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McCain Says He Can Best Handle Crisis
By LIBBY QUAID
Associated Press
March 4, 2008
PHOENIX (AP) -- Republican Sen. John McCain said Monday he's the best prepared to deal with a dead of night national emergency, not his Democratic rivals. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have argued in recent days over who would exercise superior judgment in the case of such a crisis.
''It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. But there's a phone in the White House, and it's ringing,'' Clinton's ad begins.
McCain, a four-term senator from Arizona, said he is the most experienced and qualified to respond in that situation.
''I would believe that my knowledge and experience and background clearly indicates that if the phone rang at 3 a.m. in the White House, and I was the one to answer it, I would be the one most qualified to exercise the kind of judgment necessary to address a national security crisis,'' McCain told reporters Monday in Phoenix.
He opened a news conference in an airplane hangar by reeling off international events that concern him, including the Russian election of Vladimir Putin's hand-picked successor, several days of bombing in the Gaza Strip and increased tensions among Venezuela, Ecuador and Columbia.
''I've been involved in every major national security challenge for the last 20 years that has faced this country,'' McCain said. ''I look forward to having that debate as to who's most qualified in the event of a national crisis and the phone ringing at 3 a.m. in the White House.''
Asked what ''3 a.m. moments'' he has experienced, McCain mentioned sitting in the cockpit of a Navy aircraft on a carrier during the Cuban missile crisis and being ''ready to be on the point of the spear.'' He also cited his support for the troop surge in the unpopular Iraq war, a strategy President Bush later adopted.
Clinton started running the ad, a foreboding spot that plays on voter fears and uncertainties, in Texas, one of the states where she and Obama are battling in Tuesday's primary elections. ''It's 3 a.m. and your children are safely asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?'' the ad concludes.
Obama retorted that Clinton had her ''red phone moment'' when she voted to authorize the Iraq war. Then he parodied her ad with one of his own.
McCain, the Republican nominee-in-waiting, is hoping to collect enough delegates on Tuesday to officially clinch the nomination.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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