The furor over remarks made by President Bush in front of Israel's parliament hit a fever pitch today, as the self-identified victim of the president's comments, Sen. Barack Obama, traded barbs with Sen. John McCain over the alleged insult to Obama's judgment and ability to protect the country as president. The Political Machine covered Obama's response to the White House and McCain here. [Rubin]: "Do you think that American diplomats should be operating the way they have in the past, working with the Palestinian government if Hamas is now in charge?"Rubin says the exchange proves that McCain once espoused Obama's more nuanced position with respect to meeting with America's enemies. But, as the McCain campaign pointed out in its response, the impression readers would have gotten of McCain's position would have been radically different if Rubin had reported McCain's answer to his very next question.
McCain: "They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so . . . but it's a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that."
Rubin: "So should the United States be dealing with that new reality through normal diplomatic contacts to get the job done for the United States?"McCain's answer to Rubin's follow-up question tends to confirm his position that the United States should not meet with or engage Hamas diplomatically unless Hamas meets certain conditions based on their policies and behaviors.
McCain: "I think the United States should take a step back, see what they do when they form their government, see what their policies are, and see the ways that we can engage with them, and if there aren't any, there may be a hiatus. But I think part of the relationship is going to be dictated by how Hamas acts, not how the United States acts."
McCain: "Well, hopefully, that Hamas now that they are going to govern, will be motivated to renounce this commitment to the extinction of the state of Israel. Then we can do business again, we can resume aid, we can resume the peace process. It's very, very important though that they renounce this commitment."McCain clearly has not changed his position, however, he was the target of some very slanted and shoddy reporting by Mr. Rubin.

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