May 19, 2008
The McCain Attack Machine (Peter Fenn)
Now, let me get this straight. Barack Obama contends that Iran, Cuba and Venezuela pose nothing like the threat that the Soviet Union did for over 40 years and McCain attacks? He pounces on the following statement:
“Iran, Cuba, Venezuela — these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying, 'We're going to wipe you off the planet.’ ”
Hmm, so McCain says that Obama says that Iran was a “tiny threat.” Here is McCain’s exact quote: “The threat the government of Iran poses is anything but tiny."
So, first of all, Obama never said the threat was “tiny”; in fact, he has been clear that Iran poses a very significant threat.
Second, his point is that we need to talk with our adversaries as well as our allies.
Third, for anyone who lived through the Cold War, feared every day a nuclear annihilation of the planet, a nuclear holocaust, and engaged in drills at school, the building of fallout shelters, Iran is certainly not the threat that was the old Soviet Union.
And every president from Roosevelt to Reagan to Bush talked to our adversaries — to the Soviets, to the Chinese, to nations large and small.
So, please, John McCain, you and George Bush got us into this mess in Iraq and Iran — using precisely the neocon rhetoric you are continuing to push. The key question is how do we stabilize the Middle East, defeat al Qaeda and put this disaster of an Iraq war behind us as quickly as possible?
McCain doesn’t seem to have the answer — other than more escalation and expansion of the war, the war in Iraq and the war against Obama. And heaven forbid we should try and negotiate with other nations! Nations like the Soviet Union, China or Libya, for example. Wouldn’t that be horrible.
Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post
Share this post
What's This 37 Comments
»
The Hill welcomes comment from anyone and will almost always post it whether it is favorable or critical, as long as it is substantive and advances debate.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Peter;
Good post and spot on.
Comment by Mike Coleman — May 19, 2008 @ 7:55 pm
It's laughable to me that Americans think that McCain is any different than Bush! This whole take on foreign policy is straight out of Bush's book, "We don't negotiate with terrorists" - because working extra hard to negotiate with your friends takes up all your time?
Where's their tireless resurrection of Reagan now? Oh yeah…he negotiated with the enemy…ooops.
Comment by Heather — May 19, 2008 @ 8:38 pm
So the appeaser Obama yesterday claims the threat is not "serious" (a very significant distinction from it being "tiny" as any great legal mind would agree). This opinion and this column here prove only one point: to a committed leftist there is only one type of threat, namely anything that prevents them from achieving income redistribution.
Today the wacko appeaser said that "Iran is a grave threat" right after claiming that it is nothing compared to those presented by the former Soviet Union.
Can anyone believe this guy? He can change his level of threat assessment every day, every minute, whenever he feels like and his cultist don't give a damn.
He either doesn't understand or doesn't care that Ahmadenijad, who believes in the Mahdi running the everyday affairs of the world, will do whatever he feels like WITH A SINGLE NUCLEAR WARHEAD. Please, can someone restore sanity to this insane country where jokers can run around pretending to be serious Presidential candidates???
Comment by Igor R. — May 19, 2008 @ 9:16 pm
No attack machine is actually needed. If this election cycle were a Dancing with the Stars routine, Obama would have, and has had, tripped all over his two left feet. Interesting that few of the liberals in the media questioned his racist comments about bible thumping bitter white people. In fact, I observed several Obamabot pundits declare it true, almost as if Obama is some type of Messiah, and his and his wife's and his pastor's racist and anti-American statements can't be questioned. No, Brent, you're totally wrong. The real question is, why isn't the American press doing a better job of attacking this bitter person, exemplifying the real American legacy of the press, as opposed to rubber stamping living bitter Jello, and I didn't know it came in that flavor.
Comment by Robert Rosencrans — May 19, 2008 @ 9:23 pm
My gosh! Igor and Rosencrans must never have had a platform before; they are nearly the first to comment on every article. Doesn't matter if it makes any sense or not.
Peter, thanks for pointing out yet again, how Mr Straight Talk really speaks with a forked tongue.
To go from tiny as a comparison of size to fabricating the "tiny threat" quote is just plain dishonest.
So far as Igor's comment, you left out at least a few step in your proof; (as any great legal would agree) Obama's cited opinion and this column prove no such thing! As a wacko Obama attacker, you are a tiny threat. Your logic is so flawed and your polemic so devoid of reasoned argument as to make you irrelavent and might actually sway people to support Obama.
And as Rosencrans proved today he is a racist in his earlier disguised reference to Little Black Sambo.
Readers should note that Rosencrans claims that Obama made comments about "Bible-thumping white people" which is an outright lie. He is obviously not above spreading rumors and lies which tend to fan the small flames of racism that are burning in this election.
It is interesting to note that both Igor and Rosencrans and McCain use the same tactic: create a lie about what someone said and then attack them for saying it.
Comment by smilinjack — May 20, 2008 @ 12:22 am
Senator Obama will expose them (Republicans) as Wizards (as in Oz –illusionary figures masquerading behind a curtain of Deceit!) The Republican Pretenders are skilled in rituals of smoke & mirrors. We, the American people, are tired of their trickery's based on illusions and not fact, and like the Wizard of Oz, when the curtain is pulled back by "the light of truth", they will be exposed as fakers and pretenders that they are — with loud, scary voices with no Real Power — pulling strings of "make believe" to coverup their own innate weakness and villainy. This unveiling will enable us to finally get off this merry-go-round — this "yellow-brick-road" of illusion and deceit perpetrated upon the American public.
This massed negativity has been a real detriment to American economic progress and peace in Iraq. Such people are like a millstone around the neck of humanity, crippling true effort, murmuring Family Values, yet do nothing but impede true progress while humanity is dying. This massed, organized negativity has been what has enabled them to work so ruthlessly with power and success at the destruction of all that has attempted to get in the way of their projects, desires and greed. They refuse to recognize that humanity can solve its problems without aggression and force and instead use the energy of goodwill, sharing and cooperation.
We should recall what Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill wrote in position 8 after World War II in The Atlantic Charter, both who knew and were familiar with the horrors of war….
Position "Eighth, they believe that all of the nations of the world, for realistic as well as spiritual reasons must come to the abandonment of the use of force. Since no future peace can be maintained if land, sea or air armaments continue to be employed by nations which threaten, or may threaten, aggression outside of their frontiers, they believe, pending the establishment of a wider and permanent system of general security, that the disarmament of such nations is essential. They will likewise aid and encourage all other practicable measures which will lighten for peace-loving peoples the crushing burden of armaments."
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Winston S. Churchill
If you disagree with their politics, however, in unison they attack by subterfuge, distortion and lies. Masters in fear mongering, they hope to incite fear in a gullible American public and to embrace this fear against their own common sense! Only this time, we will not be fooled again by these "fakers, con-artists and Pretenders", and our unite House will withstand the onslaught of this False, now Fleeting Wind that has devastated the American way of life, no more!
Comment by Angellight — May 20, 2008 @ 7:59 am
Hey Igor…get a brain. If Iran did something WITH A SINGLE NUCLEAR WARHEAD then it wouldn't have any other warheads left. What then? The point is, Iran has very limited capabilities regarding building a nuclear arsenal. If it were to manage to build a nuclear device, it wouldn't make much sense for it to then use it, and not have anything to back it up, would it? That would amount to an act of geopolitical suicide.
Comment by rrose — May 20, 2008 @ 8:10 am
Igor and Rosie;
It looks like Obama has exposes teh republican hyprocracy for what it is. Fearmongering! Living here is Washington, DC, I've been through the drills of duck and cover and Iran does not present a threat of that magnitude. Finally Obama has called them what they are, cowards. What are you afraid of? Iran posed no threat to anyone not trying to profit from another war.
Comment by Mike Coleman — May 20, 2008 @ 11:07 am
smilinjack: You're a typical liberal and you prove it every time you post. Now, it's unfair that someone else or the same people post first. Have you ever considered that you might be a certifiable lunatic? Just wondering.
Comment by Robert Rosencrans — May 20, 2008 @ 11:34 am
Igor and Rosie are eaten up with the paranoia their right wing neocon brethren implanted in them. Both these clowns keep trying to impress with their ditto-head prognostication prowess, but to no avail, as they have no credibility. Rosie voted twice for President 27%, and Igor claims he just got here and could not vote for Bush, but would have ferverntly supported him nonetheless. Need we say anymore?.
Comment by Lester — May 20, 2008 @ 12:42 pm
smilinjack, lester and mike coleman all proved my point. Liberalism can't afford for anyone to have free speech or differing opinions. In all it's forms, it's simply a dictatorship.
Comment by Robert Rosencrans — May 20, 2008 @ 1:33 pm
smilinjack, Obama said Iran is not a serious threat one day, and the next day totally changed that around. End of story.
Comment by Igor R. — May 20, 2008 @ 1:53 pm
rrose, you claim I have no brain? Iran is likely to have not one but a small number of nukes at some point. First of all, at least half of its leaders DON'T SEEM AT ALL CONCERNED WITH THE DESTRUCTION OF IRAN. Ayatollah Khomeini, at the dawn of the Islamic republic described a strategy that would wipe out Israel with nuclear devices because Israel is so small, but will leave the world of Islam victorious at the cost of a few million people. If you don't understand Islam, don't blame me, get a brain yourself.
Comment by Igor R. — May 20, 2008 @ 1:56 pm
Lester, I claimed no such thing. Once again you're making things up out of thin air, but that's just you.
Comment by Igor R. — May 20, 2008 @ 1:58 pm
Mike, to you every word of Obama is the holy truth that says whatever you want it to say. You can claim anything about any of his speeches, but he has not exposed anything other than being an appeaser.
Comment by Igor R. — May 20, 2008 @ 2:00 pm
Peter must have gotten the memo from the Obama campaign to compare Obama's desire to talk with Iran with past Presidents like Reagan and Kennedy.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Reagan built up our military, used missle defense and economic pressure against Gorbachev.
And Gorbachev was a willing partner.
Kennedy was willing to go to war with Kruschev.
And Krushchev wasn't willing to go to war over Cuba.
So what does Obama want from Iran? Does he want them to stop uranium enrichment? Does he want them to stop arming Hezbollah, Hamas and Shiite extremists in Iraq?
and if he does want those things then please share with us what will persuade Iran to do any of those things. What can Obama offer that the Europeans don't seem able to offer. (Other than Israel on a silver platter).
There's no military option - that's off the table.
And whatever pressure he exerts how can he then convince China and Russia to go along with it. Because without their support a non-military sanction is useless.
But Obama thinks that he is different. When he talks, that the Iranian mullahs will suspend their crazed national interests because well - Who knows.
Comment by Jay from Texas — May 20, 2008 @ 2:13 pm
For those who claim Obama is a saint, here's his exact quote. Although he doesn't specifically mention whites, it's obvious that his quote, which is steeped in nothing more than his own bigotry, is aimed at whites:
“You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them,” Obama said.
“And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
Comment by Robert Rosencrans — May 20, 2008 @ 2:14 pm
It's the same crazies posting time and again; Rosencrat and Igor. You two really have nothing of substance or fact to say for yourselves, now do you. Lester is right, you are both paranoid and in need of some medication.
Janet M
Comment by Jan M — May 20, 2008 @ 2:25 pm
The need for Igor and Rosencrats to be medicated is my idea, not Lester's. Sorry Lester!
Comment by Jan M — May 20, 2008 @ 2:26 pm
John McCain touts his "war hero" image, however, he has been worthless to the active military and vets since 1988 while being the senator from AZ. During McCain's time this is what he has done: Issues on Veterans Affairs-Benefits
1)
http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=53270&type=category&category=66&go.x=12&go.y=11
John McCain votes NO to increasing veterans benefits
2)
http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=53270&type=category&category=47&go.x=12&go.y=13
Military Issues, McCain votes NO to helping our military
Comment by Jerry EZ, TEXAS — May 20, 2008 @ 3:05 pm
Jan M: You a doctor or do you simply pretend to be one on the internet? If so, maybe you need more help than you think. Like most liberals, you can't stand to hear opinions or ideas that don't agree with yours. You're for a dictatorship, yet are too cowardly to admit to such a thing in public, just like lester, smilinjack and Mike Coleman.
Comment by Robert Rosencrans — May 20, 2008 @ 3:16 pm
As for some of those that have expressed their bigotry, Fear & hate mongering, spreading of lies, and APPEASEMENT of corporate whims, the days of OLD are nearly gone.
This is now a SMARTER and more visionary generation along side of those of earlier generations that have chosen the path of judging people by their CHARACTER not RACE or GENDER.
Amazing how America had been telling the Republican government to pay attention to our issues, now they are nearly extinct and they cry now what happened and they must change their ways. TOO LATE GOOD BYE!!!
Comment by Jerry EZ, TEXAS — May 20, 2008 @ 3:25 pm
So just how has Bush Jr's Iraq fiasco put ANY fear into Usama bin Laden or Iran, and how have Bush Jr's Iraq policies lessened, not increased, the influence of UbL, Iran or al-Qaeda?
Besides, no credence regarding "appesement" should be given Bush Jr, the President who appeased al-Qaeda, Iran and bin Laden by invading and occupying Iraq.
And if anyone can show, logically, how the US being bogged down in Iraq is somehow increasing US prestige & influence in the middle east, please do share.
Comment by KingCranky — May 20, 2008 @ 4:11 pm
Grandma McSame lost it again today. He is so confused about the mid-East. Like Igor, not only does McSame NOT know the differnce between Sunni and Shiite, he does not even know who the leader of Iran is. He keeps refering to Ahmadinejad as the leader of Iran,as do most of the looney neocons that frequent this site.
Now we know, not only does Grandpa McSame NOT know about economics, he doesn't even know who's in charge of Iran, then he criticizes Obama for wanting to have talks with Iran.
The GOoPers convention this year ought to be used for remedial geography studies for the loonatic fringe base of the party.
Comment by Lester — May 20, 2008 @ 4:26 pm
Igor, RR;
Unlike you, I don't listen to the rantings of Sean Insannity. I do research and have a better grasp of teh situation than both of you. In most of your post, you bring nothing of substance to the table, but reading you makes my day because it shows other peopel how stupid and low class you both are. Igor, I've told you before about coming to a gun fight with a knife, but instead of listening, you brought rosie with you to get beat up also. If you two haven't figured out byu now, you're both a joke, a cruel one but a joke nonetheless. We thinking people will read your post and make jokes about you as long as you want to post but make no mistake, your time is past and America will move forward with or without you. With folk like you two, we'll go without you.
Comment by Mike Coleman — May 20, 2008 @ 4:37 pm
Mike Coleman: Apparently your dream shot is a balkanized America, separated by race, not bought together by ideals.
Comment by Robert Rosencrans — May 20, 2008 @ 5:17 pm
From Mike Coleman
"Unlike you, I don't listen to the rantings of Sean Insannity. I do research and have a better grasp of teh situation than both of you."
Mike - You claim to have all this knowledge and then you devolve to the same rantings as most of these other bloggers without stating a position - just yelling.
King Cranky makes some fair points. The main one, which is implied but not stated, which is that our invasion of Iraq has strengthened Iran's hand. This is clearly true, mostly due to the inept way that the situation was handled after Saddam was defeated.
But we can't turn the clocks back. Obama's position of negotiation has been used by the Europeans for the last few years to no avail. Negotiation doesn't work since there is nothing they want more than nukes.
As long as they can sell their oil for $100+ a barrel to China then economic sanctions don't work.
But if Obama has some special knowledge on what Iran would want then he should share it. But merely talking with them won't work.
The problem has been that Bush has allowed negotiations to go on too long and now it looks like there is nothing anyone can do to stop Iran from getting their nukes.
Comment by Jay from Texas — May 20, 2008 @ 5:21 pm
Jan, you said nothing of substance and refuted no points. On another thread, I posted lots of itemized points about Obama. No matter, to his cult members he is not to be argued with. It's a typical cult reaction where any disagreement with their leader is perceived as a personal attack.
Comment by Igor R. — May 20, 2008 @ 5:50 pm
Lester, you call the same man a "Grandma" and "Grandpa" in the same post, and yet you call other people confused. I'd be ashamed, but you have no shame.
Comment by Igor R. — May 20, 2008 @ 5:53 pm
KingCranky, all Osama can do now is produce videos with any geographically identifiable marks erased so that he is not immediately wipe out. Videos don't crash into buildings.
When they capture the diaries of Jihadist in Iraq these days, especially from Al Qaeda in Iraq, they write of desperation and their will being broken. But you don't care, because you're a surrendocrat. There is no way to explain to you that a humiliating defeat does more damage than a difficult victory. Iran has just been defeated in Iraq, and all those who claim that all Shia are the same don't know what they are talking about. It's true that Iran had so flex it's muscle in Lebanon, but to say that giving them Iraq for the taking would increase America's prestige is insane. Of course the libs always counter "we should've kept Saddam in power". Had he cooperated that would've been the best solution, unfortunately he didn't.
Comment by Igor R. — May 20, 2008 @ 5:59 pm
Jay;
I don't know you and I haven't read your post. Unless you have something insightful to add to the conservation, remember this is an A B conservation C your way the hell out of it.
Comment by Mike Coleman — May 20, 2008 @ 7:05 pm
I see the Obamabots attack machine is alive and well on the Hill.
Comment by Robert Rosencrans — May 20, 2008 @ 7:21 pm
Rosencrans, Thanks providing the quote from Obama.
Where's the part where he talks about Bible-thumping bitter white people? Or did you just make that up?
That's exactly the point of Peter's article; McCain doesn't shy from making up a quote and then attacking the person on the basis of the fabrication.
That's exactly what you did.
The truth shall make you free.
Comment by smilinjack — May 20, 2008 @ 8:44 pm
Igor sez: "Of course the libs always counter "we should've kept Saddam in power"."
Actually, the first group to voice that opinion consisted of George Bush the father, Colin Powell, and Brent Scowcroft. Us libs are in great company! I repeat: Get a brain Igor.
Comment by rrose — May 20, 2008 @ 9:28 pm
smilinjack: You have poor reading and thinking skills. Get that IQ checked. I stated right in the post he never mentioned whites. Are you a moron or do you just pretend to be one on the internet?
Comment by Robert Rosencrans — May 21, 2008 @ 11:19 am
rrose, I'm no fan on Bush Sr, and even less so of Powell, Scowcroft, and Baker, the evil Republican surrendocrats. Your uncalled for attacks on my brain add nothing to your argument.
Comment by Igor R. — May 21, 2008 @ 2:37 pm
Just saw you on MSNBC 5/24/08 and find your EXCUSES for Senator Clintons remark about RFK reprehensible!
She's tired, she's not superhuman…got any more excuses for her?
Comment by Jen B. — May 24, 2008 @ 12:00 pm