McCain, Obama clash on economy and blast away on Iraq policy

Senator Barack Obama made a stinging attack on the Bush administration’s economic management on Friday night and, by extension, Senator John McCain’s ties to Mr. Bush �" and Mr. McCain countered by painting Mr. Obama as a typical tax-and-spend liberal during the first debate of the general election campaign. Both men offered qualified support for the financial bailout plan being discussed in Congress, saying that the nation had to take action to shore up the economy but that certain conditions needed to be attached to the plan. “This is a final verdict on eight years of failed economic policies, promoted by George Bush, supported by Senator McCain,” Mr. Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, said at the debate, which was almost called off because of the crisis. “A theory that basically says that we can shred regulations and consumer protections, and give more and more to the most, and somehow prosperity will trickle down.”Mr. McCain, the Republican nominee, countered by calling Mr. Obama the most liberal member of the Senate. “It’s hard to reach across the aisle from that far to the left,” he said. The debate �" held as the two men stood at lecterns on a red-carpeted stage at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss. �" provided the first opportunity for tens of millions of America to watch Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain side-by-side, laying out both their positions and their differences, at a moment when polls show that their race for the presidency is still close. It was 40 minutes before the debate turned to foreign policy �" what originally was to have been the sole topic of their first debate �" and it was only then that the candidates engaged in their most spirited exchange on Mr. McCain’s signature issue: the conduct of the war in Iraq.

Mr. McCain said “incredibly” that Mr. Obama had not gone to Iraq for 900 days and asked for a meeting with General David H. Petraeus and added, with more than a whiff of condescension, that “Senator Obama doesn’t understand the difference between a tactic and a strategy.” Mr. McCain also that “Senator Obama refuses to acknowledge that we are winning in Iraq.”“That’s not true, that’s not true,” Mr. Obama muttered. Mr. McCain countered that Mr. Obama had been wrong about President Bush’s change in strategy in Iraq, known as the surge. “Senator Obama said the surge could not work, said it would increase sectarian violence, said it was doomed to failure,” he said. “Recently on a television program he said it exceeded our wildest expectations. But yet, after conceding that, he still says that he would oppose the surge if he had to decide that again today.”Mr. Obama shot back with a litany of things he said that Mr. McCain had been wrong about: “You talk about the surge. The war started in 2003. And at the time, when the war started, you said it was going to be quick and easy. You said we knew where the weapons of mass destruction were. You were wrong. You said that we were going to be greeted as liberators. You were wrong. You said that there was no history of violence between Shia and Sunni and you were wrong.” Mr. McCain later launched a vitriolic attack on Mr. Obama’s plan for Iraq, citing "the consequences of defeat that would result from his plan for withdrawal."

“All of that sacrifice would be lost if we followed Senator Obama’s plan if we had specific dates for withdrawal,” he said. Mr. Obama responded by tying his opponent to the Bush administration’s policies, which he said had failed. “Over the last eight years, this administration, along with Senator McCain, has been solely focused on Iraq,” he said “That has been their priority. That is where all their resources have gone. In the meantime, Osama Bin Laden is still out there. He is not captured. He is not killed. Al Qaeda is resurgent.”The Senators clashed over the issue of presidential meetings with leaders of Iran and other nations suspected of harboring terrorists. Mr. McCain attacked Mr. Obama for saying he would meet with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, saying such a move would betray weakness on the part of the United States.Mr. Obama said that he would only meet with Mr. Ahmadinejad under conditions that he set as president, and that he believed diplomatic relations were key to resolving political disagreements without resorting to violence. "We do not expect to solve every problem before we initiate talks," Mr. Obama said. "The Bush administration has come to recognize that it hasn’t worked."Mr. McCain elicited laughter from the audience with his response, mocking the idea of a conversation with the Iranian president. “He says, ‘we’re going to wipe Israel off the face of the earth,’ and we’re going to say, ‘No we’re not?’ ” he asked with an incredulous look. The burden on each candidate was great. Mr. Obama, 47, a first-term senator, went into the debate hoping to reassure voters that he has the temperament and judgment to be commander in chief. And Mr. McCain, 72, who hopes to replace an unpopular Republican president he shares many positions with, was trying to recoup ground he lost in the past two weeks with his unsteady response to the nation’s widening fiscal crisis. The debate itself was up in the air until late morning. Mr. McCain had said he would skip the debate unless an agreement was struck on the federal proposal to bail out the financial sector; but after a drama-filled meeting at the White House on Thursday with President Bush, the two men who hope to succeed him, and Congressional leaders failed to reach a deal Mr. McCain reconsidered and agreed to debate after all. Mr. McCain hammered at Mr. Obama on earmarks and overspending, but Mr. Obama countered by saying the $18 billion in earmarks in the federal budget paled in comparison to the budgetary effects of Mr. McCain’s $300 billion in tax cuts. Mr. Obama was aggressive in taking on Mr. McCain from the start. He seized on a remark that Mr. McCain made as the fiscal crisis began to spiral out of control to try to paint him as out of touch, saying that “10 days ago John said that the fundamentals of the economy are sound.”The moderator, Jim Lehrer, trying to foster more direct engagement, said, “Say it directly to him.”Mr. Obama complied, to laughter: “John, 10 days ago, you said that the fundamentals of the economy are sound.”Mr. McCain asked, to more laughter, “Are you afraid I couldn’t hear him?”But both men grew serious as they used the current economic crisis to argue for their fiscal proposals: Mr. McCain said that more business tax cuts were needed to promote economic growth, while Mr. Obama charged that Mr. McCain’s tax cuts would favor the wealthy, while his would be targeted to the middle class. Mr. McCain often sounded like a process-oriented senator during the first third of the debate, talking about earmarks and legislative abuses as he spoke about the economy. But he came more alive when the conversation turned to foreign policy, and he spoke about his support for the new strategy in Iraq. Mr. Obama, by contrast, was able to use more vivid examples of how the economic crisis was hurting regular people, and how they might benefit from his plan to cut taxes on the middle class, which he noted would allow families to buy their children a new computer, or just make gas more affordable. But he became more cautious when the conversation shifted to foreign policy, and he found himself parrying attacks from Mr. McCain that were designed to question his readiness �" while trying to note that Mr. McCain had been wrong on many of his central assumptions about the Iraq war. It was very nearly the debate that wasn’t. Mr. McCain upended the presidential campaign Wednesday when he announced that he would skip the first presidential debate unless there was an agreement in place on a federal plan to bail out the financial sector.But after his return to Washington failed to produce an agreement �" a White House summit meeting that he had pressed for with President Bush, Mr. Obama and Congressional leaders was said by some Democrats to have been counterproductive �" Mr. McCain reconsidered and agreed to attend the debate after all.  Close aides to Mr. McCain said that he did not make the final decision to attend until Friday morning, at which point the campaign scrambled to get to Mississippi. This debate had been originally been conceived as a chance for the two candidates to outline their views, and differences, on foreign policy. But because of the spreading crisis in the financial sector, and the dramatic wrangling in Washington over a proposed bailout plan, questions about the economy were deemed simply too topical to ignore. In that respect the debate was emblematic of the presidential election over all: a contest that many had long expected to hinge on foreign policy, and where both party’s nominees were chosen largely because of their positions on the Iraq war, is now dominated by the economy, and the question of which candidate can handle it better. Little about the debate �" from the topics covered to the suspense over whether it would even take place �" followed a set script. Neither of the candidates got in all the debate practice that he had been counting on.  Mr. Obama had set up an elaborate debate camp in Florida this week, complete with a makeshift podium and people to play the role of Mr. McCain and the debate moderator, Jim Lehrer. But the Florida set was barely used as Mr. Obama left his team of advisers behind and went off to meet Mr. McCain in the White House, leaving Mr. Obama little to do Thursday night besides read over his preparation materials. Mr. McCain had built practice time into his schedule throughout the week, only to find himself consumed with the negotiations over the bailout package. But he did squeeze in a couple of hours of practice late Thursday night in a room in his apartment building in Virginia that his campaign had set up with podiums, fielding questions and critiques from members of his campaign, said Mark Salter, a senior adviser to Mr. McCain.