I’ve tracked down the seven times he was invoked in last night’s debate. Below the fold are the relevant quotes from the trasncript
1. (BO): McCain was right about Bush’s tax cuts before, and is wrong now.
2. (BO): I worked with McCain on immigration.
3. (BO): 100 years in Iraq? McCain is crazy.
4. (BO): I can beat McCain.
5. (HC): If McCain wants to screw us in Iraq, Bush set it up so he doesn’t need to get Congress’s okay.
6. (HC): McCain loves Bush.
7. (BO): McCain says the invasion was wrong.
Mention One: Barack Obama
If John McCain, for example, is the nominee, I respect that John McCain, in the first two rounds of Bush tax cuts, said it is irresponsible that we have never before cut taxes at the same time as we’re going into war.
And somewhere along the line, the straight talk express lost some wheels and now he is in favor of extending Bush tax cuts that went to some of the wealthiest Americans who don’t need them and we’re not even asking for them.
Mention Two: Barack Obama
Well, what I meant was that, when this issue came up — not driver’s licenses, but comprehensive immigration reform generally — I worked with Ted Kennedy. I worked with Dick Durbin. I worked with John McCain, although he may not admit it now to move this issue forward aggressively.
Mention Three: Barack Obama
will end this war. We will not have a permanent occupation and we will not have permanent bases in Iraq. When John McCain suggests that we might be there 100 years, that, I think, indicates a profound lack of understanding that we’ve got a whole host of global threats
Mention Four: Barack Obama
I think I will be the Democrat who will be most effective in going up against a John McCain, or any other Republican — because they all want basically a continuation of George Bush’s policies — because I will offer a clear contrast as somebody who never supported this war,
Mention Five: Hillary Clinton
And if Senator McCain is the nominee, 100 years as stretching forward, he doesn’t have to bring that to the United States Congress. He only has to get the approval of the Iraqi parliament.
Mention Six: Hillary Clinton
But I think now we have to look at how we go forward. There will be a great debate between us and the Republicans, because the Republicans are still committed to George Bush’s policy, and some are more committed than others, with Senator McCain’s recent comments
Mention Seven: Barack Obama
[The invasion] was not just a problem of execution. I mean, they screwed up the execution of it in all sorts of ways. And I think even Senator McCain has acknowledged that.
Probably should have had a “McCain’s judgment is good” option for our conservative friends. Sorry bout that (but not too sorry).
Hey, sometimes there’s too many wrong answers to include them.
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p>Deval in China
…that McCain’s honest judgement is pretty sound. But I think he, like Mitt Romney, has transfigured himself so that he can sell his intellectual soul to dogmatic conservatives and win the nomination. I don’t really believe he personally wants to abolish Roe v. Wade. I don’t really think his heart lead him from the Episcopal Church to the Baptist Church, I believe the evangelical vote did. He changed on Tax cuts. And I’ve seen him speak a few times where outwardly he is agree with a Bush position, but it seems that inwardly he is begrudging every word he utters.
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p>I voted “Sucks” based on the current-day GOP presidential hopeful version of John McCain. But I think if McCain had political freedom and had nothing left to gain from his career, I’m betting that he has sound and rational judgement. I’m not saying I’d agree with all of his positions, but I’d find him far more intellectually appealing.
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p>BTW, is anyone buying the report that McCain flirted with the idea of leaving the Republican party in 2001?
I really don’t think that McCain is trustyworthy….at all. Plus, he’s got a nasty, uncontrollable temper, to boot.
McCain also feels that more force would have won the Vietnam War. That’s definitely and exactly the wrong lesson to take from Indochina. The Republic of South Vietnam, a U.S. invention, lacked popular support and no amount killing the enemy (i.e., human beings) was going to change that.
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p>Though more complex, Iraq seems to tempt conservatives like McCain to see everything as military when the key drivers are political.
Why does the entire western world continue to pour money and technology into a totalitarian police state which sells political prisoner’s body parts on the black market?
of simple answers to easy questions.
Just saying that your opponents suck, if that really is what Senator Clinton asserted in as many words, is hardly impressive. I didn’t see the debate.
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p>Your summary seems broadly in line with my personal assessment: Senator Obama is trying to build a coalition, Senator Clinton is more business as usual.