McCain using Bush's hypocritical "September 10th Mindset" against Obama

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McCain Campaign Accuses Obama Of Having "A September 10th Mindset"

By Greg Sargent - June 17, 2008, 10:36AM

Aggressively moving to shift the debate away from domestic issues to national security, the McCain campaign hit Obama with some of the most incendiary language of the campaign, accusing Obama on a conference call with reporters moments ago of having a "September 10th mindset."

The latest attack, which has strong echoes of the tactics Bush used against John Kerry four years ago and that Republicans used against Dems in 2006, comes in response to comments Obama made yesterday to ABC News about the attackers of the World Trade Center in 1993.

In the interview, Obama suggested that the failure to try Guantanamo detainees was harming American credibility in the Muslim world, adding that the 1993 attackers had been dealt with in accordance with the Constitution and that "they are currently in U.S. prisons, incapacitated."

The McCain camp is seizing on the comments as evidence that Obama doesn't understand that such an approach is inadequate to the current war on terror -- even though Obama has repeatedly outlined an aggressive approach to hunting down terrorists.

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Bush ducks question about taking issue with Kerry's views on fighting terrorism as a "crime"

<...>

PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes, Jim.

Q Mr. President, the Prime Minister has referred to terrorism as "a crime," and he's referred to it in part as a law enforcement issue. So for you, I'm wondering, does that underscore any sort of philosophical difference when your 2004 campaign took issue with somewhat similar descriptions from John Kerry?

And Mr. Prime Minister, I've heard a lot about how your approach to the United States will be the same as that of your predecessor, but how will it differ?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Look, people who kill innocent men, women and children to achieve political objectives are evil, that's what I think. I don't think there's any need to negotiate with them. I don't think there's any need to hope that they'll change. They are cold-blooded killers, and we better be clear-eyed when we're dealing with them.

And this Prime Minister, right in the beginning of his office, got a taste of what it means to be in a world with these people that would come and attempt to kill innocent civilians of his country, and he handled it well.

But we're dealing with a variety of methodologies to deal with them: one is intelligence, one is law enforcement, and one is military. We got to use all assets at disposal to find them and bring them to justice before they hurt our people again.

In the long run, the way to defeat these people is through a competing ideology, see. And what's interesting about this struggle -- and this is what I was paying very careful attention to when Gordon was speaking -- is, does he understand it's an ideological struggle? And he does.

As he said to me, it's akin to the Cold War, and it is, except the difference this time is we have an enemy using asymmetrical warfare to try to affect our vision, to try to shake our will. They'll kill innocent women and children so it gets on the TV screens, so that we say it's not worth it -- let's just back off. The death they cause makes it -- maybe we just ought to let them have their way. And that's the great danger facing the world in which we live, and he gets it.

He can answer his own -- your question. What's the second half? I talked too long for --

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Bush's hypocrisy:

"No, the president does not have a pre-9/11 mind-set"

The president defined "success" in Iraq Wednesday as "a level of violence where the people feel comfortable about living their daily lives." At today's White House press briefing, reporters asked Tony Snow to go a little further and describe an "acceptable" level of violence in Iraq. That's where the fun began:

Snow: You know, I think what you've managed to do is to try to -- we're now playing the adjective game. The fact is when you talk about an acceptable level, it is something that allows the government to exist independently. The problem is, everybody says, "Oh, so you accept violence. You like -- violence is OK." No, it's not OK. And so in abstract terms, zero violence is acceptable.

On the other hand, we know and the president has said many times that it is going to be a tactic of people who want to bring this government down to commit acts of violence. And violence, unfortunately, at least for a while, is going to be a fact of Iraqi life. What we're really talking about is trying to create conditions of security so that you can have a functional democracy in Iraq where people can go about their daily lives, where they have confidence in the rule of law and the people who are responsible for protecting them, that you have a legislative system that is protecting rights and at the same time getting on with the business -- economic reconstruction and so on. So that's really what we're talking about. What you're trying to do is to address the kinds of violence that are designed to destroy Iraq; for instance, al-Qaida recent attacks that are designed not only to create a lot of bloodshed and to weaken the government but also to reignite sectarian violence ... And so those are the issues, those that jeopardize the very existence of the government. Those are the things that we want to address.

Reporter: Minimize violence to a nuisance?

Snow: What you want to do is to be able to have the government in a position where it can stand by itself. And I think trying to get into definitional matters at this point is ...

Reporter: In October of 2004 John Kerry said, "We have to get to the place where we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance." The president said he couldn't disagree more. Cheney called this naive and dangerous, and part of the pre-9/11 mind-set. So does the president now have a pre-9/11 mind-set?

Snow: No, the president does not have a pre-9/11 mind-set. And the fact is -- I'll have to go back and take a look, but my recollection is that there was an attempt to, kind of, minimize some of the security challenges. But I don't want to put words in Senator Kerry's mouth without looking back at the 2004 debate. It is important to realize that you're going to have to use military force, and especially in conjunction with the Iraqis, to address violence that comes from a whole series of factors, whether they be old members of the Baath Party, whether they be Iraqi rejectionists or whether they be foreign fighters coming in and trying to destroy the government.

Think Progress video: Tony Snow challenged on Bush hypocrisy.