Reply #17: Kerry Criticizes McCain’s Use of Petraeus Photo [View All]

May 30, 2008, 5:21 pm

Kerry Criticizes McCain’s Use of Petraeus Photo

By Sarah Wheaton



Senator John McCain said it was wrong for his campaign to send out the above e-mail message, which
featured a picture of him and Gen. David Petraeus with a fund-raising pitch.

On the heels of a directive to soldiers from America’s top military official to stay out of politics, Senator John McCain acknowledged that his use of Gen. David H. Petraeus’s picture in a fund-raising pitch was not appropriate.

“It won’t happen again,” he vowed at a news conference this afternoon.

This morning, the Obama camp dispatched a statement from Senator John Kerry criticizing Mr. McCain’s use of a photo of the top commander in Iraq in a fund-raising pitch that went out to supporters via e-mail on Thursday.

“It’s deeply disappointing that Sen. McCain is using a picture of General Petraeus in uniform to raise money and launch negative attacks,” Mr. Kerry said in the statement.

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In the fund-raising appeal, Mr. McCain repeats a recent critique of Mr. Obama: “Something is wrong with your judgment when you want to sit down unconditionally with Raul Castro and Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but you don’t take the opportunity to sit down with General Petraeus and learn about the situation in Iraq firsthand.” Included in the e-mail message is a picture of Mr. McCain shaking hands with General Petraeus, which was taken in April as the commander of American forces in Iraq arrived to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

As Mr. Kerry points out, the appeal less than a week after Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, issued an open letter to people in uniform, saying that “The U.S. military must remain apolitical at all times and in all ways.”

“The McCain campaign did not ask for permission to use the photo,” said a spokesman for General Petraeus, Lt. Col. Joseph M. Yoswa. “General Petraeus is aware of the photo being used. By no means does the use of his photo mean he has endorsed anybody. He has not. He won’t. He remains apolitical.”

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