My Friend MARY from the Freedom Eden Blog posted an excellent article on Sunday's Debate on 'Meet the Depressed' with Sen. McCain & John Kerry:
On Sunday's Meet the Press, Iraq was the topic of a debate between '08 Republican presidential candidate John McCain and '04 Democrat presidential nominee loser John Kerry.
Actually, McCain was also debating Democrat hack Tim Russert. No surprise there.
It's worth watching the segment. Here.
Talking heads like to write off McCain as looking too old to be viable as a presidential candidate. I didn't see that.McCain certainly was sharp this morning, and he looked dramatically better than the frighteningly, freakishly Botoxed Kerry.
Where to begin?Here's the transcript.There were a number of lively exchanges. On a number of occasions, McCain put Kerry to shame.McCain kept Kerry on defense throughout the segment.Example:
SEN. KERRY: Let me, let me speak to that also. I read and listened to the testimony of John McCain questioning General Petraeus. And John McCain...
SEN. McCAIN: Good.
SEN. KERRY: ...asked him about—John McCain asked him about being a central front. And he said, “How do you know it’s a central front?” And he said, “Because I talked to the head of the national intelligence and another general, and they tell me al-Qaeda says it is their central front.” Now, al-Qaeda can choose to make it their central front, but we’re not leaving al-Qaeda to that front. Everything in the Democratic proposal that has 52 votes, a majority of the Senate, says we will leave troops to continue to chase al-Qaeda. That’s number one. Number two, Tim, al-Qaeda views Shia as apostates. They are not legitimate Muslims. The fact is you’re better off as a Christian or as a Jew than as a Shia in the eyes of al-Qaeda. And Iran, linked as it is already to Maliki, who was in Iran a month ago, holding hands with the leader of Iraq, they’re already linked. The Shia will never allow al-Qaeda to take over Iraq. The Kurds will never allow al-Qaeda to take over Iraq. That’s 80 to 85 percent of the country. And the Sunni in Anbar have now decided they don’t want al-Qaeda. We are the attraction for al-Qaeda. And if we begin to reduce our footprint, as the Iraq Study Group has said we should do, as General Jones said we should do, as those seven soldiers of the 82nd Airborne, two of whom were just recently killed, wrote in The New York Times the other day, as we should do, then al-Qaeda, believe me, will be driven out by the Iraqis themselves.
SEN. McCAIN: Surely you don’t believe that General Petraeus reaches his conclusions by talking to somebody. He lives and works there.
SEN. KERRY: I’m quoting what General Petraeus said.
SEN. McCAIN: Gen-oh please.
SEN. KERRY: I’m quoting what he said to you, John.
SEN. McCAIN: General Petraeus, General Petraeus has said hundreds of times that it is the central front in the war against terror in al-Qaeda...
SEN. KERRY: I’m just quoting what he said to you.
SEN. McCAIN: ...because of the conditions, because of the conditions on the ground and you are quoting him incorrectly, and...
SEN. KERRY: No, I’m quoting him absolutely correctly.
SEN. McCAIN: ...selectively. No.
SEN. KERRY: And moreover, you’re not answering the fundamental issue.
SEN. McCAIN: But the fact is, but the fact is when, when, when Senator Kerry says that we will just take care of al-Qaeda, then you go into a place where they’re fighting. “Excuse me, sir. Are you al-Qaeda or Sunni or Shia?” Please. We’ve got to have sufficient—and General Jones did say if we set a date for withdrawal, and it’s on the record, if we set a date of—for withdrawal...
SEN. KERRY: Yes it is.
SEN. McCAIN: ...then the United States security interests will be negatively impacted and harmed in the area, as well as Iraq.
SEN. KERRY: Once again, you use the words withdrawal.
SEN. McCAIN: So please don’t misquote General Jones again, please.
SEN. KERRY: We will have troops in Iraq.
SEN. McCAIN: You are setting a date for withdrawal.
SEN. KERRY: We have all acknowledged that there will be some troops there to finish the training, finish standing them up.
MR. RUSSERT: How many?
SEN. KERRY: To chase al-Qaeda.
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