ID :
23398
Thu, 10/09/2008 - 11:56
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/23398
The shortlink copeid
Obama gets shriller on Pak; outshines McCain again
Sridhar Krishnaswami
Washington, Oct 8 (PTI) Launching a shrill attack on Pakistan's inability to rein in terrorism, Democrat Barack Obama Wednesday repeatedly clashed with his Republican rival John McCain over the issue and stumped him on Bush administration's "failed" policies on Iraq and economy, to go up 2-0 ahead of the November U.S. presidential poll.
"We will kill bin Laden. We will crush Al-Qaeda, that
has to be our biggest national security priority," 47-year-old
Obama said during the testy 90-minute debate, clearly showing
his determination to act on his promise of hot pursuit of
militants in Pakistan, a stand often criticised by McCain and
that raised hackles in Islamabad.
"If we have Osama bin Laden in our sights and the
Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out,
then I think that we have to act and we will take them out,"
the Illinois Senator said.
Obama, who scripted history by becoming the first black
American to be the Presidential nominee, tried to tie his
republican rival to President George W. Bush's "failed"
policies, while McCain pushed his image as a "consistent
reformer" at the standoff at Belmont University in Nashville,
Tennessee.
On foreign policy front, McCain charged that Obama
"does not understand" the national security challenges facing
the United States.
Trailing behind the Democratic candidate in the latest
polls, McCain accused Obama of announcing a war on Pakistan
and cited former U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt's statement
that the commander-in-chief should "talk softly, but carry a
big stick."
The 71-year-old Vietnam War veteran said he knows how
to handle foreign affairs and questioned the first-time
Senator Obama's ability to do so.
"Sen. Obama was wrong about Iraq and the surge. He was
wrong about Russia when they committed aggression against
Georgia. And in his short career, he does not understand our
national security challenges," McCain said. "We don't have
time for on-the-job training, my friends."
McCain said the "challenge" facing a president
considering using military force "is to know when to go in and
when not," adding that "My judgement is something that I think
I have a record to stand on," McCain said.
Obama, who hopes to be the first black-American
president, then shot back and questioned McCain's judgement in
supporting the invasion of Iraq.
When McCain was cheerleading President George W.
Bush to go into Iraq, "he suggested it was going to be quick
and easy, we'd be greeted as liberators," he said. "That was
the wrong judgement, and it's been costly to us."
Opinion polls suggested that Obama won the town
hall-style debate, taking place less than a month
before the November 4 election, which generated intense
interest among the public.
54 percent of those questioned in a C.N.N./Opinion
Research Corp. survey said that Obama did the best job, while
30 percent said McCain performed better.
The C.N.N./Opinion Research Corporation poll was
conducted by telephone with 675 adults who watched the debate.
A C.B.S. poll of undecided voters suggested 39 percent
thought Obama as the winner, 27 percent backed McCain while
35 percent called it a draw.
As in the first debate, Obama and McCain appeared
divided on Pakistan and how to tackle al-Qaeda and the Taliban
operating in the restive tribal areas along the
Pak-Afghanistan border.
"Senator Obama likes to talk aloud," McCain said. "I
am not going to telegraph my punches, which is what Senator
Obama did."
"We need to get them to work with us and turn against
the Taliban and others... by coordinating our efforts
together, not threatening to attack them," the Arizona senator
said.
Obama, meanwhile, said McCain's hardline stand on Iran
and North Korea itself contradicted his advocation of soft
speaking.
"This is a guy who sang bomb, bomb, bomb Iran, who
called for the annihilation of North Korea - that I don't
think is an example of speaking softly," he said.
The candidates spent most of the time debating foreign
affairs and economic issues.
At the start of the debate, Obama said the country is
in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Obama said the current crisis was the "final verdict
on the failed economic policies of the last eight years" that
President George W. Bush pursued and were "supported by Sen.
McCain" as the two worked to "strip away regulation."
Bush and McCain, he claimed, favoured deregulation of
the financial industry, predicting that would "let markets run
wild and prosperity would rain down on all of us. It
didn't happen."
McCain said the system in Washington "cries out for
bipartisanship" and proposed having the government buy up and
renegotiate bad home loans to stabilise the property market.
PTI SK
Washington, Oct 8 (PTI) Launching a shrill attack on Pakistan's inability to rein in terrorism, Democrat Barack Obama Wednesday repeatedly clashed with his Republican rival John McCain over the issue and stumped him on Bush administration's "failed" policies on Iraq and economy, to go up 2-0 ahead of the November U.S. presidential poll.
"We will kill bin Laden. We will crush Al-Qaeda, that
has to be our biggest national security priority," 47-year-old
Obama said during the testy 90-minute debate, clearly showing
his determination to act on his promise of hot pursuit of
militants in Pakistan, a stand often criticised by McCain and
that raised hackles in Islamabad.
"If we have Osama bin Laden in our sights and the
Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out,
then I think that we have to act and we will take them out,"
the Illinois Senator said.
Obama, who scripted history by becoming the first black
American to be the Presidential nominee, tried to tie his
republican rival to President George W. Bush's "failed"
policies, while McCain pushed his image as a "consistent
reformer" at the standoff at Belmont University in Nashville,
Tennessee.
On foreign policy front, McCain charged that Obama
"does not understand" the national security challenges facing
the United States.
Trailing behind the Democratic candidate in the latest
polls, McCain accused Obama of announcing a war on Pakistan
and cited former U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt's statement
that the commander-in-chief should "talk softly, but carry a
big stick."
The 71-year-old Vietnam War veteran said he knows how
to handle foreign affairs and questioned the first-time
Senator Obama's ability to do so.
"Sen. Obama was wrong about Iraq and the surge. He was
wrong about Russia when they committed aggression against
Georgia. And in his short career, he does not understand our
national security challenges," McCain said. "We don't have
time for on-the-job training, my friends."
McCain said the "challenge" facing a president
considering using military force "is to know when to go in and
when not," adding that "My judgement is something that I think
I have a record to stand on," McCain said.
Obama, who hopes to be the first black-American
president, then shot back and questioned McCain's judgement in
supporting the invasion of Iraq.
When McCain was cheerleading President George W.
Bush to go into Iraq, "he suggested it was going to be quick
and easy, we'd be greeted as liberators," he said. "That was
the wrong judgement, and it's been costly to us."
Opinion polls suggested that Obama won the town
hall-style debate, taking place less than a month
before the November 4 election, which generated intense
interest among the public.
54 percent of those questioned in a C.N.N./Opinion
Research Corp. survey said that Obama did the best job, while
30 percent said McCain performed better.
The C.N.N./Opinion Research Corporation poll was
conducted by telephone with 675 adults who watched the debate.
A C.B.S. poll of undecided voters suggested 39 percent
thought Obama as the winner, 27 percent backed McCain while
35 percent called it a draw.
As in the first debate, Obama and McCain appeared
divided on Pakistan and how to tackle al-Qaeda and the Taliban
operating in the restive tribal areas along the
Pak-Afghanistan border.
"Senator Obama likes to talk aloud," McCain said. "I
am not going to telegraph my punches, which is what Senator
Obama did."
"We need to get them to work with us and turn against
the Taliban and others... by coordinating our efforts
together, not threatening to attack them," the Arizona senator
said.
Obama, meanwhile, said McCain's hardline stand on Iran
and North Korea itself contradicted his advocation of soft
speaking.
"This is a guy who sang bomb, bomb, bomb Iran, who
called for the annihilation of North Korea - that I don't
think is an example of speaking softly," he said.
The candidates spent most of the time debating foreign
affairs and economic issues.
At the start of the debate, Obama said the country is
in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Obama said the current crisis was the "final verdict
on the failed economic policies of the last eight years" that
President George W. Bush pursued and were "supported by Sen.
McCain" as the two worked to "strip away regulation."
Bush and McCain, he claimed, favoured deregulation of
the financial industry, predicting that would "let markets run
wild and prosperity would rain down on all of us. It
didn't happen."
McCain said the system in Washington "cries out for
bipartisanship" and proposed having the government buy up and
renegotiate bad home loans to stabilise the property market.
PTI SK
