OK, the hypocrisy of Senator John McCain is NOT breaking news.
And what I want to share with you - to remind you of - is how McCain is breaking his own foreign affairs advice by complaining about what Ambassador Susan Rice said on a few talk shows about Benghazi. These words come from 2008 so it's really not breaking:
NYT's transcript of the second Obama/McCain debate
For more jump over the the fleur-de-kos:
Obama had said earlier in the evening:
Look, I -- I want to be very clear about what I said. Nobody called for the invasion of Pakistan. Senator McCain continues to repeat this.
What I said was the same thing that the audience here today heard me say, which is, if Pakistan is unable or unwilling to hunt down bin Laden and take him out, then we should.
Now, that I think has to be our policy, because they are threatening to kill more Americans.
Later McCain said this:
But the point is that I know how to handle these crises. And Senator Obama, by saying that he would attack Pakistan, look at the context of his words. I'll get Osama bin Laden, my friends. I'll get him. I know how to get him.
I'll get him no matter what and I know how to do it. But I'm not going to telegraph my punches, which is what Senator Obama did. And I'm going to act responsibly, as I have acted responsibly throughout my military career and throughout my career in the United States Senate.
Bolding mine.
I actually think McCain had a few sensible points here. We might not view going into Pakistan to kill bin Laden as an invasion of Pakistan, but that might not be the view of the Pakistanis. (I think Chomsky asked how Americans would feel if some Iraqis sent in squads after Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld.)
However, the main point that I thought was fairly sensible is that you may not want to go on TV during a foreign crisis to let your enemies know what you're doing and what you're planning - or even what you know.
So Susan Rice's talking points about Benghazi, deliberately vague, less than a week after the event, are in keeping with Senator John McCain's advice about how to handle foreign policy.
Sigh.
I know there's no convincing him.
Maybe if we praise the reasonableness of that John McCain?
Sigh again.
Thank you for letting me vent.
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Tired of politics? Need to escape? Try my Greek mythology based novels, either the story of Oedipus from the point of view of Jocasta, or a trilogy about Niobe, whose children were murdered by the gods - or were they?