Posted on 10/18/2008 11:33:48 AM PDT by lonewacko_dot_com
One of the ways I got to know John McCain a decade or so ago was through a mutual friend—a fellow by the name of David Ifshin. I knew David through Democratic Party politics. He was a stalwart moderate, a member of the Democratic Leadership Council and an occasional adviser to Bill Clinton. Our wives were, and are, close friends. But McCain’s relationship with David was far more interesting.
Ifshin, you see, had been a vehement anti-Vietnam radical. He had even gone to Hanoi at the height at the war and given a speech denouncing the American pilots dropping bombs on North Vietnamese civilians as “war criminals.” The speech was broadcast repeatedly in the Hanoi Hilton, where McCain was being held captive. More than a few people thought Ifshin was guilty of treason...
I’ve told this story many times, especially to veterans groups, because it says so much about the importance of forgiveness, of reconciliation. But, in the heat of the campaign, I’d forgotten about it…until the past weeks, when Obama’s passing relationship with the radical Bill Ayers—not nearly as close as McCain’s friendship with David Ifshin—became news, and has been relentlessly exploited by John McCain and his campaign, most recently in robo-calls that flagrantly distort the nature of Obama’s relationship with Ayers...
(Excerpt) Read more at time-blog.com ...
Now, imagine that the first twenty comments were all polite, fact-based refutations of Klein's false equivalence. Wouldn't that send a message that even Klein couldn't ignore? Wouldn't he tell his friends in the MSM that the old lies aren't working any more and they need to tell the truth more often?
So, please sign up for an account at Swampland, and then do what I do: monitor the site occasionally and try to get in a discrediting comment before there are dozens of comments. Joe Klein is never going to read this page. However, if a lot of people leave negative comments there it will filter back to him and he'll get the message. (Others at Swampland do read the comments and occasionally reply to commenters).
Klein clearly does not understand the difference between “repentant” and “unrepentant”.
Reading this makes me think there’s no hope for the truth, or even passable critical thinking, from the MSM. How can Klein so blithely overlook the obvious? McCain’s relationship with David Ifshin is the definition of an “Open Book”—they had a reconciliation, which both spoke about publicly. He gave the man a eulogy! Obama initially tried to pass off Ayers as a “guy in the neighborhood,” and has been dissembling ever since, to put it politely. Did Obama ever talk to Ayers face to face about his past? Does Obama share Ayers’ current radical views on education reform, as might be suggested by their collaboration on CAC and the Woods Foundation? We don’t know: Obama isn’t saying, and Time Magazine isn’t asking.
And he apologized for what he did do.
Moreover I'm not sure that McCain's relationship to Ifshin was "closer" that Obama's to Ayers.
McCain's a friendly, emotional guy, but it doesn't look like he had as close a working relationship to Ifshin as Obama did with Ayers, or that they shared the same philosophy.
If McCain wants to forgive someone who wronged him and his fellow prisoners, fine, but Obama's not in the position of a wronged party extending forgiveness and friendship.
If McCain wants to apologize for a legitimate attack on a political opponent and seek his friendship, it doesn't mean that he was closely working with that person for a common goal.
Unfortunately, neither of the replies are going to have an impact unless they’re posted over at Swampland. Joe Klein is not going to read this thread.
Dear Joe Klein,
re: Ayers-Obama compared with Ifshin-McCain
Since you are either too stupid or too dishonest (all of the above?) to see all the profound differences between the two cases, let me outline them for your feeble consideration:
(1) there is no hint that David Ifshin was anything like Ayers in the nature and extent of his activies — Ayers was a terrorist who co-founded and led an underground group of BOMBERS who set BOMBS and KILLED people.
(2) Ifshin was repentant for his speech in Hanoi - no comparison with Ayers’ proud fanaticism to this day.
(3) There is no suggestion that Ifshin was working closely with McCain as a close working ally, ideological mentor, and radical propagandist subverting America’s schools, is there? Ayers and Obama DID work together for YEARS to dole out more than $100 million to radicals working to subvert American education.
(4) There is no suggestion that Ifshin, when McCain new him, was still proudly hating America (Ayers: “America makes me puke” and “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough”).
Oh, but aside from a few such teeny-weeny differences, you are right, Mr. Klein, the Ayers-Obama and Ifshin-McCain comparison is right on target.
p.s. Mr. Klein, did you score above 200 (the minimum score) on your verbal SAT? Mr. Klein, do you know what an analogy is and how to evaluate points of similarity and difference? Do you know anything about history, politics, and truth-telling?
The answer to the last part of your question would be no.
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