GMA asks Cindy McCain: Would you feel 'safe' with President Obama? David Edwards and Nick Juliano

Published: Thursday June 19, 2008



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Print This Email This A Good Morning America interview with Cindy McCain Thursday featured questions that could have been hand-crafted by the Republican National Committee. Interviewer Kate Snow seemed determined to undercut Barack Obama's national security credentials and his wife's patriotism. "Would you feel safe with Barack Obama as your president?" Snow asked. Now, it's difficult to imagine Michelle Obama facing the same question about the Republican presidential nominee, despite the fact that it's John McCain who has joked about bombing another country and is callous about the prospect of occupying Iraq indefinitely. To her credit, Cindy McCain didn't unleash the kind of partisan vitriol that might have come from another of her husband's surrogates (Giuliani perhaps). At the same time though, she stayed off the high road and didn't outright answer in the affirmative. "I would feel safe with my husband as president," she said. "I think Barack Obama is a fine man. I think Michelle Obama is a fine woman. This is about who would better, and I think my husband would be better." Moving on, Snow revisited the right-wing's all-time favorite Michelle Obama gaffe. "Were you insulted when Michelle Obama said she's proud of her country for the first time?" Snow asked, replaying video from the infamous Wisconsin appearance, without noting that the quote was from February nor any of Michelle Obama's subsequent explanations of what she meant. While even first lady Laura Bush was willing to acknowledge that Obama probably just misspoke, here Cindy McCain was less gracious. As she did four months ago, McCain again went after her Democratic counterpart. "Everyone has their own experience; I don't know why she said what she said," McCain told Snow. "All I know is that I've always been proud of my country." The Good Morning America interview was recorded Wednesday, a day after Obama said he was disappointed in John McCain's refusal to condemn attacks on his spouse. Instead of declaring the candidates' wives off limits, the McCain campaign falsely accused the Democratic party of attacking Cindy, then sent Cindy out to attack Michelle. (In damage-control mode, Cindy insisted to CNN that her Good Morning America interview was not a planned political attack.) Of course, if the media keep rehashing the same four-month-old quote all the way to November, the McCain campaign won't need much help making Michelle Obama look bad. This video is from ABC's Good Morning American, broadcast June 19, 2008.

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