I'm guessing yeah, it does, why else would Senator Lieberman follow him around and whisper in McCain's ear?

I won't call this dirty politics  -- questionable as some of it is, it's just hard-nosed politicing.  I just hope McCain and his camp doesn't squeal ike a stuck pig if and when a similarly harsh charge is made against him re his foreign policy prejudices, like, Bush-Lite, or Dubya's 3rd term, etc... Neither of which comes close to equally MCCain's comment.

Senator mccain is going to find out that courting the support of the pro-Israel forces is the political equivalent of smoking crack  -- it's going to take a superhuman effort on his part to resist the next attempt to pander.  My guess is, he's already hooked.

Can there be a new 12-step group on the theraputic horizon -- Likudists Anonomous?  Jabotinskiites in Recovery?  Survivors of Sharonism?



McCain says Obama is candidate of Hamas


US Republican presidential hopeful promises to be ‘worst nightmare’ for elected Palestinian movement.


WASHINGTON - Republican John McCain took a shot at Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Friday, saying he was the candidate for the democratically elected Palestinian movement Hamas.


"I think it's very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States," said McCain, his party's presumptive presidential nominee, in a conversation with conservative bloggers.


According to a transcript posted on the website of the Weekly Standard magazine, he said: "I think that people should understand that I will be Hamas's worst nightmare ... If Senator Obama is favored by Hamas I think people can make judgments accordingly."


Obama says he considers Hamas a terrorist organization, and he condemned the recent meeting between Democratic former president Jimmy Carter and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in Damascus.


He sparked controversy by saying he was ready to meet with Iranian, Cuban or North Korea leaders if he is elected president, but said he would not meet with the leaders of Hamas.


Obama also affirmed recently that if elected, he would "work with Israel to isolate terrorist groups like Hamas, target their resources, and support Israel's right and capability to defend itself from any attack."


Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan took issue with McCain's statements, which also pointed to recent remarks by Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua's leftist president and a US enemy in the 1980s, that Obama's candidacy was a "revolutionary phenomenon."


"We want to take Senator McCain at his word that he wants to run a respectful campaign but [it] is becoming increasingly difficult when he continually tries to use the politics of association and makes claims he knows not to be true to advance his campaign," he said.


McCain vowed to raise the tone of the presidential campaign at a rally in late January.


"I'm going to raise the level of political dialogue in America, and I'm going to treat my opponents with respect and demand that they treat me with respect," he said.

Hamas, who was democratically elected by the Palestinian people, is dedicated to liberating all the Palestinian territories under illegal Israeli occupation.