards, displayed a terrible lack of courage.

Voters have been "gamed" by Obama. He is not the "anti-war" candidate. He is just the less courageous and less patriotic candidate who is careful to do whatever to win and deceive about who he really is. He has done nothing to impress me. He "gamed" my caucus state and as a voter, I will likely not forgive him for it.

He does not have evidence of representing real democratic voters. He is buying this election and it will come back to haunt all of us democrats because he cannot win the general this way.

So he is a good poker player. A good president - NOT

[MIHOP]

Yeah, whatever.

[dndobson]

He is buying it with money from his supporters, so technically, it us supporters of Obama who are buying the election and that's a good thing.

It was also probably us who gamed your caucus and all those other voters and we really don't care if you forgive us or not.

[lldem]

This is an article about the republicans attacking Sen. Obama. So of course we get Sen. Clinton's supporters jumping on the republican bandwagon. I'm sorry your candidate lost the debate and will lose the nomination. Her character will be revealed by what she does next. We can already see what yours is.

[peskyliberal]

Did you not watch the debate last night? Sen. Obama was not being lobbed softballs.

[zitlight73]

Lies repeated often enough do not become the truth
as the coiner of that phrase Adolph Hitler found out; they might be believed for awhile but then they they go down in flames and crumble into dust and end up on the shit pile of history along with their perpetraters. Beware McInsane you used to be known as a Straight Talker but you sold your soul to the neo-cons now you're starting to believe those lies, liars that believe their lies become their lies.

[MIHOP]

Tellin it like it is...

[TWOSHORT]

White South Africa-Vs-White United States of America!Both seem to have a Problem of Black Men wanting change in how they are treated by White Men! Change is going to come at a price-HATE FOR BLACK MEN OF AMERICA[WHITE POWER AND THE REP PARTY RALLYING THE TROOPS]RACISM WILL REALLY RISE IT HEAD IN THE COMING MONTHS!

[JohnKemp]

Beam me up, Louie!

[ornery]

Said sock #1 to sock #2.

[Ramirez]

Obamapost of the Day!

[MIHOP]

You got some inside info from your friends you want to share, cracker?

[MIHOP]

Stick your heads in the sand!!!

[thegreatgiginthesky]

Could any of the McCain supporters explain to me what the relevance of calling Obama by his middle name has to do with anything? Furthermore, if it is relevant, why call him Barack Hussein Mohammed Obama? That is not his name.

[TAC]

"Could any of the McCain supporters explain to me what the relevance of calling Obama by his middle name has to do with anything?"

What else do they have?

[ornery]

You don't get it---this is a sock convention.

[JohnKemp]

I wondered the same thing when 41 was always referred to as "George Herbert Walker Bush"
by the MSM.

Now, interestingly enough, the MSM absolutely avoids the middle name "Hussein" like the plague.

The NYT & AP; so predictable, it's child's play.

I'm quite certain that if 43's middle name was, let's say, Adolf, & that had David Duke endorsed him as Farrakhan did Hussein that such issues would have been moot with you libs.

Yeah, I have no doubt.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

But 43's name isn't Adolf is it? Once again, if David Duke had endorsed George Bush it isn't like Bush has control over who says what.

[indie17]

Yes. Your type thinks everyone else is also hate-filled, so you have to defend yourself constantly with arrogance and sarcasm. A doctor could probably help you, but you're too smart for them, aren't you?

[frappe]

They are resorting to their customary nonsense. They will say and do anything so long as it creates an image that they believe average voters would disapprove of. Truth is not a prerequisite. It's part of their "swiftboating" mentality. Those who use such tactics are superficial, shallow and vile and need to be quickly exposed as such in no uncertain terms. That will be the task of the Obama campaign. He will need to have a QUICK RESPONSE team that is second to none. Bill Clinton's campaign is a good prototype in that respect.

[MIHOP]

Fact is, they know Fox will filter the reactions and continue to make the mistakes (Osama? oops, we meant Obama! Did we say Hussein? Madrassa, anyone? Where did that picture come from?), because it's like a whispering campaign. No matter what you do, the message will seep through to the white trash that'll eat it up and mobilize to vote and suppress votes.

[gonavy]

McCain has not referenced Obamas middle name. He does not want to run that kind of campaign. That conservative hack did not represent McCain. That is why McCain came out so quickly after he found out what was said.

[JohnKemp]

McCain & his people knew the Cincinatti radio host very well; McCain had previously met him twice though now he claims not to have done so.

What the talk-show guy said was innocuous; my opinion being that this entire fraud was a set-up by McCain to make him more appealing to the moderates while throwing the talk-show guy under the bus.

[MIHOP]

"He does not want to run that kind of campaign."

I'll take your word at that, though it seems they should have known what they were getting into with that guy on the menu.

Then what's Fox's excuse? Why all the Obama Osama mix-ups (like putting a D next to a Republican's name when he's involved in a scandal) and the constant reference to Hussein, madrassas, etc.

And Drudge?

[peskyliberal]

So the McCain campaign had no idea what type to tool was warming his crowd up?

Then he is not fit for the position of Commander in Chief.

[dndobson]

No - they couldn't.

[Ramirez]

The relevance is you guys get mad when we do that.
And then we laugh.

[rollingdivision]

In Obama's defense, he probably reads the New York Times, which always calls it "Al Qaida in Mesopotamia." That may have confused him.

[Ping]

We cannot trust the idiots that got us into Iraq to get us out. Especially with an idiot who needs a staff to protect him from himself.

[MNmommy]

Since they are apparently going round and round on this, shouldn't Obama watch his words just a smidge? I'm referring to the weak link to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi? I know it's weak - but Obama should acknowledge it so as not to get caught up by BS republiscum talking points.

[zreeb]

Are you saying AQ was in Iraq before we invaded?

As far as I know, Saddam didn't like them either, and there was none reported there.

[dora rice]

"if "Al_Quaida is forming a base in Iraq...let this airbag talk long enough and you discover the air in his bag..

[MNmommy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Musab_al-Zarqawi

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/08/AR2006090800777.html

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/06/15/bush.alqaeda/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein_and_al-Qaeda

I'm pretty sure I said the link was weak, and probably mostly debunked, that being said - there are STILL people in America that believe the link was much stronger.

[AnninCA]

Welcome to reality.

His words mean something now.

And he just announced to everyone that he would re-enter Iraq if it looked "iffy."

So...good luck to obamamanics in defending God.

I've voted Democrat for longer than most of his supporter have even been eligible, and I can tell you......when he said that?

I spit out my coca-cola.

I knew then.

They will eat this nit-wit up alive.

And they should.

You want to be mad?

Blame Ted Kennedy.

You guys let an alcoholic screw you big-time.

[TAC]

"I've voted Democrat for longer than most of his supporter have even been eligible, and I can tell you......when he said that?"

Yeah we know. Now you're listening to McCain. Troll...

[NuovoBlu]

Actually I did not vote for Bush. So, it was not my intention to let an alcoholic screw this country big time.

[Aureliusweb]

The narrative for conservatives in defining the liberal position is that withdrawal means abandonment and defeat. The actual military strategy proposed by the Democrats, starting with Murtha, is a reduction in troops and redeployment of the remaining troops to areas outside of Iraq. This has been a military option for some time, but the current administration will not accept this. I bet a dollar that if McCain were elected he would do exactly that. It makes sense, from a long term view, versus unlimited, undefined occupation of a foreign country without any clear objective, which is the current state of things.

[robodweeb]

Question for McLobby:

After we finally eliminate the threat we've created in Iraq at great cost, where will we bring al Qaeda to next?

[indie17]

Great comment.

[glitz]

So true..and just what is the difference between al Qaeda building bases and the U.S. building bases in Iraq? Neither belong there.

[MIHOP]

Where's the oil?