In the last two debates McCain and Palin said Obama was naive for saying he would meet with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea without preconditions. Obama and Biden have responded by saying that those remarks were taken out of context and that Obama said he would seek high level, non presidential, diplomacy. Well thank God for the internet.

The USA Today has the relevant quotes from the Obama conference call in which these remarks were made (you can read it here). During this conference call Obama said, “If I sit down with the leader in Iran, I will send him a strong message that Israel is our friend, that we will assist in their security and that we don’t find nuclear weapons acceptable… That’s not going to be a propaganda coup for the president of Iran.”

Here Obama said he would meet with Iran and that doing so would not be a coup for the president of Iran. I don’t know how else to take “If I sit down with the leader of Iran.” I’m not sure how “I” can be misconstrued. In light of this the question he is asked,

“Would you be willing to separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, meet with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?” To this question Obama responded, “I would.”

Feel free to read the linked article and see everything in context and then make your own honest decision as to whether or not Obama meant he himself would meet with these leaders or if he would have high level diplomats do it.

If he misspoke, that’s fine, but come out and admit it as misspeak. But please don’t insult my intelligence by saying he was referring to high level diplomats.

When Mitt Romney’s presidential bid first began to pick up steam, there was a lot of worry about his ties to the Mormon church. Would Romney’s religious beliefs influence his policies as president? Would the things he learned from the Mormon church influence how he thinks about the world? How could such a smart man attend a church that has certain beliefs that, to many, seem outrageous? Does the Mormon Church’s somewhat questionable past regarding African-Americans indicate that Romney might be hiding his true thoughts about blacks?

These questions, along with many others, were continually raised by political pundits over and over. These were questions that Romney was forced to answer at just about every turn. He took them so seriously that he gave an entire speech on the relationship between his faith and his politics (click here to link to a video of that speech).

If it was acceptable to bring up all these issues concerning Mitt Romney, why is it not acceptable to do the same concerning Barack Obama? Below is a video clip of Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor for over 20 years, preaching a sermon that, at the least, demands that Obama answer the same questions, with the same forthrightness, as Romney.

As you watch this short 3 minute video keep in mind the following: this is the man that has been Obama’s pastor for over 20 years. This is the man that Obama prayed with before announcing his nomination just over a year ago. This is the man that baptized Obama’s two daughters. This is the man that Obama considers his spiritual advisor.

If Obama had attended this church 20 years ago and left after a short time, I think this would be a non-issue. But, Obama attended this church, pastored by this man, 20 years ago and has continued to attend it. And keep in mind, Obama is only 46 years old. Wright has had an influence on Obama for just about half of his life. I don’t think it is fair to expect any person to endorse everything his pastor says over 20 years. But can we reasonably believe that every Sunday afternoon, Obama would sit down with his family and disagree with what their pastor has said? For 20 years?

If I’m right, then every American should demand that Obama answer every question we have about this issue. Am I right about this? Is it fair to compare this to Romney? Will the Obama-loving media turn our questions about this into our being racist?  Can we still believe Obama’s rhetoric about moving beyond race? Does this at least give us reasons to question his judgment?

How would America in general, and the media in particular, respond if John McCain even had a friend that expressed these ideas directed toward black people? What if it was someone he voluntary associated himself with for over 20 years?

(In case you think this is an isolated incident, peruse some of the related videos on YouTube’s site. You’ll see that Wright thought 9/11 was a punishment for not America’s sins, but for “white-America’s sins” and that instead of singing ‘God bless America’, he thinks we should sing ‘God damn America’.)

Before you vote for McCain
Please do yourself, and America, a favor. Before you head off to vote on Tuesday, take a few minutes to find out about the following bills that McCain helped write:

1) McCain-Feingold
2) McCain-Kennedy
3) McCain-Lieberman

After you’ve learned what these are, ask yourself if a traditional, Reagan conservative would support those bills. Keep in mind that the large percentage of Republicans (who should be as close to traditional conservatives as we’ll get) voted against each of them. McCain not only voted against the large number of Republicans, he sponsored the bills!

Another thing to ask yourself is if a traditional, small government, low taxes Republican would have voted against making Bush’s tax cuts permanent. Here again McCain sided with the Democrats and not the majority of Republicans.

You should also consider whether a traditional Republican would have voted in favor of amnesty for illegal immigrants (hint, this is the McCain-Kennedy bill). McCain said it doesn’t really matter if you broke the law to get here, pay $3,000 and you’re fine. Now I know that the bill didn’t pass, but we still don’t know what McCain’s actual position is on amnesty. When asked if he would vote in favor of it as President, he said “Well it’ll never come up for a vote.” What? That wasn’t the question. It was a hypothetical question that McCain didn’t seem to understand.

Finally, are you not at least a bit concerned with his support of Justice O’Connor. It seems odd to say “I’ll appoint justices like Alito and Roberts” and then turn around and say “O’Connor was a fine justice” when they are nothing alike. I wonder if the fact that she would have been the deciding vote in upholding McCain-Feingold had anything to do with that comment.

Of course if you’re not a Republican or are a more progressive one, these things might not matter to you. But, if they do, you should seriously consider the above points and ask yourself if McCain is really a Reagan conservative or is just trying to act like one.

(Bias alert: I’m voting for Romney because I think his policies are solid. If you agree with me about McCain then hopefully you also realize that Huckabee has no real shot at winning the nomination and so should vote for Romney too.)

Look forward to hearing your thoughts.