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this is somewhere on par with hillary not willing to give up the race due to a possibility of obama getting assassinated. another classic moment in politics…
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9439
By GLEN JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
FRESNO, Calif. – A top adviser to John McCain said another terrorist attack on U.S. soil would be a “big advantage” for the Republican presidential candidate, drawing a sharp rebuke Monday from both the presumed GOP nominee and Democrat Barack Obama.
Charlie Black, already in the spotlight for his past lobbying work, is quoted in the upcoming July 7 edition of Fortune magazine as saying such an attack “certainly would be a big advantage to him.” Black said Monday he regretted the comment.
Black is also quoted as saying the “unfortunate event” of the assassination of former Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto in December 2007 “helped us.”
Questioned about Black’s comments during a news conference, McCain said, “I cannot imagine why he would say it. It’s not true. I’ve worked tirelessly since 9/11 to prevent another attack on the United States of America. My record is very clear.”
Citing his work to establish a commission to investigate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and his membership on the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain added: “I cannot imagine it, and so, if he said that — and I don’t know the context — I strenuously disagree.”
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement: “The fact that John McCain’s top adviser says that a terrorist attack on American soil would be a ‘big advantage’ for their political campaign is a complete disgrace, and is exactly the kind of politics that needs to change. Barack Obama will turn the page on these failed policies and this cynical and divisive brand of politics so that we can unite this nation around a common purpose to finish the fight against al-Qaida.”
The remarks caught McCain flat-footed on a day when he focused on energy issues — first in a speech, then at a town-hall meeting and then during a news conference as he stood beside two $100,000 electric cars. McCain offered $300 million to anyone who develops a revolutionary automobile battery, and he predicted such incentives would lower alternative energy costs.
Moments later, he was befuddled when reporters asked about Black’s comments. Black was similarly surprised when reporters happened upon him outside a later McCain fundraiser.
Speaking quietly, Black read from handwritten notes. “I deeply regret the comments. They were inappropriate. I recognize that John McCain has devoted his entire adult life to protecting his country and placing its security before every other consideration,” Black said.
Black repeatedly has argued that McCain — a former Navy pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war who has traveled the globe while serving in Congress — benefits any time national security matters are the news of the day. By contrast, Obama has less than four years experience in the Senate and has paid only one visit to Iraq. He plans a second trip before the November election.
During the 2004 presidential race, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other Republicans argued that Democratic nominee John Kerry was soft on terrorism; the argument resonated with voters. The GOP also questioned the Democrats’ record on national security in 2002, with White House political adviser Karl Rove saying Republicans should not shy away from citing terrorism concerns as a reason to vote for their party.
The approach also paid dividends at the polls during that year’s congressional elections.
The GOP line — that Democrats had a pre-Sept. 11 mind-set — failed in the 2006 midterm elections as Democrats wrested control of Congress from the Republicans.
More recently, former White House press secretary Scott McClellan wrote in a memoir that during the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Bush and his team tried to make the weapons of mass destruction “threat and the Iraqi connection to terrorism appear just a little more certain, a little less questionable than they were.”
For his part, McCain has tried to portray Obama as naive on national security and foreign policy.
On Monday, McCain told reporters he was stunned that Obama has never been briefed by Gen. David Petraeus, who is leading U.S. forces in Iraq, yet Obama is calling for a U.S. troop withdrawal.
“Remarkable how someone can make an assessment of the situation without asking for a briefing from the commanding general,” McCain said.
Hmmmm… with the conspiracy theories about the US government having something to do with the 9/11 incident… this is kinda a bit unnerving don’t you think?
@Renee 166801 wrote:
Hmmmm… with the conspiracy theories about the US government having something to do with the 9/11 incident… this is kinda a bit unnerving don’t you think?
not at all, typical republican scare tactics, they did it in 2004 but the people are hopefully keen to it.
9/11 happened simply because the clowns didn’t do their jobs. Unfortunately America has gone from doers to talkers.
Benazir Bhutto – what a lovely woman she was. tragically sad though.
Charles Black is the ultimate republican insider, he’s been active for years, raising money, lobbying and helping the republican lie machine spew it’s Big Lies for years
Charles R. Black, Jr. (born 1947), is a former chief lobbyist for BKSH & Associates, a lobbying firm associated with Burson-Marsteller. Black also worked for Ronald Reagan’s two Presidential campaigns in 1976 and 1980 and he was a senior political adviser to the 1992 re-election campaign of George H.W. Bush. He currently serves as chief campaign adviser for Senator John McCain.
In 1972 he contended with Karl Rove for the leadership of the College Republicans, in a contest so heated that then Republican National Committee (RNC) head George H.W. Bush was forced to intervene.[2]
In the same year, he served as political director for the first senatorial campaign of Jesse Helms, during which he designed a strategy that labeled Helms’ Democratic opponent as too liberal for North Carolina, employing a slogan declaring Helms to be “One of Us.”[3] In 1996, with Harvey Gantt running against Helms, Black told the New York Times that, at the beginning of the race, “everybody knew he was too conservative, he’d never run for office, and couldn’t win. But it was a good conservative cause, so I went down and worked on his campaign for the last six months. And lo and behold, we did win.”[1][4]
In 1975, Black co-founded the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC) with Terry Dolan and Roger Stone.[1]
Black went on to work for a succession of Republican presidential campaigns from 1976 to 1992, including those of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. His first hire on the Reagan campaign was Lee Atwater, whom he met during the course of his work with the RNC in 1972. He re-emerged as an advisor to George W. Bush’s campaigns in 2000 and 2004 and has been quoted in news stories as an unofficial White House spokesman.[citation needed]
A colleague of Black’s, Republican media consultant Roger Ailes, attested to his reputation for toughness: “Charlie’s the kind of guy who if he came home and found somebody making out with his wife on a rainy day, he’d break the guy’s umbrella and ask him to leave, then have him killed a year later. Lee Atwater would blow the house up.”[5]
Black was a founding partner in lobbying powerhouse Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly, and its successor BKSH & Associates. During his time there, Black and his partners the firm did work acted as registered foreign agents for a number of controversial regimes and oppositional figures, including Jonas Savimbi, the Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, Nigerian General Ibrahim Babangida, Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre, the Embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the countries of Kenya and Equatorial Guinea, among others.[7]
According to Black, the United States State Department urged him to work with Seko in holding a democratic election. Mobutu cancelled the election results and Black’s firm again terminated their relationship. [8]
Black has also been criticized for work he did for Jonas Savimbi of Angola, who paid his firm some $5 million to lobby to generate favorable U.S. media coverage and political support in Washington. In a 1990 interview, Black defended his work for Savimbi, saying, “Now when you’re in a war, trying to manage a war, when the enemy … is no more than a couple of hours away from you at any given time, you might not run your territory according to New Hampshire town meeting rules.”[9]
Black and his firm were also early supporters of Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi as early as 1999,[3] and received $200,000 to $300,000 from the U.S. government to provide consulting services to Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress. Black proved highly useful to Chalabi, providing the Iraqi exile with access to high-powered officials in Washington. Black says the firm did “standard kinds of public relations and public affairs, setting up seminars, helping them get speeches covered by the press, press conferences” and says his company can take pride in what they accomplished: “The whole thing was very successful. The INC became not only well-known, but I think the message got out there strongly
from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_R._Black,_Jr.
