Marathon Pundit: A McCain moment at 3am

Sunday, August 10, 2008

A McCain moment at 3am

"It's 3:00am and your children are asleep," the voice over says. "There's a phone in the White House, and it's ringing. Something is happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers that call."
From a Hillary Clinton campaign commercial.

Hillary has gone to the wayside, but the doubts about Barack Obama's capability in handling that call. One of those phone calls came to the White House a few days ago--when the Georgia-Russia conflict began.

John McCain, whose depth of knowledge in world crises exceeds that of Clinton--and of course dwarfs that of Barack Obama--should be the man to pick up the telephone when that phone rings.

David Broder, longtime columnist for the Washington Post, explains what I'm calling "a McCain moment."

From NBC's Meet The Press this morning:

NBC's David Gregory: "David Broder, is this a 3 a.m. moment for foreign policy for these candidates?"

Broder: It is and it's particularly a moment where John McCain can claim to have been prescient. Because in his basic foreign policy speech two months ago and in an interview that I did with him last week, he draws a very sharp line when it comes to Russia. He says these people are being aggressive and imperialist. There is no confusion, in his mind, about the character of the Putin-Medvedev government and he is prepared, I think, to make the case that this is a demonstration of exactly what he has been arguing for."

Click here for the video.

McCain knows Georgia well, and two years ago traveled throughout the nation, and even visited the disputed South Ossetia region.

Eight years ago--while Barack Obama was an Illinois state senator, McCain was one of the first public leaders to raise suspicions about the intentions of Russia's Vladimir Putin, who remains as de facto leader of the nation. McCain talked about his concerns in a Republican presidential debate on CNN.

Larry King: "Senator, would you meet with, assuming Mr. Putin is elected in March, would you want to meet with him as a candidate? Other candidates have gone overseas while running for office, or right before the campaign begins."

McCain: "I'm not sure that would be necessary, might be an interesting experience, because I know what's going on in Russia, so do a whole lot of my friends ... Well, we know he was a Apparatchik, we know he was a member of the KGB, we know that he came to power because of the military brutality and massacre that is taking place in Russia today -- I mean in Chechnya today. We know that he worked a deal with Yeltsin so that Yeltsin would have immunity and he would be assured the presidency rather than basically a contested. I'm very concerned about Mr. Putin. I'm afraid Mr. Putin might be one of those who wants to make the trains run on time. So, yeah, I would meet with him as a candidate, but I think that what I would really like to do is send a message to Mr. Putin that we expect certain behavior out of the Russians and particularly what's going on in Chechnya today, a cessation of that brutality, and that it's a very important strategic part of the world for us."