Thursday, June 19, 2008

JOHN MCCAIN, BARACK OBAMA

Obama on Jerusalem vs. McCain on the Economy

We're going to hear seemingly endless references to these comments by John McCain, referring to his level of knowledge about the economy. He told the Wall Street Journal, "I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated," and has made other comments in a similar vein.

See, Senator, if you're humble enough to admit flaws like that, and nobody's ever going to start calling you the "McMessiah." But besides the honesty, let's observe that McCain spent most of his career in the military, and in the House and Senate he served on the Armed Services Committee (although he also spent time on Commerce and Indian Affairs). Of course his familiarity with national security issues is greater than his familiarity with economic issues. It's not like national security has been a back-burner issue since oh, autumn 2001.

Good luck getting anyone associated with Obama to admit that their guy lacks any knowledge on any topic. (Even when he refers to 57 states, or says U.S. troops liberated Auschwitz, and so on...)

Actually, scratch that: apparently his staff is declaring Obama didn't know what he was saying when he referred to "undivided Jerusalem":

Addressing a pro-Israel lobby group this month, the Democratic White House hopeful said: "Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided."

The comment angered Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in 1967, as the capital of a future state. "He has closed all doors to peace," Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said after the June 4 speech.

Obama later said Palestinians and Israelis had to negotiate the status of the city, in line with long-held U.S. presidential policy.

Daniel Kurtzer, who advises Obama on the Middle East, said Tuesday at the Israel Policy Forum that Obama's comment stemmed from "a picture in his mind of Jerusalem before 1967 with barbed wires and minefields and demilitarized zones."

"So he used a word to represent what he did not want to see again, and then realized afterwards that that word is a code word in the Middle East," Kurtzer said.

06/19 09:34 AMShare