Clinton and Obama did not gig McCain on his Al Qaeda/Iran link?

[gulliver]

I went to both of their web sites and can find no mention of either Clinton or Obama nailing their respected dunce-boy colleague McCain for his repeated, recorded references to a link between Al Qaeda and Iran. I read a whole bunch of news sites also, and I did not see anything about Clinton or Obama savaging McCain.

This reminds me of Kerry. Do we have two Kerry's?

We have passport information paranoia and mutually assured destruction activity, but it seems to me that no one is remembering to beat up on McCain. I don't get that. The way I score a punch is:

1) Clinton hits Obama or vice versa: 1 point
2) Clinton or Obama hit McCain: 10 points
3) Clinton or Obama hit Bush: 25 points

[stahbrett]

1. Obama hit him on it the very next day - in a speech (nt)

[CJCRANE]

2. Didn't McCain also call

Washington DC the "City of Satan"?

Doesn't seem very patriotic of him.

[virtualobserver]

8. a personal reference to the current occupant?

[Pirate Smile]

3. Obama went after him. Here you go: "Obama needles McCain on Iran gaffe"

Obama needles McCain on Iran gaffe

CNN) — Barack Obama on Wednesday took aim at potential rival John McCain over the Arizona senator's apparent misstep at a recent press conference in Jordan, the latest sign Democrats are looking to capitalize on the moment.

"Just yesterday, we heard Sen. McCain confuse Sunni and Shiite, Iran and Al Qaeda," Obama said during a speech on Iraq Wednesday morning. "Maybe that is why he voted to go to war with a country that had no Al Qaeda ties. Maybe that is why he completely fails to understand that the war in Iraq has done more to embolden America’s enemies than any strategic choice that we have made in decades."

The gaffe in question occurred during a news conference in Jordan Tuesday, when the presumptive Republican presidential nominee repeatedly said Iran was supplying al Qaeda. Iran is predominately a Shiite country and is not aiding the Sunni dominated Al-Qaeda.

-snip-
In his speech Wednesday in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Obama also criticized McCain for his continued support for an "open-ended war."

"Now we know what we’ll hear from those like John McCain who support open-ended war. They will argue that leaving Iraq is surrender," he said. "That we are emboldening the enemy. These are the mistaken and misleading arguments we hear from those who have failed to demonstrate how the war in Iraq has made us safer. "

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/03/19/obama-needles-mccain-on-iran-gaffe/

You should update your OP.

[NYCGirl]

4. Obama: Confused McCain has no strategy

Obama: Confused McCain has no strategy

Obama just pivoted off race as sharply has he could: by picking a fight with John McCain over Iraq.

In his speech in North Carolina today, Obama noted McCain's confusion yesterday between Sunni and Shiites, and said that McCain is focused on tactics to the exclusion of strategy.

In his sharpest passage, he suggested that McCain's misunderstanding of the Middle East is why he supported the war in the first place — a sharp jab, though not really a serious contention:

Just yesterday, we heard Sen. McCain confuse Sunni and Shiite, Iran and Al Qaeda. Maybe that is why he voted to go to war with a country that had no Al Qaeda ties. Maybe that is why he completely fails to understand that the war in Iraq has done more to embolden America’s enemies than any strategic choice that we have made in decades.

Also:

That is what Sen. McCain wants to discuss — tactics. What he and the administration have failed to present is an overarching strategy: how the war in Iraq enhances our long-term security, or will in the future. That’s why this administration cannot answer the simple question posed by Sen. John Warner in hearings last year: Are we safer because of this war? And that is why Sen. McCain can argue — as he did last year — that we couldn’t leave Iraq because violence was up, and then argue this year that we can’t leave Iraq because violence is down.

When you have no overarching strategy, there is no clear definition of success. Success comes to be defined as the ability to maintain a flawed policy indefinitely. Here is the truth: Fighting a war without end will not force the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future. And fighting in a war without end will not make the American people safer.

So when I am commander in chief, I will set a new goal on Day One: I will end this war. Not because politics compels it. Not because our troops cannot bear the burden — as heavy as it is. But because it is the right thing to do for our national security, and it will ultimately make us safer.


http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0308/Obama_Confused_McCain_has_no_strategy.html

[gulliver]

7. Thanks for the link, but I score it low.

Basically Obama is subtly using McCain's mistake to bash IWR voters. That dissipates the energy of the attack to multiple people, including Clinton, the intended target, but also Kerry and many others. Obama's trying to kill two birds with one stone and missed both birds. It did not even seriously make the news.

[TwilightGardener]

5. Obama pounced on it. Bill Clinton praised McCain to the heavens and

noted how much he wanted to see McCain and Hillary run against each other so that two people who love their country and have its best interests at heart could compete on the issues.

[virtualobserver]

6. minus 100 points in my scoring system....

[ingac70]

9. Obama did.

http://www.nysun.com/article/73277