(The following is a hypothetical letter written by Barack Obama in response to John McCain's Q & A with Newsweek earlier this month. It is suggested you read the Q & A - a simple, 5 minute, read - before continuing.
This hypothetical letter is in response to Joe Buri's request - and is in no way associated with the Obama campaign. It does, however, represent the views of the Obama campaign as published in media reports and online research)
To the Editors of Newsweek, the McCain Campaign, and the American public,
I write today out of disappointment. As I've said before, I admire John McCain; His valor, his courage, his love of his country – but after reading his most recent article, I'm left to wonder who John McCain really is.
When asked about how he will beat me, he hit his campaign themes of Reform, Prosperity, and Peace. While all these precepts are well and good, I struggle to see how he will accomplish these goals when he supports so many of the failed Bush policies of the last 8 years.
Take 'Reform'. If you want real reform, you need to make a fundamental change in the way things work in Washington. While in the past, Senator McCain has bucked the trend – he has filled his staff with Washington lobbyists. In fact his campaign manager Rick Davis is lobbyist with a checkered past with numerous questionable deals to bring funding to his interests. You can't bring real reform when you're surrounded by people paid by the special interests. That's not bottom-up reform, that's top-down status quo.
McCain has closed out the public on his Town Hall meetings, he has failed to admonish the 527s (similar to Swift boat Veterans For Truth) who promote racist and absolutely false smears against my candidacy. In fact McCain has continually claimed that Hamas is rooting for my candidacy to prevail, and have linked my candidacy with that terrorist group because of it. I have no desire to work with Hamas. This is not reform. This is the same old politics of the past.
The second point is "Prosperity". Prosperity for who? The top 2% who are paying less in taxes (15%) on their hedge funds and
Capital gains, while their secretaries are being taxed at a rate nearly double that? Is that what McCain means by prosperity? McCain said in 2001 and 2003 that the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy were a bad idea. Today, he says they should stay in place until 2010 – if not make them permanent. And McCain wants to give tax breaks to the CEOs of companies who have given themselves billions of dollars in bonuses – yet lay-off workers left and right. That's just not good policy – and it will mean prosperity for a very few.
The third theme is Peace. Now, again, I respect McCain military record, and as I've noted – despite my acknowledgement of his accomplishments, he refuses to recognize the 20 years of service I've put into our country on the ground level – working in the extremely poor communities of Chicago and working with churches and community groups to bring real change from the bottom up.
But aside from that, McCain has supported this failed war in Iraq. Despite his objections to the early strategy, he has been a constant defender of the decision to go into Iraq. My question for Sen. McCain is this: What constitutes victory? Do you believe we are going to eradicate every single terrorist in the world? What exactly will show we 'won' in Iraq? The damage we have done and the lives we have ruined cannot be undone – and it was poor judgment – judgment McCain stood behind – that got us into Iraq.
The truth is McCain said – point blank – if it means being in Iraq 100 years, fine, we'll be there 100 years. That's not the mentality to have with this crisis. We need to undo what we've done immediately. McCain said victory is no American casualties… but our young men and women are still coming home in flag-draped caskets every day. And there is no end in site. Even if we hypothetically say we kill all the terrorists in Iraq… then what? I've got news for Mr. McCain: There are a lot of other terrorists in a lot of other countries that still hate us. And the number grows exponentially when we are in the Middle East. Our presence alone exasperates the problem. Again – McCain wants reform? Well you can't have reform with the cowboy diplomacy of the Bush Administration.
A couple of other small points: There was a Senate Intelligence Committee report about the administration allegedly misleading the nation on prewar intelligence. McCain said he "hasn't read the report". That frightens me. For someone who stands so lock-step with the administration to not have read a report like that – it should concern us all.
Also, McCain says he never commented on the media's coverage of Hillary Clinton – saying it was in the prepared remarks but that he didn't say it out loud. One Problem: He DID say it. Watch the speech. This kind of denial is also concerning.
In wrapping up, I want to address McCain's claim that I went back on my word to accept public financing for my presidential campaign. Yes, I did indeed say I would take the 80 million dollars of public financing that is allotted under the McCain Feingold campaign finance bill. But after further consideration, I have changed my mind. I'm trusting the American people to donate their money to my campaign. This way I will have to answer to them – not the special interests. One of the driving forces in my decision is knowing that in late August of 2004, the 527 Swift Boat Vets for Truth started running smears against John Kerry. Because of the broken system, Kerry was unable to respond because he was restricted by the campaign finance rules. While the GOP has numerous smear groups with endless cash from the oil companies, the democrats do not have a wealth of special interest money. By opting out of public financing, I will use the donations of the American people to fight these 527s without being restricted by the broken system in Washington. Once elected, we can begin making real change in our election policy by making it 100% publicly financed without loopholes for special interests.
You may call my actions a flip-flop… but let me ask Sen. McCain who the flip-flopper is: I didn't say in 2005 that I didn't want off-shore drilling for oil… then say in 2008 that I'm in support of it. I didn't vote against the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, and now support them. I didn't ask for the suspension of Habeas Corpus for Gitmo Detainees – knowing full well the importance of giving prisoners of war their due rights… then change my position 180 degrees when I was running for president. I didn't – in 2004 – say I refused to drill in ANWAR… then in 2008 say I'm willing to drill.
McCain may attack my substance… but it seems to me his substance is ever-changing.
This election is a choice between change you can believe in… and someone who likes changing his positions.
Thank you for your time,
Sen. Barack Obama
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