On McCain, Obama and a Hamas Link
Speaking at a news conference in New Jersey, Mr. McCain said he believed that comments made by a Hamas leader approving Mr. Obama’s candidacy were “a legitimate point of discussion,” and he went on to accuse Mr. Obama of agreeing to negotiate with the president of Iran, who on Wednesday referred to Israel as “a stinking corpse facing annihilation.” He described that as “a distinct difference between myself and Senator Obama.”
Obama has been on record as saying that Hamas is a “terrorist” organization. Obama has never said that he’d jump into talks with Iran,
Susan E. Rice, a former State Department and National Security Council official who is a foreign policy adviser to the Democratic candidate, said that “for political purposes, Senator Obama’s opponents on the right have distorted and reframed” his views. Mr. McCain and his surrogates have repeatedly stated that Mr. Obama would be willing to meet “unconditionally” with Mr. Ahmadinejad. But Dr. Rice said that this was not the case for Iran or any other so-called “rogue” state. Mr. Obama believes “that engagement at the presidential level, at the appropriate time and with the appropriate preparation, can be used to leverage the change we need,” Dr. Rice said. “But nobody said he would initiate contacts at the presidential level; that requires due preparation and advance work.”
In other words Obama’s attitude about Iran is similar to Nixon’s about China. Today as part of their free trade is the answer to every economic problem philosophy Republican businesses do billions in trade with the dreaded commie menace. The right-wing blogs are acting like the most obnoxious grade school kids about this statement from Hamas speaking well of Obama. If Conservatives want to be taken seriously and wish for most Americans to stop thinking of them as stupid maybe they should think about what they’re doing. If Hamas issues a a statement tomorrow saying that people should respect their moms, start eating apple pie and go to ball games then one assumes Republicans such as McCain and his tail wagging blogger friends will start hating their moms and apple pie and never go to a baseball game. Republican’s seem to have come under the spell of an Hamas mind trick and are willing to parrot accordingly. Someone should do a study of all the people that walk out of restrooms with toilet paper stuck to their shoe, I bet 99% of the time its a Republican.
McCain to Bush in 2000: “Don’t Give Me That Sh*t. And Take Your Hands Off Me.”
John McCain could certainly be forgiven for his anger, given the painful memories of character assassination, smears and lies the Bush camp dished out during the 2000 campaign. After McCain’s upset win in the New Hampshire primary, Bush operatives during the critical South Carolina contest phoned voters with push polls implying McCain was anti-Catholic, his wife Cindy a drug addict, and that he had fathered an illegitimate black child with a prostitute. (In reality, the McCains had adopted a baby from an orphanage in Bangladesh.) McCain even received an early version of the Swift Boat treatment, with allegations that his Vietnam War captivity in Hanoi left him mentally unstable. All of these slurs came as candidate Bush chastised McCain that he couldn’t “take the high horse and then claim the low road.” It’s no wonder he angrily rejected Bush’s feigned attempt in 2000 to bury the hatchet.
But by 2004, John McCain was looking towards his next White House run – and life after Bush. McCain’s presidential ambitions let him forgive sins past in order to rebuild relations with Bush and the Republican establishment. McCain’s long road back began during election 2004. McCain not only stumped for George W. Bush, but joined the chorus of the Swift Boat hacks by stating that “what John Kerry did after the war is very legitimate political discussion.” (Only the previous month, McCain himself called the attacks on Kerry “dishonest and dishonorable.”)
Like many liberals I used to think that as far as Conservatives went McCain wasn’t the worse of the lot. It seems as though when it comes to standing between him and what he wants honor and integrity go out the window, Whatever he needs to do or say then so be it. McCain is supposedly fairly literate, I guess he never read Faust.
The Long Goodbye 