McCain is picking the wrong fight with Obama over Iran

Ian C

Got this on the net today: no doubt there wil be plenty more

The Pope and the Bear
The Pope took a couple of days off to visit the rugged mountains of Alaska for some sightseeing. He was cruising along the campground in the PopeMobile when there was a frantic commotion just at the edge of the woods.

A helpless Democrat, wearing sandals, shorts, a 'Save the Whales' hat and a 'To Hell with Bush'T-shirt, was screaming while struggling frantically and thrashing around trying to free himself from the grasp of a 10-foot grizzly.

As the Pope watched in horror, a group of Republican loggers came racing up. One quickly fired a 44 magnum into the bear's chest. The other two reached up and pulled the bleeding, semiconscious Democrat from the bear's grasp. Then using long clubs, the three
loggers finished off the bear and two of them threw it onto the bed of their truck while the other tenderly placed the injured Democrat in the back seat.

As they prepared to leave, the Pope summoned them to come over. “I give you my blessing for your brave actions!” He told them. “I heard there was a bitter hatred between Republican loggers and Democratic environmental activists but now I've seen with my own eyes that this is not true.”

As the Pope drove off, one logger asked his buddies 'Who was that guy?’

'’It was the Pope,” another replied. “'He's in direct contact with Heaven and has access to all wisdom.”

“Well,” the logger said, “he may have access to all wisdom but he doesn't know squat about bear hunting! By the way, is the bait still alive, or do we need to go all the way back to Massachusetts and get another one?”

Ian C

More seriously than the above post, your analysis makes good points James, especially about defining the choice between himself and Obama.

But for McCain to acknowledge that the question about 'who would you prefer to have in the room?' he has to go along with your premise that talking to Iran will be perceived as essential. That was deputised to the European 3 with the result that we are in trouble and the promise of more talk will be construed as weakness. Straw etc have run the world out of time. In the meantime US soldiers are being killed in Iraq by Iran (one could add in election year!).

My money is on Bush/Cheney making it very difficult for anyone to talk to Iran before it becomes an election issue. If they don't, then Hizbullah is on the brink of doing it anyway.

The fuse of the Middle East was lit a long time ago and talk is only going to delay the final explosion, thus making it that much bigger when it comes. A great many centrists will know this and will go for the man best at defining what he offers. At this stage we can quote you or one of your colleagues re. Brown's troubles "Hope is not a policy".

Can you get Melanie in on the discussion?

Jerry

Wow, I didn’t know that bears wanted to help the effort to turn the world into a Caliphate.

Was there a bear at the controls of one of the planes on 9/11?

Maybe I’ll go to the zoo and see a bear learning his copy of The Koran off by heart.