John McCain Hammers Obama Over 'Meeting' With Iran

Eyeing General Election, McCain and Obama Feud Over Foreign Policy
by FOXNews.com
Monday, June 2, 2008

Barack Obama and John McCain took the gloves off Monday, one day before the final two Democratic primaries are expected to put Hillary Clinton down for the count and launch the start of a grueling general election campaign.

The presidential primary season ends Tuesday night with Democratic votes in Montana, Republican votes in New Mexico and votes in both parties in South Dakota.

McCain, who in March locked up the delegates he needs to win the Republican nomination, is planning to deliver a primary night speech — his first in months — in which he will likely recognize that his opponent in November will be the senator from Illinois.

But even as Obama approaches the threshold needed to defeat Clinton, he and McCain are trading blows. With 31 delegates at stake Tuesday, Obama will need to pick up about 15 superdelegates in order to declare victory.

The narrative shaking itself out for the general election is a traditional old school vs. new school argument. Obama says McCain represents the policies of the past and is old not only in years, but in thinking and outlook. McCain counters by borrowing a line from Ronald Reagan, saying he doesn’t want to hold Obama’s youth and inexperience against him, but the Democrat is untested and not ready to be the leader of the free world.

On Monday, McCain continued that theme, ridiculing Obama for his willingness to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, telling the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee that such a meeting would be a “spectacle” that would embolden extremists.

“It’s hard to see what such a summit with President Ahmadinejad would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants, and a worldwide audience for a man who denies one Holocaust and talks before frenzied crowds about starting another,” McCain said. “Such a spectacle would harm Iranian moderates and dissidents, as the radicals and hardliners strengthen their position and suddenly acquire the appearance of respectability.”