Mark Salter on Team Hope

Earlier today on CNN, Barack Obama essentially called John McCain a loony old man for mentioning that Hamas has endorsed Barack Obama.

Now, of course, Howard Dean and the DNC have said that they won’t make Senator McCain’s age an issue, but we’ve already seen the “ethical bar” that Dean and Obama have, so it isn’t a shock that Senator Obama would try this. It became clear that Barack Obama’s “new politics” are little more than old style Chicago sewer politics.

Anyway, Senator McCain’s Chief of Staff Mark Salter responded with this letter.

To: Interested Parties

From: Mark Salter, Senior Advisor

Date: May 8, 2008

Re: Senator Obama’s Attack Today

First, let us be clear about the nature of Senator Obama’s attack today: He used the words ‘losing his bearings’ intentionally, a not particularly clever way of raising John McCain’s age as an issue. This is typical of the Obama style of campaigning.

We have all become familiar with Senator Obama’s new brand of politics. First, you demand civility from your opponent, then you attack him, distort his record and send out surrogates to question his integrity. It is called hypocrisy, and it is the oldest kind of politics there is.

It is important to focus on what Senator Obama is attempting to do here: He is trying desperately to delegitimize the discussion of issues that raise legitimate questions about his judgment and preparedness to be President of the United States.

Through their actions and words, Senator Obama and his supporters have made clear that ANY criticism on ANY issue — from his desire to raise taxes on millions of small investors to his radical plans to sit down face-to-face with Iranian President Ahmadinejad – constitute negative, personal attacks.

Senator Obama is hopeful that the media will continue to form a protective barrier around him, declaring serious limits to the questions, discussion and debate in this race.

Senator Obama has good reason to think this plan will succeed, as serious journalists have written of the need for ‘de-tox’ to cure ’swooning’ over Senator Obama, and others have admitted to losing their objectivity while with him on the campaign trail.

Today, Senator Obama is complaining about comments John McCain made about a senior Hamas advisor stating that Hamas would welcome Senator Obama’s election as president. Indeed, on April 13th, senior Hamas political advisor Ahmed Yousef said, ‘We don’t mind – actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance.’

The McCain campaign has never suggested that Senator Obama supports Hamas’ agenda, but it is more than fair to raise this quote about Senator Obama because it speaks to the policy implications of his judgment.

Just today, the president of Iran, whom Senator Obama wants to meet with unconditionally, called the state of Israel a ’stinking corpse.’ Iran is the paymaster and state sponsor of Hamas.

In his victory speech this week, Senator Obama stated that ‘wisdom’ is meeting with our enemies, including Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, North Korea’s Kim Jong Il, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Cuba’s Raul Castro. John McCain couldn’t disagree more. Rather than giving tyrants and dictators the prestige of meeting with an American president, John McCain will instead meet with the champions of human freedom around the world and opposition leaders fighting for liberty .

We understand why Senator Obama doesn’t want to engage in a debate over leadership and judgment with John McCain, but the American people demand that debate take place.

These are serious times that call for a serious debate on the profound issues facing our future. John McCain is ready for that debate and we hope Senator Obama will one day get serious and join it.

Team Hope fired back with their usual line about Hope and Change or something. I see no reason to post it, I’m sure you can all recite it off without having to read it.

Tags: age, Barack Obama, DNC, John McCain, mccain, Obama

7 comments May 9th, 2008

Oh That Dean!

Howard Dean lives in a bad sitcom. I’m positive of this. When Dean says or does something absurd, a laugh track must go off. Case in point, the new DNC ad.

Yes, Howard Dean and the DNC are running an ad on a premise that has been repeatedly discredited.

*insert laugh track here*

Tags: DNC, Howard Dean, iraq, John McCain, mccain

Add comment April 27th, 2008

Dems Playing Dirty Pool

Promises from the left of a decent and honorable campaign so far are coming up short.  Comments from Obama surrogates stating that Senator McCain is war monger and that his military experience shows that he doesn’t care about people are far from the ‘new politics’ that Senator Obama promises.  The left has been crying dirty pool for the last eight years, and now their the ones with a pool cue in their hand.  There’s always a challenge when candidates have other people speak for them, but it you compare the two sides Senator McCain is seriously out-classing the Democrats.  When supporters were repeatedly using Senator Obama’s middle name, the McCain campaign told them to stop.  When a radio host introducing him at an event went on a rant against Senator Obama, Senator McCain condemned it angering some conservatives.  When a McCain blogger posted video about the Jeremiah  Wright controversy, he was suspended from the campaign. 

The Democrats on the other hand have their leader, Howard Dean, making personal attacks calling Senator McCain an opportunist.  This is an attack which is both personal and baseless.  The liberal blog The Atlantic posted an admittedly unsubstatiated article that was a direct personal attack on the Senator.  The Democrats have accepted and embraced political dirty pool.  If this trend continues, and if America is truly seeking a more decent and respectful style of politics Senator McCain has shown himself to be the leader bringing this change.

Tags: campaign, change, decency, Democrats, dirty pool, DNC, honor, honorable, Howard Dean, mccain, Obama, republicans, rnc, rockefeller, wright

3 comments April 9th, 2008

AL GORE?!

Red State has a blog entry stating that pollster John Zogby suggested that high ranking Democratic party members want Barack Obama to release his delegates to former Vice President Al Gore so the party can nominate Gore to face John McCain in November.

I pray they do this.

The Democrats are facing a potential meltdown in Denver because they have two candidates that are so attractive to the Democratic electorate. Including Florida’s results, over 27 million people have voted, and the popular vote is split roughly 50/50. Because things are so close, neither candidate will be able to reach the 2,024 pledged delegates, and things are going to be decided by superdelegates.

The obvious problem there is no matter who the party throws the nomination to, roughly half of the voters will feel that their candidate lost the election in the ’smoke-filled room.’ For their sake, Howard Dean and the DNC needs to find a solution that is at least acceptable to the vast majority of the electorate.

Handing the nomination to the man that has not a single delegate in the 2008 election cycle, no matter how popular that man is, is not the answer.

If they steal the nomination from both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and give it to an old white guy, they will hand the Presidency over to John McCain.

If the Democratic Party really wants to go that route (and I doubt they are seriously considering it), they will be making their own grave.

Not that I’m complaining. Heck, I hope they do something like that every election cycle.

Tags: Al Gore, delegates, Denver, DNC, General Election

2 comments March 21st, 2008