The battle begins
by David Benzion · 05/09/2008 7:05 amMark Slater, spokesman for John McCain:
First, let us be clear about the nature of Senator Obama’s attack today: He used the words ‘losing his bearings’ intentionally, a not particularly clever way of raising John McCain’s age as an issue. This is typical of the Obama style of campaigning.
We have all become familiar with Senator Obama’s new brand of politics. First, you demand civility from your opponent, then you attack him, distort his record and send out surrogates to question his integrity. It is called hypocrisy, and it is the oldest kind of politics there is.
It is important to focus on what Senator Obama is attempting to do here: He is trying desperately to delegitimize the discussion of issues that raise legitimate questions about his judgment and preparedness to be President of the United States.
Through their actions and words, Senator Obama and his supporters have made clear that ANY criticism on ANY issue — from his desire to raise taxes on millions of small investors to his radical plans to sit down face-to-face with Iranian President Ahmadinejad – constitute negative, personal attacks.
Senator Obama is hopeful that the media will continue to form a protective barrier around him, declaring serious limits to the questions, discussion and debate in this race.
Senator Obama has good reason to think this plan will succeed, as serious journalists have written of the need for ‘de-tox’ to cure ’swooning’ over Senator Obama, and others have admitted to losing their objectivity while with him on the campaign trail.
Today, Senator Obama is complaining about comments John McCain made about a senior Hamas advisor stating that Hamas would welcome Senator Obama’s election as president. Indeed, on April 13th, senior Hamas political advisor Ahmed Yousef said, ‘We don’t mind – actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance.’
The McCain campaign has never suggested that Senator Obama supports Hamas’ agenda, but it is more than fair to raise this quote about Senator Obama because it speaks to the policy implications of his judgment.
Just today, the president of Iran, whom Senator Obama wants to meet with unconditionally, called the state of Israel a ’stinking corpse.’ Iran is the paymaster and state sponsor of Hamas.
In his victory speech this week, Senator Obama stated that ‘wisdom’ is meeting with our enemies, including Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, North Korea’s Kim Jong Il, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Cuba’s Raul Castro. John McCain couldn’t disagree more. Rather than giving tyrants and dictators the prestige of meeting with an American president, John McCain will instead meet with the champions of human freedom around the world and opposition leaders fighting for liberty .
We understand why Senator Obama doesn’t want to engage in a debate over leadership and judgment with John McCain, but the American people demand that debate take place.
These are serious times that call for a serious debate on the profound issues facing our future. John McCain is ready for that debate and we hope Senator Obama will one day get serious and join it.
Me likey.
Filed Under Front Page ·
Comments
49 Responses to “The battle begins”Search
Our Sponsors
Poll
Loading ...LST Book Club
-
Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy
by Natan Sharansky -
Fear No Evil
by Natan Sharansky -
The Case For Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror
by Anatoly Shcharansky -
The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel's Soul
by Yoram Hazony -
Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There
by David Brooks -
Snobbery: The American Version
by Joseph Epstein -
A Conflict of Visions: Idealogical Origins of Political Struggles
by Thomas Sowell
Sen. McCain needs to take the gloves off with Obama the way he does with members of his own party.
Wow I like this a lot. I don’t know anything about Mark Slater, but this is excellent. Such a civil, piercing, way of taking off the gloves.
B.O. stinks. Its’ as simple as that.
I hope that after Hillary gets Obama, McCain and company finish him off like this. His inexperience will torpedo him. McCain could expose that easily using Obama’s own record and words against him. But, the media is Obama’s more than willing prostitute and that is a pretty big obstacle.
I wish McCain would say such things himself.
Too bad McCain’s too busy opening the border for illegals, shutting down free speech, taking bribes to keep failed savings and loans in business, and stopping conservative supreme court justices from being appointed.
I guess it’s hard to fit in a little conservatism into only 24 hours a day.
I’m still not voting for either of them. I’m going to look for some third party to support, as a protest vote. It’s John Anderson, all over again. I didn’t like Carter. I didn’t like Ford. I supported Anderson (even though I didn’t like him, either.)
I don’t like Oblinton, and I don’t like McCain. I’m not going to waste time working any other campaign, but I will vote 3rd party. I don’t care who gets elected, this time.
None of them are on my side.
“Rather than giving tyrants and dictators the prestige of meeting with an American president”
Bwahahahahaha
Fine. That is why we have a Secretary of State and subordinates. I guess we only meet with tyrants with enough fire power.
Didn’t we have diplomatic talks and meetings with the Soviets even during the Soviet occupation of Aghanistan, while we were prividing the very equipment that was dropping the Soviet helicopters from the sky?
I guess tht is about the only “usefull” purpose of the UN; one location where to meet.
I feel obliged to state that, I am not an Obama supporter.
Isn’t it also hypocritical to say that you’re racist if you’re white and not vote for Obama but it’s celebrated when you’re black and vote for him?
Let’s start getting black people to express our displeasure with Obama, and then it won’t be racist.
The liberal media will do what they can to protect “BO”. But here, like with HELLary, you cannot package a guy like “BO” that is flawed and hope it will sell. Thanks to the HELLary war machine, the newness of “BO” has worn off. You can tell this by his ineffectiveness to put away HELLary in the Dimwit primaries. This country might be ready for a black President but it won’t be “BO”. He just doesn’t have the experience to lead and he is guilty by association with the likes of Rev. Wrong. And what does “BO”s nomination do to the “affirmative action” programs.
McCain needs to remain civil. It’s the only way he’s got to expose Obama for the typical politician, closet Marxist, and gold plated hypocrite he really is.
The moment McCain goes negative, THAT will be the subject of any reporting in the media. Any comparison of Obama’s policies and McCains will get lost in the attacks on McCain for his supposed negativity and the thinly veiled accusations of racism that will be the hallmark of the Obama campaign.
There’s plenty of policy reasons why McCain is better than Obama. There usually is when one of the candidates is a closet Marxist.
McCain can pin Obama down on his idiot socialist policies while 527 groups can highlight his Marxist, Racist, Elitist past and associations.
Obama is the political love child of Jimmy Carter and George McGovern, who was raised in the Che Guevera Day Care Center, graduated from Eugene Debs High School, and Saul Alinsky University.b He’s hiding a lot of what he beleives, and the media is helping him,so that means McCain has to get those policies out of Obama’s mouth in order for them to see the light of day, and the only way he can do that is to play the game so the policy differences are the only things the media can talk about.
The country does want a change from the Bush policies (it’s safe to say that Republicans, Democrats, and Independents all want that), but I doubt they want to change as much as Obama wants us to.
But he will be able to get elected unless his policies get a full and complete airing and the People get to make an informed choice. It’s obvious the Media isn’t going to do that—-that’s going to have to be John McCain’s job.
To save our country from the kind of Socialism we see in Europe that Obama and a Deomcrt controlCongress will bring—and what will surely follow—we’ll have to do the rest.
Except that Anderson didn’t run in 1976 against Ford and Carter. He ran in 1980 against Carter and Reagan.
You don’t think Roberts and Alito are conservative supreme court justices?
If Obama is elected this country will be changed forever, and I don’t think for the better.
DELETED; RACIST
Sarage, I believe it is possible to take the gloves off without being snotty, rollin’ in the mud dirty. Iron fist in the velvet glove at least, and let the world know there is an iron fist. The media hyenas and jackals will attack regardless of how above the fray McCain tries to stay. Nothing he does will stay their attacks. they are salivating for Obama to win at any cost.
Hope! Change!
#6
The Soviets were at least semi-rational. The leadership of Iran, NK, Venezuela, et al. are hardly rational. The President should not be negotiating with them; he should be giving ultimata.
McCain & Obamo needs to take the gloves off and let the debate begin.
Gang of 14. He’s proud of that, hamous.
Lucifer or Hitler. Pick the lesser of two evils.
Roberts and Alito are there IN SPITE of McCain, not because of him. He did all he could do to prevent anything good from happening during Dubya’s terms, and did it well.
Go ahead and drink the Koolaid, hamous. Keep doing what you’re doing, and we’ll keep getting what we’re getting - RINOs.
I guess you’ll be working Fred Hill’s campaign, too, right?
I stand corrected on Anderson. I wasn’t a Reagan fan at that time, though. That came from youth and inexperience. I’m not a McCain fan due to age and wisdom. I won’t support someone with his views. He is batting about .090 with me. Obama is batting about .002, but NEITHER of them has earned my vote.
Any conservative who votes for McCain won’t be able to say a thing when he opens the border, encourages amnesty for illegals, and nominates Ginsberg clones for the SCOTUS.
#17 Wino, like you say NEITHER has said or done much to earned our votes and still after what seems like forever neither has communicated a plan for the future. It’s time for the voters to find out exactly what these two stand for.
#17
WHile McCain is definitely not my preferred choice from the pack of Republicans, he is most certainly the one out of the current three remaining that will cause the least damage to the Republic.
We can always criticize our elected officials. It’s part of our culture & political heritage. Saying “we won’t be able to say a thing” is just hyperbole.
Mornin’ Wino, I believe Fred Hill bowed out. As to the national presidential derby, no matter which less than outstanding individual takes it we shall see increasing taxes, increasing costs of all goods/services with kyoto plus regulations, reductions of freedom that will finally be noticed by the proverbial man-in-the-street, more no-fault bailouts for corporations and individuals leading to outright govt ownership of (possibly) airlines/banks, certainly there will be rampant unloading of debt onto the fewer & fewer taxpayers, final collapse of the dollar, bans of firearms, ammo, even spare parts, but by cracky we’ll have free healthcare, $9 gas, and chicom bikes for our travels.
And this my friend is my optimistic view.
Mr. Sarge - At the risk of, but without desiring to start another fracus, I am wondering out loud exactly how Sen. McCain is going to emphasize the policy differences (if any) he may have with Sen. Obama without being accused by Obama, the media, the Dems, and others of launching a personal attack. To attack the Messiah’s policies is to attack him personally as far as he is concerned. Many do not care what Obama stands for, and he is an empty suit, but they do like the packaging and the oratory. I just do not see how Sen McCain can campaign, dodge arrows, make policy speeches, and not point out why he believes himself to be the better candidate.
I’m very negative on McCain, but since Hellary is now apparently out of the race, he’s about the only thing left to prevent an all out Marxist dictatorship, and quite frankly, even at my advanced age, I would hate to see that happen to this country. Therefore, I may have to vote for him and his drug stealing wife yet. I’m serious when I question how you envision Sen McCain “attacking” Obama without appearing to be attacking him.
I’m not a McCain fan either, wino. I’m not drinking koolaid. Drinking koolaid would be walking into the voting booth and selecting Obama. Quick, painful death. Voting for McCain is more like drinking a refreshing glass of sweet ice tea on a hot summer day…laced with a small amount of Arsenic. Not enough to kill you outright unless you drink it for a long time, but enough to make you feel a little sick. But you drink it to survive with the hope that they run out of Arsenic before you get really sick.
And if I vote for McCain and he indeed does the things you say (he won’t nominate Ginsberg clones), yes I will be able to complain. That’s my right! Just like it is your right to complain if you voting third party gets Obama elected. If I don’t vote at all I still have a right to complain.
Did any notice GWB promising tons more of your dough to ’stabilize WORLD food prices’.
Charity with other people’s money = theft. R or D, the differences amount to a hill of beans.
So we support Mc, but we don’t like him a bit?
And trust that if he squeaks in, and it would be a squeaker, he’s there for just 4 years buying time for a competent, honest candidate in ‘12?
Republicans have assured themselves a generation in the desert.
Grumpy, my final decision on this election will probably be made based on who he chooses as a running mate because I think he’ll (or she’ll) be running for the spot in 2012.
Mr. hamous - please don’t tell Big John about that because then he’ll be the one selecting Hellary after Obama picks Dennis Rodman as his running mate (telling everyone that Dennis is Hellary’s brother), and getting most of them to believe it.
I voted for W in 2000. In ‘04 I was highly critical of Kerry, but could not make myself hang a second chad for the rino fratboy.
After nearly eight years of a “conservative” president, the government is larger, more intrusive, and just as wasteful as it ever was. We’re farther down the slippery slope that ends in a muddy pool of socialized democracy.
And that’s the optimist in me speaking.
Is the quoted text just a statement from McCain’s campaign?
Have any of the mainstream media, Fox or big blogs like Politico used any of it?
Are we busy arguing about “the evil of lessers” while we ought to be sharing the text (once we know the source)?
#15
“The Soviets were at least semi-rational.”
Sure that is why they backed Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, Egypt, Tito’s Ygoslavia, Albania, etc frfeaking etc. In many cases not even by proxy. At least the Persians , in recent history, have not invaded nighbors and understand proxy and keep it at that level.
“he should be giving ultimata”
“Perpetual wars for perpetual peace?”
And I take it that NativeAmerican will be the first inline to join the armed forces, right? Are you right now in the military?
Search youtube for videos of Chianese soldiers picking Tibetans, one by one. I do mean murdering those Tibetans. The most recent vieo I saw, there were some British mountain climbers that were able to video tape, from a distance, what was going on and were able to save one. Nice to know that the Chianese are semi rational. Well, I have a friend that travels to China frequently. He works for a oil company at a fairly high level. The Chianese operate in as much a rational way as anybody else … a different rational basis but one never-the-less.
#28 Fink. Excellent point.
#29
Never said it was a perfect world.
Peace is much more than the absence of war. Peace is the security of not having to worry about being attacked. You do this by being as strong as you can, so that others know that attacking you will have immediate and very undesirable consequences. This presupposes that you have the will to use your strength, both in your defense and in the defense of like-minded people.
This is how we are truly at peace with Canada and the UK, for example. We don’t have to worry about be attacked by them.
Regarding the difference in how the USSR & NK should be dealt with, in one case (USSR), the opposing country had the ability to effectively destroy this country; in the other case, it doesn’t, but does have the ability to cause harm. You use the means at your disposal to best achieve the desired results.
The “Persians”, while not actually invading their neighbors, or anyone else for that matter, are in a de facto war with many, through their actions. How is a proxy war much different from an actual one other than in scope or degree?
Why the canard about “being the first in line”?
Fink– this an actual press release from Mark Slater, spokesman for John McCain.
Interesting times -
Hezbollah, Hizbolla, Hizb’allah, or however we spell it these days, has pretty much taken over the Muslim half of Beirut again.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080509/wl_nm/lebanon_conflict_dc
Maybe someone should ask the junior senator from Illinois how he would handle this recent development.
33
In light of texpat’s comments yesterday, that’s very interesting.
#34 Just what I was thinking…
33 NA
This could benefit McCain. If Israel attacks Lebanon/Hezbollah look for national security to become a larger topic in the MSM. It’ll be difficult to subplant $126/bbl oil but they’ll try. Maybe McCain will ask if Barack will talk to them….
Reply to No. 27: Remember, if you think GWB is bad, how would it have been over the very liberal Algore or “flip/flop” Kerry. Some say only a little worse but remember there were those Supreme Court nominations which will affect us a lot longer. Think of the ultra liberal thinkers Algore and Kerry could have put in and then you may want to recount your blessings. This also applies to the upcoming presidential term.
#34-36
Things in the Cradle of Civilization often change very quickly and for the worse. The Israelis are probably getting really nervous again, with good reason. Some of the more astute Israelis are still wondering why they weren’t allowed by their govt to really hit Hezbollah a lot harder last year (or the year before?) and cripple them for several years.
Assuming we’ll get to see some kind of replay of the prior Isreali ground action, I hope this time around they really take it to Hezbollah and especially its leadership in Damascus. They might as well, since they’re going to be criticized for it anyway. If you’re gonna p**s people off anyway, you might as well go for it.
38 NA
Well, an escalation in Lebanon would be a perfect pretext for Bush hitting Iran hard. I expect Syria is reluctant to get involved given what the Israeli Air Force did to their Korean nuke site earlier this year. All in all it plays well for the repubs….
NativeAmerican: the canard?
I have 2 sons of draftable age and another will be in 5 yrs.
I am raising men, and that include training to stand against their government if need be. They are not slaves of the government.
“It is an evil paradox that men with the lowest motives can launch wars by appealing to the highest ideals of better men.”
You volunteer and go fight those wars you believe in.
#39
I think Syria is in this up to its eyeballs. Syria actively supplied Hezbolla during the last dustup with Israel. Hezbollah maintains an open office in Damascus and is provided with security and free movement by the Syrian govt. Iran is also involved as it provides funding for both Syria and Hezbollah.
Nobody likes to see open hostilities break out, but they do tend to focus the mind somewhat. Such hostilities have a couple of (relatively) good side-effects, however: focus on the real life-or-death nature of this conflict; that Hezbollah is not simply a civic-minded organization that helps the poor & downtrodded; and it might be the cure to the disease that makes things worse in the short term, but better in the long.
#40
Yes, canard. As you have no idea of my background, you are relying on the canard that only those who are actively involved in a war are allowed to be in support of it. It is simillar to someone telling you that since you do not support actions that fight the enemies of the US, you are no longer entitled to the protections you enjoy for your freedoms.
Do you have some kind of lefty quote book or do you get those quotes from a progressive version of a Hallmark card?
I made no assumptions but I did ask? Are you currently in the military? Children? Relatives? Friends?
The military has not given me nor maintains my freedoms, nor anyone elses. We maintain our own freedoms, which are going out the window faster than I care. A lot of it has to do with all these foreign interventions and aid, which are being financed by indebting several generations.
You got defensive there bud. And by what you have written, perhaps, it is best it stays that way.
As to me being a lefty … you do not know me either. But again if “W” is a conservative …
And the quote, why don’t you google it. You might learn. Or are you speaking of the “perpetual war” quote? Google it also. No telling what you might learn.
As to a book of quotes, why don’t search what I have written in this web site before conservatism got redefined. Also search for Jaime and GIGO. In case you do not know, GIGO was National Review’s original blog.
Yes, you do not know me.
Satan 08
Why vote for the lesser of two evils?
Methinks thou dost protest too much.
I was wrong in ascribing your quotes to lefty leanings. I apologize.
Most of the freedoms you talk of losing, as well as the debt problem, is less the result of foreign intervention and aid than the result of domestic social programs.
Like it or not, war is sometimes the best of many bad options. I would rather that our military be fighting the nutjob terrorists in the ME (where they are more free to take action) than in the streets of our own country.
“John McCain is going to be doing more of these themed tours of America, and one of them is going to be on energy and global climate change. It could get him into trouble with Republicans, of course, and with the base, who don’t think there is much climate change going on, but it is something that he’s very passionate about, and he’s going to be talking about it.”
Linked from DrudgeReport.
He’s not a conservative. Never was. Never will be.
I will NOT vote for him, to reward him for his shenanigans and outright snubbing of the GOP platform. Let him get his votes from the ones across the aisle that he likes to work with so much.
Keep voting for the RINO’s, folks. That will get us fewer of them, won’t it?
NativeAmerican: Apology accepted, we are at peace.
If you think a protest too much it is because I have seen the degrees of separation between current “conservatism” and the historical Conservatism, Classical Liberalism in Old World terminology.
And I leave you with this quote. It applies to both liberals and [neo]conservatives who use unlawful means to achieve an end:
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
— C.S. Lewis
When McCain did speak out, it actualy got results!!! Obama fired a Hamas-supporting advisor. One plus for McCain (which I still will not vote for unless he surrounds himself with rock-solid conservatives.
http://carywesberry.blogtownhall.com/2008/05/10/obama_severs_more_ties_to_hamas_after_mccains_accusations_of_support_from_the_terror_group.thtml
This applies directly to McCain
The deja vu part refers to other liberal Republicans like Chafee and and Gilchrist.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121020675183775497.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries