Obama camp says attack is ‘beneath’ McCain

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain’s (Ariz.) assertion that Democratic rival Barack Obama would rather “lose a war” than lose his campaign has drawn an angry response from the Illinois senator’s campaign.

{mosads}In an internal memo containing talking points for surrogates, the Obama campaign says “these kinds of petty, personal accusations are beneath Sen. McCain.”

The talking points, obtained by The Hill, continued: “They ignore the seriousness of the debate that the American people want to have in this election.

“It’s hard to see how leaving Iraq to a sovereign government that is taking responsibility for its future while we finish the fight in Afghanistan is ‘losing,’ ” the memo reads.

Time magazine reported that McCain, speaking in Rochester, N.H., said he “had the courage and the judgment to say I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war,” adding: “It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.”