Pat Dollard

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Great Barbecue in Tyler Texas, by the way…

TYLER, Texas (AP) – GOP presidential candidate John McCain mocked Democrat Barack Obama today for saying he’d take action as president “if al-Qaida is forming a base in Iraq.”

McCain told a crowd in Tyler, Texas “I have some news. Al-Qaida is in Iraq. It’s called ‘al-Qaida in Iraq.’” drawing laughter at Obama’s expense. He said Obama’s statement was “pretty remarkable,”

Obama quickly answered back while campaigning in Ohio. “I do know that al-Qaida is in Iraq and that’s why I have said we should continue to strike al-Qaida targets,” he told a rally at Ohio State University in Columbus. Obama said he intended to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq “so we actually start going after al-Qaida in Afghanistan and in the hills of Pakistan like we should have been doing in the first place.” ( Pat’s note: okay this asswipe is completely contradicting himself. He saying that if Al Qaeda is in Iraq we should send troops there to get rid of them. Then he says he knows that they are already there. But his long-stated policy is that we should remove all of our troops from Iraq immediately. Bottom line: just another old school lying politician passing himself off as a morally superior one. )

While he praised McCain as a war hero and saluted his service to the country, Obama said the Arizona Republican was “tied to the politics of the past. We are about policies of the future.”

Noting that McCain likes to tell audiences that he’d follow Osama bin Laden to the “gates of hell” to catch him, Obama taunted: “All he (McCain) has done is to follow George Bush into a misguided war in Iraq.”

McCain said he had not watched Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential debate but was told of Obama’s response when asked if as president he would reserve the right to send U.S. troops back into Iraq to quell an insurrection or civil war.

Obama did not say whether he’d send troops but responded: “As commander in chief, I will always reserve the right to make sure that we are looking out for American interests. And if al-Qaida is forming a base in Iraq, then we will have to act in a way that secures the American homeland and our interests abroad.”

While he praised McCain as a war hero and saluted his service to the country, Obama said the Arizona Republican was “tied to the politics of the past. We are about policies of the future.”

Throughout the primary season, McCain has repeatedly attacked Obama and Clinton for saying they would withdraw troops from Iraq.

“And my friends, if we left, they (al-Qaida) wouldn’t be establishing a base,” McCain said Wednesday. “They’d be taking a country, and I’m not going to allow that to happen, my friends. I will not surrender. I will not surrender to al-Qaida.”

He said that withdrawing troops would be “waving the white flag.”

For years, McCain has urged sending more troops into Iraq, even before President Bush adopted such a strategy about a year ago.

“I knew enough from talking to the men and women who are serving that this new strategy was what we needed, and I’m telling you, it is succeeding,” McCain said. “So what needs to happen, we need to continue this strategy. It should be General Petraeus’ recommendation, not that of a politician running for higher office, as to when and how we withdraw.”

He was referring to Gen. David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq.

As he began a swing through President Bush’s home state, which holds a presidential primary election on Tuesday, McCain made sure to play up a line he always uses: “I also think it might be nice for President Bush to get a little credit that there’s not been another attack on the United States of America,” he said to applause.