McCain: Sundays with Zebari
Posted: Monday, June 16, 2008 9:05 AM by Mark Murray
The presumptive GOP nominee yesterday met with Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, at his campaign headquarters in the DC area. The Washington Post: “After talking behind closed doors for a half hour, McCain and Zebari invited reporters into the meeting. Both men complimented each other on their work, and expressed their faith that the war in Iraq was succeeding. Referring the Status of Forces Agreement between the U.S. and Iraq, McCain told reporters, ‘Any agreement will be based on partnership and in the national security interests of both countries... It's very important that we not let any of this success slip away and the relationship and partnership that has led -- and the new strategy that has led to the success that it has, I am confident will continue.’”
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“When asked whether he would meet with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the foreign minister said he would make time to brief the presumptive Democratic nominee during his U.S. stay. ‘We will have an opportunity to speak to Senator Obama also on this trip. Again to explain the same situation to him in Iraq,’ the foreign minister said. ‘I'd also give -- we are not a part, in fact, of the U.S. election whatsoever. I think this is a decision for the American public. But it's in our interest, in fact, to brief both candidates on the reality of the situation, the way we see it from our perspective, from people who've been at the thick of this conflict, so yes, indeed, we will have that opportunity.’”
McCain later
took the opportunity to hit Obama for not supporting the surge. "The situation on the ground is that we have made enormous success and the surge has worked," McCain said. "Senator Obama was wrong when he said it would fail."
“Questions from the media prompted Republican John McCain to cancel a fundraiser at the home of a Texas oilman who once joked that women should give in while being raped,” the AP writes. “The Texan, Republican Clayton ‘Claytie’ Williams, made the joke during his failed 1990 campaign for governor against Democrat Ann Richards. Williams compared rape to the weather, saying, ‘As long as it's inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it." He also compared Richards to the cattle on his ranch, saying he would "head her and hoof her and drag her through the dirt.’”
The AP: “Joe Lieberman is fast becoming the Democrats' public enemy No. 1. The four-term Connecticut senator, who came tantalizingly close to being Al Gore's vice president in 2000, not only has been campaigning for his pal, presumed Republican nominee John McCain, now he's publicly criticizing the Democrats' standard-bearer, Barack Obama…. The latest betrayal has upset Democrats, who often answer in clipped but polite tones when asked about Lieberman.
Historians tend not to give McCain’s candidacy much of a chance, Politico reports. “[T]he biggest obstacle in McCain’s path may be running in the same party as the most unpopular president America has had since at least the advent of modern polling. Only Harry Truman and Nixon — both of whom were dogged by unpopular wars abroad and political scandals at home — have been nearly as unpopular in their last year in office, and both men’s parties lost the presidency in the following election.”
