McCain vehemently attacked Senator Obama for his stance on meeting with the leaders of our greatest enemies, among which North Korea, and emphasized his naivety in foreign policy. McCain and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman wrote an opinion article in the Wall Street Journal Asia that said, “We must never squander the trust of our allies and the respect for our highest office by promising that the president will embark on an open-ended, unconditional personal negotiation with a dictator responsible for running an international criminal enterprise, a covert nuclear weapons program and a massive system of gulags,” Mr. McCain and Mr. Lieberman said in the article.

McCain’s willingness to support the six-party negotiations and diplomatic engagement between the U.S., North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, is well recorded.

Later this afternoon, Bush joins McCain for a closed-door fundraiser in Phoenix. Mr. Bush is renowned as a prodigious fund-raiser for his party, and McCain needs all the help he can get.

MCCAIN AND NORTH KOREA
By Elizabeth Bumiller (NYTimes 5/27/08)
Abstract by Johana Nadler
click here to view original article

The wild West is flaring up as Obama and McCain are marching on to win the states of Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. Obama plans to invade and take over McCain’s turf, but he will have to prevail against the misconception of his ‘big-city liberal’ and his Muslim affiliation via his father. Even though he emphasizes that he is a Christian, some still have reservation and as Betty Etheridge, a 59-year-old Democrat, said “his statements lead me more to believe he’s more Muslim than he is Christian. He wants to change America.” Furthermore, he definitely has as a non-Western profile that leads the Western voters to wonder whether he shares their values quite different from other parts of the country. Finally, he hasn’t had much luck with the Hispanic population as he admits it himself. “We’re going to have to work hard to get known by the voters in this region. But I think the message of changing Washington, delivering on universal healthcare, having an energy policy that is actually coherent, I think that is all critically important to the people here.”

In the meantime, McCain defended his commitments to veterans and reiterated caution to a premature withdrawal from Iraq. “As long as there is a reasonable prospect for succeeding in this war, then we must not choose to lose it,” he said.

THE DUEL IN THE WEST IS ON
By Maeve Reston, Noam Levey and Scott Martelle (LA Times 5/27/08)
Abstract By Johana Nadler
click here to view original article