McCain: 'We’re succeeding'
Posted: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 9:29 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Returning from his eighth trip to Iraq, McCain didn't back down on his promise to see the war through despite yesterday's tragic milestone of 4,000 deaths. “We're succeeding. I don't care what anybody says. I've seen the facts on the ground," the Arizona senator insisted a day after a roadside bomb in Baghdad killed four U.S. soldiers and rockets pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone there, and a wave of attacks left at least 61 Iraqis dead nationwide. The events transpired as bin Laden called on the people of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to ‘help in support of their mujahedeen brothers in Iraq, which is the greatest opportunity and the biggest task.’”
Did McCain really say he agrees with Osama bin Laden? On the day the 4,000th American troop was killed in Iraq, McCain said, per NBC/NJ’s Adam Aigner-Treworgy, "General Petraeus is correct when he says that the central battleground in the struggle against Al Qaeda is Iraq, and Osama bin Laden just confirmed that again with his comments last week," referring to a recent audio recording of bin Laden calling for support of the Mujahadeen in Iraq.
McCain told reporters after his town hall, "Gen. Petraeus and I and Osama bin Laden are in agreement. It is hard to understand why Senator Clinton and Senator Obama do not understand that [Iraq is the central battleground]. I don't know if it is naiveté or what the problem is but it's obvious that they're dead wrong, and they're wrong when they say that we should leave Iraq immediately… and it's time that they acknowledge that the surge is succeeding and the benefits of success in Iraq will spread throughout the entire Middle East."
The al Qaeda-Iraq argument is a tack the RNC is also taking up against Clinton and Obama, as they wrote in one recent document e-mailed to media, entitled: “While Bin Laden Urges Followers To Fight In Iraq, Clinton And Obama Deny That It Is A Key Terrorist Battleground.”
The DNC has been going after McCain on Iraq and his offhanded “100 years” comment, which is almost assuredly going to end up in ads.
Also, McCain is in California today and gives a speech on the economy. He acknowledges, per prepared remarks, “market turmoil” and that many are “feeling both concerned and angry.” In answer to the question, “How did we get here?” McCain will say that a housing bubble was created by “the largest increase in home ownership in the past 50 years.” To help the problem, he will call for “a meeting of the nation's accounting professionals to discuss the current mark to market accounting systems” and “a meeting of the nation's top mortgage lenders.”
But notice the difference between McCain’s tone and Clinton’s housing speech from yesterday, in which she called for and Emergency Working group on Foreclosures… “Let's start with some straight talk,” McCain will say. “I will not play election year politics with the housing crisis. I will evaluate everything in terms of whether it might be harmful or helpful to our effort to deal with the crisis we face now. I have always been committed to the principle that it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers. Government assistance to the banking system should be based solely on preventing systemic risk that would endanger the entire financial system and the economy.
“In our effort to help deserving homeowners, no assistance should be given to speculators. Any assistance for borrowers should be focused solely on homeowners, not people who bought houses for speculative purposes, to rent or as second homes. Any assistance must be temporary and must not reward people who were irresponsible at the expense of those who weren’t. I will consider any and all proposals based on their cost and benefits. In this crisis, as in all I may face in the future, I will not allow dogma to override common sense.”
The AP on the upcoming speech: “McCain wants to leave the door open to a wide array of proposals to address the turmoil in home financing.” More: “McCain seemed to suggest he would be open even to potential solutions that, perhaps, stray from the Republican party line, saying, ‘I will consider any and all proposals based on their cost and benefits’ and ‘I will not allow dogma to override common sense.’” He will also call on lenders to help out their customers: “ ‘They've been asking the government to help them out,’ McCain said of lenders. ‘I'm now calling upon them to help their customers, and their nation, out.’”
More: “But the small-government advocate and four-term Arizona senator also put restrictions on how far he was willing to go.”
The Boston Globe’s Canellos calls these “good days” for McCain. “…[A]s the fifth anniversary of the war passed last week, the challenges for the Democrats loomed larger and support for McCain seemed more durable.
“Recent national polls have shown voters choosing McCain by large margins over Clinton and Obama as the candidate most capable of handling the war. A recent Gallup poll showed McCain favored on Iraq over Clinton and Obama by identical 54-to-40 margins. A Los Angeles Times poll had McCain over Clinton on the war by 51 to 35, and Obama by 47 to 34. Democrats view those numbers with suspicion, noting that McCain's views on Iraq are more hawkish than the public realizes, since they haven't been much in the news.”
From Beirut, Reuters reports, “Arabs keen to see the end of George W. Bush's presidency fear that a win for likely Republican candidate John McCain will bring little change to U.S. policies they blame for destabilizing the Middle East. For Arab politicians who have gained from U.S. policy in countries including Iraq and Lebanon, continuity may be a good thing. But Bush's many critics in the Arab world worry that McCain will continue current U.S. policies, which they fault for unleashing chaos in Iraq and providing unflinching support for Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians.”
McCain is set to appear on Letterman on Monday.
