Via Americablog, it seems that in his town hall today John McCain has gone seriously overboard - essentially accusing Obama of treason:
Today, in what has to be one of the more desperate, unfounded and outrageous claims coming from McCain, he just said on national television that "it seems to me that Senator Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign."
Marc Ambinder was at the event and noticed the same quote (emphasis his):
McCain: "Now he [Obama] wants to reverse the gains he has made and set a date for withdrawal..."
Predicts a "stable and pro-American government in Iraq." "They have a long way to go and its very tough and long and hard, but we have seen the process of success and the enormous reduction in violence and sectarian violence..."
McCain: "I had the courage and judgment to say that i would rather win the war than [win] a political campaign. It seems to me that Sen. Obama would rather lose the war [in order to] win a political campaign."
CNN has picked up the remarks as well:
McCain slammed Obama's position on Iraq during a town hall meeting in Rochester, New Hampshire.
"I had the courage and the judgment to say that I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Sen. Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign," McCain said.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee also argued that Obama is supporting withdrawal and defeat.
"You might recall that Sen. Obama, my opponent, said the surge would not succeed, that he wanted us out," McCain said, referring to the 30,000 additional troops sent to Iraq in 2007 as part of a campaign to secure Baghdad and its surrounding provinces.
"If he had his way ... we would have had defeat. And my friends that would have been a catastrophe for the United States of America. He was wrong then, he's wrong now and he still failed to acknowledge ... that the surge succeeded."
McCain doesn't really slam Obama's position -- after all, Iraq's leaders agree with Obama's withdrawal timeline. Instead, McCain once again talks about the surge and slams Obama's dedication to this country.
Just a few days ago, McCain's senior foreign policy advisor Randy Scheunemann said the same thing:
Barack Obama has determined that he would rather lose a war that we are winning than lose an election by alienating his base. This is the reason Obama did not have to wait until his trip to declare his strategy. Iraq is fundamentally a political decision for Barack Obama, not a national security decision.
But it is immeasurably worse coming from McCain's mouth.
Yes, perhaps it is just a Karl Rove-type tactic to distract attention from Obama's overseas trip, or to push the meme that Obama is anti-American. But imagine if the shoe were on the other foot, and Barack Obama questioned McCain's patriotism like this. McCain has already talked about how "We can't lose in Iraq in order to win in Afghanistan", but this is much more direct -- he accuses his fellow presidential candidate, Obama, of wanting to lose the war.
Hopefully this gets a lot more notice, because once again McCain has put his foot in his mouth.
Here is what John Aravosis says about this:
John McCain just questioned Barack Obama's patriotism. He did it probably on the advice of Karl Rove, who has been advising him for months. Rove's usual tactic is to say something like this in order to get a rise out of the left, and help us make the story. That's part of what this is about - getting the theme out there that Obama is un-American (aka "muslim"). But also, McCain is simply desperate to change the topic from Obama's wildly successful trip to the Middle East. When are Mrs. Greenspan, Bob Schieffer, and the rest of the corporate media going to hold John McCain to the same standard they hold Barack Obama? John McCain basically just accused Barack Obama of treason. Had we done that to McCain, just imagine the fireworks. Will the media report how outrageous and desperate McCain has become, or will they do their usual he-said-she-said and present McCain's "argument" as something worthy of honest debate?
So much for running a civil, honest, dignified campaign, eh McCain?