WATERTOWN, S.D. -- Sen. Barack Obama suggested to several hundred residents of this farming town of 20,000 that he welcomed the idea of turning the presidential contest into a debate on who is better fit to guide the nation's foreign policy. (
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/05/16/obama_fires_back_at_bush_mccai.html)
Pausing before a town hall meeting in a livestock arena, Obama said he wanted to address what he called his "dust-up over foreign policy" with President Bush and Sen. John McCain.
Obama then launched into list of grievances, including a war fought on the premise of uprooting weapons of mass destruction that were never found, the failure to catch Osama Bin Laden and turning Iran into the "greatest beneficiary" of the Iraq war.
"That's the Bush-McCain record on protecting this country," Obama said. "Those are the failed policies that John McCain wants to double down on."
Barack Obama struck back hard at President Bush and John McCain Friday, accusing them of hypocrisy and of distorting his position on dialogue with nations hostile to the United States, telling a South Dakota crowd that “I’m running for president to change course, not to continue George Bush’s course.” (
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/05/16/obama-bush-and-mccain-have-a-lot-to-answer-for/)
“I want to be perfectly clear with George Bush and John McCain, and with the people of South Dakota,” he said at a Watertown campaign stop. “If George Bush and John McCain want to have a debate about protecting the United States of America, that is a debate that I'm happy to have any time, any place and that is debate I will win because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for.”
“They are going to have to explain why it is that Iran is able to fund Hezbollah and poses the greatest threat to America and Israel and the Middle East in a generation. That's the Bush-McCain record on protecting this country.
"That's the kind of hypocrisy that we've been seeing in our foreign policy, the kind of fear-peddling, fear mongering that has prevented us from actually making us safer," he said. (
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5itRjO7TW13uyn2fLl2VeCSpbUZ5A)
Sen. Barack Obama
slammed President Bush on Friday for launching "exactly the kind of appalling attack that's divided our country and that alienates us from the world."
He also took a shot at Sen. John McCain for "embracing" the president's "attacks on Democrats," and "suggesting that I wasn't fit to protect this nation that I love."
"So much for civility," Obama said at a town hall meeting in Watertown, noting that McCain had talked about the need for civility in politics earlier Thursday.
"After almost eight years, I did not think I could be surprised about anything that George Bush says, but I was wrong," Obama said.
"The president did something that presidents don't do. That is launch a political attack targeted toward the domestic market in front of a foreign delegation," he said.
"On a day when we were supposed to be celebrating the anniversary of Israel's independence, he accused me and other Democrats of wanting to negotiate with terrorists and said we were appeasers no different from people who appeased Adolph Hitler," Obama
said.
"Instead of celebrating and offering some clear ideas about how to move the situation in the Middle East forward, the president did something that presidents don't do, and that is launch a political attack targeted toward the domestic market in front of a foreign delegation."
Obama said that he had never offered to negotiate with Hamas, "a terrorist organisation that has vowed to destroy Israel and won't recognise them," but called attention to a Washington Post piece that cited McCain as saying in 2006 that he would deal with the group.
He called attention to McCain's apparent turnaround on troop withdrawals from Iraq. McCain this week said he would have most US troops out of the country by 2013, after saying some might stay there for 100 years.
"I think he noticed that it wasn't polling well," he quipped.
At a press conference following the town hall meeting where Obama blasted back at President Bush, with three-term South Dakota Sen. Thomas Daschle looking on, Obama said it "puzzled" him that his willingness to meet with leaders of rogue states was in any way controversial "when this has been the history of U.S. diplomacy until very recently." (
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/05/16/obama_puzzled_by_controversy_o.html)
Obama pointed to President Kennedy's meetings with Nikita Khrushchev at a time when the two nations were on the brink of nuclear war, and to President Nixon's met with China's Mao Zedong, "with the knowledge that Mao had exterminated millions of people."
"And yet, we understood that we could advance our national security by at least opening up lines of communication," Obama said. "It's a signal of how badly our foreign policy has drifted over the last eight years."
Barack Obama rebuked Republican rival John McCain and President Bush for "dishonest, divisive" attacks in hinting that the Democratic presidential candidate would appease terrorists, staunchly defending his national security credentials for the general election campaign. (
http://origin.mercurynews.com/elections/ci_9282879)
"I'm a strong believer in civility and I'm a strong believer in a bipartisan foreign policy, but that cause is not served with dishonest, divisive attacks of the sort that we've seen out of George Bush and John McCain over the last couple days, " Obama said.
Obama said McCain had a "naive and irresponsible belief that tough talk from Washington will somehow cause Iran to give up its nuclear program and support for terrorism."
"They aren't telling you the truth. They are trying to fool you and scare you because they can't win a foreign policy debate on the merits," said Obama. "But it's not going to work. Not this time, not this year."
Watch the video of Sen. Obama responding to the recent attacks from Bush and McCain in Watertown, South Dakota today:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gGBlCJtranscript:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/16/AR2008051602323.html
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
