Biden: We don't need a war hero, we need wisdom
On Tuesday, Sen. John McCain told a town hall, "I know how to win wars. ... I will turn around the war in Afghanistan. ... I know how to do that."
The next day, CNN's John Roberts asked Senator Joe. Biden (D-DE), "Do you believe Senator Obama knows how to win wars? And if he does, how?"
"He has a much more centered view on what our problem are," Biden replied. "John McCain was wrong about the war in Iraq. John McCain says the surge worked -- but remember the purpose of the surge ... was to create 'breathing room' for a political settlement in Iraq. ... We're no closer to a political settlement."
"John McCain has finally acknowledged he has to put more troops in Afghanistan or we're going to lose Afghanistan," continued Biden. "John McCain's now realizing the desperate situation in Afghanistan, says we need more troops. ... He first said we have to take them out of Iraq. ... Then he says no, we'll have NATO do it. Then he came back and corrected again, NATO can't do it, we have to do it."
"The truth of the matter is, Barack Obama has been centered," Biden stated firmly, "and the central war on terror is in Afghanistan and Pakistan, not Iraq."
Roberts then cited an ABC/Washington Post poll which indicates that Americans think McCain has a better knowledge of world affairs by 63%-26% and that 72% think McCain would make a good commander-in-chief, while only 48% believe Obama would.
Biden's response was that Obama is "leading John McCain on every area except the one where experience just intuitively suggests people think if you're experienced you must know more. But 20 years of experience that has not been very solid in terms of projecting what was going to happen doesn't make you a better commander-in-chief."
"We don't need as a commander-in-chief a war hero," Biden emphasized. "John's a war hero. We need someone with some wisdom. ... President Bush's policy, which John McCain has embraced on Iraq and foreign policy generally, has been an abject failure."
"I've been [in Iraq] more than John McCain. That doesn't that I'm ipso facto more qualified than John McCain," Biden concluded. "Barack has had many meetings with military leaders. He's been on the Foreign Relations Committee since he's been in the Congress. ... He's going [to Iraq] now. He's going to have a full view. And I think he's going to find when he gets on the ground that the military's more in line with his position on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq than they are with John's."
This video is from CNN's American Morning, broadcast July 16, 2008.
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