Top Surrogates Square Off on Foreign Policies
EmailABC News’ James Gerber Reports: Two senators who double as top surrogates for Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama presented vastly different assessments of U.S. foreign policy Tuesday, attacking their Senate colleagues and often each other during back-to-back speeches in Washington, D.C.
Speaking to a foreign policy think tank shortly after Obama issued what his campaign billed as a major foreign policy speech leading up to his trip later this month to Iraq and Afghanistan, McCain surrogate Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., sharply criticized the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, arguing the nation faces an enemy who "can not be placated by sweet reason or appeals to the better angels of our nature."
McCain’s friend and surrogate attacked Obama’s pledge to withdraw
troops from Iraq within 16 months after taking office, arguing that
Obama needs to understand his policy would have consequences beyond the
region.
"What Sen. Obama seems to not be recognizing is that in an interdependent world, what happens in Baghdad affects our interests and the interests of people" across the world, Lieberman told a crowd of less than 200 at the Mayflower Hotel for a U.S. Center for Global Engagement talk.
Lieberman, who ran for vice-president in 2000 on the Democratic ticket, has faced criticism for supporting the presumptive Republican presidential nominee while caucusing with the Democrats in the Senate.
The former Democrat described McCain as "a devoted and principled internationalist" who will be "trusted and respected by our allies and respected and feared by our enemies." Upon entering office, argued Lieberman, McCain will "sound a certain and clear trumpet of American leadership and global engagement."
Speaking on behalf of Obama, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., who is rumored to be a strong candidate for vice-president or a potential Secretary of State in any Obama administration, followed Lieberman with an extensive rebuke of McCain, including a scathing assessment of the Bush administration’s foreign policy, which, he argued, is largely replicated by the presumptive Republican nominee.
"In recent years, Iran and not freedom has been on the march in the Middle East," Biden said, adding that "radical recruitment is on the rise, not demise."
Biden said the nation is less safe due to "the President and John McCain’s obsession on the war on terror" and criticized President Bush and Sen. McCain for "lumping together" the disparate factions in the region, evidence, he says, of their "profound confusion."
"George Bush and John McCain have fixated on a small number of radical groups that hate America, turning them into ten-foot tall giants, existential monsters that dictate every foreign policy decision," said Biden, who has taken on a more high-profile role in Obama’s campaign this week.
"If they can’t identify the enemy or describe the war we’re fighting, it’s very difficult to define whether we’ve won or lost," Biden said.
Biden, the chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, also criticized McCain for putting too much emphasis on Iraq.
"If John wants to know where the bad guys live, come back with me to Afghanistan," Biden said. "We know where they reside. And it’s not in Iraq."
Biden also echoed Obama’s arguments for leaving Iraq and redeploying American forces to Afghanistan, which he said "will enhance, not diminish, our prospects for leaving behind a stable situation in Iraq."
"This election in November is a vital opportunity for America to start anew," Biden said. "It will require more than a good soldier; it will require a wise leader."
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Finally, somebody shows some real courage! Thank you Senator Biden!
Posted by: Martha | July 15, 2008, 6:38 pm 6:38 pm
Joe…your days are numbered. When this is all over all you’ll have to do is show up for roll call in the senate. Your chairmanship will be gone.
Posted by: linda n carolina | July 15, 2008, 6:46 pm 6:46 pm
What I want is a debate between John McCain and Obama on foreign policy. I want know what John McCain calls a “success” in Iraq. Because I fear no matter how much there’s an improvement on the ground the Republicans and McCain will never find it good enough to withdraw troops.
Now he wants to expend the surge and add on to Afganistan. This is getting beyond asinine.
Posted by: Vanessa | July 15, 2008, 6:48 pm 6:48 pm
I am a HUGE fan of Biden.
I think that it will be McCain/Romney vs Obama/Biden in the general election.
Remember my prediction…
Posted by: Michelle | July 15, 2008, 6:53 pm 6:53 pm
If I were Biden I’d tell all of these people who are singing his praises NOW (for VP, of all things, are you kidding me) to go to you know where.
Posted by: Tom | July 15, 2008, 8:03 pm 8:03 pm
What you meant to say was that Obama echoes Joe Biden’s arguments! Joe has forgotten more about foreign affairs than Obama will ever grasp! It is repulsive that Joe has been relegated to speaking out for Obama when he is far more fit to be president than Obama!
It is a cruel joke that the best people running for the Democratic nomination were pushed out of the race early by the two least qualified people, and now we are stuck with the least qualified of those two!
Posted by: Cacatua | July 15, 2008, 8:10 pm 8:10 pm
Biden makes a superb case. Bush/McCain is inflating extremist elements in the Middle East, the way the right wing pumped up the Soviet threat to gargantuan heights way beyond what they actually had. Plus a “War on Terror” is unfocused, open-ended language doomed to failure by its very vagueness and confusion. It only guarantees huge buildups in the military/defense budget but makes us less safe and weaker.
Posted by: hopesprings52 | July 15, 2008, 8:20 pm 8:20 pm
I think that Biden is a great assest to the Obama campaign. As someone falsely stated above, Obama is not echoing Biden’s statements, Biden is reinforcing Obama’s.
McCain keeps changing his foreign affairs policies every way the wind blows!
Posted by: Jennifer | July 15, 2008, 8:41 pm 8:41 pm
Biden makes a superb case.
Posted by: hopesprings52 | Jul 15, 2008 8:20:13 PM
====
You are absolutely correct. Unfortunately, it is not 0-bama who is capable of making such a case without hints written on his sleeves.
Posted by: fat cat | July 15, 2008, 8:45 pm 8:45 pm
Both Obama and Biden share the same views on foregin policy. Why should it matter if Obama can’t make the “case” to you?
Posted by: Vanessa | July 15, 2008, 8:58 pm 8:58 pm
Obama makes more sense on this issue. McCain has less spending. Ron Paul was right on both.
Posted by: Carmen | July 15, 2008, 8:59 pm 8:59 pm
So, we have two wannabes that could never make it as a Presidential nominee.
Now, the two are stumping and stabbing as fast as furious as they can to bolster their own stock as a VP.
Politics as usual…
Posted by: Jayhawk | July 15, 2008, 9:17 pm 9:17 pm
What is Biden talking about when he speaks of enhancing … “our prospects for leaving behind a stable situation in Iraq”? And if Iran has been on the march in the Middle East in recent years, just how will leaving Iraq affect that outcome? Biden is well respected on foreigh policy and he certainly knows what the crucial situations are. McCain is equally in tune to what the crucial situations are for leaving a stable Iraq and achieving progress and success in Afghanistan. The crucial decisions to be made do not seem to point to troops leaving Iraq in “16 months-max”, nor to any easy permanent solution for the troubles in the Middle East. Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel, and all the other countries in the region who depend upon the rest of the world to help find solutions are going to need our participation in that arena. Our own security depends upon that. John McCain knows that as well as Biden. Lieberman fully understands the big picture. Biden, McCain, Lieberman, any of the three would make a better President. Obama is not ready, no matter how much Biden tries to prop him up.
Posted by: georgia | July 15, 2008, 9:30 pm 9:30 pm
How can Biden say this with a straight face? “This election in November is a vital opportunity for America to start anew,” Biden said. “It will require more than a good soldier; it will require a wise leader.”
….. what has Obama done to show he is a “wise leader?” … this is just silly politics.
Posted by: Cynthia Jones | July 15, 2008, 11:10 pm 11:10 pm
I’m sorry, I thought the surge was working and violence was lower with more political gains being made in Iraq.
But the guy who wanted to halt the surge and pull out now wants to halt the surge and pull out?
Well, how did his last prediction of the war go? Did Iraq have renewed insurgents with more manpower and violence leading to a civil war?
Maybe in someone’s world he was right before and should be trusted now. But I can’t see how.
Posted by: Gekkobear | July 15, 2008, 11:52 pm 11:52 pm
so bush and mccain are obsessed with the war on terror and that is a bad thing?
The military doesn’t know where the enemy is. Is he saying the people trying to kill us in Iraq is not our enemy?
it would have nice of you to point them out to the soliders while you were there. And to think NATO and US commanders haven’t been able to figure out where they are. Wow – I guess we owe a lot of people an apology for killing all those good people in Iraq who for some reason was shooting at us.
You think maybe you could tell Obams where they are since he is ready to invade our ally Patistan to find them.
While you seem to know some much you think you could tell Congress where their ### is so they could get their head out of it and quit holding the American’s hostage on energy independence. I personally don’t appreciate being held hostage and forced to go green and conserve especially when Congres has failed to even get us 1/10 of the way there. Guess you guys think the wind wil power our bikes to work until you can figure out how we are going to get everyone a vehicle we can use without gas
Posted by: sue | July 16, 2008, 2:34 am 2:34 am
I tell you Biden and Obama will “relight the beacon” that was America for our grandparents.
add Edwards reforming the attorney general’s office
and Clinton or Richardson as sec of state
Gore and Schwarzenegger overseeing and restarting America’s “engine” with a new energy push.
Powell, Hagel, Petraeus, Webb, Gates, Baker figuring out our military issues and homeland security.
and we are well on our way to resolve this hole of a platform that Bush and now McCain have been trying for too long.
Posted by: dl | July 16, 2008, 8:28 am 8:28 am
and sue
most of the people we killed in Iraq…
weren’t shooting at us.
but you keep going with that very sad argument.
Posted by: dl | July 16, 2008, 8:30 am 8:30 am
david from texas
the real story is…the surge has yet to wrok.
violence quelled…
bad promises to the insurgents made…
just like we did back in Iran adn afghanistan…
italways comes back to bite us in the a##.
McCain, Bush and the surge is based on old style conflict resolution…where we make promises that are built on lies (power and money that does not exist) and then those same people come back and hurt us with the opportunities we gave them…
same thing will happen now with the insurgents…
it happens every time…when will people like yourself learn that.
Posted by: dl | July 16, 2008, 8:34 am 8:34 am
Many of the people killed in Germany weren’t shooting at us either.
Most of the people we killed in Japan weren’t shooting at us either.
The same can be said for any war as, by nature, war involves killing and death.
War is never good, but the nature of war does not improve the abilities of Barack Obama or Joe Biden.
Nothing does.
Posted by: Jayhawk | July 16, 2008, 8:39 am 8:39 am
Joe Biden doesn’t think Iraq has any bad guys? This man is a FOOL.
Posted by: Dennis D | July 16, 2008, 9:38 am 9:38 am
“McCain keeps changing his foreign affairs policies every way the wind blows!”
Jennifer, can you actually back up this statement with facts or is this just a liberal talking point you found somewhere?
Posted by: Magoo | July 16, 2008, 10:33 am 10:33 am
Biden “a) used to advocate a “soft partition” of Iraq in the knowledge that the surge would never work; (b) previously called for sending U.S. troops into Darfur, presumably on the theory that “the bad guys” live there; and (c) even within the parameters of his own impoverished view that the “bad guys” encompass no one outside Osama’s inner circle still manages to miss the fact that, yes indeed, some of the bad guys have been known to turn up in Iraq from time to time.” Source: Hotair.com
Senator, the bad guys live everywhere and nowhere! It’s like wacking gophers!
Posted by: Magoo | July 16, 2008, 10:37 am 10:37 am
The Republicans as well as quislings like John Lieberman are downright confused. Their priorities are upside down. How can they call Barack Obama a flip-flopper when he promises to refine his Iraqi policy after talking to the generals, but when he maintains his troop withdrawal policy they accuse him of rigidity. How duplicitous and hypocritical?
Posted by: Thabo Mda | July 16, 2008, 10:47 am 10:47 am
Dean Barnett at the Weekly Standard has Biden dead on:
“What’s more, Biden’s comment turns what ought to be a serious conversation about two vital foreign theatres into a juvenile schoolyard taunt.
“I have a suggestion for the senator: Perhaps he could bring his newly benign assessment to our soldiers who are serving in Iraq and the veterans who have served there. It would surely come as a huge relief to our soldiers currently in Iraq that their work has suddenly become “bad guy free.” Perhaps Biden should also share his crass bad-guy-appraisal with all of the Iraqis who have stood by us and who, like our soldiers, have given and still are giving so much for that nation’s freedom.
“We all understand that the Democrats have pivoted from Iraq-is-a-quagmire to Iraq-is-over, the better to pretend that Afghanistan has become their foreign policy obsession. Politics necessitates certain idiocies at times, and we are cognizant of this. But it would be nice if Senator Biden could perform his surrogate duties while maintaining an appropriate respect for our soldiers in Iraq and our Iraqi allies who continue to pursue a very dangerous line of work.”
The left continues to play semantics with the surge: the surge will not work, the surge failed (and OBTW the war is lost), the surge has yet to work (we haven’t left yet). It’s all politics and positioning.
Posted by: Magoo | July 16, 2008, 10:53 am 10:53 am
Would someone buy a clue for Senator Joe Biden?
Please?
Speaking on behalf of Obama, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., who is rumored to be a strong candidate for vice-president or a potential Secretary of State in any Obama administration, followed Lieberman with an extensive rebuke of McCain, including a sc…
Posted by: Sister Toldjah | July 16, 2008, 11:23 am 11:23 am
“Gore and Schwarzenegger overseeing and restarting America’s “engine” with a new energy push.”
HAHAHAHAHA, wait, you were serious?
So lets plan our energy policy after California. Oil is bad, electric cars, and a faltering power grid with insufficient electric supply.
Lets try for blackouts nationwide at least once a month, heading for once a week once we switch over to electric cars. Once a day will be an easy target if we give this any real effort.
But if you haven’t figured out that California’s grid can’t handle the load it has now, much less charging 8 million cars; or that California won’t build new power plants to even try to meet their demand needs, or that they are unwilling to revamp the grid to come close to the capacity their “goals” would require then I doubt I can help you.
Maybe we can “hope” things into working, because California has needed “change” in their electricity supply and transmission capacity for decades and that just never seems to happen.
Or maybe you actually believe that the required infrastructure that will need to be in place will start happening?
Sure, and the Solar plants in Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona will go forward for supply… (just as soon as the Mojave Ground Squirrel’s habitat is protected; that building plan is delayed at least another 18 months).
But after that I’m sure there won’t be another reason for delay from the enviro-nuts. This will certainly be the last time a delay will stand in the way of moving forward; except for the next one… and the infinite number after that.
At least Gore has greened his house with new technology costing tens of thousands of dollars, but increasing his eletricity and nat. gas bills (and thus his CO2 footprint by 10%)… what a great plan. Pay more, pollute more, feel good.
Can I just pay less, pollute more and feel good? I’m on a budget.
Or maybe you can pick someone who has a track record of success. Or even a track record of mediocrity. Actually a track record of minor incompetence would be a step forward here…
Posted by: Gekkobear | July 16, 2008, 11:26 am 11:26 am
“The “bad guys” don’t live in Iraq”.
darned if you aren’t right for once Joe. The “bad guys” occupy the halls of Congress.
Posted by: RH | July 16, 2008, 12:42 pm 12:42 pm
‘Terror’ is a TACTIC. It is not a country. It is not a group. It is not a person. Bush has a real gimic going with ‘The War On Terror’ ~ he can change the faces and locations with the same battle cry, and the uninformed, unthinking, isolationist sheep will follow. It’s easy. It’s ‘American’. It works. JOE BIDEN gets who the real enemies are, without an oil or big-biz personal agenda. He’s knowledgeable, informed, experienced, outspoken, unafraid… if he isn’t going to be president, let’s make sure he’s VP or Secretary of State, or ask him what role he thinks he can provide the most value to our country and the world, and then let him do it! AN OBAMA/BIDEN win can possibly turn these 8 years of MESS, around and head us in the right direction. (Hey, all of you head-in-the-sand right-wingers who will undoubtedly refute me… save your breath. I was one of you for 40 years.) It’s amazing how a little research, reading, questioning and thinking can change your mind & your vote. This is NOT the Republican Party we knew & grew up with. OBAMA & BIDEN won’t be perfect ~ they are human & they will be only the executive branch, not judicial or legislative, but their direction is the only hope we have to straighten out this mess we’re in. REPUBLICAN FOR OBAMA/BIDEN!
Posted by: dagnytaggart | July 20, 2008, 2:33 pm 2:33 pm
Well, I’ve NEVER been a “head-in-the-sand right-winger…”, and I’m going to refute you anyway.
As for “…the uninformed, unthinking, isolationist sheep will follow. ” do you know the meaning of the term “isolationist”? It appears that you do not. For your information, President Bush is approximately the opposite of an “isolationist”.
“This is NOT the Republican Party we knew & grew up with.”
Be that as it may, this is clearly not the Democrat party I grew up with. How about you do a little more “…research, reading…” into what President Kennedy did and said – e.g. income tax cuts as an economic stimulus, meeting force with force to preserve democracy worldwide (no matter the cost – “we will pay any price, bear any burden”); what FDR did about surveillance and how he dealt with illegal foreign combatants.
I’ll grant that Senator Biden has said some sensible things about the war in Iraq, including comments on how inadvisable it would be to have a set timetable for withdrawal (I suggest you do some “…research, reading…” on this as well, if you don’t believe me).
That being said, his recent suggestions that Senator Obama is in ANY way (much less suggesting that it’s generally accepted that in MOST ways) more qualified to be President than Senator McCain is simply ridiculous.
Not that I expect anything but his whole-hearted support for the presumptive nominee of his party. I just don’t take him seriously, despite whatever left-wing media lackeys and party hacks you may cite to the contrary.
Posted by: lloydrmc | July 21, 2008, 2:00 pm 2:00 pm
“What I want is a debate between John McCain and Obama on foreign policy.”
What I want is for Senator Obama to live up to his “any time, anywhere” declaration and debate Senator McCain on ANY subject.
The latest example of this is Senator Obama wimping out of a live debate near a military base, claiming he had other commitments, despite the debate organizers offering to change the date to fit Senator Obama’s schedule.
The sad truth of the matter is that Senator Obama is a terrific orator, so long as he’s reading a prepared speech that someone else wrote, and he’s essentially hopeless in anything resembling an extemporaneous setting.
A recemt example was his referring to the “bomb” (singular) that was dropped on Pearl Harbor. A while back there was his reference to visiting “all 57 states”
Posted by: lloydrmc | July 21, 2008, 2:14 pm 2:14 pm
“The Republicans as well as quislings like John Lieberman are downright confused. Their priorities are upside down. How can they call Barack Obama a flip-flopper when he promises to refine his Iraqi policy after talking to the generals, but when he maintains his troop withdrawal policy they accuse him of rigidity. How duplicitous and hypocritical?”
My goodness, so many five dollar words in one short paragraph.
Senator Lieberman is a “quisling”, eh? Actually, his foreign policy positions are rather similar to what President Kennedy’s were, as well as other, sensible Democrats such as “Scoop” Jackson.
To answer you question, we just don’t think Senator Obama gets to have it both ways (as much as the media supports him in this). If there’s anything that’s ” duplicitous and hypocritical?” about this, it certainly isn’t on the part of the conservatives.
And I don’t know of any conservative or Republican that has EVER accused Senator Obama of being “rigid”. “Wrong” yes, “rigid”, no. Besides, such an accusation, made by anyone, would be very hard to justify.
At any rate, our point is that Senator Obama is either for withdrawal from Iraq on date certain or he isn’t, and his stated position has varied considerably on this (even in recent weeks). Which would be fine and understandable, if his position had evolved in just one direction, instead of going back and forth between withdrawal on date certain or not.
And, wonder of wonders, his sudden declaration that he would “refine his Iraqi policy after talking to the generals” is EXACTLY what President Bush has been saying for years – that it’s up to the Generals on the ground to say when the situation warrants troop withdrawals, and how many.
Posted by: lloydrmc | July 21, 2008, 2:36 pm 2:36 pm