Highlights From McCain Blogger Call
- 04.25.2008 - 11:49 AMJohn McCain held another blogger call, beginning by highlighting his differences with the Democrats on the economy. (”If people want their taxes raised,” he said, “I’m not their guy.”) But the most noteworthy comments came on the subject of Hamas and Bill Ayers.
I asked about Hamas’s endorsement of Barack Obama. McCain bluntly responded, ” It’s clear who Hamas wants to be the next President of the United States.” He continued “I will be Hamas’ worst nightmare” and said that he “never expects” to hear a Hamas official say they want him as President. On the subject of Bill Ayers, McCain displayed none of the hesitancy he has shown about discussing Reverend Wright. He said he was “a bit surprised” the media had not made more of Obama’s association with “an unrepentant terrorist” and Obama’s equation of his relationship with Ayers to his friendship with Senator Tom Coburn. McCain said he was “offended” by the latter and that a “repudiation and apology” are due from Obama to the American people.
Bottom line? McCain is not above going after his likely opponent on his association with radicals (and his apparent popularity with extremists worldwide)–so long as the subject is not Reverend Wright.
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April 25th, 2008 at 12:04 PM
He who would be Marble Man must deal with pigeons.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:18 PM
McCain is playing the Wright fiasco smartly; he doesn’t need to bring it up when everyone else is. There will be more than enough 527s jinning up ads on this after Labor Day. Ayers is a different matter, at least in McCain’s mind: a real terrorist, not a loudmouth phony wannabe like Wright.
Don’t get me wrong: I think Obama has plenty to answer for re Wright, and I see no harm in McCain making some basic points that everyone — even plenty on the left — have already made. But Maverick’s not bringing Wright up, or even responding to it in any serious way, may not be such a bad thing. Let Mav focus on Ayers, an association potentially even more deadly than that with his dumb anti-American preacher.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:22 PM
He’s clever to lay off the Wright thng. It’s Obama’s church, always a sensitive subject. The punditocracy will hammer on it regardless, and McCain can rise above the fray.
Criticizing riendship with a bomber, outside the philoboshevik world of academia, on the other hand, is unlikely to ruffle any feathers.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:26 PM
Seth:
Does this mean, to paraphrase the Reverend, that the pigeons are coming home to roost?
Maverick’s refusal to discuss Wright is no doubt on account of his own toxic preacherman, Hagee. Although yesterday on the bus the following exchange took place:
Q: You and your Democratic opponents spend a certain amount of time commenting on surrogates and endorsers, on what they said. Do you think that is in any way interfering with how you’re trying to conduct your campaign?
A: …I didn’t attend Pastor Hagee’s church for 20 years. There’s a great deal of difference in my view between someone who endorses you and other circumstances.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:41 PM
Comparing Hogee to Wright is like Obama comparing Coburn to the murderous bomb-throwers he used to hang with. But moral equivilance is one of the arrows in the MSM quiver.
April 25th, 2008 at 1:02 PM
Sure, lay off the Wright thing. That should get McCain another .02% of the black vote. but it might come at the expense of conservatives who get sick of McCain giving us the back of his hand. The self-righteous way in which McCain dismisses conservatives who want to remind Americans of Obamessiah’s association with the hatemonger reminds me why I can’t stand McCain, even as I realize I need to vote for the jerk.
April 25th, 2008 at 1:51 PM
Who cares who Hamas prefers? They don’t get to vote. And they didn’t “endorse” Obama either. You should be more precise about what they said.
I think Osama bin Laden wants McCain to win, so that the U.S. will stay in Iraq and Afghanistan forever. Same reason he released a tape in 2004, just before the Bush-Kerry election.
Ayers was acquitted. Coburn wants the death penalty for abortion. Both sound pretty extreme.
April 25th, 2008 at 2:23 PM
So, McCain thinks Hamas supports John Kennedy, too?
April 25th, 2008 at 2:27 PM
Ayers was acquitted. Coburn wants the death penalty for abortion. Both sound pretty extreme
Ayer’s acquittal on a technicality (he does not deny the underlying acts and wishes he would have done more) is a slim reed to compare him to Coburn’s belief that abortion deserves the death penalty. Is Coburn setting off bombs at abortion clinics or is he trying to use the democratic process to change the law? Call me when he starts a bombing campaign and then we can compare.
April 25th, 2008 at 5:06 PM
[…] particularly like that he said, “It’s clear who Hamas wants to be the next President of the United States.” Yes, […]