McCain Hammers Obama In Florida

Knocks Democrat For Willingness To Meet With Castro, Calls Him Tool Of Organized Labor

(AP)  Republican John McCain, speaking to a raucous crowd on Cuba's independence day, hammered Democrat Barack Obama for saying he would meet with President Raul Castro and called Obama a "tool of organized labor" for opposing a Latin American trade deal.

For a second day, McCain criticized Obama for saying, in a debate last year, that as president he would meet with the leaders of Cuba, Iran and Venezuela without preconditions.

McCain insisted such a meeting could endanger national security, sounding a theme that is likely to persist until the November general election.

The Arizona senator recalled the ridicule President Carter faced in 1979 when he kissed Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev during the signing of an arms treaty.

"Carter went over and kissed Brezhnev, remember?" McCain said Tuesday in Miami. "So it's dangerous; it's dangerous to American national security if you sit down and give respect and prestige to leaders of countries that are bent on your destruction or the destruction of other countries. I won't do it, my friends."

A woman in the audience applauded McCain's position: "For that, believe me, Florida will be yours," Ninoska Perez Castellon told McCain. She is a radio commentator for the anti-Castro station Radio Mambi.

A day earlier in Chicago, McCain raised the specter of a President Obama meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. He said Obama displayed inexperience and reckless judgment in his willingness to talk with a sponsor of terrorism.

Yet while President Bush hinted last week that Obama wants to appease terrorists, McCain said he does not consider Obama or other Democrats to be appeasers. "I don't think they're appeasers; I think they have bad judgment," McCain told reporters Tuesday on his campaign bus.

Obama insisted the U.S. needs tough but direct diplomacy, like that employed by Presidents Kennedy and Reagan in negotiating with the Soviet Union in its day, and he blamed McCain and Bush for an Iraq war that he said has increased the threat from Iran.

An Obama adviser, Susan Rice, responded Monday on CNN that Obama didn't necessarily mean Ahmadinejad, although Obama himself has not disputed the assertion that he did.

On Tuesday, dozens of people at McCain's town-hall style forum booed as he raised the notion of a meeting with Castro, and they gave McCain a standing ovation when he said that, as president, he would pressure Castro to release political prisoners unconditionally, schedule internationally monitored elections, and legalize political parties, unions and free media.

McCain also criticized Obama for shifting his stance on the trade embargo against Cuba; Obama said in 2003 he would lift it but has hardened his position slightly to say he would ease it. McCain argues trade should not be normalized until the basic freedoms he outlined are granted.

Marking the Cuban independence day, May 20, McCain visited Miami's Little Havana, stopping at Casa del Preso, or the house of the prisoner, which helps unite Cuban political prisoners, and Versailles Restaurant, where an aide got him takeout Cuban sandwiches.

He expects to do well among Cubans and other Hispanic voters in Florida in part because of his support for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, although he says he has concluded the border must be secured before the government can resolve their citizenship.

McCain also criticized Obama for opposing a free trade deal with Columbia that could benefit Florida's agriculture and manufacturing industries. The pact, blocked by Congress, would eliminate high barriers facing American exports to Columbia. Most Colombian products already enter the U.S. duty-free.

In an interview with local reporters on his campaign bus, McCain said Obama "is a tool of organized labor ... He's been against (trade agreements with) Colombia, South Korea and several others. That's what labor unions want, no free trade agreements."

Later, McCain told his audience that blocking the trade deal won't create U.S. jobs, "but it will divide us from our Colombian partners at a time when they are battling the FARC terrorists and their allied drug cartels." He was referring to the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

Obama and Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton are scheduled to campaign Wednesday in Florida, underscoring the state's electoral importance.

[ksh1022]

Hiaary is still available, Dems. We are making a mistake with Obama. Obama is too far left, too inexperienced, too arrogant.

[jld1959]

McCain was a fighter pilot that was shot down and captured period. This is what he was trained to do.
Where is the heroism, he did nothing more or less than his duty. That being said, why is he not supporting the New GI Bill that would help the troops return to civilian life with the prospect of enriching their future. McCain believes that it would be to expensive and would cause to many soldiers to get out of the military. Talk about out of touch. So much for patriotism. Don''t forget McCain wears a flag pin on his lapel.

[fmrdem]

McCain will carry a great big stick and not be afraid to use it.
Obama will bluster when jihadists strike and
find ways to excuse it.

[jld1959]

A clip of former Secretary of State James Baker has been making the rounds recently, as a result of the current ''''appeasement'''' debate between John McCain and Barack Obama. Unfortunately for McCain, Baker agrees with Obama. And even though the interview is from this past October, Baker addresses head-on the issue of appeasement, saying:




"Diplomacy involves talking to your enemies. You don''''t reward your enemies necessarily by talking to them if you are tough and you know what you are doing. You don''''t appease them. Talking to an enemy is not in my view appeasement."

http://www.huffingtonpo
st.com/2008/05/20/james-baker-talking-to
-an_n_102674.html

Obama 08

[abbe91]

Does this guy know anything about the Middle East ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr6Va7PEBg8

Anything more than the average American knows ...

[mudrose-2009]

Have you noticed that they use works like "hammer" in headlines. That should tip you off right away. Just report the news, do not try to create it through sensational headlines. McCain could not hammer anything without hurting himself. He is too old and might hit his thumb.

Posted by sjc_1

Effendi Snob-oma couldn''t hit the side of a barn. He''s too whiney. If you challenge what he says you are either detracting from his program or racist. He''s an incompetent latte loving Empty Suit.

[sjc_1]

Have you noticed that they use works like "hammer" in headlines. That should tip you off right away. Just report the news, do not try to create it through sensational headlines. McCain could not hammer anything without hurting himself. He is too old and might hit his thumb.

[mudrose-2009]

Obama''''s efforts to have the media and his political opposition turn away from his wife''''s remarks certainly finds greater motivation in his need for people not to realize that she is an arrogant, anti-American racist than it does in chivalry.

The more we listen to her, the more we think of Jeremy Wright and wonder how Obama could have spent 20 years with the man, called him his intellectual mentor and yet not have picked up on, let alone agreed with, some of the most vile hatred masquerading as theology that you are likely to find in America today.

Michelle Obama is a window to all of that, so "chivalry" requires that we ignore her (except of course if you are a mesmerized Obamiac, in which case listen and send in more donations).
Posted by jack3213

Right on point. Not only that but the message of Hope these two convey is always one of negativity. America has to lower it''s thermostats from 75, we need to sell our SUVs, so as not to offend the other half of the world. This is moral relativism and appeasement at its worst. And while this Empty Suit with his Highfalutin, Liberal Lattee Agenda doesn''t realize that the policy George Bush and former Presidents follow with regard to talk to rogue regimes with the exception of Jimmah Carter (and we all know how well he did with Iran), was set by Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy. So he doesn''t even know what the heck he''s talking about when he says Bush/McCain policies of the carrot and the stick. He''s a royal jackazz.

[jack3213]

Obama''s efforts to have the media and his political opposition turn away from his wife''s remarks certainly finds greater motivation in his need for people not to realize that she is an arrogant, anti-American racist than it does in chivalry.

The more we listen to her, the more we think of Jeremy Wright and wonder how Obama could have spent 20 years with the man, called him his intellectual mentor and yet not have picked up on, let alone agreed with, some of the most vile hatred masquerading as theology that you are likely to find in America today.

Michelle Obama is a window to all of that, so "chivalry" requires that we ignore her (except of course if you are a mesmerized Obamiac, in which case listen and send in more donations).

[antoniof123]

Florida will go back red if Obama is the candidate, it''''s that simple.

Posted by RowdyTexan2 at 06:25 PM : May 20, 2008

Rowdy want to bet we swing voters have had enough of the bush bots to last for a long time. In fact I am going to go on the bet tha Mel Martinez isn''t re-elected in 2010.

Floirda may not get to count its votes in the Democratic nomination but the feeling that the GOP have lied so much and given so little is apparent here in Florida and esp. in South Florida.

Have a nice day.

[jld1959]

John McCain%u2019s chief media adviser said Tuesday he is stepping down rather than campaign against Barack Obama.

Mark McKinnon said last year that he would leave McCain%u2019s campaign after the primary season if the Arizona senator were to run against Obama.

The Illinois senator is not the Democratic nominee, but he has accumulated a significant lead in the number of delegates required to claim the nomination.

In a 2007 interview with Cox News, McKinnon said he would vote for McCain, but "I just don''t want to work against an Obama candidacy." He added that if Obama were to reach the White House, it "would send a great message to the country and the world."

Obama 08

[jld1959]

A clip of former Secretary of State James Baker has been making the rounds recently, as a result of the current ''appeasement'' debate between John McCain and Barack Obama. Unfortunately for McCain, Baker agrees with Obama. And even though the interview is from this past October, Baker addresses head-on the issue of appeasement, saying:




"Diplomacy involves talking to your enemies. You don''t reward your enemies necessarily by talking to them if you are tough and you know what you are doing. You don''t appease them. Talking to an enemy is not in my view appeasement."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/20/james-baker-talking-to-an_n_102674.html

Obama 08

[abbe91]

"Florida will go back red if Obama is the candidate, it''''s that simple.
Posted by RowdyTexan2 at 06:25 PM : May 20, 2008"

It was red at the last presidential election, if I''m not mistaken. How could it "go back" red ?

[rowdytexan2]

Florida will go back red if Obama is the candidate, it''s that simple.

[noloyalisti]

I know that most Americans do not support the continued occupation of Iraq. They do not support the neo con men agenda of endless war. Why does McCain support all this? Is it really possible that he could get more than 28% of the popular vote (that is how many people still support war criminal bush, believe it or not).

[kansas1946]

MIAMI - Republican John McCain, speaking to a raucous crowd on Cuba''s independence day, hammered Democrat Barack Obama for saying he would meet with President Raul Castro and called Obama a "tool of organized labor" for opposing a Latin American trade deal.

*************************************
This just demonstrates how out of touch John McCain is with the American people. Most Americans, other than the Cuban exile population in Florida, support normalizing relations with Cuba, and most Americans did not support the Latin American trade deal. All McCain is doing with these types of attacks is strengthening Obama''s base. Not very smart of McCain.

[greatdrivew]

"McCain Hammers Obama In Florida"

*******************************************

McCain "hammers" Obama??? Laughable!!

McCain''s a mindless, incompetent fool who says only that which is written by his handlers [e.g., Joseph Lieberman].

Why doesn''t the GOP just admit that IndeDemoRepublican Joseph Lieberman is its candidate?

Oh, and how much longer will Lieberman be allowed to be McCain''s handler, and at the same time, the Democratic Chair of his Senate committee?

It''s time for the Democrats to fire Lieberman!!

[vanesa4]

About random attacks on Michelle Obama
Barak Obama is absolutely right! He is the candidate and he is ready and willing to be scrutinized, even to the "lapel pin"!.. Michelle is to be respected and appreciated for not opposing her husband''s presidential ambitions. I think that those who make Michelle a target for attack are the same people who see in Obama "an outsider" whose ideas for change should be feared. On the topic of change, I would not like to see Hillary offered the VP post. Someone so deeply compromised in the Washington establishment and power games is not be a credible agent to support change.
It''s not surprising that a campaign that gets petty enough to scrutinize "lapel pins" (give me a break!) doesn''t hesitate to use any low approaches they dream of. Apparently they never heard of "the higher road"!

[noloyalisti]

McSame''s foreign policy is the same as Bush-Cheney''s. Lie about WMDs or support for terrorists, bomb first and ask questions later. War is not the answer, nor is state sponsored terror that we have been doing throughout the world to protect our multi-national corporations.

Keep up the good work GOP neo con men.