Was McCain For Negotiating With Hamas Before He Was Against It?
The McCain campaign is hitting back at a widely-circulated Washington Post Op ed published today by foreign policy expert Jamie Rubin.
Rubin claims that McCain said in a 2006 interview with Rubin that we have to "deal with" Hamas -- in seeming contradiction with his attacks on Obama.
According to Rubin, McCain said of Hamas: "They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another."
That would seem to be at odds, at least in spirit, with McCain's pronouncement yesterday that Obama is unfit to defend America based on his willingness to negotiate with hostile foreign powers.
But the McCain camp claims that there's no contradiction here at all.
"John McCain's position is clear and has always been clear, the President of the United States should not unconditionally meet with leaders of Iran, Hamas or Hezbollah," McCain spokesperson Tucker Bounds said in a statement.
The statement continued: "Barack Obama has made his position equally clear, and has pledged to meet unconditionally with Iran's leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the leaders of other rogue regimes."
It's true that "deal with" (McCain's formulation above) is not the same as "willing to meet with during the first year with no preconditions" (Obama's formulation with regard to countries like Iran and North Korea).
Nonetheless, the McCain campaign is fudging the facts in this statement. Obama has never, ever said that the United States should "unconditionally meet with" leaders of Hamas or Hezbollah, as this statement clearly tries to imply (without quite saying).
In fact, Obama has explicitly said that we should only meet with Hamas "if they renounce terrorism, recognize Israel's right to exist and abide by past agreements."
I've seen this act before and frankly Senator Clinton did it MUCH better.
May 16, 2008 12:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain Of The Panderosa.
More War Years! More War Years! More War Years!
A vote for The Maverick Of The Panderosa, is like a Vote for the Cowboy from Crawford that rounded him up and branded him.
More War Years! More War Years! More War Years!
May 16, 2008 12:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
God I love that chant.
May 16, 2008 12:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
So much for the straight talk express, eh?
May 16, 2008 12:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow. Is this the best they can do? Incoherent and contradictory flip-floppery? The Obama campaign will drive this 3-1 fastball onto frickin' Waveland Avenue, folks.
May 16, 2008 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dude,
Love the Cubbies metaphor!
-
Obama/Olbermann '08!
May 16, 2008 12:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Does that make Obama Albert Pujols?
May 16, 2008 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
No. Obama is NOT Poo-Holes. He is, if anything, Derek Lee...
May 16, 2008 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rut-roh!
McSame caught in a spinning lie.
Say "G'night," McBush.
May 16, 2008 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your "?" at the end of the headline is unwarranted. McCain seems to neither for anything nor against anything- Global Warming, Foriegn Policy, Iraq, Oil Crissis- either for everything or against everything.
No platform as yet- all over the place.
May 16, 2008 12:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain is pro-anything. He is definitely anti-anti-anything. "I condemn remarks that are, in any way, viewed as anti-anything."
May 16, 2008 12:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
No no no.. he is pro-magic ponies, anti-bad things.
;-)
May 16, 2008 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
the Harvard physics department. 62 faculty, of which:
women: 4
AAs: 0
http://www.physics.harvard.edu/people/faculty.html
May 16, 2008 12:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow, and how many inbred, toothless racists do they have on staff?
Maybe you should go looking for a job? You'd have to leave your cushy job at Taco Bell, but I'm sure they could find somebody else to clean the bathrooms during the night shift.
May 16, 2008 12:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hoho,,,hilarious! The guys screen name is Monkey for Obama! Come here often, Grand Wizard?
May 16, 2008 12:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
McShame - speaks with Forked Tongue!
May 16, 2008 12:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Greg, no response from the Obama camp, or are they addressing that in his speech today?
You usually have a pretty quick response from the Clinton camp about anything that comes out against them.
May 16, 2008 12:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Come on, Joe Biden -- this deserves a "bullshit" too.
May 16, 2008 12:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's making flippy floppy again. Ain't that cute.
When are the Democrats going to call him on it? They could resurrect all the '04 ads accusing Kerry of flip flopping and change the names and the faces.
May 16, 2008 12:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
When are they going to start hitting him on his denial of the Iran/Contra affair?
I mean really, there are so many things to go after McSame about. Flip flopping is the tip of the iceburg.
Here is my prediction: The media will fall out of love with McSame soon. They will, because of the increased focus on his campaign, start asking him to explain his delusional statements and that will make McSame very angry. And an angry McSame is not a pleasant McSame.
He will, eventually, start snapping at the media like he did with Maria Shriver in 2000. Remember that? Here is the video. (Good lord I love youtube.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYsFabidw3I
May 16, 2008 12:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
The media is already in love with McCain - they are the ones who hung the straight shooter and maverick signs around his neck.
McCain has a fabulous relationship with the media - have you not noticed this? He makes campaigning with him easy and fun for the media - lots of perks.
They love him.
May 16, 2008 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not denying that T. All I'm saying is that the media is fickle and will turn on ANYBODY if given a reason.
And soon enough McCain will give them that reason.
Besides, no matter how the media feel about McSame, their one true love will always be ratings.
May 16, 2008 12:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's true, too, and I think the media follows the money and the money is not with the GOP.
So I expect some disenchantment. But McCain has had one of the best media relationships for many years I've ever seen a politician have. He's showed up everywhere, including TDS, a number of times.
Jon has expressed disappointment in recent times - but that's Jon.
still, he has this huge disadvantage with the media, on top of all the disadvantages he has - he isn't Barack Obama. Has there ever been a more compelling candidate story? If the media doesn't fall all over him, I will be surprised.
but I never trust the media cause I've found it's rather best not to.
May 16, 2008 12:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
My Friends, here's a little Straight Talk (TM) for you...
Every time I hear this, my bullshit meter goes off the charts.
It's ironic (Orwellian?) that whenever McCain says he's gonna give us "Straight Talk", it's just full of lies and flip-flops. The man's a panderer of the worst kind.
May 16, 2008 12:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have always maintained that you could tell exactly what Bush was doing or was going to do by listening to him and being aware that whatever he was saying he was never going to do was what he was doing.
The corollary is everytime Bush or any Repug accuses a Democrat of doing something, you can absolutely depend upon it that it is that Repug who is doing it.
May 16, 2008 12:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Reminds me of what David Chase says on many of his commentary tracks for the Sopranos DVDs -- something to the effect of "You gotta remember, almost everything these guys say to each other is a lie."
May 16, 2008 12:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, sure.
The clue is "My friends".
No, Senator Bush-McCain, you are not our friend.
May 16, 2008 12:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
My friends and I have a drinking game. Whenever we see the headline "McCain Responds to Hypocrisy Accusation" we have to stop whatever we're doing and take a shot of tequila. So far, three of us have ended up in rehab, 2 are in jail and and one is on YouTube dancing in his underwear in a supermarket.
May 16, 2008 12:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOL!!!!
O baby, y'all need to stop that - you're all gonna die! That's a straight up path to alcohol poisoning!
May 16, 2008 12:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice. :)
May 16, 2008 12:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
ROFL
May 16, 2008 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Times had a nice little box detailing McCain's statements about how "setting a timetable is an invitation to our enemies" right next to the "our troops will come home in 2013".
I was delighted to see the contradictions highlighted.
May 16, 2008 12:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it's time "Straight Talk Express", even within ironic quotes, is retired as the central metaphor for McCain's campaign.
In view of the easy hits he's teed up to take as soon as attention is focused on him, I propose:
"The McCain Pinata"
May 16, 2008 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
w wanted democracy in Gaza and got Hamas.
Sometimes, the democracy you want is not the democracy you get.
Takes this ridiculous Dem election for example.
Rewarding a candidate after getting crushed in an election like WV and PA is anything but fair.
Before we start demanding Democracy in other countries, we should get ours right first.
May 16, 2008 12:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Get thee behind me, Rush.
May 16, 2008 12:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Aw it's kinda cute in its pathos and stupidity. It still insists this was an election. It doesn't compute primary.
May 16, 2008 12:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly Gotalife - OBama is JUST LIKE HAMAS!
Seriously - the parallels are EXACTLY THE SAME - A democratically elected progressive with a nonviolent, grassroots base changing the face of american politics and A VIOLENT, FUNDAMENTALIST RELIGIOUS MILITIA THAT SWEARS TO WIPE A DEMOCRATIC STATE FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH.
It's the exact same thing! How is this not obviosu to everyone else?
PS - GL - totally dig the subtlety - knock bush for the appeasement bit - then tie Obama to Hamas (this is why I am #1 fan).
PPS: You stil hung over from that party at Fogu's house? It was actually pretty cool till his mom kicked us out of the basement (lame!).
(Way to keep it subtle - heh heh heh (laugh))
May 16, 2008 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bravo!
May 16, 2008 12:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Awesome, you are "finally finding your voice".
(thumbs up)
May 16, 2008 3:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
You get style points for not including the standard reference to kool-aid.
However, you lose those style points by describing a less than 10% victory by Clinton as Obama getting "crushed".
May 16, 2008 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Where is Troll Critic?
May 16, 2008 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just what I was thinking. He's got competition.
But we'll take them BOTH! We're a big tent! :)
May 16, 2008 1:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rewarding a candidate after getting crushed in an election like WV and PA is anything but fair.
But rewarding a candidate for beating the shit out of his opponent in an "election" like NC and MS and VT and MD and IL and GA and AL and WI and DC and VA and LA and UT and MO and CT and DE and SC and HI and WY and WA and NE and MN and AK and TX and ID and KS and ND and CO and ME and IA... is fair.
In fact, that's how this process is supposed to work.
May 16, 2008 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's a solid bit of reporting, Greg.
Now watch me hit this drive!
May 16, 2008 12:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Old man yells at cloud!
May 16, 2008 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love it when Olberman says that.
May 16, 2008 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
The visual that conjures up is priceless!
May 16, 2008 1:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
This guy is obviously trying to bait people into talking about race and racists. You're falling for his trap by even calling him a racist. The more the republicans get this campaign to be about race instead of about real issues the more we all lose.
May 16, 2008 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was trying to reply to the Monkey for Obama guy sorry.
May 16, 2008 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not one of your chronic Greg Sargent-bashers.
But paras two and three state:
"Rubin claims that McCain said in a 2006 interview ... "
and
"According to Rubin, McCain said of Hamas ... ."
A couple of items down, Eric Kleefeld's post provides the actual video -- and yes, indeed, McCain did say precisely those words.
So shouldn't Greg post at least a late update noting the accuracy of Rubin's claims?
Maybe reefering the video below?
There is a big difference between a claim that McCain said something, and incontrovertible evidence that he did.
May 16, 2008 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Fudging"...?
Call it what it is.. LYING
May 16, 2008 3:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain has massively repackaged himself from an independent maverick to a neocon tool. As the left pulls up quote after quote from the old McCain transposed against quotes from the McCain now running for president, Johnny will have lots of splaining to do.
May 17, 2008 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink