[Havelock]

Originally Posted by Sunder

Look, the McCain camp had to come up with something to try and overshadow McCain's own shady land dealings with campaign contributors. This was the best they could do on short notice. The fact you keep falling for it is just hilarious.

That story broke awhile ago. The fact that MSNBC is making it a headline now suggests they're the ones trying to divert attention at the moment. Both candidates have shady land dealings and will be crucified about them from now until election day (and whoever wins will hear about it long after); I consider those a wash. Also, note how you don't respond to the substance of Hamas's endorsement. Misdirection, misdirection, misdirection.

I also consider low-level domestic corruption a much less important issue than a candidate's terrorism policy. Virtually all successful politicians have a few corruption skeletons in the closet; I'm impressed that both Obama and McCain are by DC standards pretty clean, though their self-righteousness with respect to character and integrity makes their ethical failings that much more obnoxious.

But again, Hamas endorsed Obama. The reasonable thing for Obama to do is, to use the language of this cycle, to reject and denounce Hamas's endorsement (as he harshly criticized Hamas when Carter met with them, which was reassuring). Rather than trying to score cheap and unjustified political points against McCain by distorting the issue, he needs to say something along the lines of "Fuck Hamas" and make it a nonissue for McCain.