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Republican candidate McCain and his Democratic rival Obama standing onstage after their first U.S. pres. debate in Oxford, Mississippi. (Reuters)
Last update - 13:24 28/09/2008
In first debate, McCain and Obama go head to head on Iran policy, Iraq war
By Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz U.S. Correspondent, and The Associated Press
Tags: U.S. presidential election 

The two U.S. presidential candidates went head to head for the first time in a debate in Mississippi on Friday night. The most interesting moments of the evening came when the debate turned to Iran, its nuclear ambition and threats to Israel.

While John McCain began by mispronouncing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's name (although to be fair, Barack Obama did call his rival "Tom"), he laid into his opponent's proposal to enter into a dialogue with the Iranian leadership. "It isn't only naive, it's dangerous," he said. He said that Iran in possession of a nuclear bomb would pose an existential threat to Israel.

The Republican candidate claimed that Obama's definition of negotiations would mean that, "We're going to sit down, without precondition, across the table, to legitimize and give a propaganda platform to a person that is espousing the extermination of the State of Israel, and therefore then giving them more credence in the world arena."
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Obama was forced to explain that when he said "without precondition," he didn't mean "without preparations," but "exploring contacts" with the Islamic Republic, starting with low-level diplomatic talks.

Obama added that the policy of simply cutting off talks did not work, citing the example of North Korea: "You know what happened? They went - they quadrupled their nuclear capacity... And they sent nuclear secrets, potentially, to countries like Syria."

McCain's volley in response was delivered in the third person: "What Senator Obama doesn't seem to understand that if without precondition you sit down across the table from someone who has called Israel a 'stinking corpse,' and wants to destroy that country and wipe it off the map, you legitimize those comments."

A lengthy dispute ensued as Obama argued that even McCain's advisor, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger said the U.S. should speak to Iran - a debate on commentary, on what Kissinger actually meant.

The Republican candidate stressed that he would not allow a "second Holocaust" to take place, referring to Ahmadinejad's repeated threats against Israel, including his remark that Israel should be "wiped off the map."

He added that "Iran has a lousy government and therefore its economy is lousy," suggesting that tough economic sanctions were the best way to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons. He said that the U.S. and other democracies should act together in order to affect Iran's behavior in the future.

Obama agreed with McCain that a nuclear Iran would be a "gamechanger" and urged tougher sanctions over its nuclear program. But he also defended his call for diplomacy.

"We also have to engage in tough, direct diplomacy with Iran," Obama said, adding he would reserve the right as president "to meet with anybody at a time and place of my choosing if I think it's going to keep America safe."

When asked about the war in Iraq, Obama questioned McCain's judgment for having voted to go to war in the first place.

Obama acknowledged the situation had improved but said the Iraq war was distracting the U.S. military from going after terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, who was hiding along the Afghan-Pakistani border.

The first part of the debate involved lengthy discussion on differences between each candidate's respective tax plans, unsurprising given the ongoing efforts to rescue the crippled American economy.

The debate at Mississippi University went ahead after McCain backtracked on his original decision to postpone until a deal had been reached on the government proposed $700 billion rescue package for economy. Obama had rejected McCain's call for a debate delay, saying that now more than ever was the time for Americans to hear from its leadership.

McCain suggested a spending freeze on all federal government programs but defense, veterans affairs and entitlements such as Social Security pension payments and Medicare insurance for the elderly.

Obama said such a move would be like using a hatchet on an ailing patient, the stumbling American economy, when the surgeon needed to be using a scalpel.

Both candidates' supporters invested heavily in the creative organization of debate events - holding them in pubs, someone's living room or the town election campaign headquarters. Some people simply watched it at home with friends and neighbors; others posted announcements on the Internet offering to host whoever came along, including members of the rival camp - so they also would have someone to argue with.

In the end, for all their avid interest in the spectacle, viewers were not granted the thing they most looked forward to: The high point of an elegant and stinging remark, or a particularly humiliating slip of the tongue. Both candidates displayed restraint, even if McCain was patronizing in his oft-repeated claim that Obama didn't "quite understand" key issues of foreign policy, which resulted in one of the most monotonous presidential debates in history.


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      1.   Whom Won The Debate ? 06:56  |  Joseph.E 27/09/08
      2.   #1 Nostradamus must save GOP 07:15  |  Mark B. 27/09/08
      3.   Obama vs. McCain 07:24  |  David 27/09/08
      4.   Who won the debate? 07:58  |  Puregoldj 27/09/08
      5.   McCain: Hoplessly out of touch and out of date 08:21  |  Natallie Durson 27/09/08
      6.   Who won the debate 08:33  |  beverly 27/09/08
      7.   Peace Or Victory 08:37  |  Nite Owl 27/09/08
      8.   Joseph.E 08:57  |  Chet 27/09/08
      9.   A dangerous thing, an elderly gentleman chasing his youth. 09:20  |  Maureen Ann 27/09/08
      10.   call for dialogue with Syria is `dangerous` 09:27  |  Joseph.E 27/09/08
      11.   We Shouldn`t Call Israeli Politicians `Comedians` 09:32  |  Joseph.E 27/09/08
      12.   NOT CONVINCED 09:54  |  Mark of Lewiston 27/09/08
      13.   # 4 Chet 09:54  |  Joseph.E 27/09/08
      14.   The debate has clearly shown why McCain would be so dangerous.... 09:56  |  Swiss (Dino) 27/09/08
      15.   Undecided Voters 10:05  |  Mark of Lewiston 27/09/08
      16.   Mc Cain won!!! 10:09  |  US CITIZEN 27/09/08
      17.   SLANTED reporting Haaretz 11:09  |  Samy 27/09/08
      18.   McCain - `the elder one" ......any day 11:20  |  Dagma 27/09/08
      19.   BUT ... the Americans want Change..... 11:29  |  The Threadmill 27/09/08
      20.   What convinces? 11:30  |  Richard Witty 27/09/08
      21.   An Israeli Live Blogging the Presidential Debate 11:34  |  Benji 27/09/08
      22.   By the way, not that Obama was convincing last night..... 12:39  |  Swiss (Dino) 27/09/08
      23.   McCain`s philosophy: Only talk to your friends, never your foes 12:49  |  Clickfool 27/09/08
      24.   For US Citizen, on McCain`s "victory" # 9 12:52  |  Clickfool 27/09/08
      25.   For US Citizen again # 9 12:54  |  Clickfool 27/09/08
      26.   McCain-Obama 13:31  |  Nora 27/09/08
      27.   Fox News 14:39  |  marc 27/09/08
      28.   #4 Chet........ which goes to show you why 14:40  |  Lynn 27/09/08
      29.   7Dino sees aybody on the right as an enemy 14:52  |  I 27/09/08
      30.   Swiss....since Obama backs giving 700 billion 14:55  |  Lynn 27/09/08
      31.   dialogue with Iran is `dangerous` 14:56  |  fibonacci 27/09/08
      32.   dialogue is never DANGEROUS! 15:31  |  Tom Lobo Meyer 27/09/08
      33.   mccain fear tatics 15:33  |  sam i am 27/09/08
      34.   #5 Mark of Lewiston....my suggestion is to 15:34  |  Lynn 27/09/08
      35.   #13 Richard Witty...as an American citizen 16:00  |  Lynn 27/09/08
      36.   Negotiations have been going on with iran for 5 yrs 16:12  |  Arie 27/09/08
      37.   # 21 I Are you sure....???? 16:25  |  Swiss (Dino) 27/09/08
      38.   # 22 Lynn 16:32  |  Swiss (Dino) 27/09/08
      39.   McPresident Sock Puppet 17:22  |  Mike 27/09/08
      40.   #27 on war and misery..... 17:43  |  Lynn 27/09/08
      41.   #28 sam i am....so, do you think your scare tactics 17:46  |  Lynn 27/09/08
      42.   #4 And yet it was the young man who agreed with the elder 8 times 17:58  |  Michelle Nobama 27/09/08
      43.   Mark of Lewiston on the issue of the new cold war 18:00  |  Mark B. 27/09/08
      44.   Clickfool now knows what America thinks, I don`t think so 18:06  |  Kipperraes 27/09/08
      45.   A Fading Hero 18:27  |  David 27/09/08
      46.   34 Lynn - Subprime Debacle 19:59  |  Mark of Lewiston 27/09/08
      47.   43 Mark B - They`re both in Fantasyland 20:19  |  Mark of Lewiston 27/09/08
      48.   Debate 20:19  |  American 27/09/08
      49.   37 Dino, Contempt for Obama`s words is no Enmity 20:47  |  I 27/09/08
      50.   45 David It was Obama who was caught misquoting 20:56  |  I 27/09/08
      51.   #28 Lynn 21:00  |  Chet 27/09/08
      52.   Lynn 21:03  |  Chet 27/09/08
      53.   The bailout 21:09  |  Chet 27/09/08
      54.   #43 Mark B...has there been a compromise with Iran 22:04  |  Lynn 27/09/08
      55.   For David on McCain and the ultimate sock puppet # 45 22:07  |  Clickfool 27/09/08
      56.   #49 Chet ...as long as our idiotic Congress 00:34  |  Lynn 28/09/08
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      58.   May another 40 years Obama will not have McCain experience 04:53  |  e.m Jordan is Palse 28/09/08
      59.   iran to attack israel 09:01  |  someone 28/09/08
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