From the Toledo Blade

Barack Obama was greeted by hordes of cheering Germans in Berlin, so John McCain made a point of meeting with area business owners over a lunch of bratwurst at the Schmidt Sausage Haus on the cobblestone streets of Columbus' trendy German Village.

"I'd love to give a speech in Germany, a political speech, a speech that maybe the German people would be interested in, but I'd much prefer to do it as president of the United States, rather than as a candidate for the office of the presidency," Mr. McCain said.

The Arizona senator then pushed his health-care proposals at champion cyclist Lance Armstrong's second national Livestrong Summit on the Ohio State University campus,

The Columbus Dispatch printed excerpts from an interview with McCain where he talked about his view of the surge's success and Obama's position on Iraq.

Q: (Referring to a story that Joe Klein wrote for Time magazine quoting McCain) You've already been buzzed about this today, but I wanted to run it by you again: "Sen. Obama would rather lose the war to win a political campaign." Sen. Obama responded, from Germany presumably, "I was disappointed by that language, we've had our disagreements.... I've never questioned, however, that he wants to make America safer. For him to suggest that somehow I'm less concerned about the safety of my wife and daughter than he is I think was unfortunate."

[McCain:] ... Sen. Obama, in my view, used, believes that this is a political issue. Anyone, any rational observer who observes Iraq knows that the surge has succeeded. It just has. The conditions on the ground are very clear. Sen. Obama refuses to acknowledge that it succeeded.

Sen. Obama went to the left to get the nomination of his party, and he used it very effectively. I called for an increase in the number of troops when it was the least popular thing to do and many people said that because I did that, that my political ambitions were at an end. Sen. Obama said that the surge would not work, has condemned it, and still will not acknowledge that the surge is working.

This is indicative of his view that this is a political issue. It's far more important than gaining nominations or not gaining nominations. It has to do with the security of this nation. And I believe that by his failure to acknowledge the success of the surge -- much less his opposition to it -- shows that he would rather lose a war than a political campaign.