BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

Foreign policy was supposed to be John McCain’s forte.  But, today he showed how “out of touch” his really is with the American people.

In response to those comments, Obama’s campaign held a conference call, questioning if McCain is “confused?”

The call was held to respond to John McCain’s comments this morning in an interview on NBC’s TODAY in which he told Matt Lauer it was “not too important” when American forces could come home from Iraq and that, “What’s important is the casualties in Iraq. Americans are in South Korea; Americans are in Japan, American troops are in Germany. That’s all fine.”

Kerry said McCain’s statement was “out of touch and inconsistent” with the concerns of American families with troops in Iraq and argued the Arizona senator had continued to articulate a policy for staying in the country even though American generals have said the military could not sustain forces at the current levels. The former Democratic nominee said he had a message for McCain: “It is important when they can come home. It is important when we can revitalize our military.”

Try telling the troops in Iraq, or their families at home that it is “not too important” when they come home. 

The comment didn’t go over too well with anyone, apparently.

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Biden, who was not on the call, issued a blistering statement during it, calling McCain’s choice of words “evidence that he is totally out of touch with the needs of our troops and the national security needs of our nation.”

Majority Leader Harry Reid– also not on the call — referred to the phrase as “a crystal clear indicator that he just doesn’t get the grave national-security consequences of staying the course.” And the Obama campaign launched a morning conference call headlined by Sen. John Kerry to discuss the comment.

And, Chairman Chris Van Hollen of the DNCCC issued this statement:

“The American people want change and John McCain’s stunning comment today that bringing our troops home from Iraq is ‘not too important’ is further proof of his intention to serve George Bush’s third term and make his policies even worse. In fact, if it was up to Senator McCain, he would leave our troops in Iraq indefinitely, spend countless billions more without seeing sufficient Iraqi political progress, and ignore the growing threat Al Qaeda poses in Afghanistan. Democrats are committed to responsibly redeploying our troops from Iraq, taking care of them when they come home with a new G.I. Bill, and finishing the job in Afghanistan.”

Howard Dean said,

“Senator McCain is wrong. One of the most important questions in this campaign is when and how Senator McCain would bring our troops home from Iraq.  Senator McCain stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that the American people do not want our brave troops in Iraq for 100 years under any circumstances.  They want a president who will end the war responsibly.”

McCain’s campaign shot back with the accusation that the Democrats were distorting his statement.  Okay… and…