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Friday, John McCain said: "I think it's very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States. So apparently has Danny Ortega and several others. I think that people should understand that I will be Hamas's worst nightmare....If Senator Obama is favored by Hamas I think people can make judgments accordingly."
It's true that a top Hamas leader has spoken highly of Obama, but McCain's statement is, pure and simple, a logic error. It's one that is made all the time in U.S. politics, by both parties. If you attempt to link the views of a supporter of a candidate to the candidate his or her self, you are doomed by the same logic when one of your supporters is unsavory.
Now, logic doesn't seem to be the game candidates are playing when they do this. It's rhetoric – it's about winning votes. But do the same math when it's applied to McCain's supporters, and suddenly McCain finds himself in a stronge position. Does his endorsement from controversial pastor John Hagee – who has called Catholicism "the great whore," and repeatedly stated that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for homosexuality – mean McCain can be counted on to be "Catholicism's worst nightmare?" Of course not. McCain sought out Hagee's endorsement and now finds doing so uncomfortable, since he's sometimes asked about whether he endorses Hagee's views. And McCain himself on Thursday spent some time repudiating Hagee's statements.
Taken to its logical extreme, McCain's argument would mean that if he has any supporters who are murderers or rapists, he can be counted on to go easy on them, much as he implies that Obama would go easy on Hamas. Obama has repeatedly criticized Hamas, and spoke out against former President Jimmy Carter meeting with the group. John McCain may or may not be Hamas' worst nightmare. But arguments like this aren't how that point gets proven. |
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