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McCain Fires Back at Obama

By Philip Klein on 5.25.07 @ 2:08PM

After Mitt Romney and John McCain criticized Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for their votes against the Iraq funding bill, Obama issued a response that included the follwing jab at McCain:

"This country is united in our support for our troops, but we also owe them a plan to relieve them of the burden of policing someone else's civil war. Governor Romney and Senator McCain clearly believe the course we are on in Iraq is working, but I do not.

"And if there ever was a reflection of that it's the fact that Senator McCain required a flack jacket, ten armored Humvees, two Apache attack helicopters, and 100 soldiers with rifles by his side to stroll through a market in Baghdad just a few weeks ago...."

McCain just followed it up with a hook:

"While Senator Obama's two years in the U.S. Senate certainly entitle him to vote against funding our troops, my service and experience combined with conversations with military leaders on the ground in Iraq lead me to believe that we must give this new strategy a chance to succeed because the consequences of failure would be catastrophic to our nation's security.

"By the way, Senator Obama, it's a 'flak' jacket, not a 'flack' jacket."

Ouch!

And good for McCain. This is indicative of a few things. Clearly, it benefits McCain to pick a fight with a leading Democrat on his strongest issue with the Republican base at a time when he is being savaged on immigration. It also provides a bit of a preview of how Republicans (particularly McCain) can attack Obama's inexperience. Should be interesting to see how the young Senator responds.

topics:
John McCain, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Military, Iraq, NATO, Immigration