Presidential Candidate Slams Opponent; In Other News, Sky Is Still Blue

We thought the Pentagon's recent decision to cancel the competition to build the next US Air Force tanker would end the debate for a while. It turns out all it's done is move the soap opera to a different channel.

Instead of being debated among military-watchers and Wall Street analysts, the fight has bubbled up on the US presidential campaign trail. Reuters reports Democrat Barack Obama said Friday the decision to let the next administration resolve the KC-X bidding mess was a good idea, but...

"While it was right for the Pentagon to cancel competition... it was wrong for John McCain to reward two of the Washington lobbyists who worked against Boeing with jobs on his campaign," the Illinois senator said.

Obama was in New York, using a videoconference to address the national convention of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in Florida. The IAM has opposed the Airbus-based tanker proposed by Northrop Grumman and EADS, saying it would send US jobs overseas.

Ironically, it was McCain -- a senator from Arizona -- who thought things were too cozy between Boeing and the Air Force in 2003, when the service announced plans to spend $23.5 billion to lease and buy 100 Boeing 767s as tankers without competition.

At the time, McCain (right) called the deal a "rip-off" for taxpayers. The resulting scandal ended in prison sentences for Boeing's chief financial officer and a former Pentagon procurement official.

Neither McCain nor his campaign staff have responded to the latest Obama attack. It's worth noting that McCain's position probably puts him at odds with many of his nationalistic, "USA!"-chanting supporters in the Republican party... who would likely prefer to see KC-X go to an American company.

Predictably, the Obama camp has targeted that very discord. In attempting to paint McCain as a corrupt Washington insider, Obama has also made much of the appointment of several former EADS lobbyists to work on McCain's campaign. Tom Loeffler, the head of a lobbying firm called The Loeffler Group, quit the campaign in May, after it imposed new rules curbing the involvement of lobbyists.

While it might be a little distressing to see an important political race brought down to a squabble worthy of afternoon TV dramas, we have to acknowledge one important step forward. For the first time in more than a week, Obama is actually attacking his opponent... instead of a certain Alaska governor.

FMI: www.barackobama.com, www.johnmccain.com