Obama Exaggerates Leadership On Nukes

Please see the McCain campaign’s statement in response (with contrasting fact sheet below) to Senator Obama’s ‘me-too’ record on nuclear proliferation issues.

See the Obama campaign’s exaggerated response linked here: http://thepage.time.com/obama-campaigns-response-to-mccains-nuclear-policy-speech/

“Senator McCain welcomes the support of Senator Obama – or any other legislator – in the fight against nuclear proliferation. In particular, he welcomes Senator Obama’s endorsement of Ronald Reagan’s vision for a world free of nuclear weapons. But to be successful in this critical endeavor, we must get certain facts straight. The Obama campaign insists that their candidate has ‘led the fight in the U.S. Senate for arms control.’ But the record should be clear: Senator Obama, after he entered the Senate in 2005, joined Senator Lugar and the many other members who have supported the Nunn-Lugar program and other nonproliferation programs for years. His campaign points as evidence of his leadership to a bill so non-controversial that it passed the Senate by unanimous consent. There was no “fight” for Senator Obama to lead.

Senator McCain, on the other hand, has a lifetime of experience on national security issues. He coauthored, for example, the 1992 Iran-Iraq Nonproliferation Act, voted numerous times to defend the Nunn-Lugar program, and has been at the center of national security debates over the future of the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs. While Senator McCain articulated today a comprehensive vision of a safer world, and in which nuclear proliferation is a far less grave threat, Senator Obama has supported steps that would take America in the opposite direction. By pledging to conduct unconditional presidential summit meetings, during his first year of office, with the world’s worst proliferators – including the leaders of Iran and North Korea - he would undermine the very nonproliferation causes for which he purports to stand. “ ---Tucker Bounds, spokesman John McCain


Barack Obama on Nuclear Security

· Obama presents himself as a strong leader on nuclear issues…

­ In a television ad first broadcast by the Obama campaign in January 2008, the announcer asserts that “in the U.S. Senate, he's led on issues from arms control to landmark ethics reform."
(Ad available at: http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/01/obama_airs_nati.html)

­ Obama strategist David Axelrod insisted that Sen. Obama “has led the fight in the U.S. Senate for arms control [and] joined with Senator Lugar from Indiana to pass the Lugar- Obama Arms Control Act.” (This Week With George Stephanopoulos, 2 Mar 2008)

· …but never had to exercise much leadership.

­ As Obama correctly observed, Sen. Lugar has exercised “tireless leadership” on nuclear security issues for more than 15 years. (Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, 9 Feb 2006)

­ Yet Obama only helped to pass a bill so non-controversial that it was approved in the Senate without amendment and by Unanimous Consent. The only provision dealing with nuclear issues authorized but did not appropriate funds. There was no “fight” for Obama to lead. (H.R. 6060 approved by Senate on 8 Dec 2006, signed into law as PL 109-472)

­ When Obama sought to pass a bill without Lugar’s leadership, it was stripped of substantive provisions and simply became a reporting requirement (S.1977 introduced, 2 Aug 2007. Inserted into H.R. 2764 as S.Amdt. 2692, 6 Sep 2007. Signed into law as PL 110-161.

Ø John McCain has a lifetime of experience in national security matters. For John McCain, issues like the ones he addressed today are not abstract notions. He has seen war, and been involved in security issues – including debates over weapons systems and nuclear policy – throughout his career. He has lived these issues.

Ø John McCain truly has led on such issues, coauthoring, for example, the 1992 Iran-Iraq Non-Proliferation Act (P.L. 102-484), which imposed mandatory sanctions on those who knowingly and materially contributed to Iranian and Iraqi chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons programs and certain types of advanced conventional weapons.

· Obama now makes empty promises to confront the threat of nuclear proliferation. On his campaign website, Obama claims that he will:

­ “Secure all loose nuclear materials in the world within four years,” and “will negotiate a verifiable global ban on the production of new nuclear weapons material.”

­ Sen. Obama never explains how he will accomplish these ambitious and exceedingly complex goals.

­ Obama claims he will strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty “so that countries like North Korea and Iran that break the rules will automatically face strong international sanctions.”

­ However, at the same time that Obama wants other countries to get tough on North Korea and Iran, Obama himself plans to hold unconditional summit meetings with Kim Jong Il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Holding bilateral presidential summits in the absence of any progress on key security issues is a recipe for undermining the multilateral effort to confront these regimes.

Ø In his speech yesterday, John McCain laid out a broad and specific vision of a safer world, in which the threat of nuclear destruction and terrorism are far less likely. He articulates a complete set of interlocking steps that would lead to the world he envisions.

· Obama also shows poor judgment on key nuclear security issues.
­ Obama has promised “to cut investments in unproven missile defense systems.”
(Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl32Y7wDVDs&feature=related)

Ø John McCain fully supports the development of robust missile defense systems that can protect the US and its allies from North Korea, Iran and others.

­ Obama will make it a “priority” to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). (Obama response to Council for a Livable World questionnaire.)

Ø John McCain will seek to fix the CTBT’s shortcomings before the US makes a binding commitment to it.