McCain's astounding lack of foreign policy expertise MUST be exposed NOW!!

[Douglas Carpenter]

Right now as we speak the McCain campaign are running a series of highly deceptive campaign adds attempting to portray Barack Obama as dangerous on foreign policy issues while McCain benefits from a completely outrageously false image as a foreign policy expert.

The truth of the matter is, John McCain wouldn't be able to pass a good tough eighth grade geography text, much less act as a foreign policy expert.

McCain's top foreign policy adviser is Randy Scheunemann - an extremist foreign policy neoconservative and a founding member of PNAC (The Project for a New American Century)


I STRONGLY RECOMMEND CLICKING ON THE LINKS BELOW AND READING AND SAVING THE ORIGINAL ARTICLES AND SENDING THEM TO EVERYONE ON YOUR ADDRESS LIST

http://roguecolumnist.typepad.com/rogue_columnist/2008/08/why-the-mccain.html

please note: I added the references below from the links embedded in the original article

Why the McCain house gaffe matters

http://roguecolumnist.typepad.com/rogue_columnist/2008/08/why-the-mccain.html

McCain's inability to recall how many houses.(1) he owns fits into a larger and more troubling pattern. The problem is not just that he is an out-of-touch rich guy.

This is the candidate who repeatedly confused Shiite and Sunni (2)-- all the while trumpeting his expertise on the Middle East. At one point, his sock puppet Joe Lieberman had to whisper the facts in his ear.(3) He couldn't tell Sudan from Somalia.(4) He kept talking about a nation that hasn't existed for years.(5) Iraq and Pakistan share a border, the senator wrongly said, and the Sunni awakening happened 'after' the surge (6) (edited out by CBS (7)). He said he didn't know much about economics,(8) then denied saying such a thing. He spoke of a withdrawal timetable one day, then denied saying it later. He volunteered Cindy for a topless contest.(9) Then there was the stupendous dead space and mumbling when he was questioned about claiming Obama was playing the race card.(10) He claimed he walked through Baghdad without body armor or protection, etc., etc.(11) Most of this has been captured on tape.

What's going on? Neither obvious answer is comforting. He's either going senile as he nears 72, or he's lying and unprepared on critical issues without realizing how easily this can be caught in a YouTube era. (Whether the duhs and ignos -- those 'undecided voters' and angry Clintonites -- will care, is another, depressing matter). Either one of these answers should disqualify him for the White House, particularly because so many of his misstatements, confusions and subsequent lies come about issues where he claims superior experience and judgment.

But next consider all his flip flops, over torture, warrantless wiretapping, tax cuts, Social Security, abortion rights, engaging with Hamas, nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, offshore drilling, etc. Once the presumptive nominee, he said Social Security was "an absolute disgrace.'(12) His chief economic adviser and likely Treasury secretary called Americans a 'nation of whiners' and said the recession was in our heads.(13) This from a rich man who helped deregulate banking, profited from it, then profited again from the current deregulated banking crisis. Soon after McCain reversed course to support drilling, oil industry contributions poured in.(14)

The above is not a disjointed laundry list. When we combine it with McCain's obvious mental fatigue, the really disturbing picture comes clear.

1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/21/AR2008082103532.html?nav=hcmodule

2.http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Once_again_McCain_confuses_Sunnis_with_0408.html

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6GBdyws5YU

4. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/01/mccain-confuses-somalia-a_n_110152.html

5. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/14/mccain-references-non-exi_n_112650.html

6. http://gawker.com/5028170/how-bad-are-mccains-gaffes

7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDIAsS9VXiM

8. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1X3efvVTLA

9. http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/08/mccain-voluntee.html

10. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfkKk2C1W1c

11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpKGhut209o&NR=1

12. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/203377.php

13. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NVjq2py7BA

14. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/26/AR2008072601891.html

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From Talking Points Memo

Do Your Job: Stop Ignoring Scheunemann's Past

By Josh Marshall

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/203960.php


Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) speaks with his director of foriegn policy and national security Randy Scheunemann (L), as they board McCain's chartered plane at Washington's Ronald Reagan Airport, May 16, 2008. (Associated Press)
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/17/randy_scheunemann_mccain_advis.html

As you can see, the McCain campaign is moving ahead with a new stab-in-the-back style attack on Obama over Iraq. But as Team McCain is raising the volume on these slash-and-burn style attacks, it's time for some coverage of the guy who's McCain's brain on Iraq. Remember, McCain's pitch on Iraq is that he was a critic of Bush, not a supporter, on the poor decisions and lies that got us into the current mess. In the McCain paradigm, he starts fresh with the 'surge'. That's where he takes ownership, as it were, of Iraq.

But look who's advising him on Iraq, who's crafting Iraq policy. That would be Randy Scheunemann, McCain's top foreign policy adviser. And he's the guy who today accused Barack Obama of wanting to lead America to defeat in Iraq for political gain.

Scheunemann was a core participant in the lobbying, plotting and organized campaigns of deception that led America to war in Iraq. He was a close collaborator with Ahmad Chalabi through the 1990s. He helped draft the Iraq Liberation Act, which created the new funding stream for Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress. At the start of the Bush administration he signed on as Don Rumsfeld's 'consultant' on Iraq at the Pentagon. And then when the administration started cranking up the machinery for the propaganda campaign in favor of war he went back on the outside to form and lead the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, to lead the press and lobbying campaign to make sure the war got started on schedule.

Remember, US intelligence later found evidence that Chalabi, in addition to foisting a bunch of bogus intelligence and lying informers on the US and pocketing a lot of US taxpayer dollars, had provided highly classified US intelligence to Iran. Scheunemann worked closely with Chalabi for years in his efforts to get the US into war with Iraq. He was also a go-between between Chalabi and McCain. Now that he's taking such a high-profile role on the Iraq issue in the 2008, Scheunemann's history with Chalabi and the use of bogus intelligence to get the nation into war is unquestionably highly newsworthy.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/203960.php

[C_U_L8R]

1. Many questions remain about John McCain

Very disturbing questions...
Can we risk having John McCain at the helm?
Is he even fit to lead?
Do we know who the real John McCain is?

McCain has failed to connect with ordinary American voters
and tell us if he is capable of being President.

(right back at ya MSM)

[Douglas Carpenter]

2. the representation of McCain as a foreign policy expert is a ludicrous hoax

it is outrageous that he media completely overlooks his astounding statements that indicate a lack of even basic geography and history

[jwirr]

3. Anyone got a list of committee's that mcgaffe and our candidate & vp

are on? Then see how many times they attend.

[Muttocracy]

5. Biden is chair of Foreign Relations, longest Dem on Judiciary

I think he's been on Judiciary longer than Leahy since Biden chaired it earlier, but they usually only chair one committee.


from obama.senate.gov

Sworn into office January 4, 2005, Senator Obama serves on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which oversees our nation’s health care, schools, employment, and retirement programs. He is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, which plays a vital role in shaping American policy around the world, including our policy in Iraq. And Senator Obama serves on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, which is focused on providing our brave veterans with the care and services they deserve. In 2005 and 2006, he served on the Environment and Public Works Committee, which safeguards our environment and provides funding for our highways.

http://mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=IssuesLegislation.CommitteeAssignments

Senator John McCain is Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services; Ranking Member and former Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; and Member and former Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

with more detail on that page.

[Douglas Carpenter]

7. thank you

[Muttocracy]

4. McCain has experience NOT expertise. Watching things go downhill

does not make you an expert. Neither does saber rattling.

[Douglas Carpenter]

6. EXACTLY!!!

[depakid]

8. Now would be the time to go after all McCain's blunders

and start defining him in no uncertain terms in the battleground states with big negative ad buys.

[Douglas Carpenter]

9. indeed