McCain's 'troops' hit job: the Obama Campaign responds
The Obama campaign is hitting back at John McCain's really nasty attack ad on his decision to skip a planned visit to Lanstuhl last week. A few excerpts from the campaign's response, starting with a statement from the Florida campaign chief Steve Schale:
“John McCain is an honorable man who is running an increasingly dishonorable campaign. Senator McCain knows full well that Senator Obama strongly supports and honors our troops, which is what makes this attack so disingenuous. Senator Obama was honored to meet with our men and women in uniform in Iraq and Afghanistan this week and has visited wounded soldiers at Walter Reed numerous times. This politicization of our soldiers is exactly what Senator Obama sought to avoid, and it's not worthy of Senator McCain or the 'civil' straight talk campaign he claimed he would run."
Next, a flashback from St. John of Surge:
Senator McCain in 2007: “How can we possibly find honor in using the fate of our servicemen to score political advantage in Washington? There is no pride to be had in such efforts. We are at war, a hard and challenging war, and we do no service for the best of us-those who fight and risk all on our behalf-by playing politics with their service.” [Congressional Record, 5/24/07]
The campaign also offers a point by point rebuttal of the McCain ad, including the charge that Obama "hasn't held a single hearing on Afghanistan." To that, the campaign responds that such hearings are held at the full foreign relations committee level, and not by Obama's subcommittee, as is confirmed by both Republican Dick Lugar and the committee's chairman, Joe Biden. And besides:
McCain Missed Every Armed Services Committee Hearing In The Last Two Years That Discussed Afghanistan. A review of the Senate Armed Services Committee hearings as listed on the committee Web site for the past two years reveals that McCain’s committee has held six hearings that included the word “Afghanistan” in the title or Central Command — which overseas U.S. troops in Afghanistan. McCain missed them all. [ABC News, 7/17/08]
On the charge that Obama "voted against funding our troops," the campaign cites Factcheck.org and the Associated Press:
Annenberg Fact Check: Saying Obama Voted Against Troop Funding Is “Oversimplified To The Point Of Being Seriously Misleading, Which Is Exactly The Problem With McCain’s Ad.” “As recently as April 2007, Obama voted in favor of funding U.S. troops again, but this time Democrats added a non-binding call to withdraw them from Iraq. McCain (who was absent for the vote) urged the president to veto that funding measure, because of the withdrawal language. President Bush did veto it, and McCain applauded Bush's veto. Based on those facts, it would be literally true to say that ‘McCain urged a veto of funding for our troops.’ But that would be oversimplified to the point of being seriously misleading, which is exactly the problem with McCain's ad.” [FactCheck.org, 7/22/08]
AP Fact Check: The McCain Ad’s Charge That Obama Voted Against Troop Funding Is “Misleading.” “The ad's most inflammatory charge — that Obama voted against troop funding in Iraq and Afghanistan — is misleading. The Illinois senator consistently voted to fund the troops once elected to the Senate, a point Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton made during the primaries when questioning whether his anti-war rhetoric was reflected in his actions.” [AP, 7/18/08]
And on the main charge, that Obama "found time to go to the gym, but not to visit the troops," made ironically, using video of Obama visiting U.S. troops in the war theater, the campaign provides the following:
Obama Has Been Clear: He Did Not Want Visit to Wounded Soldiers To Be Perceived as Political, Which The Pentagon Had Ruled It Would Be, And Never Planned To Bring Media. "We had scheduled to go, we had no problem at all in leaving, we always leave press and staff off -- that is why we left it off the schedule. We were treating it in the same way we treat a visit to Walter Reed which I was able to do a few weeks ago without any fanfare whatsoever. I was going to be accompanied by one of my advisors, a former military officer." Continued Obama, "And we got notice that he would be treated as a campaign person, and it would therefore be perceived as political because he had endorsed my candidacy but he wasn’t on the Senate staff. That triggered then a concern that maybe our visit was going to be perceived as political. And the last thing that I want to do is have injured soldiers and the staff at these wonderful institutions having to sort through whether this is political or not or get caught in the crossfire between campaigns." "So rather than go forward and potentially get caught up in what might have been considered a political controversy of some sort," Obama said, "what we decided was that we not make a visit and instead I would call some of the troops that were there. So that essentially would be the extent of the story." [ABC News, 7/26/08]
Obama Visited Wounded Troops at Walter Reed Last Month. The AP wrote, “Barack Obama stopped by Walter Reed Army Medical Center Saturday to visit wounded war veterans, a group that he has said endures substandard care under the Bush administration. The presumed Democratic nominee, who was in Washington to speak to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, slipped into the facility shortly after 9 a.m. without stopping to speak to the small group of reporters who follow him. The visit wasn’t on his public schedule.” [AP, 6/28/08]
Obama Visited Wounded Troops In Baghdad’s Green Zone. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said, “On Monday, Sen. Obama stopped into a combat support hospital in the green zone of Baghdad, some of you may have seen the show on HBO called Baghdad ER, that was this hospital.” [Fox, 7/25/08]
McCain Senior Advisor Steve Schmidt: “We Follow The Rules” Banning Political Campaigning On Military Bases. “With Department of Defense rules prohibiting political campaigning on military bases, it was determined that in some cases McCain could visit the installations as a senator but could not engage in any political activity or have news media present. McCain campaign officials said Thursday they intentionally did not campaign on military property. ‘We follow the rules,’ said senior McCain adviser Steve Schmidt.” [CNN.com, 4/3/08]
The campaign also points to McCain's voting record on troop funding:
Obama Voted For And McCain Voted Against $360 Million for Armored Vehicles for Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2005, Obama voted for and McCain voted against providing $360.8 million for armored tactical wheeled vehicles for units deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan and $5 million to establish ballistics engineering research centers at two major research institutions. The measure against which McCain voted also required such centers to advance knowledge and application of ballistics materials and procedures to improve the safety of land-based military vehicles. [HR 2863, Vote 248, 10/5/05, Passed 56-43: R 13-42 D 42-1 I 1-0]
Obama Voted TWICE Against And McCain Voted TWICE For Keeping Capital Gains Tax Cuts, Rather Than Using the Savings to Replace or Repair Equipment for Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2005, Obama voted for and McCain voted against repealing the extension of capital gains tax cuts and use the savings to repair, rehabilitate or replace the equipment used by the Army and Marine Corps in Afghanistan & Iraq. A week later, prior to the issuance of a conference report regarding that measure, Obama voted for and McCain voted against a measure to “insist that conference report include funding to strengthen America's military, as contained in Senate-passed amendment, instead of any extension of tax cuts for capital gains and dividends (which do not expire until 2009), as contained in House-passed bill.” [HR 4297, Vote 8, 2/2/06, Passed 44-53: R 1-52 D 42-1 I 1-0; HR 4297, Vote 18, 2/14/06, Failed 45-55: R 1-54 D 43-1 I 1-0]
McCain Voted Against Providing An Additional $322 Million for Troops’ Safety Equipment, Including Body Armor. In 2003, McCain voted against an amendment to provide an additional $322 million for battlefield clearance and safety equipment for U.S. troops in Iraq. As National Journal noted, the amendment would have provided funding for “soldiers' body armor, communications and other equipment.” The increased spending would have been offset by a reduction in Iraqi reconstruction funds. [S 1689, Vote 376, 10/2/03, Passed 49-37: R 46-0 D 2-37 I 1-0; National Journal’s CongressDaily, 10/3/03]
McCain Opposed $1 Billion For Equipment For National Guard. In 2003, McCain opposed providing $1 billion for equipment for the National Guard and Reserves. [S 762, Vote 116, 4/2/03, Passed 52-47: R 51-0 D 1-46 I 0-1]
Though they left off his longstanding opposition to bills that would increase funding for veterans' healthcare, and his opposition to the Jim Webb-authored G.I. Bill for the 21st Century. This is, after all, the same John McCain whose ratings with veterans groups are shockingly low. As ThinkP reported after McCain's run-in with a well-read vet at one of his town hall meetings:
He received a grade of D from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and a 20 percent vote rating from the Disabled Veterans of America; Vietnam Veterans of America noted McCain had “voted against us” in 15 “key votes.”
As for the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars — with whom McCain claims to have a “perfect voting record” — both groups vigorouslysupported Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-VA) GI Bill that McCaintirelesslyopposed.
John McCain. Campaign first.
I agree with TPM's Greg Sargent that the Obama team's explanation for the cancelled visit should have been clearer, since from all the credible reporting that's out there, they are correct that the Pentagon informed the campaign, late in the game (on Wednesday) that it would violate DoD rules for the candidate to visit with campaign staff (he had no Senate staff with him, since they had gone home following the Mideast portion of the trip.) The question wasn't whether cameras could tag along, but how the Senator would make the visit unstaffed. I suppose he could have gone alone, just with his Secret Service detail, but the campaign apparently decided the logistics wouldn't work at that late hour.
The bottom line is that McCain is attacking Obama for not caring enough about the troops to visit them, during a trip in which he started the friggin thing by VISITING THE TROOPS. And since McCain knows better, he is engaging in exactly the kind of down and dirty politics that did him in in 2000, and his supposed friend John Kerry in in 2004. For once, I agree with Joe Klein. It smacks of desperation, and raises questions about his temperament, and fitness to be president. But sometimes in politics, desperation is all you've got, and if you're a basically nasty guy, as McCain is, you use it. Or as a very witty blogger, Wisco, over at Griper Blade, puts it:
With the way things are shaking out, you might expect John McCain to do something different. And he is -- kind of. He's not abandoning the tried and untrue "referendeum on Obama" strategy that failed so well for Clinton. He does what Republicans often do when their ideas aren't working; he assumes he's not being a big enough dick about it.
Meanwhile, guess what Fox News and right wing talk radio are going to spend the next week talking about? If you tuned in to Fox's "fair and balanced" coverage at any time today, you already know.
BTW, you'll recall in 2000 that one of the most dramatic moments of the Republican primary was the debate in which John McCain demanded an apology from George W. Bush for insinuations made on his behalf that McCain had abandoned fellow veterans. Let's take a walk back in time, to a campaign in which John McCain was cast as the hero, and when the old boy could still draw a crowd. See if this doesn't strike you as funny as it did me:
THE 2000 CAMPAIGN: THE VETERANS ISSUE; Five Senators Rebuke Bush For Criticism of McCain
By MARC LACEY Published: February 5, 2000, NEW YORK TIMES
Gov. George W. Bush was slammed today by five senators who, like his chief rival, fought in Vietnam for using a veterans activist to criticize Senator John McCain's record on veterans issues.
The incident also drew a rebuke from an official of Mr. Bush's father's administration.
On Thursday Mr. Bush shared a stage in Sumter, S.C., with J. Thomas Burch Jr., chairman of the National Vietnam and Gulf War Veterans Committee, who said Mr. McCain, hailed as a hero for surviving five years in a North Vietnamese prison camp, had opposed measures dealing with Agent Orange and gulf war syndrome as well as legislation to help families of soldiers missing in action in Vietnam.
''He came home, forgot us,'' Mr. Burch said.
In the letter to Mr. Bush, the senators said: ''We are writing to express our dismay at the misinformed accusations leveled by your surrogate.''
''These allegations are absolutely false,'' said the letter signed by Senators Max Cleland of Georgia, Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, John Kerry of Massachusetts and Charles S. Robb of Virginia, all Democrats, and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a Republican and one of Mr. McCain's few supporters in the Senate.
''Indeed,'' it went on, ''Mr. Burch was a leading critic of President Reagan's and your father's policies on POW/MIA issues, and he vehemently opposed a historic effort led by the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs carried out on a bipartisan basis which resulted in the declassification of millions of documents and the identification and return to the United States of the remains of hundreds of American servicemen who were missing in action.''
The senators wrote that Mr. McCain was a leader on veterans issues. ''We hope you will publicly disassociate yourself from these efforts, and apologize to Senator McCain.''
Referring to the senators, Mr. McCain said: ''Their friendship is all the honor I need in my life, and more than compensates for the temporary irritation of baseless attacks by apparentlydesperate political campaigns.''
Aides to Mr. Bush said he never questioned Mr. McCain's status as a war hero and called the McCain campaign's efforts to counter Mr. Burch's criticism desperate.
''This shows that the McCain campaign is worried about the strong support Gov. Bush has from veterans,'' said Scott McClellan, a Bush spokesman.
... Campaigning in South Carolina today, Mr. McCain drew crowds so huge that organizers have been searching out bigger venues.
At a medieval-theme restaurant in Myrtle Beach this morning, well over a thousand people packed every inch of floor, stair and hallway space, even spilling out the front door.
Mr. McCain, clearly buoyed by the energy of the room, gave a stump speech in which he declared, ''A primary ended on Tuesday night and a crusade began.''
Later in the day, a crowd squeezed into a National Guard armory here, where a sign on the front door read: ''Occupancy by more than 720 persons is dangerous and unlawful.'' The audience was pushing the limit but everybody's attention was on the table of McCain stickers, posters, pamphlets and contribution forms, all of which were moving briskly.
Despite the aura of excitement, Mr. McCain is warning his backers against overconfidence, noting that polls, and a campaign's fortunes, can sway dramatically from one moment to the next.
''I've been involved in too many campaigns to have any degree of confidence here,'' Mr. McCain said aboard his campaign bus, which is trailed by two overflow buses.
''I'm pleased we're doing well at this particular time. We've seen a huge swing -- 20 points or more in South Carolina. I think the message there is that it can swing back just as easily.''
Mr. McCain said he is seeking to assemble the same type of coalition that had propelled Ronald Reagan to the presidency, a broad-based, centrist approach he said President Clinton had also successfully employed.
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"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
