Mccain's man-crush on General Petraeus sours after foreign policy disagreement - Rachel Maddow comments

So General Petraeus agrees with Barack Obama -- and not John McCain -- on the question of whether we should meet with hostile enemies?

In an interview that aired on CBS last night, John McCain, when asked which three living people he'd like to have dinner with most, promptly chose General Petraeus. McCain frequently hails Petraeus as an "American hero."

McCain, however, might not enjoy that dinner so much if he heard Petraeus' views on one of the leading foreign policy differences he has with Barack Obama.

In a case of comically awful timing, Petraeus yesterday gave a talk at the Heritage Foundation in which he more or less echoed Barack Obama's views on negotiating with hostile foreign leaders -- views that McCain has repeatedly subjected to criticism and ridicule.

Asked by a questioner specifically about the disagreement on this topic that McCain and Obama had at Tuesday night's debate, Petraeus demurred a bit, but said: "I do think you have to talk to enemies."

"I'm not trying to get into the middle of domestic politics," Petraeus also said, "but I mean what we did do in Iraq ultimately was sit down with some of those that were shooting at us. What we tried to do was identify those who might be reconcilable."

Petraeus' comments were reported on yesterday by Spencer Ackerman and were noted elsewhere today, and we think they deserve more attention. We went to the video on Heritage's site to get a longer transcript, and sure enough, the context shows that Petraeus was more or less backing up Obama's point of view.

What Petraeus said isn't a perfect endorsement of Obama's views -- he didn't specifically discuss Iran, and the question of "no preconditions" didn't come up -- but it's pretty darn close.

That's because it's as clear as day that the context specifically was the debate between Obama and McCain on this topic on Tuesday night. During that exchange, the candidates clashed on whether to meet with the leaders of Iran, and the questioner at Heritage posed the subject about talking to enemies specifically in that light.

And while Petraeus did say he didn't see Tuesday's debate, the general no doubt knows precisely what the disagreement between the two men is on this topic. So the question Petraeus was asked was basically the same as him being asked whose views he endorsed when it comes to the two men's very public disagreement. Petraeus' own joke about not wanting to wade into "a minefield" and his allusion to not getting "involved in domestic politics" would suggest that that's how he saw the question, too.

And Petraeus more or less picked the Obama argument.

Maybe Petraeus and McCain can discuss this at dinner someday.
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/mccains_hero_petraeus...

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[widgit007]

No, no, no. You don't understand. Yes, Osama bin Laden may have been the one who attacked us but Iraq ... um... Iraq has oil and ... um ... anyone who questions us is unamerican, including those actually fought for us.

Why can't those soldiers see the big picture. There is money involved her.

[cosmlayla]

McCain has always put himself first.

[mike50333]

Talk about a slap in the face! General Petraeus has been the flagship person in John McCain's stance on the war in Iraq. Now it'd be funny if he continued to endorse Obama's Iraq Policy ideas - but it'd be a truly decisive blow to John McCain if General Petraeus decided to actually endorse Obama (can army officials actually do that? lol)!

[vistavision2]

The object of war is peace: Peace with one's enemies; predicated that peace negotiations are between enemies.

Either regime change which predicates that Nation-building is the means or actual negotiations with enemies to redirect international relations to desired international relations.

[sleonardelli]

Operation Anaconda, ah, I remember it well. 9 days straight reachback ISR missions, no sleep, trying 2 support our troops.

[SoCalstylez858]

damn.. fuckin' delta force. dalton= chuck norris.