Q from Brokaw: Have we lost in Afghanistan? Acceptable dictator?
Obama: Have to get out of Iraq to put more resources into Afghanistan. Karzai has to be more responsive to his people.
McCain: Obama was wrong about the surge in Iraq.
Internet Q to McCain: How can we pressure Russia on human rights without starting another Cold War?
McC: We’re not going to have another Cold War. I warned against Putin: KGB.
Obama: All of Russia’s neighbor need our support. I warned about Georgia before it happened. Got to forsee problems.
Brokaw: Evil Empire? Obama: Waffle. McCain. Won’t answer.
Q to McC from audience: if Iran attacked Israel, should we wait for the Security Council, or intervene?
McC: Don’t wait. Obama wants to negotiate without preconditions. [Yawn.]
Obama: Can’t let the UN have a veto. But the problem is how not to get to that point. Yes, we should talk to our adversaries as well as our friends. Don’t change your behavior and face consequences; change it and join the community of nations. Bush not talking to N. Korea and Iran didn’t work.
Internet question: What don’t you know and how will you learn it?
O: My wife knows what I don’t know, and usually I find out by asking her. It’s always our unexpected challenges that consume us. Then goes into bio: too bad, as he could have given a good answer to this one. Are we going to pass on the American dream to the next generation?
McC: What I don’t know is what’s going to happen. Goes into his bio. I know what it’s like. That’s what America is all about.
McCain stays to shake hands for a while then leaves, with Obama still shaking hands, signing autographs, and posing for pictures for several more minutes.
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I think this was a decent-sized Obama win, though McCain didn’t decompensate as I’d hoped. But it was no worse than a wash, and a wash was all Obama really needed.
