Obama "doesn't go on television and have crying fits; he isn't discovering his voice at age 60"

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Sat Feb-02-08 04:10 PM
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Obama "doesn't go on television and have crying fits; he isn't discovering his voice at age 60"

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-iraqpol2feb02,0,1272905.story

McCain surge puts Iraq war at fore

The likelihood that the war hero will be the GOP nominee creates a battle between Democrats over who can best challenge him.
By Peter Wallsten, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
10:34 PM PST, February 1, 2008

WASHINGTON -- The growing likelihood that Sen. John McCain will win the Republican presidential nomination has sparked renewed debate between the Democratic front-runners over the Iraq war -- and over who possesses the strongest credentials to challenge a war hero for the duties of commander in chief.

The issue provoked one of the sharpest moments in Thursday's Democratic debate in Los Angeles, as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York argued that the party's eventual nominee would need sufficient "gravitas" to persuade American voters that he or she can be a strong leader while arguing for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

The jousting continued Friday when a top military advisor to Clinton's rival, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, ridiculed Clinton's implication that she would offer voters the better credentials.

The advisor, retired Gen. Merrill A. "Tony" McPeak, said in a telephone interview that Obama has "real gravitas, not artificially created, focus-grouped, poll-directed, rehearsed gravitas."

He also said Obama "doesn't go on television and have crying fits; he isn't discovering his voice at the age of 60" -- references to Clinton's much-publicized show of emotion during the New Hampshire primary campaign and her speech after winning the contest in which she declared that she had "found my voice."

McPeak later retracted his remarks, and the Obama camp disassociated itself from them.

McPeak, who served as Air Force chief of staff under the first President Bush and President Clinton, charged in his initial comments that Clinton's remark about gravitas was "the kind of lie that has one element of truth."

"Yes, gravitas is important, but a lot of the rest is obfuscation," he said. "It's almost like if you say that you have gravitas, you had it from being Bill Clinton's wife for eight years and Barack Obama had never earned it from his life experience."

An Obama campaign aide was on the line during the interview. Minutes later, McPeak called back to say he regretted his remarks and that he has "high regard" for Hillary Clinton.

He also expressed concern that "some of those loose-lips-will-sink-ships quotes will be the big story."

In an email, the Obama campaign said McPeak's words "crossed the line" and that Obama "strongly disagrees with these comments and apologizes on behalf of the campaign."

A Clinton spokesman, Phil Singer, called it "unfortunate" that McPeak's retraction "was motivated out of concern about the political impact of his words as opposed to the fact that they were simply offensive."

Also from the article:

"Polls throughout the campaign have shown that Democratic-leaning voters see Clinton as better prepared than Obama to be commander in chief. The survey respondents, even if they disagree with her war vote, also rate her as best equipped to end the war."