No more hugs as Obama tears into McCain

RENO, Nev. — So much for hugging in church. A day after Barack Obama and John McCain exchanged an embrace during a faith forum at a California megachurch, Obama called the U.S. economy a disaster thanks to "John McCain's president, George W. Bush," and chided his Republican rival's campaign team for trying to make him look unpatriotic and weak.

At a town hall meeting with several hundred union members, Obama said he had had a great conversation with McCain at the forum at Saddleback Church sponsored by the popular evangelical pastor Rick Warren. The two candidates shook hands, briefly hugged and stood onstage with Warren, the first time they appeared together in public since the end of the primary season.

But Sunday, after praising the Arizona senator as a "genuine American patriot," the Democratic presidential hopeful got back to business _ methodically tearing into McCain's health care, tax and energy policies and criticizing his advisers.

"McCain says 'Here's my plan, I'm going to drill here, drill now which is something he only came up with two months ago when he started looking at polling," Obama said of McCain's energy policy.

The GOP hopeful has become a vocal proponent of offshore oil drilling as a way to ease U.S. dependence on foreign oil and has criticized Obama for failing to embrace it as a way to help bring down oil prices. Obama noted that McCain had long opposed lifting the moratorium on offshore drilling.

The Illinois senator also criticized McCain's advisers as "the same old folks that brought you George W. Bush. The same team." He noted many had been lobbyists in Washington before McCain asked them to sever all lobbying ties.

Obama added, "They say this other guy is unpatriotic, or this guy likes French people. That's what they said about Kerry," referring to the 2004 Democratic nominee who lost narrowly to Bush. "They try to make it out like Democrats aren't tough enough, aren't macho enough. It's the same strategy."

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers responded, "John McCain has never questioned Sen. Obama's patriotism, but he clearly does question Sen. Obama's experience and judgment, and they do have profound differences of opinion on the best way to reduce our dependence on Mideast oil, bring jobs back to America and keep our nation safe."

Earlier this summer, McCain handed day to day operation of his campaign to Steve Schmidt, a veteran GOP strategist who was a spokesman for Bush during the 2004 campaign. Most of his other top advisers are longtime loyalists who have worked for McCain for years.

Even so, Obama stepped to McCain's defense when a voter criticized his Vietnam era record. A Naval aviator, McCain spent 5- 1/2 years as a prisoner of war there after being shot down and badly wounded.

"Respectfully I'm going to disagree with you on McCain and his service," Obama said. "I think his service was honorable. He deserves respect."

Comments

[writerforhire]

If you anything about church you know it is usually filled with the most back-biting, jealous, gossipy, ambitious people one will ever come across. Both political candidates have faith. Is it the depth of my faith or yours, who knows, but they do express faith. Do they have a moral compass? I don't know.

On the core issues that comprise the evangelical church who stands where is the real question. Will either meet every person's expectations? No. So it becomes who meets the core issues of the individual heart. That, of course, is up to the individual just as the freedom to express faith or not

[Kwaayesnama]

In my bible the fifth commandment reads simply and clearly: “Thou shalt not kill”.
Rick Warren a supposed man of God should have questioned John McCain and Barack Obama if invading a country in false pretenses and killing and maiming thousands if not millions of people is MURDER.

[Daps]

I think he was more concerned about the pomade in his hair than killing foreigners.

[HamletsMill]

In my Bible there is an 11TH COMMANDMENT.

Maybe the good Reverend Warren should have asked them BOTH if they knew about the 11th Commandment and if they had ever violated it in their lives? The consequences of violating it are very grave. Not even George Carlin in his famous "Ten Commandments" reduction and consolidation routine can dispute the profound Cosmic Divine Truth of the 11th Commandment.

The 11th Commandment goes like this: Thou shalt not sleep with someone more f**ked up than yourself.

[boing007]

Kwaayesnama

In my bible the fifth commandment reads simply and clearly: "Thou shalt not kill".
Rick Warren a supposed man of God should have questioned John McCain and Barack Obama if invading a country in false pretenses and killing and maiming thousands if not millions of people is MURDER.

I wanted to hear that question too. Drop any Napalm, John?

[gbht12]

I hope he picks Joe Biden for VP, there is nothing they can say about that MAN.

[akkadian]

The voters will get the President they deserve.
If the redneck 'real americans' win the day we will have more of the same
hypocrisy, 'you can't invade a sovereign country' (never mind what we are doing in Afghanistan and Iraq),
lies, war, blood, and drilling.

[georgiaR]

Obama does NOT have the experience to be the President of the United States.

[akkadian]

George W Bush does not have the experience to be President of the United States.

[Dave01]

Even to this day, GWB doesn't have the experience to be POTUS

[mikecarter]

Neither does John McCain, Neither have most of the people we've put into the White House.

Dwight Eisenhower held an executive/command position prior to his election. Woodrow Wilson had some executive experience, too. Ulysses S. Grant held command positions that could be called executive. Not a great endorsement for experience.

John McCain held a command job briefly for the same reason he was flying off a carrier during Vietnam ..... he was checking a box. Big deal. He was overgrade for the position, had zero command time prior, and was put in a job for which he was not qualified because he needed it to move up.

A lackluster military career, time spent as a POW, and a patronage-centered political career qualifies McCain? Give me a break.

If John McCain had any real qualifications, he wouldn't have to plagiarize Solzhenitsyn's Gulag experiences in order to impress the crowd at Saddleback.

If he had any real qualifications, he wouldn't have to repeat the same discredited smears in a campaign that is rapidly turning into "vote for me because I'm not Obama."

If he had any real qualifications, he wouldn't have to lie about his voting record.

The list goes on, but tell me this: if John McCain is so qualified, why does he have to recycle Hillary Clinton campaign slogans like "ready on day one" and the other variations on the experience theme?

[Darkdonnie]

At least John has experience!

[Darkdonnie]

And we will be thanking her every day till the election!

[gbht12]

McCain DOES NOT have the judgement , experience or stamina needed to be the president. Look at George W. Bush , McCain is a carbon copy of him.

You are insulting to everyone that supports Obama. McCain is too old period. He thinks he can wave his POW experience in Vietnam and say I am more qualified.

He graduated near to the last in his class, crashed 5 planes. Admits openly that he knows nothing about Economics. Obviously, he was in the senate during the build up to the war. Judgement matters and he has NONE

[amethystlady2]

AMEN!, gbht12...I could not have said it better. GeorgiaR, just what experience did GW have before he was "placed" in office? NONE! He messed up Texas so bad, they were just happy to get rid of him.

Obama is brilliant. McCain is a doddering old man, who can't even see the economic state of this country, let alone LEAD it. Of course, if you marry a rich young woman, and don't ever do a day's work in your life, I guess you tend to get soft-headed.

And to add a note here...who on earth decided being First Lady gave Hilary automatic experience as to running the country? I have never understood this comparison.

Obama is the one who will lead us out of the mess in the middle east, and hopefully keep us out of WW III. We have no business getting involved in Russia and Georgia.

[BeltwayBette]

A pilot does not a commander in chief make.
But an honorable very very smart man can be a great leader without a flyboy cap.
.
McCain is now known to be a plagiarist, a liar, an adulterer, a woman abuser, and a dirty politician.
McCain steals another man's life experience (cross in the sand story) and tries to steal Obama's reputation.

He publicly pledges to abuse womens right to choice -- or equal pay for equal work. He pretends to support the troops but votes against their rights. He wants to hand over our hard earned tax dollars to the rich while we drown in the deficits he promises to contiue racking up. HE lives in the past when war was the big thing. We thought we learned from Vietnam but obviously not. WE now have Vietnam II, Iraq. McCain is a Cheney/Rover clone and we all know how much they respect our Constitution. Noooo thanks.
A military vet and woman who knows a closet fascist when I see one.
.

[dclasky]

Experience .... look where experience has got our country! Bush and especially, Cheney, with all his experience, has done a great job of getting this country into a bunch of messes. We need a President who truly represents the people, not corporate interests. We are now a fascist state run by corporations .... and as Olbermann (msnbc) said last night in his "Special Comment" telling McCain to "grow up" ..... we are now in an embryonic police state. In addition, our Constitution has been shredded.

With all his foreign policy experience, McCain doesn' even know Geography 101 (Iraq doesn't border Afganistan) or the difference between Sunnis and Shias .... for beginners.

I'm a native DC'er .... and have been in the front row seat watching our country rapidly go downhill during the past 8 years.

WE NEED CHANGE!

[HamletsMill]

Amen.

[mjtaylor22]

Obama needs a bull dogg on the loose, I just want someone to state the facts on mcCain, and stop kissing his but for going to vietnam, we have had two wars since then both started by Bush's and McCain want s to be at war for 100 years and end employer sponsored healthcare

[Dave01]

Bill Clinton would have been a great bull dog, if he wasn't so much in the bag for McCain.

[Changeizgood]

Obama / Biden, the Change Team of Experience.

Joe Biden is one man and until the 2006 election, where America woke up and started to mow down the corrupt officials by electing the opposing party for Change, Joe's voice of reason was falling on deaf ears, like the American workers.

Now that he has, a chorus of progressive change advocates (elected 2006), that sing the songs of American freedom, and Barack at the top of the ticket, Biden's voice of reason, will no longer be silent or alone again. America is singing right along with them.

Go Obama!
Go Biden!
Goooo America!!!!

[SeeDaddy]

Obama needs to vigously attack McCain on the "winning the war" iin Iraq.

Challenge MCCain to defining what he means by "winning the war in Iraq." Since McCain defines losing the war as setting a time for pulling out US troops, as the Iraq gov't and Bush have agreed to, does losing mean honoring the withdrawal agreement? Does winning mean breaking the agreement and leaving our troops in Iraq indefinitely? Does winning meaning indefinite military occupation of Iraq and establishment of permanent military bases, even though the democratically elected Iraq gov't wants us to leave? McCain strongly implies that is what he would do. Attack him hard on that.

[speedingpullet]

I so wish BHO would - every time I hear JMcC go on about 'winning' and 'victory' I always wonder when he's finally going to get around to telling us exactly what that means.....­.

He loves to use these words because they are emotive and stir the blood - everyone wants to 'win', all nations want 'victory' - but if he doesn't have a clear definition of what they are, then all he's doing is grandstanding.

Even the NYT called JMcC out on that - when he wanted to have an op-ed there, his contribution was rejected and he was asked to edit it a bit.
Why?
Because he used the same rhetoric in his op-ed, and the NYT editorial board wanted him to be more clear on his use of the definitions of 'win' and 'victory'.

Rather than sit down and do exactly that, JMcC ranted at the NYT, and said they were all part of the vast left-wing liberal media bias..... so, strange eh should get so angry with them, when he was trying to get published by them....

[brandon102]

Getting tough isn't enough. Sure, Obama's smart and can deliver an inspirational speech, but he's being done in by simple thinking, dirty tricks and catchy one-liners geared to American voters, most of whom still think Sadam Hussein was responsible for 9/11.

So Barak, please, figure out why John McCain says the smartest man he ever met was General Petraus (?), how convenient, and he's pursue bin Laden "to the Gates of Hell." Sure he would, just like George Bush has and hasn't that all worked out OK. But Americans go "duhhh -- I can understand that whats-his-name old guy."

It's nice you're brilliant and all, but you need some surrogates pitching at the 8th grade bully mentality of the American Voter. And you need them badly. Small words work well. Please don't lose this.

[aaronr2000]

I'm so conflicted on this. You're right that the simple minded need to be pitched to also if not by him at least by a surrogate because their votes count just as much as anyone else. On the other hand, it really feels refreshing to not have that block of voters be the end all and be all of who is being catered to during this election. The 2004 election was a straight up "voting for dummies" campaign. I was so embarrassed that as the world was watching, even China showing real time election results with red states blue states maps, with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and our leadership standing around the world at stake the media helped power an endless conversation about a freaking' Vietnam boat.

The Obama campaign is for adults to adults. Although it will be great to win over the bumper sticker unsophisticated electorate, I'd rather Obama stay on queue and expose his opponents for the distractions and the speaking down to Americans they've become obsessed with.

[Dave01]

The thinking adults have already made up their minds and the majority of them are going for Obama. So the OP is correct, he needs to strip away from McCain's simple-minded non-thinking base.

[MacTheBlogger]

So we're back to the same old four-step crap:

1. Attack the other guy whenever possible, and don't worry too much about accuracy.
2. Put words in the other guy's mouth with each attack, whether he said them or not.
3. Whine like a three-year old when you're attacked. "He's a meanie. Boo hoo."
4. Point at the other guys and say, "well they do it too, but they're much meaner."

What's amazing to me is that we continue to put so much faith in politicians. We continue to think that it's the job of these same politicians and the federal bureaucracy to make us "happy."

Good luck with that.

[Keith52]

Is it too much to ask that we not be sent to die in a war that is a bald faced lie? Is that "making us happy"? Don't be so ignorant. We need to elect politicians that have brains.

[Darkdonnie]

"A lie told often enough becomes the truth. " – Lenin

Do you know what "yellow cake" is used for besides birthdays?

[genseric13]

The smell of desperation hangs in the air...

[bandillero]

Pls Pls pick Joe Biden. This campaign is dying an unnatural death. You can't have a room full of sedated level minded campaign operatives. Obama's campaign is boring us all to sleep. Can you believe McCain is taking Obama to the cleaners?

Pls pls pick Joe Biden. HRC would have been great except for the psychodrama

[sclucie]

It's about time.

[JISantiago]

As the Aussies and Kiwis would say: "Good on you, mate! Go get him!!"

It is long overdue for Obama to take off his gloves and start throwing some knockout punches. McCain for long have been allowed to enjoy a free ride of disseminating malicious misinformation. For many of us, Obama supporters, it was frustrating to see McBush getting away with, sometimes slanderous remarks, belittling Obama and painting him as unAmerican and less patriotic.

It is time for Obama to hit McCain where it hurts. He should even start to question whether McCain is a real war hero as he boasts. Why not?

The Republicans, with their stinking Swiftboat strategy did the same on John Kerry. McCain crashed many fighter planes and got away with it with the influence of his Admiral father. And He is the only guy who got shot down by the enemy and was hailed as a war hero!

Another of his so-called strong suit is foreign policy. Really, is Russia-bashing a great credit to his foreign policy credentials? Many American presidents over decades worked so hard to end the cold war. This war monger and his pal George Bush has undone all the good work and are pushing the world back to the brink of a nuclear war.

It's time Obama expose this guy for what he is and demolish all the myth the Karl Rove proteges like Steve Schmidt have been building around McBush!

[AussieJim]

onya mate

[ReelBusy]

More GOP/Bush/McCain hypocrisy.
I've heard it before:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axrgFGZYFzE

Let's have some fun now:
The McCain-Nixon-Bush Tango
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyvJVy_7LYU

[gentilhombre]

Character matters. If McCain and his handlers were able to have a preview of Obama's questions and answers and structure his responses then we were all deceived and cheated. The Obama campaign must insist on uncovering the truth. The character of Mr. McCain is being questioned.

[DebbieinPhx]

As well it should be! Yikes!! Has John McCain said or done anything close to showing intergrity lately? He has just be such a bitter disappointment lately.
Don't get me wrong, I was always going to go Obama (well at least since Iowa when I got my first real listen to him/after that I was hooked), but I had so hoped that we could put the Rovian politics behind us..... clearly NOT.
Plus then there's that whole crazier than a bedbug thing.....

[nonconformist2]

I'm sure the good pastor thought the L,ord told him to give McFumbles the questions ahead of time to help those un,born babies. Never trust an evangelical.