McCain overstates Obama on Pakistan
Posted: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 10:21 PM by Mark Murray
McCain said: "Sen. Obama likes to talk loudly. In fact, he wants to announce that he's going to attack Pakistan -- remarkable."
But this is what Obama said originally on August 1, 2007: "There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf will not act, we will."
It's worth noting that Palin -- on at least two occasions -- seemed to back Obama on this issue.
-- "GIBSON: But, Governor, I'm asking you: We have the right, in your mind, to go across the border with or without the approval of the Pakistani government.
PALIN: In order to stop Islamic extremists, those terrorists who would seek to destroy America and our allies, we must do whatever it takes and we must not blink, Charlie, in making those tough decisions of where we go and even who we target.
GIBSON: And let me finish with this. I got lost in a blizzard of words there. Is that a yes? That you think we have the right to go across the border with or without the approval of the Pakistani government, to go after terrorists who are in the Waziristan area?
PALIN: I believe that America has to exercise all options in order to stop the terrorists who are hell bent on destroying America and our allies. We have got to have all options out there on the table." (Interview with Charlie Gibson, 9/11/08)
-- "Palin spoke to one patron's friend on his cell phone, and answered a couple of questions on Pakistan from another. Michael Rovito asked her specifically whether U.S. forces should cross the border from Afghanistan to Pakistan. “If that’s what we have to do stop the terrorists from coming any further in, absolutely, we should," she said." (First Read, 9/28/08)
Yet Palin later backtracked on those statements, telling Katie Couric: "Well, as Sen. McCain is suggesting here, also, never would our administration get out there and show our cards to terrorists, in this case, to enemies and let them know what the game plan was, not when that could ultimately adversely affect a plan to keep America secure."
