In a post by Charlie Martin concerning McCain's visit to the Dalai Lama in Colorado, Martin writes, in part:
I looked around some of the left-wing blogs, and I was struck by one comment: “Does McCain think the Dalai Lama is a gook?” This because of the infamous statement about how McCain “hates gooks.”
Well, you know what? If McCain “hated gooks” at some point — after being captured, tortured, beaten, eventually crippled — I think most people would understand that. On the other hand, he has returned to Vietnam on several occasions, and had as much to do with Vietnam and the US reestablishing relations as anyone. Somehow, for all this “hatred,”he’d been on the side of the Vietnamese people since, and even the prison director now says “If I were an American, I’d vote for McCain.”
Later in the article, Martin comments on Obama's trip to Germany:
Contrast that [McCain's support of the Tibetan people against Chinese near-genocide, a low return political investment] with Barack Obama, who discovered that the Department of Defense didn’t want him to include campaign aides and a campaign photo-op in a visit to wounded American soldiers and Marines at Landstuhl. (Think of it: what could be lonelier than being severely wounded and in a hospital in a foreign country?) When there wasn’t anything in it for him, what did Obama do? He canceled out, so he could work out at the Ritz-Carlton and do a little Berlin site seeing.
UPDATE: The other side of the story regarding the cancelled visit to the troop hospital can be read here. The Financial Times refers to the story about Obama cancelling the visit as being "debunked". I would suggest that "debunked" is too strong a word and reflects FT's leanings toward Obama. But I also think that there may be something to Obama's side of the story. Obama, of course, is vulnerable to attack at this point because of his weak views on defense and his voting record regarding funding the war in Iraq. Fair game, I would say.
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