Over the past month, foreign agents have had a tremendous impact on two key decisions made by John McCain during his presidential campaign. First, McCain endorsed Osama bin Laden's views on the Iraq war. Second, over the past week, McCain has embraced the words of a Hamas leader to divide the American electorate.
Here is McCain in late March, justifying the war in Iraq with Osama bin Laden's declaration that Iraq is the central battle ground in the war on terror:
Sadly, McCain never considered the possibility that bin Laden is perfectly content with us wasting untold billions and needlessly sacrificing American lives in Iraq -- just as long as we don't actually go after him, wherever he might be. It's too bad McCain didn't remember the advice of General George S. Patton: "Never let the enemy pick the battle site."
Now, one month later, McCain is once again embracing the words of a foreign agent to make a point on the campaign trail, this time arguing that a Hamas member's praise for Barack Obama should be an issue in the 2008 election. Andrew Sullivan wrecks McCain's argument:
My response is simply that honorable campaigns do not allow foreign agents, especially terrorist organizations, to insert themselves into American presidential politics. No respectable foreign governments do such a thing; and the gambits of al Qaeda, Hamas, or any other grouping to play one candidate against another should in general be ignored, not exploited.
The absurdity of this is that while John McCain is allowing foreign agents to have a significant impact on his presidential bid, the media is obsessed with whether or not Barack Obama is sufficiently patriotic. Last weekend, for example, George Stephanopolous spent three minutes of a twenty-three minute interview with McCain discussing Barack Obama's patriotism. That's 13% of the entire interview -- and not a single question about McCain's endorsement of Osama bin Laden's plan for war in Iraq.
These guys can talk about their tiny little definition of patriotism all they want, but I'll tell you this: no matter what their intent, what they are actually doing is far worse for this country -- and the world -- than anything they've even dreamt of accusing Barack Obama of having done.
