NY Times: “Clinton and McCain Address Military Veterans” - while Rudy, Romney decline invitations
Here are relevant excerpts from the New York Times article on Tuesday, recounting the diametrically opposed speeches by Senators McCain and Clinton at the 108th Annual Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Kansas City on Monday. It noted that Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani had declined invitations to speak.
KANSAS CITY, Mo, Aug. 20 — In back-to-back speeches before an audience of military veterans here today, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain praised the fortitude of American troops fighting in Iraq, but presented starkly different assessments of the war and the strategy going forward.
“The best way of honoring their service is by beginning to bring them home,” Mrs. Clinton said, receiving respectful, yet tepid applause during an address to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
When Mr. McCain presented an opposing view, saying the troop buildup in Iraq needed time to succeed, the audience roared with approval.
“Even if I must stand athwart popular opinion,” Mr. McCain said, “I will attempt to convince as many of my countrymen as I can that we must show even greater patience, though our patience is nearly exhausted, and that as long as there is a prospect for not losing this war, then we must not choose to lose it.”
The Veterans of Foreign Wars invited four presidential hopefuls to its annual summer convention here, the first time candidates have appeared before the group. Senator Barack Obama and Fred D. Thompson are scheduled to address the assembly on Tuesday, followed by President Bush on Wednesday.
Joe Davis, a spokesman for the organization, said Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama were invited because they appeared to be the leading candidates on the Democratic side. Republicans Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney declined invitations months ago, Mr. Davis said, so Mr. McCain and Mr. Thompson were invited in their place…
During the part of her speech on Iraq, the downtown convention hall here was largely silent. Several times during the rest of her remarks, the applause was started by three young people in the middle of the room who were neither wearing the trademark blue VFW cap or convention name badges…
Mr. McCain, a forceful advocate of the Iraq strategy, offered an opposing view when he took the stage shortly after Mrs. Clinton. Pulling troops from Iraq, he said, would be “a mistake of colossal historical proportions.”
“As we all know, the war in Iraq has not gone well, and the American people have grown sick and tired of it,” said Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican. “I understand that, of course. I, too, have been made sick at heart by the many mistakes made by civilian and military commanders and the terrible price we have paid for them.
“But we cannot react to these mistakes,” he added, “by embracing a course of action that will be an even greater mistake.”
You can read the full text of the original article here. You can contact The Tower at tower@campaignia.org.