For all the hype about Barack Obama being some new kind of politician, in
one
respect he is very similar to recent Democratic presidential nominees: He
takes criticism very badly, responding to it by getting both defensive and
nasty. It is a most unattractive quality.
CNN re****ts on a case in point:
"This is offensive, and I think it's disappointing," Obama
told [Wolf] Blitzer, when asked his thoughts about McCain's
comments that the terrorist organization Hamas wants Obama
to be president. "Because John McCain always says 'I am not
going to run that kind of politics,' and to engage in that
kind of smear is unfortunate, particularly because my policy
toward Hamas has been no different than his.
"I've said it's a terrorist organization and we should not
negotiate with them unless they recognize Israel, renounce
violence, and unless they are willing to abide by previous
accords between the Palestinians and the Israelis. So for
him to toss out comments like that I think is an example of
him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination. We
don't need name calling in this debate."
Commentary's Abe Greenwald has the background on the so-called smear:
Jennifer [Rubin, a Commentary blogress] is too modest to
mention it, but she played a considerable role in the "smear"
to which Obama [yesterday] referred. It was during a blogger
conference call on April 25 that she, in fact, asked John
McCain to comment on Hamas's preference for Obama above the
other presidential candidates. As it happens, I was on that
call as well. And it's worth noting the nature of McCain's
response to Jennifer. He began his reply by saying, "All I
can tell you, Jennifer, is that I think it's very clear who
Hamas wants to be the next President of the United States."
Considering the situation, this is about the most delicately
phrased response that one could have expected. It was not in
the least a smear. Jennifer introduced Hamas's very real
preference into the conversation. John McCain essentially
chose to let the facts speak for themselves.
As noted last month, Hamas leader Ahmed Yousef did in fact endorse Obama,
in
an interview with WABC-AM's John Batchelor. McCain's statement that "it's
very
clear who Hamas wants to be the next president" is far less of a smear
than
Obama's characterization of McCain as having "lost his bearings," plainly
an
attempt to stereotype the septuagenarian McCain as suffering from
dementia. No
wonder Hillary Clinton does so well among superannuated primary voters.
Obama's perturbability in the face of criticism was also evident in his
response to the various comments by Jeremiah Wright (the man of whom
Barack
Obama says, "He was never my quote-unquote spiritual adviser," although he
served on the Obama campaign's quote-unquote spiritual advisory
committee),
Sept. 11 was chickens coming home to roost? Hey, we all have uncles who
say
crazy things. "God damn America"? He meant it in the best possible way.
Barack
Obama is acting like a politician? That got him angry, although it was
almost
as indisputably accurate as McCain's statement about Hamas.
One difference between Obama's and McCain's policies toward Hamas, as The
Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb points out, is that Obama is eager to
meet
with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the public face of Iran's revolutionary Islamic
regime, which is the terror group's chief patron. The purpose of the
meeting
is unclear, but Obama seems to suggest that he would somehow charm
Ahmadinejad
into submission. Can there be any doubt, though, that Ahmadinejad is now
taking note of how easily rattled his prospective interlocutor is?
--
It is simply breathtaking to watch the glee and abandon with which
the liberal media and the Angry Left have been attempting to turn
our military victory in Iraq into a second Vietnam quagmire. Too bad
for them, it's failing.
|
