BLOGS BY BOB

If you believe in guilt by association, ergo Barack Obama is guilty of something because he attended some meetings with 1960’s style domestic terrorist William Ayres, then you must believe that John McCain is closely tied to the Russian Mafia and needs to explain himself to the American Public.  To follow the example of the McCain campaign, we should demand that John McCain and his campaign manager reveal exactly what went on in meetings they had with a certain Russian billionaire of a very shady reputation.  

According to a Friday January 25th, 2008 story in the Washington Post, (www.washingtonpost.com story by Jeffrey H Birnbaum and John Solomon WP staff writers) “A top political adviser in Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign helped arrange an introduction in 2006 between McCain and a Russian billionaire whose suspected links to anti-democratic and organized-crime figures are that the U.S. government revoked his visa.”   Rick Davis, who is now McCain’s campaign manager, helped set up the encounter between McCain and Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska in Switzerland during an international economic conference. At the time, Davis was working for a lobbying firm and seeking to do business with the billionaire. 

There is no evidence that McCain did anything for Deripaska after they met at a social gathering over drinks and dinner. Deripaska was grateful for the introduction, writing a thank-you note to Davis and his partner and offering to assist them in a subsequent business deal, according to a copy of the note obtained by The Washington Post.

Mark Salter, a spokesman for McCain, said that meetings with Deripaska took place during official trips abroad by senators and that McCain did nothing improper. “Any contact between Mr. Deripaska and the senator was social and incidental,” he added.

Salter said the contact between McCain and Deripaska did not constitute a “private meeting”; both men were part of larger gatherings.

Do I believe John McCain is a Russian Mobster?  Of course not — but if you believe in guilt by association as the McCain campaign so obviously does, then his association with Deripaska is a transgression worthy of the same innuendo, criticism and questioning as they have directed at Obama in the Ayres affair.

It’s all stupid!  The McCain/Palin ticket is so bereft of ideas, so afraid of reality, so mired in the selfishness of winning, that they have abandoned an honest exchange of ideas and become mean-spirited, vindictive and reckless as they lurch from tactic to tactic in search of a strategy that fits. 

The McCain/Palin ticket is shameless and transparent in their bigotry and in their willingness to allow the nation to dash itself on the rocks of financial ruin rather than find a way to seek repair and rejuvenation.  The new McCain/Palin strategy is born of desperation and fed by hubris.  If this is an indication of the kind of leadership they offer then Bush/Cheney was a ride in the park.