On Friday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), referring to Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), told conservative bloggers that “it’s very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States.” Now one of McCain’s top surrogates, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, has picked up on the line of attack, telling the Reno Gazette-Journal that “the recent endorsement by Hamas” was “revealing”:
ROMNEY: I think Barack Obama was more of a blank sheet. I think the primary revealed more about him than perhaps he would’ve liked. The recent endorsement by Hamas of his candidacy is I think the kind of development which people find revealing.
QUESTION: What do you take that to mean?
ROMNEY: Well, I think he’s said in his first year he would be inclined to visit with [Iranian President] Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, [North Korean President] Kim Jong Il, [former Cuban President] Fidel Castro. I think they find that appealing.
McCain and Romney’s scurrilous attacks are reminiscent of the over-the-top rhetoric of hardline right wingers like Rush Limbaugh and John Bolton. Earlier this month, Limbaugh claimed that “Islamofascists are actually campaigning for the election of Democrats” while Bolton contended in January that “the Mullahs in Tehran” want the Democrats to win. [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Think Progress>
Although this was intended as a attack, in a funny way, Romney may have a point. Hamas probably would prefer Obama to McBoomBoom. As the democratically elected government of Palestine, Hamas naturally wants to be a party in negotiations, so it would be natural for them to prefer an leader that negotiates with enemies over one that makes up songs about bomb, bomb bombing them. What’s best for Hamas is a fair peace in the middle east. That will not happen under McBoomBoom. On the other hand, Osama bin Laden would prefer McConJob, because he would continue the same high-handed Bush policies that have brought Al Qaeda so many new recruits.
