McCain: The next Zell Miller?
Posted: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 9:22 AM by Domenico Montanaro
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Joe Lieberman writes that “Obama, who, contrary to his rhetorical invocations of bipartisan change, has not been willing to stand up to his party's left wing on a single significant national security or international economic issue in this campaign. In this, Sen. Obama stands in stark contrast to John McCain, who has shown the political courage throughout his career to do what he thinks is right – regardless of its popularity in his party or outside it. John also understands something else that too many Democrats seem to have become confused about lately – the difference between America's friends and America's enemies.”
“There are of course times when it makes sense to engage in tough diplomacy with hostile governments. Yet what Mr. Obama has proposed is not selective engagement, but a blanket policy of meeting personally as president, without preconditions, in his first year in office, with the leaders of the most vicious, anti-American regimes on the planet. Mr. Obama has said that in proposing this, he is following in the footsteps of Reagan and JFK. But Kennedy never met with Castro, and Reagan never met with Khomeini. And can anyone imagine Presidents Kennedy or Reagan sitting down unconditionally with Ahmadinejad or Chavez? I certainly cannot.”
The Washington Post covers McCain’s attack on Obama on Cuba. “Sen. John McCain stepped up his assault on Sen. Barack Obama's foreign policy credentials at a rally in Miami yesterday, criticizing Obama's willingness to talk to Cuban President Raul Castro and other hostile foreign leaders without preconditions. But McCain's argument was undercut when a 2006 video emerged of former secretary of state James A. Baker III, a prominent McCain supporter, saying that "talking to an enemy is not in my view appeasement."
Will Bush once again tag-team Obama? Per NBC’s Kevin Corke, President Bush today will deliver remarks in the East Room commemorating May 21st as a "Day of Solidarity with the Cuban People."
In a speech in DC yesterday, Democrat Joe Biden had some tough words for President Bush and McCain on the subject of foreign policy. “The first thing last week revealed is an emerging, ugly pattern of political attacks masquerading as policy,” he said. “It started last month, when Senator McCain said: ‘I think it's very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States. So apparently has Danny Ortega and several others… If Senator Obama is favored by Hamas, I think people can make judgments accordingly.’ His surrogates repeated the charge.
“Then, last week, the President unleashed a long distance swift boat attack on Senator Obama and Democrats in the Israeli Knesset… What is stunning is that this is the only president I know -- and I've served with seven -- who would engage in this kind of activity while overseas in the Knesset. What is disheartening is that John McCain, a man I admire, endorsed the President’s remarks instead of repudiating them.”
Biden then concluded, “When it comes to the most urgent national security challenges we face -- Iraq, Iran and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan -- last week made it clear that stylistically and substantively, there is no day light between George Bush and John McCain. They are joined at the hip. There would be no change with a McCain presidency and so there will be a real choice for Americans next November.”
