Bush vs. Obama turns into...
Posted: Thursday, May 15, 2008 4:02 PM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Security, Andrea Mitchell
From NBC's Andrea Mitchell and Lauren Appelbaum
.... McCain vs. Obama.
In Ohio on the Straight Talk Express, McCain today responded to questions on Bush's remarks at the Knesset. "It does bring up an issue that we are will be discussing with the American people and that is: Why does Barack Obama, Senator Obama, want to sit down with a state sponsor of terrorism?" He added, "I think that Barack Obama needs to explain why he wants to sit down and talk with a man who is the head of a government that is a state sponsor of terror, that is responsible for the killing of brave young Americans, who wants to wipe Israel off the map, denies the Holocaust."
And then McCain said, "It is a serious error on the part of Senator Obama that shows naivety and inexperience and lack of judgment to say that he wants to sit down across the table from an individual who leads a country that says that Israel is a 'stinking corpse.'"
An Obama aide fired back with this response: "Let there be no doubt that George Bush is John McCain's wingman on this," the aide told NBC News. "This is a fight we like."
The aide added that McCain's comments today show that he's "trying the same playbook that we've had since 2002 on foreign policy.
"Historically, the president who have been successful have been those who have been willing to engage."
*** UPDATE *** Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor also weighs in: “It is the height of hypocrisy for John McCain to deliver a lofty speech about civility and bipartisanship in the morning and then embrace George Bush's disgraceful political attack in the afternoon. Instead of delivering meaningful change, John McCain wants to continue George Bush’s irresponsible and failed Iran policy by refusing to engage in tough, direct diplomacy like Presidents from Kennedy to Reagan have done."