Senator Obama may not be the official nominee for the democrats, but it appears that this is just a technicality. The attacks have started and the spin room is out of control. It’s going to be impossible to keep track, but I’m going to give it my best shot.
Spin #1: Hamas Endorses Senator Obama’s Candidacy:
In a radio interview back in April, a top Hamas political advisor stated:
“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,” Yousef said in response to a question about the group’s willingness to meet with either of the Democratic presidential candidates. (FoxNews)
Senator McCain’s campaign manager sent an e-mail to donors with the subject line, “Hamas Weighs In On U.S. Presidential Election.”
Barack Obama’s foreign policy plans have even won him praise from Hamas leaders. Ahmed Yousef, chief political adviser to the Hamas Prime Minister said, “We like Mr. Obama and we hope he will win the election. He has a vision to change America.”
We need change in America, but not the kind of change that wins kind words from Hamas, surrenders in Iraq and will hold unconditional talks with Iranian President Ahmadinejad. (HuffingtonPost)
So we are going to twist this statement around to somehow imply that Senator Obama is a Hamas supporter. In an interview on CNN with Wolf BLitzer, Senator Obama had the following to say in regards to Senator McCain’s statements:
“This is offensive, and I think it’s disappointing, because John McCain always says, ‘Well, I’m not going to run that kind of politics,’” Obama said. “And then to engage in that kind of smear, I think, is unfortunate, particularly since my policy toward Hamas has been no different than his.”
The Illinois senator added: “For him to toss out comments like that, I think, is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination. We don’t need name-calling in this debate.” (Associated Press)
And that brings us to:
Spin #2: Obama Makes Age-Related Attack on McCain:
Senator McCain’s camp wasted no time in firing off an angry retort in regards to Senator Obama’s comments.
“He used the words ‘losing his bearings’ intentionally, a not-particularly-clever way of raising John McCain’s age as an issue,” McCain adviser Mark Salter said. “It is more than fair to raise this quote about Senator Obama, because it speaks to the policy implications of his judgment.”
I fail to see how losing one’s bearings has anything to do with age. Perhaps they are getting a bit sensitive in the McCain camp. Quite frankly, I feel that Senator McCain’s age is a fair issue. He is 71 years old. The republicans had much younger candidates to choose from. Maybe they should have chosen better.
Obama ’08
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