The Obama campaign needs to respond forcefully and urgently to McCain's attempt to link Obama to Hamas. Here's what Obama surrogates should be saying tomorrow morning on all the chat shows:
We are stunned to see John McCain suddenly embrace vicious, gutter-style politics. Saying that a Democratic presidential contender is the terrorists' favorite is the worst kind of nasty, partisan, smear game. It's also just plain un-American. John McCain should be ashamed of himself.
It's the same kind of tactic that George Bush and Dick Cheney have been using to demonize their opponents for the last 7 years. John McCain is seriously jeopardizing his reputation as a reasonable, honorable politician by engaging in such below-the-belt attacks. Such statements should not be part of American political discourse.
We don't know whether it's because he's afraid of facing Barack Obama in the fall, or whether Karl Rove or some other Republican operative is feeding him this strategy. But either way, he is risking his appeal to independent voters with this kind of harsh, desperate Swift-Boat-style gambit.
The truth is, Hamas, Al Qaida and other terrorist groups have only grown stronger as a result of the policies pursued by George Bush and embraced by John McCain. President Barack Obama will not meet with extremist groups like Hamas until they renounce their violent ways, but he will bring Middle Eastern governments together, to break the stalemate caused by this administration's dead-end foreign policies, and restore America's reputation around the world.
To boil it down to key points:
» This is a shocking, out-of-bounds, gutter-style tactic for John McCain to embrace.
» It's a continuation of destructive Bush/Cheney/Rove politics.
» "It's not just a crime, it's a mistake": He is risking his own image as a moderate, bipartisan figure, and will alienate independents and moderates. It's a dangerous move.
» McCain is afraid of Obama, and would rather face Hillary in the fall.
» Bush/Cheney/McCain policies are helping terrorists.
And most importantly:
» Linking an opponent to terrorist groups is despicable and un-American.