McCain campaign responds: 'Hysterical diatribe'

politico.com ^ | 05/16/08 | bensmith

[TornadoAlley3]

This general election campaign is getting off to a rollicking start.

From McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds:

It was remarkable to see Barack Obama’s hysterical diatribe in response to a speech in which his name wasn’t even mentioned.

These are serious issues that deserve a serious debate, not the same tired partisan rants we heard today from Senator Obama. Senator Obama has pledged to unconditionally meet with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- who pledges to wipe Israel off the map, denies the Holocaust, sponsors terrorists, arms America’s enemies in Iraq and pursues nuclear weapons. What would Senator Obama talk about with such a man? It would be a wonderful thing if we lived in a world where we don’t have enemies.

But that is not the world we live in, and until Senator Obama understands that, the American people have every reason to doubt whether he has the strength, judgment and determination to keep us safe.

Oddly, McCain's response also contained the claim he'd distorted Defense Secretary Robert Gates' willingness to meet the leaders of Iran, but didn't contest Obama's point that McCain had suggested meeting with Hamas.

UPDATE: Cancel that. The McCain campaign sends over video of a second 2006 interview from the same day in Davos in which, unlike in his interview with Jamie Rubin, McCain suggests that aid and the peace process can only "resume" when Hamas agrees to "renounce" their commitment to the state of Israel.

That's a different tone, though it doesn't really contradict the the first interview, in which McCain was asked directly about American diplomats meeting with Hamas, and seemed to answer in the affirmative.

[massgopguy]

This is why I don’t like voting for people younger than me for higher office and haven’t for quite some time and I’m only 50. Arrogant senses of entitlement and youthful zealotry do not a good candidate make.

[Brilliant]

Obama’s temper is worse than McCain’s.

[Jeff Head]

This guy is an absolute idiot, or an absolute quisling. My vote is on the latter.

There are 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan who differ with Obama...they are free to do so now because of Bush.

There has not been a major terror attack on our soil since 911, because of Bush and taking the fight to the enemy on their turf.

...and in the process, Iran, who is the chief sponsor of terror, is surrounded by our forces now, who are ready to attack should we need to.

Obama would have the world still living with Saddam Hussein, and an inabaility for us to respond to either him or Iran...and he calls that world safer.

I pray the American people will have the wisdom to see the difference.

BARACK HUSSEIN CHAMBERLAIN

[river rat]

Obama will NEVER pull that “appeaser” shoe out of his A$$..

[henkster]

Obama is a whiny little girl, running to his mommy (the MSM) because he thinks the mean girls said bad things about him. WAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!

[CougarGA7]

What I want to know is how long until Obama’s rant is posted on youtube so I can see it.

It feels like waiting for a movie premeir.

[DuncanWaring]

This guy is an absolute idiot, or an absolute quisling.

Those two are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

[Retired Greyhound]

Obama is a little B**ch!

[Lancey Howard]

Obama’s temper is worse than McCain’s.

"Temper? You don't know from temper, home. You shut your mouth or I will cut you."

[Enchante]

"This guy is an absolute idiot, or an absolute quisling. My vote is on the latter."

Choosing between A and B, my answer is "all of the above" -- btw, great photo!! Although it is quite arguable that Demagogues like Obama are much worse than Chamberlain because they have learned nothing from the past 70 years of history. Chamberlain did not have his own catastrophic example to learn from, but what excuse do our Demagogues have left?

[CougarGA7]

I wonder...

[RoseofTexas]

HEHEHEHHE...I like her better in the AUNT ESTHER pic!

[Domandred]

[unkus]

Michelle looks like she could get real mean real quick.

[edpc]

That's a different tone, though it doesn't really contradict the the first interview, in which McCain was asked directly about American diplomats meeting with Hamas, and seemed to answer in the affirmative.

The press is demonstrably wrong, here. No, the answer did not seem to be anything of the sort. Rubin's article ran in today's Washington Post and has the following quote from McCain:

McCain answered: "They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so . . . but it's a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that."

When you acknowledge Hamas as the locally elected government and say you will have to "deal with them, one way or another," that's a lot different than stating you'll have one-on-one, unconditional negotiations with the head of the said (terrorist) group.

The Left is flailing in the dark on this one. They know Obama is weak on defense issues and has stepped in it big time. They'll beat this mantra into the ground about how McCain wanted to talk to Hamas (probably on the Sunday shows) and try to make it stick through sheer repetition.

[HamiltonJay]

Every time this schrub opens his mouth he shows himself to be a bigger child... Fauxbama is on his way to making McGovern look like a winner.

[edpc]

She always reminded me of Flip Wilson's "Geraldine" character.

[CaliforniaCon]

Oh, that is too funny! Jostled me out of my heat-induced stupor here in So. Cal.

Sure hope we don’t have to tolerate even one term of that lovely (not) couple, the Obaminations.

[upchuck]

Obamanoresume.

[unkus]

“Obaminations.”

I like that very much. It is one of those “Why didn’t I think of that??” things.

[wny]

Nice to see the McCain camp grow a set. If they don’t think the MSM (his former “base” as one of his aids put it in 2000)aren’t going to go to any length to destroy him, then they’re a bunch of fools and aren’t even worthy of a part time gig at the DMV.

[Lancey Howard]

That picture, as much as any other, really shows Michelle Obama’s “inner Black Panther”.

[raisincane]

I heard some guy call in to WOWO radio and say Michelle reminds him of Aunt Esther on Sanford and Son. She does! HA HA!

[Norman Bates]

Obama is slapped down after getting testy about President Bush's speech yesterday

The McCain List.
Common sense conservatism

[nascent skeptic]

This is why I don’t like voting for people younger than me for higher office

Do I ever agree with you! About the same age here…

Conflict resolution techniques may work well enough in interpersonal relationships within a safe, protected Western society where good faith is expected and the golden rule is generally applied…conciliatory gestures may work in this context, as individuals negotiate more or less freely.

The boomer-left has long simplistically asserted that the same golden-rulism can be applied successfully to geo-strategic relationships between nation states, as if policy were not made by thousands of individuals on each side who have free will. “All you need is love -- dat de de de dah”. Down the blind alley charging we go!

In the real world, policy is worked out within and among separate coalitions (often tribal) that typically cannot trust each other as they vie for power over that nation’s foreign policy stance.

Solipsism in the form of “everyone thinks like we do” blinds the boomer-leftist mindset to an inconvenient truth –not everyone thinks the same. The willingness to negotiate in and of itself is perceived by some as contemptible weakness. Look how Carter screwed it up after leftists in Iran siezed the hostages!

Naive Carter wrote a letter to Khomenei apologizing for our past misdeeds and asking for forgiveness, probably thinking that would allow Khomenei to also concede without losing face. It backfired badly. Not everyone thinks the same.

[hinckley buzzard]

Arrogant senses of entitlement and youthful zealotry do not a good candidate make.

It really is a matter of maturity of judgment. Obama is a malignant leftwinger, which automatically screws his judgment, but even so he doesn't have the sense to wash his hands after wiping his a&&.

[SunkenCiv]

From McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds: It was remarkable to see Barack Obama's hysterical diatribe in response to a speech in which his name wasn't even mentioned. These are serious issues that deserve a serious debate, not the same tired partisan rants we heard today from Senator Obama. Senator Obama has pledged to unconditionally meet with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- who pledges to wipe Israel off the map, denies the Holocaust, sponsors terrorists, arms America's enemies in Iraq and pursues nuclear weapons. What would Senator Obama talk about with such a man? It would be a wonderful thing if we lived in a world where we don't have enemies. But that is not the world we live in, and until Senator Obama understands that, the American people have every reason to doubt whether he has the strength, judgment and determination to keep us safe.

Obamastinians *know*, however, that the Jews from the Israeli Mossad perpetrated 9-11.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Obama is about my age, but he’s like a youngster to me. Some people just don’t grow up.

[nascent skeptic]

Yeah, I thought about it and it’s not really about chronological age.

I was thinking that once the boomers came of age, and the guilty-feeling ones began to help push these ideas out in the late 60’s, it would mostly be younger people that would allow themselves to be influenced. Many boomers never bought into it in the first place, of course.