Public service forum

Public service forum

NEW YORK — Republican John McCain declined Thursday to disavow his campaign’s tough criticism of Democrat Barack Obama’s experience as a community organizer, saying politics is “tough business” even as he praised Obama’s service.

At a live, televised forum on public service timed to coincide with the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks, McCain said he respected Obama’s decision after law school to forgo a lucrative career path and become a community organizer in downtrodden Chicago.

“I respect people who serve their community,” McCain said. “And Sen. Obama’s record there is outstanding.”

Appearing after McCain, Obama said he was surprised by the belittling of the three years he spent working with Chicago churches after graduating from Columbia University, where the Service Nation Presidential Candidates Forum was held.

“No insult to the president of this fine institution, but it was the best education I ever had because it taught me that ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they’re given a chance and when they’re brought together,” Obama said. “That’s a message I think everyone should want to encourage, and I hope the Republicans want to encourage that as well.”

Palin’s first interview

FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska — John McCain running mate Sarah Palin sought Thursday to defend her qualifications but struggled with foreign policy, unable to describe President Bush’s doctrine of pre-emptive strikes against threatening nations and acknowledging she’s never met a foreign head of state.

The Republican vice presidential nominee told Charles Gibson of ABC News in her first televised interview since being named to the GOP ticket that “I’m ready” to be president if called upon. However, she sidestepped on whether she had the national security credentials needed to be commander in chief.

McCain has defended her qualifications, citing her command of the Alaska National Guard and Alaska’s proximity to Russia.

Asked whether those were sufficient credentials, Palin said: “It is about reform of government and it’s about putting government back on the side of the people, and that has much to do with foreign policy and national security issues.”

Obama meets with Clinton

NEW YORK — Barack Obama and former President Clinton talked for two hours Thursday, their first meeting in a White House race that had once bitterly divided them. Clinton predicted that Obama will win the presidency “pretty handily.”

Their conversation started with small talk about the former president’s commute to his Harlem office and ended after a lunch of sandwiches, flatbread pizza and salad from Cosi.

“They discussed the campaign briefly, but mostly talked about how the world has changed since September 11, 2001,” their spokesmen said in a joint statement. The meeting came on the seventh anniversary of the attacks and shortly before Obama was to visit ground zero with Republican presidential rival John McCain.

Palin sends son off to Iraq

FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin switched roles Thursday, shifting from Republican candidate for vice president to an anxious mom sending her son off to war in Iraq.

Her eldest son, Private 1st Class Track Palin, is being deployed with 4,000 soldiers of the Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division.

At a deployment ceremony on the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks, she spoke in her capacity as governor and not as a political candidate. She had been invited to speak long before GOP presidential candidate John McCain chose her as his running mate.

Associated Press