McCain camp pre-buts Obama trip
Posted: Thursday, July 17, 2008 10:53 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Security
From NBC's Mark Murray
Before Obama heads on his trip to the Middle East and Europe, the McCain campaign is trying to pre-but his travel. McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann has fired off a memo to reporters arguing that Obama is putting politics before country, suggesting that he wants to "lose" the war, even comparing him to Donald Rumsfeld.
VIDEO: In a conference call on Wednesday, the McCain foreign policy advisory Randy Scheunemann said the American people can't afford to replace on administration that refused to acknowledge failure in Iraq with a "candidate that refused to acknowledge success in Iraq." Newsweek's Richard Wolffe talks about these claims.
Excerpts: "When it wasn't popular, John McCain said he would rather win a war that we were losing than win an election. Politics came second; country came first. Barack Obama has determined that he would rather lose a war that we are winning than lose an election by alienating his base. This is the reason Obama did not have to wait until his trip to declare his strategy. Iraq is fundamentally a political decision for Barack Obama, not a national security decision."
And: "The American people deserve a commander-in-chief who puts their country first ahead of party, politics and self-interest. Time after time, that is what John McCain has done and what Barack Obama has failed to do. We cannot afford to replace a Rumsfeld strategy that refused for too long to acknowledge failure in Iraq with an Obama strategy that refuses to acknowledge success in Iraq."
In addition, the McCain camp has rounded up GOP Sens. Richard Burr, Jon Kyl and John Thune, as well as Reps. Marsha Blackburn and Eric Cantor to unveil a video later this morning entitled "The Obama Iraq Documentary: Whatever the Politics Demand."
