Mark the date: the air wars of the 2008 presidential election began on Friday, July 18th:
Most of these are tried-and-true McCain talking points, packaged into a patriotic theme, but the first slam, namely the claim that Obama hasn’t held a single hearing during his time as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Europe (which handles oversight over NATO relations and thus the mission in Afghanistan) deserves more comment. This fact was, weirdly enough, first dug up by progressive foreign policy expert Steve Clemons and, while true, it doesn’t do justice to Obama’s Senate record.
Obama's tenure as chairman began with the Democratic takeover of Congress in January 2007, around the same time he began running for president. Suffice it to say, he was a little preoccupied. More importantly, though, Obama has been defended on this issue by the chairman of the full Senate Foreign Relations committee, Joe Biden. Biden pointed out, in a letter to the subcommittee’s ranking member, Jim DeMint, that he has dealt with Afghanistan at the full committee level, holding three hearings . He also noted that Obama ran the confirmation hearing for the ambassador to NATO, a hearing of critical importance to the Afghanistan mission. So while McCain’s allegation is technically true, Obama has been far from absent on this issue, and it’s misleading for McCain to imply that he has.
—Dylan Matthews
