Allan’s questions later. Meantime, I have a quick question for surveyor and jfiq:
In response to a question about foreign policy, you made a big stink (several posts) about a comment Obama made in a speech re: dropping a ‘bomb’ on Pearl Harbor. The implication you were making is we have a sitting US Senator and candidate for US President who doesn’t know what happened at Pearl Harbor. It’s absurd on its face.
In the YouTube clip of Obama’s speech, there was actually a confused pause as he read through this portion. For what it’s worth, the incident seemed like a public speaking error to me, even a typo in the speech (leaving the ‘s’ off of ‘bomb’).
Today, something equally absurd came up. John McCain suggested Iraq and Pakistan share a border. Here is a clip of his statements:
Now, I don’t for one minute believe John McCain doesn’t know the geography of the Middle East. We’re at war over there and have large numbers of troops deployed in both countries. So it seemed like a public speaking error to me. I’m not a partisan. I’m making the same call, both candidates.
Would you like to retract the characterizations of Mr. Obama you made earlier on this post? They were ridiculous. Here’s your best chance to save face and admit that your comments were ridiculous.
Or would you like to criticize Mr. McCain, a candidate for US President, for making such an absurd statement? Certainly, somebody who doesn’t know where Iraq and Afghanistan are on a map has no business being Commander-in-Chief of US forces deployed in those countries. You would agree?
If you apply the same standard to both candidates, you’ll need to pick one or the other. I think both are simple mistakes that have been exaggerated and amplified for partisan purposes, and to the detriment of our political discourse.
