Republican running mates John McCain and Sarah Palin raised new questions about Barack Obama's readiness to lead Tuesday, taking advantage of Joe Biden's claims that Obama would face a "generated crisis."Biden's comments seemed to hand the McCain campaign yet another last-minute line of attack as the Arizona senator tries to close the gap between him and his Democratic rival in the final two weeks of the presidential campaign."We don't want a president who invites testing from the world at a time when our economy is in crisis and Americans are already fighting in two wars," McCain said Tuesday in Harrisburg, Pa. "Thanks for the warning, Joe," Palin said to cheers from about 2,500 supporters at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center in Nevada. Biden made the comments over the weekend to two fundraising audiences in Seattle, saying he expected world figures to test Obama early if he wins the election in two weeks.
"Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking," Biden said. "Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."The McCain campaign jumped on the remarks, with McCain and Palin bringing them up on the stump Monday evening and Tuesday. McCain on Tuesday, in response to Biden's reference to President Kennedy, recalled being ready to launch a bombing run during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis."I was on board the USS Enterprise," McCain, a former naval aviator, said. "I sat in the cockpit, on the flight deck of the USS Enterprise, off of Cuba. I had a target. My friends, you know how close we came to a nuclear war." As the crowd of several thousand began to swell with cheers and applause, he added: "America will not have a president who needs to be tested. I've been tested, my friends."
Democratic aides said that Biden was merely reciting history and assuring supporters that Obama is the man for the job. But Palin on Tuesday linked Biden's comments to Obama's foreign policy positions. She said the "crisis" scenarios Biden referenced could be triggered by Obama's willingness to sit down with "the world's worst dictators," his willingness to send U.S. military into Pakistan without the approval of their government, or other positions. "But I guess the looming crisis that most worries the Obama campaign right now is Joe Biden's next speaking engagement. Let's call that crisis scenario number five," she said. The McCain campaign is trying to build steam off Biden's remark as it incorporates several other lines of attack into its day-to-day message. McCain already has gotten significant political mileage out of the man known as Joe the Plumber, who was filmed asking Obama about his tax policies two weekends ago and became the rhetorical centerpiece of the final presidential debate last week. Republicans seized on Obama's response that he would "spread the wealth around" if elected.
The McCain campaign has gone so far as to liken Obama's philosophy to "socialism." Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. John Murtha also seemed to do Republicans a favor after he called his own constituents "racist" in a newspaper interview. He later apologized and then clarified, saying some of his constituents are just "rednecks." As McCain struggles against the odds to lock down support in Obama-leaning Pennsylvania, he cited Murtha's remarks Tuesday."You may have noticed that Senator Obama's supporters have been saying some pretty nasty things about western Pennsylvania lately," he said. McCain fumbled his next line: "And you know I couldn't agree with them more." But he continued: "I could not disagree with those critics more. This is a great part of America. This is where people love their country and they serve it."
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