Doh! McCain caught exploiting the Georgia Russian conflict for votes, and not doing a very good job at it.Yesterday he said: "We are all Georgians." I feel for them but that was a stupid thing to say, especially since it looks like blame can be spread around.
Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili called on McCain to take action but what else can McCain do but bluster? George Bush, fresh back from his romp at the Olympics, says he's taking action.
The president, who's calling for an international peacekeeping force, also likely heard McCain butcher his name several times. Why is pronouncing someone's name important? It shows respect.
The president, who's calling for an international peacekeeping force, also likely heard McCain butcher his name several times. Why is pronouncing someone's name important? It shows respect.
CNN:
“Yesterday, I heard Sen. McCain say, ‘We are all Georgians now,’” Saakashvili said on CNN’s American Morning. “Well, very nice, you know, very cheering for us to hear that, but OK, it’s time to pass from this. From words to deeds.”
McCain told a crowd in Pennsylvania yesterday that he had called Saakashvili to express solidarity with the people of Georgia, saying: “Today, we are all Georgians.”
McCain’s foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann told reporters on the campaign plane Tuesday that McCain’s remark “obviously meant a lot to Saakashvili personally, but more importantly the message it conveyed to the Georgian people in this really, time of unprecedented national emergency.” Scheunemann said McCain and Saakashvili are friends who have speaking daily throughout the crisis.
But Saakashvili said action is more important than rhetoric in the face of “brutal” and “deliberate” Russian violence. He urged the United States to take the lead in installing an international peacekeeping force.
“We should realize what is at stake here for Americans,” he said. “America is losing the whole region.”
NPR's interview with McCain on Russia
