Obama should link McCain to Bush's failed foreign policy from Cuba to Syria

[ProSense]

05/21/2008

Senator John Kerry on Israel-Syria Negotiations

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator John Kerry today reacted to the public acknowledgement by Israel and Syria that they are engaged through Turkey on negotiations aimed towards reaching a comprehensive peace agreement.

“The United States should heed the public acknowledgement by Israel and Syria that they are engaged through Turkey on negotiations designed to reach a comprehensive peace agreement as a wakeup call. What did the leaders of Israel, already engaged in negotiations with Syria, think when President Bush stood before the Israeli Knesset and invoked Hitler in labeling engagement with rogue nations ‘appeasement?’”

Senator McCain parroted his response, and adopted Bush’s failed polices for his own political ends. James Cunningham – nominated as Ambassador to Israel – recently acknowledged the Administration’s dismissive approach to these talks.

“It is one thing for the Administration to pursue its own misguided and failed approach of trying to ignore Syria, it’s entirely another to discourage Israel from pursuing peace. If the Administration and John McCain are serious about supporting our ally Israel, they should immediately reverse course and make clear that America stands ready to help move the peace process forward, including by engaging with Syria.”

The American government opposed Israeli-Syrian negotiations because they feared that such a negotiation would reward Syria at a time when the United States is seeking to isolate it for its backing of Hezbollah and its meddling in Lebanon, Bush administration and Israeli officials said. The United States yielded when it became clear that Israel was determined to go ahead, they said.

The talks come less than a week after President Bush, speaking to the Israeli Parliament, created a stir by criticizing those who would negotiate with “terrorists and radicals.” Mr. Bush’s remarks have become an issue in the American presidential campaign because they were widely perceived as a rebuke to Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic front-runner.

Turkey, a Muslim country and member of NATO, is a close ally of the United States. It is also Syria’s neighbor and has an interest in securing regional peace.

The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been working on convening negotiations for some time, an official in his office said, including holding phone conversations with leaders on both sides, and assigning a special envoy to handle the diplomatic back-and-forth. The fact that messages were being exchanged has been public for a couple of months, because of official Syrian statements.

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Misreading the Cuba Vote

Thursday, May. 22, 2008 By TIM PADGETT/MIAMI

John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, no doubt believes he scored a 10 with his hard-line Cuba policy speech in Miami earlier this week. But presidential candidates, like figure skaters, are often judged on the originality of their moves —and in that regard McCain may be staring at lower marks in the crucial swing state of Florida than his campaign appreciates.

McCain got the jump on Barack Obama, who is slated to speak to the Cuban-American National Foundation in Miami on Friday. But while Obama is expected to outline a more nuanced approach to Cuba, McCain's visit to Little Havana and his speech to more conservative Cuban-Americans were rote repeats of the routine every White House hopeful performs in Miami: cafe cubano at the Versailles restaurant followed by equally caffeinated bellowing about his anti-Castro bona fides and the Cuba-policy cowardice of his opponent, in this case Obama. President Franklin Roosevelt "didn't talk with Hitler," McCain argued, attacking Obama's recent suggestion that if elected President he would open a dialogue with communist Cuba's leader, Raul Castro, as well as leaders of other hostile nations such as Iran.

The McCain mambo, not surprisingly, got robust applause at the town hall meeting he addressed. But outside those walls the response was more subdued. If McCain is vulnerable to the charge that his presidency would effectively be a Bush third term, he might want to explore Florida beyond the echo chamber of the older Cuban exile community. He's likely to find a growing number of younger, more moderate Cuban-Americans who no longer believe the 46-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba will topple the Castro regime and who yearn to hear candidates discuss matters besides Cuba, like the alarming lack of accessible health care among Latinos. "Waving the bloody shirt of anti-Castro politics is going to be less effective" in this election, says political analyst Dario Moreno of Florida International University in Miami. "The Cuba issue is losing its saliency."

Even moderate Cuban-Americans want to see the Castros gone and democracy returned to their ancestral island. But most resent President Bush's policy of letting them visit their relatives in Cuba only once every three years (although Bush announced on Wednesday that he'll allow Americans to send cell phones to Cubans now that Raul Castro has permitted his citizens to own them). And when recent surveys show that even a majority of Miami Cubans, of all people, favor relaxing the restrictions — in an FIU poll 55% backed unlimited travel to Cuba — it's probably time for U.S. politicians to drop the one-string embargo banjo and pick up a new instrument for effecting change across the Florida Straits.

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Foreign policy train wreck: Bush, McCain, McBush -- No More Years



On edit: It's clear McCain would rather avoid domestic policy and focus on his foreign policy experience and military experience, and his judgment in both areas is flawed.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

1. lol. I love that McCain pic.

[ProSense]

4. Guess nobody likes McCain. lol n/t

[PBS Poll-435]

2. I am thrilled at your OP. Fantastic! K&R nt

[ProSense]

3. Obama Hits McCain For "Schoolyard Taunts"

Obama Hits McCain For "Schoolyard Taunts"

By Greg Sargent - May 22, 2008, 5:54PM

Earlier today, John McCain responded to Obama's criticism of him for not supporting Jim Webb's 21st Century G.I. bill by saying: I served in the military; you didn't.

Here's Obama's response:

"I am proud to stand with Senator Webb and a bipartisan coalition to give our veterans the support and opportunity they deserve. It's disappointing that Senator McCain and his campaign used this issue to launch yet another lengthy personal, political attack instead of debating an honest policy difference. He should know that this is not about John McCain or Barack Obama -- it's about giving our veterans a real chance to afford four years of college without harming retention. Senator Webb's bipartisan bill will do this, and the bill that John McCain supports would not. These endless diatribes and schoolyard taunts from the McCain campaign do nothing to advance the debate about what matters to the American people."

This is about the people impacted by our policy decisions, "not about John McCain or Barack Obama," he says -- striking directly at McCain's effort to make the G.I. bill debate about his biography.

The McCain campaign, of course, will try to make the conversation all about his bio for the next five months.