Kerry criticizes McCain's campaign tactics, calls Obama's inexperience a 'virtue'

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) preached the importance of multilateral foreign policy -- and the strengths of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) -- at his lecture in the packed Cabot Auditorium earlier this evening. Afterward, we caught up with the Senator for an exclusive interview about his take on the 2008 campaign.

Kerry delivered a prepared address, reading off of teleprompters, on what he sees as the foreign policy of the future. In his talk, he stressed the importance of new diplomatic efforts, soft-power foreign policy and a renewed focus on what he sees as related issues: energy and the environment.

But with Election Day less than two weeks away, his speech included no shortage of campaign lines, and was harshly critical of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) -- leading one student to comment during the question-and-answer session that she had not "come here to hear an Obama rally."

(For more on the event see Thursday's Daily.)

We caught up with Kerry on his way out, and asked him for his take on the 2008 election -- including what he believes are McCain's strengths and Obama's weaknesses.

"John McCain brings the experience of having been in a war, and there's a strength in having experienced the military first-hand," Kerry said. "The trouble is that the McCain that I worked with is so different from the McCain as a candidate. And it sort of unsettles me a little bit, because I don't know who's going to be president if he were."

Kerry said McCain has changed his positions on a variety of issues.

"The John McCain that I worked with was for cap and trade ... now he's opposed to that," Kerry said. "The John McCain that I worked with was for the immigration bill, and now he says he'd vote against it. He was against the tax cuts -- he voted against it [and] was eloquent about it. Now he wants to make them permanent. He was eloquent about being against torture. Now he's voted for the bill that Bush passed."

On Obama's weaknesses, Kerry was less concrete.

"Obama, obviously, you know, I'll let people figure it out on their own," he said. "He doesn't have the same years in, but I think that's a virtue, so it's hard for me to call it a weakness."

Kerry was deeply critical of the Republican party's criticisms about Obama's patriotism, calling recent McCain ads tying Obama to a domestic terrorist from the 1960s lies.

"It's a completely specious and disgusting argument, because it has no basis in fact," he said. "Every major newspaper, every major journalist, has looked at this issue and has dismissed it. So they continue to promulgate a lie."

It is the Republican party's responsibility to denounce such assertions, he said.

"I was taught, like a lot of people, that lying isn't good -- and they're doing that," he said. "So I really abhor what they're doing. Their robo-calls in New Hampshire are a disgrace. ... I believe it's incumbent on people to speak out against that sort-of misappropriation of what we stand for as a country."

Kerry said the questioning of Obama's patriotism is comparable to the Swift Boat ad campaign, which was a major factor in Kerry's failure in the 2004 presidential race.

"There are similarities," he said. "You spread a lie, and you spread a lot of money spreading a lie. It's the same tactic."

--Matt Skibinski