McCain excoriates Barack re Iran

Bravo, Senator McCain. The United States of America DOES NOT ignore moral atrocity in favor of preserving potential for negotiation.

It's especially ironic that negotiation, in this instance, will not succeed anyway. Negotiation would be a Clintonian exercise in posturing and then making false claims of success.

Senator McCain:

"Between Ahmadinejad and the reformers, do you think there's any doubt what side President Obama is on?"

"I know what side I'm on. I'm on the side of the people. I'm not on Ahmadinejad's side or Mousavi. I'm on the side of the Iranian people and I'm on the right side of history. And I'm not going to walk on the other side of the street while people are being killed and beaten in the streets of Iran."

"We can't sit by and watch a film clip on television of a young woman bleeding to death and say that we're worried about the Iranian reaction or our ability to negotiate with them. We have to stand up for those people."

Even though Barack's press conference prepared statement was stronger than he has been, I was still sickened by it - sickened by the missed opportunities.

• Barack did not say Ahmadinejad is illegitimate. He called Iran "sovereign". Yet, the Iranian government has not been sovereign since the election. The Iranian government is illegitimate.
• Iranians are not "conducting a debate". The debate is over. The election was crooked. Iranians are trying to stop an illegitimate President from retaining office.
• Barack mentioned innocent deaths, yet did not call it murder. "Murder" would have been a truthful and powerful statement.
• Barack mentioned a girl shot in the chest, yet did not call Neda by name. Invoking her name would have been incredibly powerful. Would Reagan have failed to invoke her name? Never. When Reagan invoked her name, tears would have wet the ground all over the world. Reagan would have invoked Neda as a line of demarcation; as a call to action; as an injustice up with which we will not put.
• Barack said "the Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government." Barack's statement is living in two weeks ago. Iranians have ALREADY judged the illegal and murderous actions of their own government. The judging part is over. We are to the demanding justice part, and to the government is committing murder part.

Even now, Barack continues to pull up short in his prepared statements. It sickens me. John McCain is exactly right. Bravo.




Video highlights of Barack's testy press conference.

James Lewis at American Thinker: The Little President Who Wasn't There

Andrew McCarthy at NRO's The Corner:

It's a mistake to perceive this as "weakness" in Obama. [...] Obama has a preferred outcome here, one that is more in line with his worldview, and it is not victory for the freedom fighters. He is hanging as tough as political pragmatism allows, and by doing so he is making his preferred outcome more likely. That's not weakness, it's strength — and strength of the sort that ought to frighten us.

More Andy McCarthy:

(a) [President Obama] does not think the mullahs are evil,
(b) he thinks they have a point,
(c) he thinks he can forge a rapprochement and deal effectively with them (though he is under no illusions about stopping their nuclear ambitions),
(d) he is not a big believer in freedom, and
(e) he thinks the world would be more stable and easier for him to navigate if the mullahs win.