“In the most obscene chapter in recent American history is the conduct of the Kosovo conflict when the president of the United States refused to prepare for ground operations, refused to have air power used effectively because he wanted them flying — he had them flying at 15,000 feet where they killed innocent civilians because they were dropping bombs from such — in high altitude.”
– John McCain

A better comparison for Obama’s relations with Ayers would be McCain’s membership on the board of the “US Council for World Freedom,” a group of Nazis and fascists described by the ADL as “a gathering place, a forum, a point of contact for extremists, racists and Anti-Semites.”

Obama has a tenuous relationship with Ayers, at best. “Cuddling up” is exaggerating to the point of lying.

As far as the comment regarding Afghanistan goes – our troops have killed more civilians there than the bad guys have. This is not a swipe at them, though, because they are limited by a poor strategy that reduces them to dropping large bombs all over the place because they don’t have the manpower to stage more focused ops.

Obama’s remarks aren’t an attack on the military – he was asking for more troops so that they could do the job (that he knows they can do) effectively, instead of flailing around and making a mess of the region.

And let’s not forget Palin’s assosiations – she actually does cuddle up (literally) to a secessionist, who belonged to a group whose leader said “The fires of Hell are glaciers compared to my hate for the American Government, and I won’t be buried under their damned flag!”

Lastly, the issue wasn’t even about the kooks in the crowd. McCain’s not responsible for them. The issue is he didn’t stand up to them any more than he stood up to the woman who called Clinton a bitch. He may not be responsible for a guy yelling “kill ‘em,” but he implicitly endorses the sentiment by not saying anything.

It’s not reallt that surprising, though. McCain’s never shown himself to have any understanding of the real meaning of ‘honor.’ He could have learned something about it from his fellow POW John Dramesi, who in contrast to McCain, never gave up information to the enemy, who tried repeatedly to escape, who never made propaganda tapes for the VC, and who says of McCain that “he’s still the undisciplined, spoiled brat that he was when he went in.”