Obama, McCain On South Ossetia

[deminks]

http://www.atlargely.com/2008/08/obama-mccain-on.html

The Politico's Ben Smith writes that the conflict in the Caucusus presents a true “3 a.m. moment,” and notes the marked differences in Obama and McCain's responses.

While Obama offered a response largely in line with statements issued by democratically elected world leaders, including President Bush, first calling on both sides to negotiate, John McCain took a remarkably—and uniquely—more aggressive stance, siding clearly with Georgia’s pro-Western leaders and placing the blame for the conflict entirely on Russia.

The abrupt crisis in an obscure hotspot had the features of the real foreign policy situations presidents face—not the clean hypotheticals of candidates’ white papers and debating points.

(snip)

McCain's campaign says Obama wanting both sides to negotiate is "appeasement" - an interesting charge to level at Bush, Sarkozy, Merkel, Brown et al, who have alll also called for the same thing. But John "Cotton Hill" McCain doesn't care for pantywaist effete elitism - no negotiations for him. He's got a Cold War hate on for Russia, as evidenced by his previous calls to expel Russia from the G-8.

(snip)

McCain doesn't want to understand the Russian response. If he was the one taking those 3am phone cals on this conflict, there would be American armed might on its way to Georgia to confront Russia right now and the world would be listening to the ticking clock of holocaust. That's far too dangerous a man to allow into the Oval Office.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. A good point, when you can debate such things seriously

but sadly, I wonder if many floating voters would get influenced by anything other than a soundbite from McCain's camp of "moral clarity and American exceptionalism", as that puts it.

[deminks]

3. That, or be influenced by the fact that his senior advisor was a lobbyist for Georgia

(snip)

But as McCain backs "freedom loving" little Georgia (and his neocon/lobbyist senior advisor Randy Scheunemann, who until march was working for gGeorgia) and accuses Russia of trampling all over its sovereignty, he's neglecting a couple of major factors. For one, Russia is in South Ossetia with a CIS mandate for peacekeeping. For a second, tiny freedom-loving South Ossetia has voted several times for independence from it's bigger neighbour, which won't let it go.

[TomClash]

2. If that's his response

He's not fit to be CIC. Period.

[deminks]

4. Kick, because someone will ask you for the difference in the next day or two

and you don't want your answer to be:

"Well, I don't know what Obama said about the new war, but I do know that John Edwards slept with someone in 2006. Isn't that awful?"

Now that answer is going to make you look stoooopid. So read something else for a while. Get the answers from people who are thinking about other things.


So how is that for a reason to kick my own post?