Obama, McCain exchange heated words over foreign policy

BY CRAIG GORDON | craig.gordon@newsday.com

May 17, 2008

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama and John McCain escalated their war of words over foreign policy Friday - with Obama using an attack on his rival's "irresponsible" views to send a second message to Republicans as well:

Don't try to "swift-boat" me.

Obama has vowed not to get painted as weak on defense, the way John Kerry did in 2004 in ads by swift-boat veterans.

He wasted no time this week lashing back at McCain and President George W. Bush over comments Bush made about "appeasement" of the Nazis, remarks Obama said were a slap at his belief in diplomacy.

"They aren't telling you the truth. They are trying to fool you and scare you because they can't win a foreign policy debate on the merits. But it's not going to work. Not this time, not this year," Obama said in Watertown, S.D.

But McCain on Friday said he's eager for that debate, ripping Obama as "reckless" for saying he'd sit down for talks with Iran's leader.

"Talking, not even with soaring rhetoric, in unconditional meetings with the man who calls Israel 'a stinking corpse,' and arms terrorists who kill Americans, will not convince Iran to give up its nuclear program," he said in a speech to the National Rifle Association.

The ferocity of Obama-McCain exchanges sounded more like mid-October than mid-May, as the two expected nominees battled like they've been itching for this slow-motion fight to get serious. One loser this week: Hillary Rodham Clinton, who seemed more like an onlooker than a viable contender as the two others just talked around her.

To be sure, this is usually dangerous ground for a Democrat like Obama - and Republicans succeeded in raising doubts about Kerry even though he was a highly decorated vet who served in Vietnam.

Republican strategists can barely contain their enthusiasm for the chance to do the same to Obama - whom they believe is particularly vulnerable due to his relative youth, and his lack of military or hands-on foreign policy experience. Plus, Obama's opponent is a man many voters see as a genuine Vietnam war hero.

In addition, Republicans believe they can stoke doubts about Obama among Jewish voters - many of whom backed Bush in 2004 over his tough-on-terror persona - by suggesting he's not as devoted to Israel as McCain. Bush made his comments about "appeasement" while standing in the Israeli parliament but the White House insists he wasn't talking about Obama.

The Illinois senator is trying to battle back on two fronts. One is a political argument - in keeping with his call to move beyond old partisan battles, he's trying to persuade voters not to be swayed by the same Republican attacks as before.

The second is pure policy - he's arguing that the Republicans' supposedly tough approach overseas actually was severely misguided, with Exhibit A being the war in Iraq.

"If they want a debate about protecting the United States of America, that's a debate I'm ready to win because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for," Obama said, including what he called the continued strength of al-Qaida.

Meanwhile, a former Clinton State Department official, James Rubin, released a two-year-old video that he said showed McCain was willing to negotiate with American enemies, in this case Hamas, which the U.S. government lists as a terrorist organization. But McCain's camp cried foul, saying Rubin left out a later part of McCain's response where he says the United States would have to see how Hamas behaves first.

The dustup

The clash began when Bush gave a speech to the Israeli Knesset Thursday in which he criticized those who believe the United States should negotiate with terrorists and radicals. Obama, who has said he would hold talks with Iran but will not negotiate with terrorists, said Bush's criticism was directed at him; the White House denied the president had Obama in mind.

BUSH

"Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is - the false comfort of appeasement."

McCAIN

"It would be a wonderful thing if we lived in a world where we don't have enemies. But that's not the world we live in. And until Senator Obama understands that reality, the American people have every reason to doubt whether he has the strength, judgment and determination to keep us safe."

OBAMA

"I was offended by what is a continuation of a strategy from this White House, now mimicked by Senator McCain, that replaces strategy and analysis and smart policy with bombast, exaggerations and fear-mongering. ... If they want a debate about protecting the United States of America, that's a debate I'm ready to win because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for."