(CNN) - John McCain's campaign is crying foul over what it characterizes as repeated distortions from Barack Obama, saying on Friday the Illinois senator is "recklessly dishonest."
The most recent dustup comes after Obama criticized McCain earlier Friday for comments the Arizona senator made in an interview on Bloomberg Television.
"John McCain went on television and said that there has been quote "great progress economically over the last seven and a half years," Obama told a Pennsylvania crowd. "John McCain thinks our economy has made great progress under George W. Bush. Now, how could somebody who has been traveling across this country, somebody who came to Erie, PA, say we've made great progress?”
The McCain campaign immediately took issue with the comment, noting the Arizona senator also said he knows families are facing "tremendous economic challenges."
“American families are hurting and Barack Obama is being recklessly dishonest," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said. "It is clear that Barack Obama is intentionally twisting John McCain’s words completely out of context. Obama is guilty of deliberately distorting John McCain’s comments for pure political gain, which is exactly what Senator Obama was complaining about just yesterday."
The McCain campaign has long argued Obama has a habit of twisting the presumptive Republican nominee's words. Referencing McCain's comments earlier this year when he said he'd be okay with some troop presence in Iraq for 100 years, Obama has said the Arizona senator "wants to continue a war in Iraq perhaps as long as 100 years."
The non-partisan factcheck.org later called that characterization a "rank falsehood."
Obama has since dialed back from that characterization, saying Friday that McCain is "willing to potentially maintain the troop presence there for as long as 100 years."
From CNN Politics
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McSain is being pathetic ... Obama just repeated what the AZ Senator had said. McSame is scticking to the Bush policies so he can gain the support of the core group of the republican party, the conservatives.
McCain,
You're old.
mCnuts Leave Our Country Alone.
Enough of the Same.
I Can Not Believe mCbush Collects Social Security.
they worth more than $100 million...
===Campaign instructions to Cindy:
1.Smile
2.Wave
3.Remain silent
4.Take your medicine
"great progress economically over the last seven and a half years,"
So please Mr. McCain, tell us what that means then. Even without Obama's comments, I derived the same message from those words.
Recklessly honest? Hmmm...
Does that mean that it's "safe" to lie to the American people? It is better to withhold information from the people? Are we to believe that the truth will somehow harm us?
Yep... That's the same old politics!
this felt like a punch from an 80 year old man :/
is that all you got, mccain? pop some geritol and try again
but as long as we're clarifying, which is it?
have we made great progress economically over the last seven and a half years? or do we facetremendous economic challenges?
which?
i'll step out on a limb and have the "audicity" to presume that you know what you're talking about.
OBAMA is right... Mccain is so rich that he cant even see how bad the economy is... MCCAIN said it...
OBAMA 08
I guess McCain and Hillary are really one big happy family!! But guess what, Obama is going to beat all of the four candidates: McCain, Bill, Chelsea, and the notty Hillary.
I must confess that I trully wouldnt mind if McCain or Obama won the Presidency, but not the LIER HILLARY.
McCain – Obama, America needs you! Good luck to both yo'll.
Thank you McCain! Im tired of Obama playing victim, when him and his campaign are exactly doing what they state they are against. Actions speak louder than words.
Just once I would like to see Senator McCain attack Hillary Clinton the way he does Barack Obama.
Oh yes I forgot he would never do that they are cronies!
Senator McCain would you like to discuss what you and Clinton were saying in your "private meeting" after the Colbert show? And where are your wife's tax returns? Every citizen does have a right to privacy – until their spouse is about to become THE LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD
Cindy McCain will be in the White House if John McCain were to win. Clinton and Obama have released their families' returns. Why is Cindy McCain so special? Could it be that Johnny boy doesn't want us to realize what a hippocryte he was for calling Obama an elitist when he cheated on his first wife with his second, younger, FILTHY RICH heiress wife??
John McCain you are a phony. No wonder Bush endorsed you McSame!!
Obama in 2008!!
STOP WHINING! THE JOHN MCCAN'T CAMPAIGN WERE THE FIRST TO JUMP ON OBAMA WITH THAT "ELITEST" AND "OUT OF TOUCH" CRAP!
ADDITIONALLY, CINDY IS OUT ON THE CAMPAIGN STUMP YELLING ABOUT "HOW PATRIOTIC SHE IS" ALL THE WHILE USING FAKE RECIPES AND NOT TAKING RESPONSIBILITY AND FAILING TO DISCLOSE HER TAX RETURN!
YOU REPUBLICANS WERE THE FIRST TO ASK FOR BILL CLINTON'S TAX RETURN AND A LIST OF DONORS TO HIS PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND PLANTED SEEDS ABOUT MICHELE OBAMA'S PATRIOTISM!
IF IT MATTERS FOR BILL AND MICHELE - IT MATTERS FOR CINDY! THIS CRAP ABOUT HER CHILDREN ARE AN INSULT - BOTH OTHER CANDIDATES HAVE CHILDREN TOO!!!
McCain does nothing wrong..just ask him and his campaign. John McCain is the weakest republican to run in ages. Either dem will eat his lunch. His camp especially fears Obama because he will draw in new people in waves and many republicans that don't like McCain will sit this one out.
After admitting that there has been economic progress over the last 8 years, McCain went on to say "But that's no comfort. That's not comfort to families now that are facing these tremendous economic challenges".
Why did Obama selectively ignore this part when he decided to attach McCain?
McSame is correct, the last 7+ years have been booming for a privileged few....
All the candidates should stop paraphrasing each other. They should only quote each other in proper context and then explain and stand by their explanations if they misspoke. Its all a game and everyone is sick of it....we just want to know who stands for what and what they will be trying to accomplish when in office. Obvioulsy, they have to act according to the situation existing at the time the issue arises and work with the congress and the rest of the institutions so we know they cant do exactly what they hope to. We just want a general idea of what they stand for and if they can be trusted to try and accomplish it. All the rest is pointless focus on details that will change.
MCAIN IS TWISTING GEORGE BUSHS RECORD ON EVERYTHING.THE WAR.THE ECONOMY....
Can McCain even remember himself what was said? That is without Liebermann at his side to give him the correct answers.
so let me get this straight... McCain can twist Obama's words and call him him elistist for the whole week, but if Obama uses McCain's words, thats foul play?
Only in McCain's world that argument makes any sense.
But Obama doesn't even want to have a "presence" there for 100 years. He wants all the troops home and that's the difference. So I disagree. Obama is not lying about what McCain said. McCain is the one who is trying to renege on that hideous statement. He's just mad because Obama is picking up on it.
I don't see any context at all in which "there has been great progress economically" is a rational, viable statement. John McSame is an idiot.
Anyone willing to continue George Bush failed policies would be crazy. It will be much more crazy to vote for anyone who wants to continue the failed policies of the last seven years.
John McCain did say he would be OK with having troops in Iraq for 100 years if necessary, I heard him.
If John McCain does not want to be criticised for saying something, then best not to say it in the first place. It's easy to keep blaming Obama. But Barack Obama is simplyy being intelligent and quick enough to pick up on some of the truly absurd and out-of-touch comments John McCain says.
I have become profoundly disenchanted with B.O. As soon as he discovered that he is not above scrutiny, he became exactly what I had so naively believed he wasn't....a politician in every sense of the word.
How the heck have we made progress economically? If McCain's ever picked up an econ textbook he'd know all these tax cuts, spending, and deficit would lead to a recession and an even weaker dollar