Mac at 'Height of Hypocrisy' on Hamas, Obama

GOP candidate far more accommodating just 2 years ago

By Jonas Oransky, Newser Staff

Posted May 16, 2008 1:55 PM CDT

(Newser) – John McCain’s effort to link Barack Obama and Hamas—waxing astonished the Democrat could sit down with the violent Palestinian group—is “Nixon-style dirty campaign tactics,” and the “height of hypocrisy,” James Rubin writes in the Washington Post. In a 2006 interview, McCain said the US would “have to deal with” Hamas—and that Palestinians had chosen the extremists for “a decent life and decent future.”

That version of McCain, the Clinton administration official writes, said things “the newly conservative” Republican would never say today. Paraphrasing the presumptive nominee's dig at Obama, Rubin concludes, "Given that exchange, the new John McCain might say that Hamas should be rooting for the old John McCain to win the presidential election."

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Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., acknowledges supporters, Thursday, May 15, 2008, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

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Mac at 'Height of Hypocrisy' on Hamas, Obama