Pat Dollard | Young Americans

The Swamp:

Well, that didn’t take long. But then, in this presidential campaign, nothing ever does, save that blasted Obama text message.

But no sooner did the text message hit the nation’s in-boxes did the McCain campaign have a statement–and an attack ad–ready for launch.

Here is the statement from McCain spokesman Ben Porritt:

“There has been no harsher critic of Barack Obama’s lack of experience than Joe Biden. Biden has denounced Barack Obama’s poor foreign policy judgment and has strongly argued in his own words what Americans are quickly realizing — that Barack Obama is not ready to be President.”

Considering the fact that Biden, a Delaware Democrat, competed against Obama and several others for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, it wasn’t going to take opponents long to recall the most critical words that Biden had uttered about the frontrunner in the primaries.

And Biden is not one to mince words. (Nor are these all the words that Biden has had to say about Obama.)

McCain’s campaign is ready with a TV ad that it says will air in “key states” as the Democratics prepare for their nominating convention starting Monday.

The ad replays a piece of a debate moderated by ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, shown asking Biden about a previous statement about Obama’s readiness to lead: “You were asked, “Is he ready?” You said, “I think he can be ready but right now, I don’t believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.”

“I think that I stand by the statement,” said Biden, and the ad cuts to an emotionless Obama. It also closes with some tape of Biden saying something about McCain: “I would be honored to run with or against John McCain, because I think the country would be better off.”

Now, Biden may be quick to retort that his comment about Obama’s readiness was voiced on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos in August 2007 — and they were heading into a primary campaign in which Daemocratic rivas were attempting to pierce the advantage that Obama and Hillary Clinton had. And, he could say, today, that Obama has learned a lot since August of 2007.

That debate, however, will not play out in a 30-second spot — unless the Obama campaign returns fire this weekend.

This question of readiness to lead is something which the McCain campaign has been aggressively posing of Obama. McCain’s campaign ads have flatly declared Obama “not ready to lead.” The selection of a running mate such as Biden clearly is meant to shore up Obama’s own lack of experience on the world stage - Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has decades of it.

And then along come Biden’s own words, courtesy of the McCain campaign.

Biden, while campaigning in Iowa and elsewhere, frequently spoke of the need for a candidate to pass “the commander-in-chief test” before domestic issues could be considered. And he blasted Obama for failing to hold hearings on Afghanistan while chairing a Foreign Relations subcommittee.