Obama: Republicans Using Terrorism to Win Elections

From CBS News' Maria Gavrilovic:

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama fired back at criticism of his anti-terrorism policy by high level McCain advisors today, accusing them of politicizing the issue and drumming up fear in order to win elections.

“What they are trying to do is what they’ve done every election cycle which is to use terrorism as a club to make the American people afraid, to win elections, that’s what they’re trying to do,” Obama told reporters on a flight to Washington D.C.

Earlier today, John McCain’s foreign policy advisors called Obama’s plans to combat terrorism a “policy of delusion” and a “perfect manifestation of a September 10th mindset.”

As he has done many times on the stump, Obama argued that Republican strategy post-Sept. 11 has made the United States less safe. He said, “These are the same guys who helped to engineer the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could’ve pinned down the people who actually committed 9/11,” adding that Osama bin Laden is still at large.

Obama called for a bipartisan consensus on combating terrorism, arguing that the country should not be divided on the issue. “We’ve got to stop trying to play political games with them,” Obama said, “and that’s what we’ve been doing for the last 8 years and that’s part of why the country’s been so divided around issues where we shouldn’t be divided.”