Author: SootySpin
Length: 02:08
OXFORD, Miss (AP) — John McCain accused Barack Obama of compiling the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate Friday night as the two rivals clashed over taxes, spending, the war in Iraq and more in an intense first debate of the White House campaign. Mostly that's just me opposing George Bush's wrong-headed policies, shot back the Democrat.Obama said his Republican rival has been a loyal supporter of the unpopular president, adding that the current economic crisis is a final verdict on eight years of failed economic policies promoted by President Bush and supported by Sen. McCain.The two men were polite but pointed as they debated at close quarters for 90 minutes on the University of Mississippi campus.McCain accused his younger rival of an incredible thing of voting to cut off funds for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, a reference to legislation that cleared the Senate more than a year ago.Obama disputed that, saying he had opposed funding in a bill that presented a blank check to the Pentagon while McCain had opposed money in legislation that included a timetable for troop withdrawal.Obama opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2002, before he was a member of Congress, while McCain voted in the Senate to authorize the war.You were wrong on Iraq, Obama repeated three times in succession. John, you like to pretend the war began in 2007.McCain replied that Obama has refused to acknowledge the success of the troop buildup in Iraq that McCain recommended and Bush announced more than a year ago.The two presidential candidates stood behind identical wooden lecterns on stage at the performing arts center at the University of Mississippi for the first of three scheduled debates with less than six weeks remaining until Election Day. The two vice presidential candidates will meet next week for their only debate, and Obama and McCain each put in a plug for his own running mate.The two men were pointed but polite, although at least once McCain sought to depict his rival as naive on foreign policy. That was in response to Obama's statement that it might become necessary to send U.S. troops across the Pakistani border to pursue terrorists.You don't say that out loud, retorted McCain. If you have to do things, you do things.He also criticized Obama for having said he would sit down without precondition with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.So let me get this right, we sit down with Ahmadinejad and he says we're going to wipe Israel off the face of the earth' and we say, no you're not. Oh please, McCain said.McCain jabbed at Obama, who he said has requested millions of dollars in pork barrel spending, including some after he began running for president.As he does frequently while campaigning, the Republican vowed to veto any lawmaker's pork barrel project that reaches his desk in the White House. You will know their names and I will make them famous, he said.[ SEPTEMBER 26, 2008 ]