Lieberman rips Obama at Convention

Sen. Joe Lieberman appeared at the Republican National Convention Tuesday night and made the case for John McCain for President.

In a speech that praised his longtime Senate colleague John McCain, Lieberman attacked the Senator Barack Obama and suggested the Democratic nominee is not ready to be president.

"Sen. Barack Obama is a gifted and eloquent young man who I think can do great things for our country in the years ahead," said Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee. "But, my friends, eloquence is no substitute for a record, not in these tough times for America," he said.

Lieberman was the final speaker of the evening, following President George W. Bush, who spoke via satellite before the networks were scheduled to cover the convention, and after former Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee, who also criticized Obama.

Speaking to delegates in the convention center and to television viewers across the country, Lieberman said Obama had failed in his time in the Senate to challenge his own party or work for reform. Obama "has not reached across party lines to get accomplished anything significant, nor has he been willing to take on powerful interest groups in the Democratic Party to get something done," said Lieberman.

Lieberman also made a bit of what he called "history" by getting some GOP delegates to applaud former Democratic President Bill Clinton, who he compared with Bill Clinton. "Let me contrast Barack Obama's record to the record of the last Democratic president, Bill Clinton, who stood up to some of those same Democratic interest groups, worked with Republicans, and got some important things done, like welfare reform, free trade agreements, and a balanced budget," said Lieberman.

Lieberman has previously said that the Democratic Party has moved too far to the left on national security issues, and cited the war in Iraq as an issue of division that separates him from his party.

"When others wanted to retreat in defeat from the field of battle, which would have been a disaster for the USA, when colleagues like Barack Obama were voting to cut off funding for our American troops on the battlefield, John McCain had the courage to stand against the tide of public opinion, advocate the surge, support the surge, and, because of that today, America's troops are coming home, thousands of them, and they're coming home in honor," Lieberman said Tuesday night.