Obama Hints McCain Is Senile

Barack Obama had a sit down with Wolf Blitzer today and accused John McCain of engaging in “smear” politics. Lately McCain has been going around saying Obama is a favorite of Hamas. He bases these claims on an April radio interview with Ahmed Yousef, chief political adviser to the Prime Minister of Hamas. In the interview Yousef says, “We like Mr. Obama and we hope he will win the election.” When asked why Yousef replies “He has a vision to change America.” Sounds like he gets the same sound bites out of Obama as we do. Blitzer asked Obama about McCain saying these things. “This is offensive, and I think it’s disappointing,” Obama told Blitzer, “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.” Then Obama adds, “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.” McCain didn’t say anything about negotiating with Hamas, he just mentions the simple fact that Hamas likes and supports Obama for President. The McCain camp didn’t like what Obama said, and felt Obama was calling McCain senile. “First, let us be clear about the nature of Senator Obama’s attack today: He used the words ‘losing his bearings’ intentionally, a not particularly clever way of raising John McCain’s age as an issue,” said McCain adviser Mark Salter. “This is typical of the Obama style of campaigning….We have all become familiar with Senator Obama’s new brand of politics. First, you demand civility from your opponent, then you attack him, distort his record and send out surrogates to question his integrity. It is called hypocrisy, and it is the oldest kind of politics there is.” Salter says the Obama camp has misrepresented McCain. He said, “The McCain campaign has never suggested that Senator Obama supports Hamas’ agenda, but it is more than fair to raise this quote about Senator Obama because it speaks to the policy implications of his judgment.”
Alan Cosgrove