Attacking Obama at Yad Vashem

The McCain campaign just blasted out a posting on the campaign blog which essentially calls Obama a flip-flopper...on genocide.

Obama on Genocide Obama today at Yad Vashem: “Let our children come here and know this history so they can add their voices to proclaim ‘never again.’ And may we remember those who perished, not only as victims but also as individuals who hoped and loved and dreamed like us and who have become symbols of the human spirit.” Obama on July 20, 2007: Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn’t a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there. “Well, look, if that’s the criteria by which we are making decisions on the deployment of U.S. forces, then by that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now — where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife — which we haven’t done,” Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press.



The filters do seem to be off over there, for better or worse: Attacking your rival while he's visiting a Holocaust memorial, and accusing him of willing complicity in genocide...well, it's a way to get some attention.

The AP interview cited is here; Obama didn't actually use the word genocide, but did seem to suggest it wouldn't be reason enough to go back into Iraq. He's long since walked that back, and his (current) website makes it explicit: "He would reserve the right to intervene militarily, with our international partners, to suppress potential genocidal violence within Iraq."

ALSO: This meeting of snark and genocide reminds me a bit of the RNC's shot at Obama for getting wrong the name of the concentration camp his uncle helped liberate. There's a bit of a gap between the cut-and-paste political frame and the content; in that case, the RNC fairly quickly walked back its charge that the incident called into question Obama's "readiness to lead."