McCain: Obama stands for ‘the wrong change’

Presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) kicked off the general election campaign Tuesday night with a broadside against Sen. Barack Obama, saying that the Illinois Democrat stands for “the wrong change.”

“The wrong change looks not to the future but to the past for solutions that have failed us before and will surely fail us again,” said McCain of Obama’s platform. “I have a few years on my opponent, so I am surprised that a young man has bought in to so many failed ideas.”

{mosads}Obama was expected to clinch his party’s nomination Tuesday night and McCain commended both Democrats for “the long, hard race they have run.”

While the Arizona senator lauded Obama only for his “eloquence and his spirited campaign,” he heaped accolades onto Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)

“Sen. Clinton has earned great respect for her tenacity and courage. The media often overlooked how compassionately she spoke to the concerns and dreams of millions of Americans, and she deserves a lot more appreciation than she sometimes received,” said McCain, who hopes that the rift between the two Democratic candidates will help him in the general election.

“As the father of three daughters, I owe her a debt for inspiring millions of women to believe there is no opportunity in this great country beyond their reach,” McCain added. “I am proud to call her my friend.”

The GOP standard-bearer quickly turned his sights on Obama, saying that the first-term senator will be a “formidable opponent.”

McCain seized on Obama’s mantra of seeking change.

“This is, indeed, a change election. No matter who wins this election, the direction of this country is going to change dramatically,” the Arizona senator stated in his speech in New Orleans. “But, the choice is between the right change and the wrong change; between going forward and going backward.”

McCain said Obama “seems to think government is the answer to every problem; that government should take our resources and make our decisions for us,” adding that this “type of change doesn’t trust Americans to know what is right or what is in their own best interests.”

Instead, the presumptive GOP nominee, Obama displays “the attitude of politicians who are sure of themselves but have little faith in the wisdom, decency and common sense of free people.”

McCain argued that the Illinois senator has “accumulated the most liberal voting record in the Senate.” However, the Arizona senator added, “the old, tired, big government policies he seeks to dust off and call new won’t work in a world that has changed dramatically since they were last tried and failed.”

McCain also sought to counter an argument that he said Democrats will try to make over and over throughout the campaign.

“You will hear from my opponent’s campaign in every speech, every interview, every press release that I’m running for President Bush’s third term,” he said. “You will hear every policy of the president described as the Bush-McCain policy.

“Why does Senator Obama believe it's so important to repeat that idea over and over again? Because he knows it's very difficult to get Americans to believe something they know is false,” McCain added. “So he tries to drum it into your minds by constantly repeating it rather than debate honestly the very different directions he and I would take the country.”

McCain rejected the argument, saying that “the American people didn’t get to know me yesterday, as they are just getting to know Senator Obama. They know I have a long record of bipartisan problem solving.”

In response, Democratic National Committee communications director Karen Finney said that “John McCain should explain how a candidate who voted with President Bush 95 percent of the time and now promises to continue his failed policies expects voters to believe he’ll offer anything other than a third Bush term.”

Finney added that, “now that he finally decided to get his act together and start his general election campaign, the voters will finally get a chance to see all the reasons John McCain is the wrong choice for America’s future.”

The Arizona senator pointed out that he had taken unpopular stances before, noting that he has often opposed Bush, and cited the initial Iraq war strategy as an example.

“I disagreed strongly with the Bush administration's mismanagement of the war in Iraq. I called for the change in strategy that is now, at last, succeeding where the previous strategy had failed miserably,” he stated. “I was criticized for doing so by Republicans. I was criticized by Democrats. I was criticized by the press. But I don’t answer to them. I answer to you.”

Knowing that the war will be a major issue in the election, he tackled his support for the troop surge.

“I know Americans are tired of this war. I don't oppose a reckless withdrawal from Iraq because I'm indifferent to the suffering war inflicts on too many American families,” he said. “I hate war. And I know very personally how terrible its costs are. But I know, too, that the course Senator Obama advocates could draw us into a wider war with even greater sacrifices; put peace further out of reach, and Americans back in harm's way.”

McCain vowed to “end Washington's stagnant, unproductive partisanship,” saying this is also a promise that Obama is making.

“But one of us has a record of working to do that and one of us doesn’t. Americans have seen me put aside partisan and personal interests to move this country forward,” he said.

McCain added that they “have not seen Sen. Obama do the same."

“For all his fine words and all his promise, he has never taken the hard but right course of risking his own interests for yours; of standing against the partisan rancor on his side to stand up for our country,” McCain said.

“He is an impressive man, who makes a great first impression,” the Arizona senator added. “But he hasn’t been willing to make the tough calls; to challenge his party; to risk criticism from his supporters to bring real change to Washington. I have.”

McCain vowed that, from the day of his inauguration on forward, he would “work with anyone to make America safe, prosperous and proud. And I won't care who gets the credit as long as America gets the benefit.”