McCain plays missile crisis card
John McCain remembers Cuban missile crisis
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Wednesday, 22, Oct 2008 09:25
John McCain cited his involvement in the 1963 Cuban missile crisis last night as he sought to convince voters he is more experienced than Barack Obama.
The Republican presidential candidate has sought to make his age an advantage by referring to his time in military service throughout the United States' presidential campaign.
Democrat vice presidential candidate Joe Biden had hailed Jack Kennedy's treatment in the Cuban missile crisis, in which brinkmanship foreign policy saw the world come closer to armed conflict between the US and Russia than at any other time in the cold war.
Mr McCain sought to highlight his own credentials during the crisis. The Wall Street Journal quoted him as saying: "I was on board the USS Enterprise. I sat in the cockpit of a flight deck on the USS Enterprise off of Cuba. I had a target.
"My friends, do you know how close we came to nuclear war? America will not have a president who needs to be tested. I've been tested."
And the AFP news agency quoted him as adding: "Senator Obama has not."
There are just 13 days to go until US voters go to the polls to decide between the senators from Illinois and Arizona.