If CNN Reported the Basic Facts, McCain's Craziness Would Be Obvious to All

By Kevin Tillman, AlterNet. Posted July 15, 2008.

A note. They gave me the keys to the blog again. I don't know what they're thinking -- clearly, I'm just gonna make trouble. Anyway, check in frequently over the next few weeks; should be a fun ride. And if you're going to be in Austin for Netroots Nation, make sure you catch the immigration panel I'm moderating on Friday, and then be sure to swing by the happy-hour party we're throwing on Saturday. You can meet Atrios and Jim Hightower! Did I mention that the margaritas will be on AlterNet (and various co-sponsors)? It’s our way of giving (alcohol) back to the community and all that.

So, CNN's Situation Room was on while I tried to burn some blubber at the gym the other day. Worked off 400 calories, and I think Wolf Blitzer knocked about five points off my IQ in the process.

The subject: McCain and Obama on foreign policy -- or FoPo, as we FoPo nerds like to call it.

One of the policies they touched on was McCain's proposal to kick Russia out of the G8. Blitzer had Very Serious Foreign Policy Analyst™ Fareed Zakaria on. Here's their exchange:

BLITZER: Let's get your analysis right now, what we just heard. Because as far as John McCain is concerned, we're hearing a very different stance from Barack Obama as far as Russia and its involvement in the G-8 alignment.

ZAKARIA: I think they're two very different visions of how to deal with the world, Wolf. I think on the one hand, you have McCain, who is suggesting, in a sense, a new division, a new Cold War, if you will, between the democracies and the autocracies.

What Obama said to me was, look, you can't solve the world's problems that way, we have got to deal with the issues of global warming, issues of nuclear proliferation. On nuclear proliferation, on loose nukes, you need the Russians. On any economic issue, you need the Chinese. So it's a vision of drawing in the world's major powers, whether or not they're democracies, which is a kind of more ideological view, you know, which is sort of democracy versus the rest.

BLITZER: So basically the major difference between Barack Obama and John McCain is, McCain wants to expel Russia from the G-8 and Barack Obama says keep them in, keep them in this tent, because the U.S. needs them.

ZAKARIA: Exactly. Draw these guys into the tent so we can solve some of the world's common problems together.

So, to recap, the "best political team on television" -- they're humble, too -- told me that McCain never got the memo that the Cold War is over, and Obama wants to keep the Russkies in the tent, whatever that means.

Here's what they failed to tell me, and the millions who rely on the pabulum broadcast by CNN for their political information:

See more stories tagged with: obama, cnn, mccain, g8

Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer at AlterNet.

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