McCain gets more than he bargained for
Posted: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 2:55 PM by Mark Murray
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy
ROCHESTER, NH -- During a return trip to the state that he won in the 2000 primaries and that launched him on the road to this year's GOP nomination,
McCain got more than he bargained for from the independent-minded voters he is so complimentary of on the campaign trail. Before opening up to questions from the audience of several hundred that crowded into the Opera House downtown here, McCain picked up on his campaign's message of the day:
Obama and Iraq.
"I had the courage and the judgment to say that I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war," McCain said, referencing a tag line he used to defend his support for the troop surge in Iraq. "It seems to me that Sen. Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign."
But McCain had to deal with at least one audience member today who is sympathetic to Obama's view of the situation in Iraq. An older woman engaged McCain on the issue, voicing vehement opposition to the US involvement there and saying that "we are in Iraq against international law," and all of the deaths that have occurred in that country verge on "criminal."
"Now the idea that we might someday have a stable democratic government there is not ours to impose on that country," the questioner said. "We should not be there in my opinion. We need to leave the country. The people of that country are asking us to leave. The prime minister of that country is asking us to leave."
McCain allowed the woman to speak and follow up several times, but each time he was unmoved by her impassioned plea against the war, reiterating that the US has "succeeded" and even arguing that Iraqis are now living normal lives.
"The fact is that everybody recognizes, including Prime Minister Maliki, that we have to have conditions-based withdrawal, and we all -- we are gonna withdraw," McCain said. "We will withdraw. The fact is, is whether we withdraw in victory or whether we withdraw in defeat. And again, you and I have different versions. We have succeeded. The Sadr City is safe. Mosul is safe. Basra is safe. The people of Iraq, and I've been there, are now leading normal lives."
