The MSM On The Candidates' Responses To The Russian Invasion Of Georgia

While Obama kicks back on his vacation in Hawaii, Georgia is burning and the MSM is evaluating the very different responses thereto by Obama and McCain.

Surprisingly, the NYT criticizes Obama for his aloofness in comparison to John McCain who, the paper notes, is further burnishing his foreign policy credentials.

WaPo goes for what has become the typical line over the past week for the MSM and the Obama camp, glossing over Obama's feckless initial response to the crisis and his relative non-engagement since while attacking McCain for acting decisively. Indeed, WaPo goes so far as to equate criticism of McCain "acting Presidential" in regards to the Georgia crisis with criticism of Obama for "acting Presidential" in the preceeding weeks. The distinction that Obama merely coopted the symbolism of the Presidency while McCain is appearing Presidential based on his thorough knowledge of a situation involved in a foreign crisis is apparently lost on WaPo.
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You know Obama's position is weak when the NYT is given over to criticizing The One in comparison to McCain. This from the NYT:

For the last several days, Senator Barack Obama has seemed to fade from the scene while on his secluded vacation here, as his opponent, Senator John McCain, has seized nearly every opportunity to display his foreign policy credentials on the dominant issue of the week: the conflict between Russia and Georgia.

Only once, at the beginning of the week, did Mr. Obama discuss the fighting in public, when he emerged from his beachfront rental home to condemn Russia’s escalation, in a way that seemed timed for the evening television news. He took no questions whose answers might demonstrate command of the issue.

Mr. McCain and his surrogates, however, have discussed the situation nearly every day on the campaign trail, often taking a hard line against Russia to the point of his declaring the other day, “We are all Georgians.”

It is as if the candidates’ images have been reversed within a matter of a few weeks. When Mr. Obama was overseas last month, Mr. McCain’s foreign policy bona fides seemed diminished, if only because he could not attract the news media attention received by Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Now, Mr. Obama’s voice seems muted at a time when much of the world has been worriedly watching the conflict.

. . . For his part, Mr. McCain has fielded questions daily, batting back criticism that his tough stance is reminiscent of the language of the cold war. On the other hand, the fluency with which Mr. McCain, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, discusses Georgia, citing the history of the region and the number of times he has visited, lends an aura of commander in chief. And as if he already had a cabinet, Mr. McCain said he was dispatching his allies Senators Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, to the region.

To conservatives, particularly the neoconservative set, Mr. McCain’s forceful responses have been welcomed. Conservatives have pointed out that Mr. Obama looks a bit out of touch this time. “I didn’t think that Obama had to do much during his week’s vacation — everyone deserves a break,” wrote Jim Geraghty of National Review Online. “But this week is starting to really turn into a week where you don’t want to be seen golfing.”

Mr. McCain, pressed by reporters, has resisted opportunities to criticize how Mr. Obama has addressed the situation in Georgia.

Mr. Obama’s week has been low-key, a sharp contrast to his high-voltage campaign events. On Thursday, he toured a nature preserve and went body surfing. Beyond that, Mr. Obama has played golf, taken walks on the beach with his daughters, eaten dinner at a few Honolulu restaurants with his wife and friends, and visited almost daily with his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, whom Mr. Obama calls “tutu,” a Hawaiian term. . . .

Read the entire article. The Washington Post goes the more traditional route of the MSM over the past week, attacking John McCain for sounding decisive in response to the Russian crisis. And, like the AP's insane hit piece of the other day, WaPo notes that McCain has a former lobbyist for Georgia on the payroll while neglecting to mention that he also employs former lobbyists for Russia. And you have to love how they equate criticism of Obama for coopting the symbols of the Presidency with their criticism of McCain now for acting decisively in response to a foreign crisis:

Standing behind a lectern in Michigan this week, with two trusted senators ready to do his bidding, John McCain seemed to forget for a moment that he was only running for president.

Asked about his tough rhetoric on the ongoing conflict in Georgia, McCain began: "If I may be so bold, there was another president . . ."

He caught himself and started again: "At one time, there was a president named Ronald Reagan who spoke very strongly about America's advocacy for democracy and freedom."

With his Democratic opponent on vacation in Hawaii, the senator from Arizona has been doing all he can in recent days to look like President McCain, particularly when it comes to the ongoing international crisis in Georgia.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili says he talks to McCain, a personal friend, several times a day. McCain's top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, was until recently a paid lobbyist for Georgia's government. McCain also announced this week that two of his closest allies, Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), would travel to Georgia's capital of Tbilisi on his behalf, after a similar journey by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The extent of McCain's involvement in the military conflict in Georgia appears remarkable among presidential candidates, who traditionally have kept some distance from unfolding crises out of deference to whoever is occupying the White House. The episode also follows months of sustained GOP criticism of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who was accused of acting too presidential for, among other things, briefly adopting a campaign seal and taking a trip abroad that included a huge rally in Berlin.

"We talk about how there's only one president at a time, so the idea that you would send your own emissaries and really interfere with the process is remarkable," said Lawrence Korb, a Reagan Defense Department official who now acts as an informal adviser to the Obama campaign. "It's very risky and can send mixed messages to foreign governments. . . . They accused Obama of being presumptuous, but he didn't do anything close to this."

But McCain and his aides say his tough rhetoric on the Georgia crisis, along with his personal familiarity with the region, underscores the foreign policy expertise he would bring to the White House.

His focus on the dispute has also allowed McCain to distance himself somewhat from President Bush, who has been sharply criticized by many conservatives for moving too slowly to respond to Russia's military incursion into Georgia and South Ossetia, the breakaway province at the heart of the dispute. McCain's first statement on the conflict last Friday came before the White House itself had responded.

In often-lengthy remarks about Georgia this week on the campaign trail, McCain repeatedly talked of how many times he had been to the region, let it be known that he had talked daily with Saakashvili since the crisis began and made it clear that there had been times he thought Bush's response could have been stronger.

He provided a primer for why Americans should care about the "tiny little democracy" and tried to tie the foreign crisis with a domestic one: oil. Georgia is "part of a strategic energy corridor affecting individual lives far beyond" the region, he said.

"His statements have been very presidential," said John R. Bolton, a former U.N. ambassador under Bush who has since become one of the sharpest critics of the administration's recent foreign policy. "These are the kinds of things that the president should have been saying from the beginning."

. . . McCain's ties to Saakashvili go back to the 1990s, when the future leader of the "Rose Revolution" was a student at George Washington University. In an interview this week on CNN, Saakashvili said he was "talking to Senator McCain several times a day."

"You know, I think he spends less time on his presidential campaign these days and lots of time on Georgia," Saakashvili said. "And I really appreciate that, because Senator McCain has been fighting for freedom of Georgia for many, many years."

. . . The Obama campaign has been generally cautious in its remarks about the Georgia conflict, and the campaign yesterday declined to comment on the appropriateness of McCain's role. But earlier this week, Obama adviser Susan Rice said McCain "may have complicated the situation" with his early tough rhetoric on the dispute.

"John McCain shot from the hip," Rice said on MSNBC, calling his initial statement "very aggressive, very belligerent."

Lieberman, one of McCain's most ardent and vocal supporters, responded by criticizing Obama's more cautious first statement on the Georgia situation an example of "moral neutrality" that showed his "inexperience."

By Wednesday, however, both McCain and Obama had come together to praise the Bush administration's announcement of humanitarian aid and the secretary of state's diplomatic journey. McCain also told reporters that "this isn't the time for partisanship, sniping between campaigns," and declined to comment on Rice's or Lieberman's remarks.

Read the entire article. Fortunately, TNOY has the true story of what is going on. Obama is in hull defilade in Hawaii merely gathering his mystical strength to solve the Georgia Russia problem in a matter of days upon his return.

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February 19 Primaries

John McCain has been projected the winner in Wisconsin over Huckabee - And Fox calls it for Obama in Wisconsin. Saint Obama is in Texas and is calling making the call for his acolytes to vote early, if not often. Michael Barone is seeing bad news going forward for Hillary in the demographics of Obama's voters and is looking at a blowout for Obama in the final numbers.


McCain's speech was a promise to reign in out of control spending and forcefully prosecute the war on terror. As to Obama, McCain said he articulates "an eloquent and empty call for change" and that what he is asking Americans to do in voting for him is to take a "holiday from history" and place their faith in an ideology that emphasizes government over the individual.


I sat through the entirety of Obama's 45 minute speech in Houston. I will give an analysis later. What is below are my notes from his speech.

Obamas Speech: He defines change as coming together for "a common purpose, a higher purpose."

He hits at NAFTA and free trade.

The mortgage bubble has been caused by evil predatory lenders.

He calls upon the name of a dead soldier - and defines "serving our military" as bringing our soldiers home from Iraq and giving them benefits.

Obama is calling on Dr. King and running because of the "fierce urgency of now." That is why he can't wait until he has more experience.

All America are victims to . . . . . inflation. Yes, prices rise in accordance to inflation.

Our children are unable to compete in an international economy.
Promises to . . .

better schools

more jobs,

better pay

end war in Iraq

American people are hungry for a uniter. His politics are not spin or PR, its "truth and straight talk."

Change in America comes from the bottom up.

If we can only get beyond divisions in politics and hold hands, challenge special interests in Washington . . . . . everything is possible. Why can't we all just be friends. Let's move forward into a better tomorrow.

Are you really ready for change. Because if you are ready for change, we can tell the lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda for our nation are over.

National health care is coming. Socialized medicine. Its coming in his first term.

If you are ready for change, we can restore balance to our economy. Attacks CEO pay. And tax breaks for CEO's.

No tax breaks to businesses going overseas.

Roll back tax cuts to wealthy and give it to people under 75k.

Raise minimum wage every year. No one will be poor in Barackamerica.

He promises to educate children from the moment of birth until they graduate from school. Every child is our problem. Every child is our responsibility. Invest in early childhood education.

No more standardized tests. Now we learn art music, science, literature, social studies.

Subsidize college for everyone. Community service or peace corps . . . . or . . . anything but the military?

If you are ready for change, we can have an energy policy that makes sense. We are going to cap green house gases and tax polluters to finance alternative energy. We are going to raise fuel efficiency standards.

We can join together the concept that we are a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. People here must have path to citizenship.

9 Billion a month in Iraq. He would use that to fund all of his social programs.

Foreign policy that will lead to renewed respect. He will not hesitate to strike against those who do us harm. He will properly care for and train our troops and care for them when they come home.

The War in Iraq was unwise. We need to be fighting just in Afghanistan. It fanned the flames of anti-American sentiment. He will pull us out of Iraq in 2009.

He wants to end the mindset that got us into war. End the politics based on fear. No more using 9-11 for votes. He will meet with our friends and our enemies.

Obamas foreign policy, his willingness to talk, will solve the world's ills.

We will lead on climate change. We will end genocide in Darfur. We will lead on AIDS.

Close Guantanamo and restore habeaus corpus to all prisioners.

We do not need the "same old folks doing the same old things" in Washington.

Real change is only possible with new people in Congress.

Obama will reach out to everybody for change.

McCain is the party of yesterday's ideas. Obama is the party of tomorrow.

Hope is not blind optimism. It is not being ignorant of the challenges between you and your dreams. He knows how hard all of the things he has promised will be . . .

Hope is how the greatest generation defeated facism and lifted itself up. . . . .

Vote for me and we will join together and change the world.

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