Obama Welcomes McCain's Support on Withdrawal Plan

Now that Obama’s trip overseas is just about over (in fact, he may be on his way back stateside as we speak), he is obviously feeling a little free to engage McCain on his silly statements. To that end, he decided to take McCain on based on his seeming agreement with Obama and al-Maliki’s 16 month withdrawal plan.

Story:

In terms of his comment about — that maybe 16 months sounds good — we are pleased to see that there has been some convergence around proposals that we’ve been making for a year and a half. The fact that John McCain now thinks that we should put more troops into Afghanistan I think is a good thing and that the Bush administration acknowledges that as well.

…. The fact that John McCain now thinks that it’s possible for us to execute a phased withdrawal — I think that’s a positive thing and if the administration believes that as well, then I will, I will be fully supportive.

He also takes a (well-deserved) shot at the GOP and McCain for goading him into taking this trip:

It’s hard for me to understand Sen. McCain’s argument. He was telling me I was supposed to take this trip. He suggested it, thought it was a good idea. Although I gotta admit we had it planned before he made the suggestion. Uh, John McCain has visited every one of these countries post primary that I have. He has given speeches in Canada, in Colombia, Mexico he made visits. And so it doesn’t strike me that we’ve done anything different than the McCain campaign has done which is to recognize that part of the job of the next president and commander in chief is to forge effective relationships with our allies.

More of this next week, please.

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