McCain Camp Compares Obama to Bush on Iraq

Last updated on August 11th, 2014 at 12:04 am

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In a conference call with the media today McCain national security advisor Randy Scheunemann went as far as to compare Barack Obama to George W. Bush in terms of what he views as the Democrats inflexibility and stubbornness on Iraq.

“I think the American people have had enough of inflexibility and stubbornness on national security policy. We cannot afford to replace one administration that refused for too long to acknowledge failure in Iraq with a candidate who refuses to acknowledge success in Iraq,” Scheunemann said.

It is odd to say the least the McCain campaign continues to press the argument for staying in Iraq when even the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen suggested that the security situation has improved more than expected, and that he might recommend the withdrawal of more troops from Iraq.

Obama doesn’t seem to be the candidate who is stubbornly refusing to change his position. If things have improved in Iraq, then it would seem that Obama is on the right track. It is time to start looking at bringing the troops home, instead of looking for excuses to maintain the occupation for decades as the McCain campaign is doing.

Simply from a strategic point of view, this is another issue that the McCain campaign got wrong. McCain assumed that things would stay the same in Iraq, thus he based his whole campaign on arguing to keep the troops there. I don’t think that he ever anticipated that the situation could stabilize. They could end up undercutting their own campaign, by making an argument that the security situation renders irrelevant.

The Obama and Bush comparison is ridiculous, because whether you agree with him or not, the Illinois Senator has shown the ability to be flexible with his position on Iraq. It is John McCain who keeps hammering away at the same ideological position while ignoring the realities on the ground. It is John McCain who is demonstrating Bush like stubbornness, not Obama.

Quote came from here.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association