Published: August 28, 2008 02:00 am            

Jay: McCain’s refusal to change course reckless

FAIRMONT — Charging U.S. Sen. John McCain with seeing the world “through Cold War glasses,” U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller said Sen. Barack Obama is “exactly the strong, steady hand that America needs” as president.

Obama understands “that our nation is strongest abroad when we are strongest here at home,” Rockefeller said in a Wednesday evening speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

McCain has served the country with honor, he said.

“But his refusal to change course — his refusal to offer a plan to get us out of Iraq — even in the face of the failed policies of Bush-Cheney — is reckless, and will not keep us safe,” Rockefeller said.

The chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence since last year, Rockefeller said terrorist threats against the nation are “real and growing.”

“I have seen the intelligence up close,” he said. The nation has determined enemies.

The next president must handle nuclear proliferation in Iran, “terrorist sleeper cells, suicide bombers, cyber-attacks and bioterrorism.”

Obama offers a “smart, tough, 21st century approach to national security,” Rockefeller said.

The nation cannot afford “even one more day” of ideological decision-making, the politicizing of intelligence and bungled diplomacy, he said.

Earlier Wednesday, Rockefeller said he believes Obama can catch McCain in West Virginia by the Nov. 4 general election.

For most of the summer, the Illinois senator who accepts the party’s nomination tonight has been trailing McCain by seven to eight percentage points in the state, Rockefeller said.

While the gap has remained stable, Obama may be able to overtake McCain with a concerted push, he said. A Rockefeller campaign staffer in Charleston later cited a June 6 Rasmussen Reports telephone poll that had McCain leading Obama, 45-37.

Rockefeller, 71, is seeking re-election to a fifth term in the Senate. He will be one of the speakers at a free Labor Day Picnic in Mannington on Sunday. The picnic is sponsored by the Marion County Democratic Party, the Marion County AFL-CIO and the United Mine Workers of America.

He hopes Obama or U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, the party’s vice presidential candidate, will attend the state party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner on Sept. 20, Rockefeller said.

Despite the possibility of lingering hard feelings among supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton, the party will be united behind Obama, Rockefeller told state reporters in a telephone press conference.

“I’ve been to every Democratic convention since 1972, and I’ve never heard such a hunger for unity,” among the party’s leaders and officeholders, he said.

Sen. Clinton’s speech Tuesday night was “wonderful,” he said, adding he could see the rift between her campaign and the Obama camp healing during the convention.

E-mail Bill Byrd at bbyrd@timeswv.com.

        

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