In his victory speech last night, John McCain came out swinging against Barack Obama, calling his appeal for change "eloquent, but empty." (For which, McCain received a full thirty seconds of applause.) He also attacked the Democratic Party and liberalism in general, calling it "a tired philosophy that trusts in government more than the people." Interesting words from a man who co-sponsored a law regulating campaign finance and wants to triple the U.S. troop presence in Iraq.
But perhaps the most unusual quote of the night is this:
Or will we risk the confused leadership of an inexperienced candidate who once suggested bombing our ally, Pakistan, and suggested sitting down without pre-conditions or clear purpose with enemies who support terrorists and are intent on destabilizing the world by acquiring nuclear weapons?
McCain was referencing this quote made by Barack Obama:
I understand that President Musharraf has his own challenges. But let me make this clear. There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al-Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will.
This doesn't sound that unreasonable to me. Furthermore, al-Qaeda leader Abu Laith al-Libi was killed by an American bomb in Pakistan. Taken together, McCain seems to be saying that he wouldn't go after al-Qaeda in Pakistan and that President Bush is "confused" and "inexperienced," altogether odd for a man who typically disagrees with Bush's war policy for not being drastic enough and once joked that we should "bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran."
Time magazine's Joe Klein on the subject
Clips from McCain's speech:
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