Redstate

I dug into this a little and, long story short, in context McCain seems to have been saying he'd talk to Hamas if they renounced violence and anti-Israel sentiment first, which isn't IMHO a particularly startling thing to say. I've got a blog about this:

http://www.redstate.com/blogs/derannimer/2008/may/16/mccain_obama_and_ha...

(Hope it's not bad form to mention that, but I don't want to redo all that typing.)

Which is more or less what I was expecting:

“There should be no confusion, John McCain has always believed that serious engagement would require mandatory conditions and Hamas must change itself fundamentally – renounce violence, abandon its goal of eradicating Israel and accept a two state solution. John McCain’s position is clear and has always been clear, the President of the United States should not unconditionally meet with leaders of Iran, Hamas or Hezbollah. Barack Obama has made his position equally clear, and has pledged to meet unconditionally with Iran’s leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the leaders of other rogue regimes, which shows incredibly dangerous and weak judgment.”

http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0508/McCain_camp_pushes_bac...

is not exactly unflattering. It does not exclude preconditions. It doesn't say that the way we will "deal" with them is formal negotiations. It does not rule out either diplomatic or military means for "dealing" with them. In fact taking that clip out of context as KOS did, you can take twist it into a threat against Hamas.

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Here's Mac's statement the very day after the elections:

In the wake of yesterday’s Palestinian elections, Hamas must change itself fundamentally - renounce violence, abandon its goal of eradicating Israel and accept the two-state solution. These elections are evidence that democracy is indeed spreading in the Middle East, but Hamas is not a partner for peace so long as they advocate the overthrow of Israel.

H/t HotAir. Ed has a post up debunking this:

http://hotair.com/archives/2008/05/16/mccains-hamas-comments-context-res...