In an October 8 Washington Times article, senior White House correspondent Joseph Curl falsely suggested that, during the October 7 presidential debate, Sen. Barack Obama said he doesn't think the United States can “face the challenge” in Afghanistan “after spending years and hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq.” Curl also uncritically reported Sen. John McCain's false claim during the debate that Obama “threaten[ed] to invade Pakistan,” and quoted Gov. Sarah Palin's claim that Obama has been “palling around with terrorists” without noting Palin's distortion of a New York Times article about former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers that she used to make that claim. Curl also claimed that Palin's “palling around with terrorists” remark “refers” to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in addition to Ayers, but provided no evidence that Wright is a “terrorist.”

Curl noted that, during the debate, McCain said that Obama “does not understand our national security challenges.” Curl then asserted: “Mr. Obama countered with sarcasm, saying he didn't understand some things -- like how the United States could face the challenge it does in Afghanistan after spending years and hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq.” But, as Media Matters for America noted when the Associated Press also misrepresented Obama's comment, Obama did not say that. Rather, Obama said: “There are some things I don't understand. There are some things I don't understand. I don't understand how we ended up invading a country that had nothing to do with 9-11, while Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda are setting up base camps and safe havens to train terrorists to attack us.”

Curl also asserted that “Mr. McCain targeted his rival's lack of experience, saying Mr. Obama foolishly threatening [sic] to invade Pakistan and said, 'I'm not going to telegraph my punches, which is what Senator Obama did.' ” But as Media Matters has repeatedly noted, Obama has not “threaten[ed] to invade Pakistan.” Rather, during an August 1, 2007, foreign policy speech, he stated: “If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and [Pakistani] President [Pervez] Musharraf won't act, we will.” Indeed, in comments from the debate that Curl did not mention, Obama said:

OBAMA: Look, I -- I want to be very clear about what I said. Nobody called for the invasion of Pakistan. Senator McCain continues to repeat this.

What I said was the same thing that the audience here today heard me say, which is, if Pakistan is unable or unwilling to hunt down bin Laden and take him out, then we should.

Now, that I think has to be our policy, because they are threatening to kill more Americans.

Curl went on to assert: “Mr. McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, accused Mr. Obama of 'palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.' The charge refers [to] Mr. Obama's ties to 1960s-era radical William Ayers and to the Democrat's former pastor, the incendiary Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.” Curl provided no evidence to support the claim that Wright is a “terrorist.” Moreover, Media Matters has repeatedly documented that the October 4 New York Times article Palin cited in making that claim reported that Obama and Ayers “do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called 'somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.' ” Indeed, as Washington Post White House reporter Michael Abramowitz noted in an October 5 article, Palin's comments are a “distortion of what the Times story concluded.”

From the October 8 Washington Times article:

Mr. McCain targeted his rival's lack of experience, saying Mr. Obama foolishly threatening to invade Pakistan and said, “I'm not going to telegraph my punches, which is what Senator Obama did.” He also said Mr. Obama has declared he would speak directly with leaders of rogue nations, like Iran, dismissing that stance as naive.

The Democrat struck back, but Mr. McCain got the last word.

“Now, Senator McCain suggests that somehow, you know, I'm green behind the ears and I'm just spouting off, and he's somber and responsible,” Mr. Obama said, pausing.

“Thank you very much,” Mr. McCain said, drawing a laugh from the crowd. He explained that when he sang the words “bomb, bomb Iran” to the tune of the Beach Boys “Barbara Ann,”

“I was joking with a veteran -- I hate to even go into this. I was joking with an old veteran friend, who joked with me, about Iran.”

Mr. McCain also said his rival “was wrong about Iraq and the surge. He was wrong about Russia when they committed aggression against Georgia. And in his short career, he does not understand our national security challenges. We don't have time for on-the-job training.”

Mr. Obama countered with sarcasm, saying he didn't understand some things -- like how the United States could face the challenge it does in Afghanistan after spending years and hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq.

[...]

With just four weeks left in the campaign, both sides have gone heavily negative. Mr. McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, accused Mr. Obama of “palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.” The charge refers Mr. Obama's ties to 1960s-era radical William Ayers and to the Democrat's former pastor, the incendiary Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.