Shanda

This McCain campaign attack on Barack Obama for being "soft on genocide" on the same day he's visiting the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem is, as Robert Wexler says, pretty shameful. Especially because the comment they're using to attack him simply recognizes the limits of military capability to deal with genocide, and the need to build multilateral coalitions and use all the tools of diplomatic pressure to bear. This is why Obama actually has a better score on legislation about the CURRENT GENOCIDE happening in Darfur than McCain; because he understands it in a global context.

I thought J Street's response was a good one:

We are shocked and dismayed by today’s exploitation by aides to Senator John McCain of the memory of the Holocaust while Obama was visiting Yad Vashem in Israel.

It is one thing to have a legitimate disagreement over keeping American troops in Iraq for sixteen months or a hundred years.

It is another to shamelessly exploit the sacred memory of six million victims of the worst crime in human history to score political points in the heat of a partisan election campaign.

There is definitely an "Obama is an anti-Semite who isn't committed to Israel" undercurrent to all of this. I mean, this ridiculous flap over Obama making fliers in the language of the city in which he's appearing and appearing on the flier in profile - just like Hitler! (because imitating Hitler is a surefire vote-getter) fits into the narrative as well. While McCain's people make outrageous remarks about his commitment to stopping genocide, the fever swamps on the right compare him to a genocidist. Meanwhile, the one figure to invoke Hitler's name favorably this election cycle, radical right pastor John Hagee, just appeared on the same stage as key McCain surrogate Joe Lieberman.

One of John McCain's most prominent supporters on Tuesday praised an evangelical leader whom the Republican presidential candidate repudiated after a string of controversial remarks were made public.

Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent who frequently campaigns with McCain, said pastor John Hagee's support for Israel outweighed the remarks that led McCain to reject his endorsement [...]

McCain, in an effort to reach out to evangelicals who are among the most loyal Republican voters, accepted Hagee's endorsement in March but rejected him in May after learning that the Texas preacher once said that God allowed the Holocaust to happen because it led to the creation of Israel.

Think Progress caught the following from the Christians United for Israel event:

In response to what he termed the "pretty aggressive campaign," Lieberman said in his speech, "The bond I feel with Pastor John Hagee and each and every one of you is much stronger than that and so I am proud to stand with you here tonight." Lieberman again drew a parallel between Hagee and biblical figures, this time saying biblical heroes, unlike the demigods of Greek mythology, "are humans — great humans, but with human failings." Lieberman said that Moses had his shortcomings, too. "Dear friends, I can only imagine what the bloggers of today would have had to say about Moses and Miriam."

Yes, he just compared John Hagee to Moses. This is why nobody, not even Jews, like Lieberman any more.

What a shanda.