McCain: What the World Will Look Like in 2013

[Darius871]

Originally posted by Ramo
All I'd like to know is why McCain believes that the Hamas dude's opinion on the election should be germane to the American people's decision. You still haven't provided a half-way plausible explanation.

Ok, let's just suppose McCain did intend to imply not only that Hamas has reason to believe Obama would be good for Hamas, but further that Obama would in fact be good for Hamas.

What does that have to do with whether or not Obama would conduct unconditional talks with Hamas? That's what the syllogism in #1 assumed, and I still fail to see where McCain said any such thing, even with the above supposition. That's all I really wanted to know from the beginning. Regardless of whether McCain did imply Obama would be less dangerous for Hamas' interests, when did he say Obama would hold unconditional talks? Just tell me and it'll all be over.

[DinoDoc]

McCain wasn't guilty of anything in that affair but I never said that the two were comparable. Please read the posts you respond to. I said that politicians will use things to attack thier opponents that they believe they can make into issues. That's the reason Wright, Rezco, and Ayers keep poping into the news as well.

[Ramo]

Darius, because a single question undergirds Hamas policy: do we engage? The hardliners (i.e. the political class) say that talking with them would be the policy that unduly favors Hamas. So if we find quote where he says that talking with Hamas helps them out (which would be part of any defense of the status quo policy), the hypocrisy circle is complete (i.e. Obama is relatively pro-Hamas, negotiations with Hamas would really help them out, I endorsed negotiations).

But whether or not this is sufficient to be classified as hypocrisy is not my main point. I don't know why you're focusing on it. I'm actually glad that at some point he privately endorsed talks; I just find the inconsistency amusing. I'm primarily concerned with his gutter politics of tarring the opposition with terrorists.

McCain wasn't guilty of anything in that affair but I never said that the two were comparable.

McCain was reprimanded for poor judgment by the Senate Ethics Cmte for his part in the Savings and Loan Scandal. Past political corruption is germane to the decision in November for obvious reasons. I still don't know how the Hamas dude's opinion is supposed to be important to the American voter.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

For the record McCain has been entirely consistent re: Hamas and talks.

The Rubin interview in its entirety (as opposed to the creative editing so envogue these days) clearly shows McCain saying that any talks with Hamas would be predicated on their behavior and their acting responsibly predictably seeing what transpired when they formed their government and what policies they enacted before deciding any engagement strategy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A-o2U4Y7DQ