John McCain say al Qaeda might try to influence the November election to keep him from winning.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain said on Friday he fears that al Qaeda or another extremist group might attempt spectacular attacks in Iraq to try to tilt the U.S. election against him.
There’s probably a “Barack Hussein Obama” joke in there somewhere but I’m not in the mood to think one up.
McCain, at a town hall meeting in this Philadelphia suburb, was asked if he had concerns that anti-American militants in Iraq might ratchet up their activities in Iraq to try to increase casualties in September or October and tip the November election against him.
“Yes, I worry about it,” McCain said. “And I know they pay attention because of the intercepts we have of their communications … The hardest thing in warfare is to counter someone or a group of individuals who are willing to take their own lives in order to take others.”
Pat Lang cringes at this, observing that, “Members of Congress have access to classified material by virtue of their constitutional office. He ought to know better than to say something like this.” I’m a bit fuzzy as to where the lines are and it’s not like al Qaeda doesn’t know we’re listening in on them as a general principle. Still, it’s probably best not to allude to our intel intercepts on a casual basis whilst stumping for votes in the hustings.
Presuming, however, that we actually have such intercepts, it’s not entirely clear why al Qaeda is so desperate to avoid a President McCain. I suppose there’s some propaganda value to a female president that could be exploited; if anything, the opposite would be true in the case of a President Obama. Do they envision a radically more terrorist-friendly foreign policy?
