Obama Moves to Defend Foreign Policy Experience
By JEFF ZELENY and MICHAEL LUOOSKALOOSA, Iowa — Senator Barack Obama is defending his foreign policy credentials, saying his service on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and his judgment should allay any voter concerns about his experience.
At a campaign event on Friday evening, Mr. Obama suggested he had more foreign policy experts from the Clinton administration supporting him than Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton did. That, he told voters, “should raise some pretty interesting questions.”
“Even by the standards of Washington,” Mr. Obama said, “I have dealt more with foreign policy than, let’s say, Bill Clinton had, when he became president, or Ronald Reagan — he was governor at the time.”
Shortly after Mr. Obama made his comments in response to a voter’s question, Mrs. Clinton produced a list of more than 80 foreign policy advisers supporting her candidacy who had worked in the Clinton administration. The Obama campaign did not respond to requests for a similar list for Mr. Obama.
“Attacking Senator Clinton by making claims about his foreign policy credentials that he can’t support only raises more questions about Senator Obama’s experience,” said Phil Singer, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton.
In the final two weeks before the Iowa caucuses, presidential candidates face lingering questions from voters. A recurring question for Mr. Obama, as well as other contenders, is whether he has the experience to run the nation. In a question in the eastern Iowa town of Washington on Friday evening, Mr. Obama told voters that several of his foreign policy experts were from the Clinton administration.
“Why is the national security adviser of Bill Clinton, the secretary of the Navy of Bill Clinton, ah, you know, assistant secretary of state for Bill Clinton. Why are all these people endorsing me?” he said. “It’s not just because I give a good speech. They apparently believe that my vision of foreign policy is better suited for the 21st century.”
Robert Gibbs, a spokesman for Mr. Obama, said the Illinois senator made the statement based on an article in The New York Times Magazine in November asserting that a “vast majority” of foreign policy experts “have thrown their lot in with Obama.” That list includes Anthony Lake, national security adviser to President Clinton, and Susan Rice, a former assistant secretary of state.
As he opened a weekend tour of Iowa, Mr. Obama also argued that he could draw more Republicans and independent voters. “Just like Ronald Reagan was able to get some Reagan Democrats,” he said, “I want to get some Obama Republicans.”
On the Republican side, Senator John McCain of Arizona, who has been rising in polls in New Hampshire, found himself challenged by Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who leads polls there. Mr. Romney pointed out before an audience of about 100 people in Rochester, N.H., on Friday night that Mr. McCain voted against the Bush tax cuts in 2001.
“President Bush did a pretty courageous thing,” Mr. Romney said. “At a time when our economy needed a boost, needed a stimulus, he said, ‘You know what, we’re going to lower taxes.’ And not everybody agreed with him. One of my friends is Senator McCain. He voted against the Bush tax cuts. I think the Bush tax cuts were a great thing for our country. I support them. I want to make them permanent and I want to add to them.”
Mr. McCain was one of two Republican senators to vote against the $1.35 trillion tax cuts. Critics of the cuts said they benefited mainly the wealthy and added to the federal deficit. Mr. McCain voted against President Bush’s tax-cut proposals in 2003 as well.
1 comment:
There is not one candidate that is capable or qualified to lead this country forward except John McCain and they all know it and that includes 9/11 riding Giuliani because there is a big difference in cleaning up after a 9/11 and preventing one. John Mccain stands alone when it comes to the ability,agility,electability,believability,responsibility and respectability and the people are beginning to see that. The desperation has set in because the people are really beginning to look at the candidates and the ones with nothing beyond posturing and grandstanding are beginning to panic and thus the dirty politics. Senator McCain has did not one dirty or deceitful thing toward any other candidate but there are several that can not say that and he is still gaining ground in the polls. the difference between John McCain and the rest of these candidates is that he can stand on his own merits and well they don't have any.
Post a Comment