McCain Hits Obama in New Orleans Campaign Rally

Addressing the party faithful at his campaign rally in New Orleans Tuesday night John McCain jabbed at his presumed opponent for the general election in November.

Senator McCain said, I'm surprised that a young man (Obama) has bought into so many failed ideas. Like others before him he seems to thinkgovernment is the answer to every problem. That government should take our resources and make our decisions for us.



McCain took a shot at the Obama campaign's meme that a McCain presidency would be a third term in office for George Bush.

You will hear from my opponent's campaign in every speech, every interview, every press release that I'm running for President Bush's third term. You will hear every policy of the President described as the Bush-McCain policy. Why does Senator Obama believe it's so important to repeat that idea over and over again? Because he knows it's very difficult to get Americans to believe something they know is false. So he tries to drum it into your minds by constantly repeating it rather than debate honestly the very different directions he and I would take the country. But the American people didn't get to know me yesterday, as they are just getting to know Senator Obama.

McCain also hit Obama for his opposition to the troop surge that has proved to be successful in winning the war in Iraq.

Senator Obama opposed the new strategy, and, after promising not to, voted to deny funds to the soldiers who have done a brilliant and brave job of carrying it out. Yet in the last year we have seen the success of that plan as violence has fallen to a four year low; Sunni insurgents have joined us in the fight against al Qaeda; the Iraqi Army has taken the lead in places once lost to Sunni and Shia extremists; and the Iraqi Government has begun to make progress toward political reconciliation.

None of this progress would have happened had we not changed course over a year ago. And all of this progress would be lost if Senator Obama had his way and began to withdraw our forces from Iraq without concern for conditions on the ground and the advice of commanders in the field. Americans ought to be concerned about the judgment of a presidential candidate who says he's ready to talk, in person and without conditions, with tyrants from Havana to Pyongyang, but hasn't traveled to Iraq to meet with General Petraeus, and see for himself the progress he threatens to reverse.

I know Americans are tired of this war. I don't oppose a reckless withdrawal from Iraq because I'm indifferent to the suffering war inflicts on too many American families. I hate war. And I know very personally how terrible its costs are. But I know, too, that the course Senator Obama advocates could draw us into a wider war with even greater sacrifices; put peace further out of reach, and Americans back in harm's way.

Obama knows he can't hit back too hard on McCain given the Arizona Senator's Vietnam War record and given the baggage Obama has carried from close associations with the likes of Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers, Bernadette Dorn, and Frank Marshall Davis and given the spate of problematic faux pas made by his wife about America while on the campaign trail. Obama's statements about the U.S. Military having to resort to using weapons from fallen Taliban in Afghanistan along with his stated committment to effectively disarm the United States during a time of war along with the enthusiastic support his candidacy has from the likes of Hamas, Fidel Castro and FARC won't help him in his effort to put up a good fight against McCain either.