Country Elections First

Remember, way back in April, when the McCain campaign was trumpeting that Obama was being supported by Hamas?

In an interview with ABC radio, Hamas political adviser Ahmed Yousef said:

"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.

We like Mr. Obama and we hope he will win the election. He has a vision to change America."

Almost instantaneously, the McCain campaign sent a fundraising email titled "Hamas Weighs In On U.S. Presidential Election." Joe Lieberman, too, took up the charge. And on April 25, McCain himself blasted Obama:

"I think it is very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States...I think that the people should understand that I will be Hamas' worst nightmare.

"I never expect for the leader of Hamas...to say that he wants me as president of the United States. I think it is very clear...why they would not want me to be president of the United States, so if Senator Obama is favored by Hamas, I think people can make judgments accordingly."

Well... whoopsie.

Back in April, John McCain and his allies taunted Barack Obama as the choice of Hamas in the wake of remarks by a spokesman for that organization. Now with the news that Al Qaeda web sites are seemingly backing McCain for President, the Republican might want to reconsider that line of attack. And to be sure, John McCain should steer clear of touting "Osama the Terrorist" at his rallies.

As the Washington Post detailed Wednesday, Al Qaeda cadres see a McCain as the best bet to perpetuate the policies of President Bush they see bankrupting the United States and the West:

"Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election," said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said the Arizona Republican would continue the "failing march of his predecessor," President Bush...

...It further suggested that a terrorist strike might swing the election to McCain and guarantee an expansion of U.S. military commitments in the Islamic world.

"It will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaeda," said the posting, attributed to Muhammad Haafid, a longtime contributor to the password-protected site. "Al-Qaeda then will succeed in exhausting America."

All of this leads to what will probably be my favorite post headline in this entire campaign:

McCain Advisers Freaked Out by Al Qaeda Preference for McCain

I just got off a conference call held by the McCain campaign to deny that Al Qaeda, contrary to reports in the AP and the Washington Post, is rooting for their man. To describe the call as panicked would be an understatement.

Jim Woolsey, the former CIA director who publicly connected Iraq to the 9/11 attacks without any evidence in 2001, and senior foreign-policy adviser Randy Scheunemann spent more time whining about the Washington Post’s standards of fairness than on the logic of why Al Qaeda might prefer Sen. John McCain. “An amazing piece of journalism, and I use journalism in quotation marks,” Scheunemann said, going on to list barely approving quotes of Sen. Barack Obama from Hamas, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, which he said he wasn’t going “to characterize.”

[...]

Yet the idea of Al Qaeda preferring a U.S. strategy that strengthens it confounded the McCain camp. “It is ridiculous to believe that in its heart of hearts, Al Qaeda wants John McCain to be the president,” Woolsey said. “It’s ludicrous.”

Actually, for those of us that have watched the Bush administration blunder and scheme their way into handing Al Qaeda exactly what they want while ignoring every warning, this isn't ludicrous, it's obvious. Seriously, if your campaign actually is concerned with "Country First," and genuinely does want to protect America from terrorists, shouldn't this endorsement concern you? When Al Qaeda is supporting you and stating that your policies will accomplish their goals, shouldn't your concern be about your policies, rather than spin? With the current financial crisis, when Al Qaeda specifically states that they want to bankrupt this country, shouldn't you have the slightest bit of concern?

If you actually care about this country, that is.

Seriously, I don't know how they could be any more obvious that they don't give a flying fuck about anyone or anything other than winning goddamn elections and gaining more power. It drives me completely bonkers that so many people are completely blind to this.