While introducing John McCain at a campaign event in Pennsylvania, Joseph Lieberman said "John McCain, who has always put the country first, worked across party lines to get things done, and one candidate who has not."
Joseph Lieberman is a former Democrat that is now a sitting Independent Senator from Connecticut and has formally endorsed John McCain. Lieberman caucuses with the Democrats almost all domestic issues but votes with Republicans on the majority of national security issues.
Video of Lieberman's remarks at YouTube here and shown below:
More of Lieberman's statement was sent out by the McCain campaign, via email: (this portion starts at approximately the 2 minute mark in the video above)
"I think it's 84 days from now that the people of America are going to choose their next president. And it's a big choice, because we know these are tough times at home economically, and dangerous times in the world. And in my opinion, the choice could not be more clear; between one candidate, John McCain, who has experience and has been tested in war and tried in peace, and another candidate that has not. Between one candidate, John McCain, who has always put his country first, worked across party lines to get things done, and one candidate that has not. Between one candidate that's a talker and one candidate who's the leader America needs as our next president. You never know -- we never know what crisis will occur in the four years of his watch; we've just seen over the last few days, as the Russians invaded a sovereign nation, Georgia. And watch the response of this man, John McCain, to that crisis: right, strong, clear, principled. The kind of president we need in the White House over the next four years, to protect our country, our security, and our freedom ..."
The portion that has many on the left side of the blogosphere criticizing Joseph Lieberman and claiming he is "smearing" Barack Obama is where he said, "Between one candidate, John McCain, who has always put his country first, worked across party lines to get things done, and one candidate that has not."
Some across the web are pointing out that he could have been speaking to the history that McCain has of reaching across the aisle which was part of that particular sentence, but Obama supporters as well as media blogs are using the "put his country first" remark in their headlines and focusing on that.
Lieberman finished his speech, but part of his introduction had him saying saying "It’s great to be here with Rocky McCain", and when McCain took the stage he went on to speak to the crowd telling them about his recent phone conversations with the president of Georgia, whom he has known for years and calls "Misha" Saakashvili, telling the president that McCain's and America's support is with him by saying "today we are all Georgians".
Despite Obama supporters howling at the moon over Lieberman's words, they are not a smear, a smear is a lie and it is totally truthful and appropriate to put out that McCain has been tried and true in his support for America, in his patriotism and in his efforts to reach across the aisle and work with Democrats..... Obama has not.
Lieberman is spot on and the reactions from the Obamabots and Obama bloggers, shows exactly how much truth is in Lieberman's comment.
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