The Political Inquirer

Continuuing the policy of attacking your opponent and mentioning nothing of your own merits, McCain once again has raised the issue that talking to foreign leaders of unfriendly nations is a dangerous, reckless, uninformed stance.

Now, sensible people in a sensible discussion might ask “Why do you believe that John?” Or they might be clever and say “So you must disagree with your own administration because your Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense also espouse that claim?” But neither one of these responses are beneficial though because I submit to you that in the political media we are not dealing with sensible people having sensible discussions. The reality is that political arguments are largely soundbyte driven and the validity of the claims are unfortunately quite irrelevant. To illustrate further, the first response would not be beneficial because it furthers your opponents time on the stage to grandstand his ideas and you just might not have the opportunity for a rebuttal. The second response is not adequate either because neither Condoleeza Rice nor Robert Gates are running for office, but Obama is.

Surprisingly enough, even your political strengths are not immune from these slimy tactics. This approach, which should be called a more fitting name like a Rovian mudball, can catch someone off guard because just by defending yourself you make yourself look weak. Just ask John Kerry when attacked for his military service if he would have responded differently to his Swift Boat ordeal. It comes across much differently if you angrily say “How someone can question my real military service when their own candidate got cherry picked to avoid service in the Texas National Guard is beyond comprehension!” rather than just defend yourself. It puts them on the defensive instead and if they choose to further launch the attack it also has the chance of further discrediting their own candidate. Likewise, Obama appropriately responded to McCains assertion with this response “One of the things you have to ask yourself: What are George Bush and John McCain afraid of demanding a country meets all of your conditions before you meet with them?”

What are you afraid of John McCain? Are you afraid of Sniper Fire? Are you afraid of coming home without results and would rather not try to negotiate at all? Are you afraid of being called an appeaser? Are you afraid you might see something from their point of view? Are you afraid to match wits? These are the questions that come to my mind after Obama’s response.