During the second presidential debate on Tuesday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) attempted to criticize Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and his comments on his approach to Pakistan. After Obama provided his answer, McCain countered by saying "He said he wants to announce that he's going to attack Pakistan. Remarkable. You know, if you are a country and you're trying to gain the support of another country, then you want to do everything you can that they would act in a cooperative fashion."
Obama's actual comments from just seconds before were as follows: "We're going to encourage democracy in Pakistan, expand our non-military aid to Pakistan so that they have more of a stake in working with us but insisting that they go after these militants. And if we have Osama bin Laden in our sights and the Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out, then I think that we have to act and we will take them out." McCain was clearly making a stretch with his statement. However, it is not a stretch by stating that McCain's comments from a town hall meeting don't seem to be very cooperative. In that campaign appearance from all the way back in April 2007, McCain responded to a question about the Middle East: "That old, that old Beach Boys song, 'Bomb Iran'. Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb." During this week's debate, McCain defended his answer by claiming "I was joking with an old veteran friend, who joked with me about Iran". Really? The question was asked during a town hall meeting and, I'll be honest, the question doesn't really sound like a joke: "How many times do we have to prove that these people are blowing up people now, never mind if they get a nuclear weapon. When do we send them an airmail message to Tehran?"
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