The other thread was getting a bit crowded and clogged. And here we go again.
It’s over. Okay, over 90 minutes of Obama smacking McFail. So… who had fun?
9:36 NOUN + VERB + POW
9:35 Wow… McCain compares Obama’s “inflexibility” (AKA, sticking to his guns on the issues) to the Bush administration. McCain says he’ll take care of the veterans and that they know he’ll take care of them. Really funny, considering his horrible voting record on veteran’s issues.
9:33 Obama says the economy is now a national security issue. Fantastic line.
9:31Question: what is the likelihood of another 9/11 attack? Is America safer?
McCain: Yes. Blah blah blah. And all of it would be lost if we followed Obama’s plan and had dates for withdrawal.
Obama: Brings it back to Afghanistan, the tactical errors made. Picked up on McCain’s comment about torture! Says engaging in torture “undermines” us. Good, nice catch. He’ll come back to this on the trail. Bad flip-flop, McGramps.
9:27 Wait, suddenly McCain is against torture again? Is that what he just said?
9:25 More on Russia from Obama: “We have to have foresight and anticipate some of these problems. Back in April I warned the administration that we had Russian peacekeepers in Georgian territory, which made no sense.” Says some of these problems might have been avoided. He continues: “Russia is in part resurgent and Putin is feeling powerful because of petrodollars.” Great, he uses this question to bring us back to his alternative energy plans. Well done.
9:20 On Russia. Obama: Their actions in Georgia were unacceptable and unwarranted. It’s essential that we have a unified alliance — “You can’t be a 21st century power and act like a 20th century dictatorship.” Says we also can’t return to a Cold War posture with respect to Russia. Heh. And “you don’t deal with Russia based on looking into someone’s eyes and seeing his soul.” Nice. Keep reminding people of Bush. Probably the best tactic when dealing with McCain.
McCain: Russia has become a nation run by petro-dollars. “I looked into Putin’s eyes and saw three letters: a ‘K’ a ‘G’ and a ‘B’.” Wants to work with the Russians but says we have every right to expect them to respect international boundaries.
9:14 Here we go again — McCain trying to paint Obama as reckless on diplomacy. Obama explains, “‘Without preconditions’ means we don’t do what we’ve been doing, which is to say, ‘Until you agree to do exactly what we say, we won’t have contact with you.’ There’s a difference between ‘preconditions’ and ‘preparations’.” Obama continues: “In North Korea, we cut off talks, and you know what happened? They quadrupled their nuclear capacity, they tested missiles, they pulled out of the nonproliferation agreement, and they sent nuclear secrets potentially to countries like Syria.” Reminds the viewers that McCain wasn’t too keen on meeting with the Prime Minister of Spain (uhhh, by the way — any of y’all know where Spain is?). Heh.
9:08 On Iran… McCain: “We could impose significant, meaningful, painful sanctions on the Iranians . . . Together, with other Democracies around the world, we can affect Iranian behavior.” He says if Iranians continue on this path to developing nuclear weapons, it’ll be a threat to the region and the world.
Obama: The one thing that has strengthened Iran has been the war in Iraq. “John is correct, we cannot tolerate a nuclear Iran.” Says we’ll need the cooperation of countries like Russia and China, not JUST traditional democracies. Also points out that our efforts at isolation have just sped up their efforts to attain nuclear weapons.
9:03 Great line — Obama quotes McCain as having said we would “muddle through Afghanistan”. Obama points out: “You don’t ‘muddle through’ going after bin-Laden.”
9:01 McCain rattling off his record of being involved in national security issues. Says we’ll have to go back to Iraq if we fail now. Once again, GOP talking point: turn it into a matter of honor.
8:58 Obama says we lost legitimacy in Pakistan, while the government failed to go after Al-Qaeda.
8:53 Question: Do you think more US troops should be sent to Afghanistan? How many and when?
Obama says yes, and quickly. We currently have the highest number fatalities there than any time since 2002. We can’t separate Afghanistan from Iraq. He would send 2 additional brigades there. We have four times more troops in Iraq than in Afghanistan, despite the knowledge that the Taliban is deeply entrenched in Afghanistan. We have to deal with Pakistan because the Taliban has safehavens there.
McCain is saying Obama is “threatening” Pakistan. (Nice mischaracterization.) McCain: “You don’t do that, you don’t say that out loud. If you have to do things, you have to do things.” So basically he means: just lie about it.
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