Jul 27, 2008 1:31 pm US/Central
Republican Senator Questions McCain Ad
WASHINGTON (CBS) ―
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U.S. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel from Nebraska addresses the 75th Winter meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors being held in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 24, 2007. (File)
Mannie Garcia/AFP/Getty Images
Republican Senator Chuck Hagel said Sunday that John McCain is
"treading on thin ground" by stating that presumptive Democratic
nominee Barack Obama is using the Iraq War for political expediency. He
also disputes a recent ad depicting Obama at the gym rather than
spending time with wounded U.S. troops in Germany.
This week, while Obama was touring the Middle East and Europe, McCain said that Obama did not understand the stakes in Iraq and that his opponent would rather "lose a war" if it meant he could succeed in a presidential campaign.
When asked if McCain's criticism had been fair, Hagel said, "The next president will have to bring the country together and lead the world, and that's going to take a bipartisan consensus. They are better off to focus on policy differences. I think John is treading on some very thin ground here when he impugns motives, when we start to get into, 'You're less patriotic than me' and 'I'm more patriotic.' I admire and respect John McCain; we talk often. John's better than that… It's just not responsible to be saying things like that."
Hagel went on to say that the next president would inherit an "inventory of problems" just as large, if not larger, than those faced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Reporter Bob Schiffer of CBS' Face the Nation went on to ask both senators how they felt about McCain's recent ad portraying Obama as a traitor for his failure to visit wounded troops in Germany. Obama said he canceled the planned trip after officials told him it would be "perceived as political."
The McCain ad points out that Obama spent time at the gym rather than with wounded troops. The ad also mentions that the Pentagon would not allow cameras in for the visit and implies that the lack of coverage is Obama's motive for canceling the trip.
Reed said Obama wouldn't have wanted cameras there anyway and called the ad "wildly inappropriate."
"What the ad should have said is that we visited the combat support in Baghdad to thank the doctors and nurses there. That should be in the ad that McCain is running. I think Sen. Obama made the wise choice; it would have been perceived as political. We saw soldiers in Anbar province, in Jalabad to see the soldiers of the 173rd; that is a completely distorted advertisement."
"He certainly would have been criticized, if, on a political trip, to go and be accused of using our wounded troops as props for his campaign," Hagel said. "I think it would have been totally inappropriate of him, on a trip financed by campaign funds, to go into a military hospital. Based on what I know; he did the right thing."
Hours before flying home Saturday, Obama suggested his poll numbers might dip in the coming days, adding: "We have been out of the country for a week. People are worried about gas prices and home foreclosures."
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