al-Qaeda Endorses McCain
Tim reminds us how the right wing flipped out when Hamas “endorsed” Barack Obama–the McCain campaign even made a fundraising campaign out of it, although Hamas “unendorsed” Obama because of his support for Israel–and it looks like that has finally come back to bite them in the ass:
“Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election,” said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said the Arizona Republican would continue the “failing march of his predecessor,” President Bush.
The Web commentary was one of several posted by Taliban or al-Qaeda-allied groups in recent days that trumpeted the global financial crisis and predicted further decline for the United States and other Western powers. In language that was by turns mocking and ominous, the newest posting credited al-Qaeda with having lured Washington into a trap that had “exhausted its resources and bankrupted its economy.” It further suggested that a terrorist strike might swing the election to McCain and guarantee an expansion of U.S. military commitments in the Islamic world.
“It will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaeda,” said the posting, attributed to Muhammad Haafid, a longtime contributor to the password-protected site. “Al-Qaeda then will succeed in exhausting America.”
…
“The idea in the jihadist forums is that McCain would be a faithful ’son of Bush’ — someone they see as a jingoist and a war hawk,” Raisman said. “They think that, to succeed in a war of attrition, they need a leader in Washington like McCain.“
Now, I don’t think anyone should really give a shit about who al-Qaeda or Hamas or any other terrorist groups wants to win the election because they obviously don’t have the best interest of the American people in mind. On the other hand, it is signicant that they claim credit for the Bush administration policies that have decimated our economy–policies which, in large part, John McCain wants to continue.
The GOP really has egg on its face today.
Update: The McCain campaign responds by attacking the Washington Post for doing the story in the first place. Nothing about their bestest friends foreverest in the Associated Press who first broke the story, though. Ackerman makes an interesting catch: at no point did anyone at the campaign try to refute any of al-Qaeda’s reasons for wanting McCain to read, including the assertion that McCain will continue Bush’s failed policies.
Update 2: John McCain tells us how to react to endorsements of presidential candidates by terrorists:
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[...] the McCain campaign paid off a guy accused of voter registration fraud, was endorsed by al-Qaeda, discovered that Sarah Palin doesn’t know the Constitution, and pissed off Virginians. [...]
Comment posted at 10/24/08 at 7:19 pm