Sen. Joe Lieberman addresses a conservative town hall gathering on behalf of Republican nominee John McCaine Thursday evening at La Centre Conference and Banquet Facility. (West Life photo by Kevin Kelley)

Lieberman: McCain's experience,
policies make him the better candidate
By Kevin Kelley
Westlake
WEB EXCLUSIVE
Web Published Oct. 30, 2008

Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, Al Gore’s running mate in the Democratic ticket’s losing 2000 campaign, said Sen. John McCain has the superior record in this year’s historic presidential race.

Lieberman, who won re-election to the Senate in 2006 as an “independent Democrat” after losing the Democratic Party primary, spoke at a gathering of several hundred conservatives Wednesday night at La Centre Conference and Banquet Facility in Westlake. The event was sponsored by TownHall.com, a conservative Web site owned by Salem Communications.

The event was part of a multi-city tour by three of Salem’s conservative radio talk show hosts – Michael Medved, Dennis Prager and Hugh Hewitt. The three, who are heard locally on WHK 1420 AM, broadcast their daily shows from La Centre Wednesday afternoon and later spoke to the audience of the free rally.

In an interview with West Life, Lieberman said that his friendship with McCain, along with observing his character and qualities, has led him to support the Republican nominee.

“Based on working together with him, particularly working across party lines with Democrats like me, traveling around the world with him watching him relate to foreign leaders, I know he’s ready to be the president we need,” Lieberman told West Life.

McCain must absolutely win Ohio, Florida and Missouri to win the presidency, Lieberman said. “The polls are tightening in each of these three,” Lieberman said.

“He’s behind now. We’re not kidding ourselves,” he said. “And that’s why it’s so important that anybody out there that wants John McCain to be president come out next Tuesday and vote.”

Sen. Joe Lieberman

In his LaCentre speech, Lieberman said the American people will be hiring the next president while the nation is in the midst of a global war against terrorists, unprecedented partisanship in Washington, and a serious financial crisis.

McCain can guarantee that American remains safe and free for future generations, Lieberman said.

“John McCain understands that there’s good and evil in the world,” Lieberman.

The nation is involved in two wars – one in Iraq that it is winning and another in Afghanistan that probably is a stalemate, he said. McCain has much more experience than Obama and is ready to be commander in chief, Lieberman said.

Obama has no real experience making life-and-death decisions, Lieberman said. And he has been wrong on those decisions he has made while on the national scene, he said.

“Wrong on Iraq. Wrong on Iran. Wrong on Russia invading Georgia,” he said.

On the economy, Lieberman said that Obama will do what former President Herbert Hoover did in the 1930s – raise taxes and implement protectionist trade policies. Those policies will once again turn a recession into a depression, he said. In contrast, Lieberman said McCain wants to grow the economy by cutting taxes.

Lieberman noted that Barack Obama’s poll numbers began to rise as the nation’s financial crisis worsened.

“To me, it should have gone exactly the opposite way,” Lieberman said. “When your economy is in crisis or your country is in a war with Islamist terrorists who want to wipe out our civilization and kill us wantonly, then you would go to somebody who has been tested in crisis,” he said.

Partisanship has crippled Washington, D.C. in recent years, Lieberman said.

“Too often, Democrats are fighting Republicans, Republicans are fighting Democrats more than any of us are fighting for you, the American people,” he said.

While Obama presents himself as a unifying figure, his record does not back that up, Lieberman said.

“The fact is that there is no record of Sen. Obama really working across party lines to get anything significant done in Washington,” Lieberman said.

“The fact is that the program he’s running on, while he talks about change, is a fairly traditional Democratic program,” Lieberman said.

“John McCain is the real change agent here,” Lieberman continued. “His entire life is about reform. He has always been willing to work across party lines to get things done.”

Lieberman said it’s not unfair to ask about some of Obama’s associations, such as his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, or 1960s radical William Ayers.

“Any associations you have are fair for the people to ask about, particularly if you don’t have a long record,” he said.

“If you think of this as a job interview or a job selection, and you looked at the resumes, the records of John McCain on one side and Barack Obama on the other side, it’s a no-brainer who’s ready to be president of the United States,” Lieberman said. “It’s John McCain without question.”

On the Web:

• TownHall.com/WHK Web page about the event