McCain Sells War in "Tiny" ad Pulling Obama Words Out of Context

According to the Washington Post:

Sen. John McCain's campaign unveiled a new attack ad questioning Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) foreign policy credentials, which starts today on national cable, in Denver and in scattered markets throughout the country.

The ad, which takes selected phrases from remarks the presumptive Democratic nominee made on May 18 in Pendelton, Ore., implies that Obama doesn't take Iran seriously.

"Iran. Radical Islamic government. Known sponsors of terrorism," the narrator intones. "Developing nuclear capabilities to 'generate power' but threatening to eliminate Israel." "Obama says Iran is a 'tiny' country, 'doesn't pose a serious threat,'" he continues. "Terrorism, destroying Israel, those aren't 'serious threats'? Obama -- dangerously unprepared to be president."

The ad clearly takes what Obama was saying out of context, since the Democrat was not addressing Iran's policy on Israel or nuclear weapons when made the comments. Instead, he was defending his controversial proposal to personally meet with Iran's leaders, comparing the situation to how President Kennedy met with then-Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev during the height of the Cold War.

Obama said at the time, "I mean think about it. Iran, Cuba, Venezuela -- these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying we're going to wipe you off the planet."

Liberals are already criticizing the commercial as unfounded: Ilan Goldenberg, policy director of the National Security Network, posted a blog entry on his group's website noting that McCain has spoken of bombing Iran and taking a more confrontational approach to Russia.
"I think it's time to take the gloves off and paint McCain as the reckless and dangerous overeager warrior that he is," Goldenberg wrote.

The Obama campaign responded with a "a fact check of the false claims" in the ad.

Sadly, Obama doesn't counter with equally effective ads. His fact check of false claims video are boring and a weak response.