The Trail

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

ATTACK ON OBAMA POLICY

McCain Team Seizes On Syria Strike

John McCain's campaign said Monday that the successful U.S. strike against a terrorist target in Syria would not have happened if Barack Obama had been president.

In a sharply worded e-mail, McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb said: "If Barack Obama had his way, U.S. forces would not have been in a position to launch this strike. So does Barack Obama support this action -- an action that would not even have been possible if his policies had been implemented?"

The U.S. military reported killing or wounding a terrorist leader and killing several other men near Syria's border with Iraq on Sunday.

McCain's statement also raised again Obama's willingness to meet with adversarial foreign leaders and the decision of one of Obama's foreign policy advisers to travel to Syria for meetings with its government.

In the statement, Goldfarb said: "Barack Obama has pledged to meet personally and unconditionally with Syria's leaders during his first year in office. While John McCain has been demanding that Syria do more to crack down on terrorists moving from its territory into Iraq, Barack Obama allowed one of his closest foreign policy advisers to travel to Syria for discussions with the leaders of that rogue regime."

The Obama campaign said that adviser, Daniel Kurtzer, President Bush's former ambassador to Israel, did not represent the Democrat on that trip. It also noted that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met in New York last month with Syria's foreign minister, a meeting that, according to Syrian state media, was requested by Rice.

-- Michael D. Shear

PRAIRIE BATTLEGROUND

Republicans to Start Advertising in Montana

The Republican National Committee will begin running television ads in Montana beginning on Wednesday, a sign of how heavily the playing field is tilted against the GOP with just eight days left in the presidential campaign.

Montana has been a Republican stronghold for years at the presidential level. President Bush carried it with 59 percent in 2004 and 58 percent four years earlier. Bill Clinton carried Montana when he first ran for president in 1992 -- but that was a year when Ross Perot took 26 percent of the vote.

Barack Obama has been advertising steadily in Montana for the past few months, and John McCain and the RNC had seemed content to let the Illinois senator have the airwaves to himself.

But recent polling shows that Obama is well within range of McCain -- perhaps prompting the RNC's decision to begin advertising.

-- Chris Cillizza

BILINGUAL APPEAL

Obama's Half-Hour Ad To Air in Spanish, Too

Barack Obama's campaign will air a Spanish-language version of its 30-minute infomercial Wednesday night on Univision, the highest-rated Spanish-language television network in the United States.

"Barack Obama: Historias Americanas," or "Barack Obama: American Stories," will air at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time (7 p.m. Central and Mountain time), the same time the English-language version airs on CBS, Fox and NBC.

Miami Mayor Manny Diaz (D) announced the arrangement in a conference call with reporters. "The ad is going to highlight real American stories from across the nation," Diaz said. "This ad buy is historical. The fact that it will air on Univision is testament to the campaign's outreach to the Hispanic community."

The campaign also announced that it will continue to air three Spanish-language ads through Election Day: an ad about the senator's education proposals, called "Oportunidad," which is already on the air; an ad called "Por Encima," which delivers Obama's "closing arguments" and desire to "rise above" attacks made by Republicans and the McCain campaign; and a two-minute direct-to-camera message delivered by Obama in Spanish only, a first for any presidential candidate.

That ad, "Sueño Americano," or "American Dream," is aimed at voters in Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico and Virginia, the first time the campaign will air Spanish-language television advertising targeting Old Dominion Latinos. The ads will air in the D.C. market, which includes Northern Virginia.

In response to the direct-to-camera ad, the McCain campaign issued a statement by Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.): "This election is about more than beautiful words, it's about who decides how your money is spent, who chooses your doctor, and our standing around the world."

-- Ed O'Keefe