Ari Melber: Biden Links Future Terrorism to McCain’s Failures

[babylonsister]

http://washingtonindependent.com/7199/biden-links-future-terrorism-to-mccains-failures

Biden Links Future Terrorism to McCain’s Failures
By Ari Melber 9/24/08 11:43 AM


Sen. Barack Obama has only one event today, a rally in Dunedin, Florida, and the rest of his schedule is cleared for debate prep. His campaign, however, is not taking a day off from general election combat. Today Sen. Joe Biden is thrashing Republicans in a Cincinnati national security address.

With the first debate on foreign policy set for Friday, Biden is framing his side’s security argument. Leaning into the buzz saw of terror politics, Biden says another terror attack in the U.S. will be exported from a region where “Bush/McCain” security policy failed:

Mark my words: if, God forbid, there is another major attack on America, it will not come from Iraq. It will almost certainly come from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border – where the Bush/McCain approach let down our guard and let our enemies off the hook. And unlike John McCain – who opposed Barack Obama’s call to take out the high-level terrorist targets in Pakistan and called it “bombing our ally” – we will not tolerate a terrorist sanctuary in Pakistan. If Pakistan cannot or will not act, we will take out high-level terrorist targets like bin Laden if we have them in our sights. (emphasis added)

That’s sharper than the usual Democratic rhetoric, which avoids laying the blame for terror attacks, past or future. Biden also argues that Friday’s debate is already over, in a sense. The disputes over which policies best protect Americans, he says, have “already been decided.” According to prepared remarks, Biden declares: “Now, just as most Americans believe we are on the wrong track at home, so too have they come to the conclusion that we’ve been heading in the wrong direction abroad.”

It’s a confident and tougher tone from Obama/Biden heading into the first debate.