Candidates debate world affairs, bailout

Each let loose with a zinger toward his opponent.

McClatchy Newspapers

OXFORD, Miss. — John McCain and Barack Obama clashed over Iraq, Iran and world affairs in the first of three critical debates Friday, and they also sparred over the economy as the Wall Street crisis pushed its way onto the agenda.

McCain repeatedly suggested that Obama was naive and didn’t understand the world’s complexities. Obama repeatedly challenged McCain’s judgment on policies he’d supported.

Each man got off at least one zinger:

“John mentioned me being wildly liberal — mostly that’s just me opposing George Bush’s policies,” Obama said at one point.

“I’m afraid Senator Obama doesn’t understand the difference between a tactic and a strategy,” McCain said at another.

The two men offered sharply different views of Iraq — Obama insisted his early opposition signaled his superior judgment for future decisions, while McCain stressed that his push for a surge of extra troops showed that he knows how to win.

They also differed on how to handle Iran. McCain criticized Obama’s willingness to talk without preconditions to leaders of Iran or any other renegade country and Obama insisted that refusing to talk to adversaries doesn’t punish them and hasn’t worked.

The two men were supposed to spend the 90-minute debate entirely on foreign affairs and national security, leaving the economy and domestic issues to the second and third debates scheduled for October.

But with financial markets in turmoil and the government locked in high profile talks about a $700 billion bailout, the two major party candidates found themselves differing over the proposed bailout, how it might force either of them to change their plans as president, and how their tax plans might help or hurt a struggling economy.

McCain lauded the fact that Democrats and Republicans were working together on a bailout plan and predicted they would reach agreement.

“As we’re here, we are seeing for the first time in a long time, Republicans and Democrats sitting down together,” McCain said. “This isn’t the beginning of the end of this crisis. This is the end of the beginning,” he said.

“We haven’t seen the language yet,” Obama said, but added, “I am optimistic about the capacity of us to come together.” He blamed years of Republican faith in deregulation for helping to cause the crisis.

Both men were pressed to tell voters how the costs of the Wall Street bailout might force the next president to curtail or change plans laid out in campaign promises.

“There are a range of things that are probably going to have to be delayed,” Obama said, but he failed to specify which of his proposals he’d postpone.