Obama Does Offer Hope - to America\'s Foes

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Now that New Yorker editor David Remnick has said hed do it allover again, heres an idea for the next cover satirizingrumor-mongering conservatives:

Keep the Stars and Stripes smoldering in the fireplace, but movethe scene of the flag burning from the Oval Office to anunidentified room in Gaza City. Substitute the picture of Osama binLaden hanging on the wall with a smiling portrait of the Obamas.The image of Barack Obama will also appear on the Hope T-shirtsthat two young Palestinians manning phones are wearing. In onebubble coming from a telephone will be a FARC terrorist in militaryfatigues holding a phone to his shoulder while writing out a check;in another, Kim Jong Il  wearing a Yes We Can hat  will also bemaking a financial contribution to the Democratic nominee.

Sophisticated New Yorker readers are sure to catch the irony, even if theyre unaware ofthe fact that young Palestinians in Hamas-controlled Gaza have actually set up phone banks to rally support for Obama. ManyBarack Obama supporters believe that any mention of the fact thatthe candidate is disturbingly popular with Americas enemies isakin to saying that he is a stealth jihadist. Its fear-mongeringat its worst and not worthy of a respectful campaign.

At least that was the reaction the McCain campaign received back inApril when Christian Ferry, McCains deputy campaign manager, sentan email with the subject Hamas Weighs in on U.S. PresidentialElection to donors. It read:
Barack Obamas foreign policy plans have even won him praise fromHamas leaders. Ahmed Yousef, chief political adviser to the Hamasprime minister said, We like Mr. Obama and we hope he will win theelection. He has a vision to change America.

We need change in America, but not the kind of change that winskind words from Hamas, surrenders in Iraq, and will holdunconditional talks with Iranian President Ahmadinejad.
This was much different than the spurious emails being circulatedclaiming that Obama is some kind of Muslim Manchurian candidate,planted by Islamic fundamentalists to betray the country. Yet thatdidnt stop Will Thomas of the Huffington Post from saying thatFerrys email was evidence that McCain had chosen not to run arespectful campaign. Later, when McCain himself said that Hamaswants Obama to be the next president, a post at Daily Kos declaredthat such distortions prove McCain doesnt think much of thepeople he seeks to serve at all.

In fact, its the people crying foul whenever Obamas unwantedendorsements are pointed out who want to keep the American peoplein the dark. McCain actually has confidence in the publics abilityto reason: If Senator Obama is favored by Hamas I think people canmake judgments accordingly.

The American people can also judge for themselves whether itsimportant that, in addition to Hamas, Obama has been praised by theFARC, Kim Jong Il, and Fidel Castro. If  as the left so oftenclaims  its a disaster that President Bush is hated by ourallies, wouldnt it be even worse to have a president who is lovedby our enemies? Bush may be despised in European universities, buthes also been al-Qaedas worst nightmare since 9/11. Some evenargue  convincingly  that the terrorist group has already beendefeated.

Obama sometimes tries to sound tough when it comes to terrorism.For example, he has said that he takes the threat deadly seriousand would attack al-Qaeda targets inside Pakistan. But terroristscan be forgiven for thinking this is just election talk. Just eightdays after 9/11, in an op-ed for the Hyde Park Herald , the senator blamed the attacks on a failure of empathy thatgrows out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness, anddespair. As Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs pointed out,Obama made no mention of the role radical Islam played in thehijackers lives. Perhaps thats because acknowledging that anideology of hatred is behind the murdering of innocents requiresone to face the uncomfortable truth that force is often aprerequisite for victory. On the other hand, the belief that weonly need to understand where our enemies are coming from allows aperson to maintain the delusion that diplomacy and a touch ofhumility are the answers. Ask yourself this: Would Obama agree morewith actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, who once said that America hasdone reprehensible things and is responsible in some way for 9/11,or President Bush, who told the country on 9/11, our nation sawthe face of evil? (Hint: Gyllenhaals rhetoric could have easilycome from the mouth of Reverend Jeremiah Wright or formerWeatherman William Ayers, two people who havent bothered Obamahalf as much as Bush has.)

Actions do speak louder than words, but Obamas record in theSenate wont strike fear in the hearts of those who employ terrorto further their goals either. (It does, however, scare thoseAmerican voters who worry more about Obamas fortitude than, say,whether Muslim women in headscarves were seen sitting behind him atan event.) Last year, Obama opposed a non-binding resolutiondesignating Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terroristorganization because it would send a wrong message not only to theworld, but also to the region. But what about the message thatneeded to be sent to Iran, the country that is killing U.S.soldiers in Iraq and threatening to annihilate Israel? As McCain,who did vote for the resolution, said, Holding Irans influence incheck, and holding a terrorist organization accountable, sendsexactly the right message  to Iran, to the region, and to theworld.

Obama also voted against the Iraq War spending bill because itdidnt contain a timeline for withdrawing U.S. troops. Thisfollowed his own January 2007 proposal which would have set a March31, 2008, deadline for withdrawing troops from Iraq.

If you think al-Qaeda couldnt care less about whether Americantroops remain in Iraq, consider what happened in Spain in 2004.Socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero promised hed withdrawSpanish troops from Iraq if elected.

Terrorists bombed Madrid trains just days before the election withthe goal of intimidating Spanish voters to vote for the Socialists.The last Spanish troop left Iraq in May 2004.

Yes, its disgusting to engage in a whispering campaign linkingObama to terrorists. But is it really unfair to say that by votingfor Obama you are voting the way Americas enemies would like youto vote?