McCain: Obama Has Come Up Short On Post-Partisanship (VIDEO)

Barack Obama's rival in the 2008 election gave him good marks for the job he has done in the White House so far. But Sen. John McCain suggested Sunday that the president has come up short on one key campaign promise: His pledge to change the bitter partisanship in Washington.

"I think he's done well," McCain said, when asked by CBS' "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer to assess how Obama has fared in office. "If you want to look at a legislative scorecard, he has achieved literally every one of his legislative accomplishments. Unfortunately it's by picking off a couple of Republicans. It has not been bipartisan. So there really hasn't been that change in the climate in Washington."

McCain, of course, has a long reputation -- earned, but also self-promoted -- of being a bridge between the two parties on important legislative issues. Earlier in the program he defended Obama's decision to close down the prison at Guantanamo Bay before criticizing the president for not having a plan for transferring the inmates at that facility.

The Arizona Republican was never able to take the title of post-partisan candidate from Obama during the general election, ans it seems likely that he too would have struggled on this front early had he been elected. After all, Congress is as much to blame for the climate in Washington as the occupant of the Oval Office.

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Comments

[Arji]

McCain is basically a mental midget compared to the genius of Obama. I would love to see results of IQ testing for both of them. I'm guessing McCain is somewhere around the GW Bush level...the level of an average high school senior. And we all know about W's "passing" grades..just barely passing, that is. These guys are the kind of folks who depend on either past deeds or political relatives to get where they are. The ONLY reason McCain is where he is is because of his Vietnam war experience. People called him a hero. It doesn't take a hero to be captured by the enemy. It's usually the result of bad luck or stupidity that get's you captured. hero is someone who intentionally places himself in danger for the sake of others. McCain did not intentially get shot down. Nor does he admit he's a hero but the republicans needed something good to say about him and all they could think of was "He's a national hero"....in reality, he's was an unlucky pilot who cracked under torture......not a hero...an ordinary human being. If he had done what Roy Benavides did and placed himself in harm's way to save lives and was severely wounded, then he would be a hero......a hero is a hero by selfless choice, not uncontrollable circumstances. Benavides was awarded the Medal of Honor. This is not to say that he was not courageous but what choice was he given?

[salzy1]

Remember, McCain disobeyed orders and flew his aircraft where he was told not to; then he was shot down. Some war hero!

[real1234]

Backhanded compliment.. Sour grapes.

[MzTexas]

RNC definition of bipartisanship: do everything our way or we whine, cry and stomp our feet like big babies.

RNC definition of compromise: do everything our way or we shine, cry and stomp our feet like big babies.

[NedroidPrime]

And they wonder why they have such trouble at foriegn policy...

[mjtaylor22]

THE PRESIDENT HAS BEEN AND CONTINUES TO BE TOO NICE TO THESE BUMBS, WE VOTED THEM OUT INTENTIONALLY FOR SWEEPING CHANGE BIPARTISAN IS A THEORY, WE HAVE NOT WORKED THAT WAY IN A LONG WHILE,
THEY RNC OFFERS NOTHING AND SIMPLY SAYS NO TO EVERYHTING, IT IS NOT EVEN CONSTUCTIVE CRITICISM
IT IS PURELY CRITICISM TO BE CRITISM.
AND ANYTHING SIMILAR TO AN IDEA THEY MAY PROPSE IS SIMPLY MORE OF THE SAME POLICIES THAT DESTROYED OUR WORLD ECONOMY, BUT THEY STILL HAVE NOT ADMITTED THIS FAILURE.

[CaptainVideo]

Well Senator McCain came up short on votes last Fall.

[Lin96]

McCain has come up short on everything including the number of homes he owns. His comments are trite and leaves one wishing he would just go away to one of those homes he doesn't know about.

[CaptainVideo]

"His pledge to change the bitter partisanship in Washington."

Obama tried very hard to be bipatisan, but
you cannot have a bipartisan policy with a party that is determined to oppose, delay, obstruct, and defeat everything Obama wants to do.

The Republicans are trying to do the same thing to Obama during his first 2 years that they did to Clinton during his first 2 years. With Clinton they obstructed opposed and defeated. As a result, by the end of the first two years Clinton was discredited and the Republicans regained control of Congress, and kept control for the rest of his term. Since this strategy worked so well with Clinton, they are trying to use it against Obama. But Obama is a survivor of Chicago politics and will be able to thwart this.


The best way of Obama to deal with the Party of No is to peel away just enough Republican Senators to get things through the Senate, and ignore the rest of the party.

[Reighben Labilles]

Where McCain pulls his material I would never know. How can he say that Obama is not post-partisan enough? Obama has drifted too near the center-right (on issues of same-sex marriage, single-payer health plan), that hardliner progressives are already expressing their disappointment of him. In my opinion, he's gone overboard on post-partisanship and genteel leadership. If anything, he needs to be more stern in defending the very progressive policies he promised in his campaign. And even for just a short while, he should strong-arm the GOP opposition (and conservative Democrats) to get those truly progressive policies signed into law.

[CaptainVideo]

Obama campaigned on a platform of a public option, not a single payer plan. He is doing what he campaigned on.

Single payer people, stop betting on a dead horse and support the public option.

[tel8034]

John "BOMB, BOMB, BOMB, IRAN" McCain was among those that led the way in ensuring that the republican party became THE PARTY OF NO, and now he claims that President comes up short on post-partisanship?................. UNBELIEVABLE !

It's time for President Obama to STOP trying to "win friends" among the rethugs .............. The rethugs are the bullies who refuse to "play nice" and refuse to cooperate ............... The backstabbing rethugs' only goal is to derail anything and everything the Obama administration tries to do.

Besides, although McCain calls himself a "maverick" who "reaches across the aisle", he doesn't have many examples of this to brag about.

His so-called "maverick" label came about when he had to find another word to replace "VINDICTIVE" and "SORE-LOSER" ................ He bucked the Bush administration only because he was being vindictive over his loss in the 2000 republican primary............ It had NOTHING to do with being a maverick.

As for reaching across the aisle, what LITTLE he did was ONLY designed to have a talking point in the 2008 campaign.

And if reaching across the aisle means parading Lieberman around on his campaign train, that was no crossing of the aisle, because Lieberman is NO FRIEND TO DEMOCRATS.

[Vurz]

maybe we will all be lucky and every Republican will suddenly get hit with an attack of conscience and stop saying nonsense like this.

Of course this is the man that stated "If picking fruit paid $50 dollars an hour, you people still wouldn't do it." to a group of unemployed citizens, so it's no wonder that the stuff he is still saying is just as stupid.

[mi]

Like McCain is a valid source of information.

[Phxflyer]

Fortunately for us, McCain came up short in the November election.

[Michael Valentine]

Shame on President Obama. After the Republicans have worked so hard to reach across the isle. Why wouldn't the President reach out the remanding 95% to meet them?

[Wiseronenow]

McCain, don't you have some kids to chase off your front lawn?? Also, your reputation of being the "peace-maker" is very overrated. I'm sure the new crop of the GOP, Cantor, Steele, etc. are not looking to you first for counsel. You may have your moments on the Senate floor of wheeling-dealing, but I can only assume those days are far and few between.

[FloaterBall]

Thanks for the laugh, that's excellent! Ha!

[mediamarv]

Memo to McCain (and the corporate media):

You lost.
You have no useful advice.
Go away.

[motherofsons]

Senator--you lost. The party of cranky old mean white men lost...and you're still losing. What bi-partisanship have your and your side offered? Not a f--ing thing. The President has tried and the GOP just says no.

And one other thing--you lost and your campaign was as big a joke as your vp candidate.

[salzy1]

Yes!!