McCain's Own 60's Radical Pal David Ifshin

McCain's Own 60's Radical Pal
The McCain campaign shows no shame in engaging in a tired guilt-by-association tactic as Sarah Palin accuses Obama of "palling around with terrorists." This desperate calumny derives from Obama once serving on the same non-profit board as former 60's radical Bill Ayers, one of the founders of the Weather Underground.

But what about McCain's own associations with former 60's radicals. Indeed, until just a few years ago, McCain openly boasted not only about his passing friendship but also his deep collaboration with one of the most prominent of Vietnam-era student radicals, David Ifshin. The same David Ifshin who denounced America on Radio Hanoi as McCain sat locked up as a POW.

I met Ifshin about the same time he came into McCain's life. But under very different circumstances. In 1970, as president of the left-leaning National Student Association, Ifshin traveled to North Vietnam with other anti-war radicals and it was then that he went on Radio Hanoi to denounce his own country's war effort. That broadcast was piped directly into POW McCain's cell in the Hanoi Hilton and he was understandably enraged by what he thought was a traitorous act by a fellow American.

~snip~
In the meantime, and much to his credit, Senator John McCain forged a close personal friendship with Ifshin, as well as a working political alliance. Together they worked to establish the Institute for Democracy in Vietnam and partnered up on the issue of normalization of relations with Vietnam.

As recently as two years ago, speaking at Columbia College, McCain affectionately and warmly recalled his relationship with Ifshin saying:



more:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-cooper/mccains-own-60s-radical-p_b_132032.html

McCain is going to seriously regret the Palin Ayers attack.

He actually could be a useful counterweight to the whole stupid Ayers story. I wonder if anyone can unearth the tape? Throw THAT into an ad with some later pics of Ifshin & McCaint with their arms around each other...

I think the Ayers thing is stupid. This story is stupid, too, and it just goes to prove how stupid the Ayers thing is.

I wonder if this will change the McCain team's plan. If they go ahead with the Ayers smear, we'll fling this back at them and they'll look even more ridiculous and desperate.

...as an example of how people can redeem themselves, and that just because you might have a cordial relationship with someone today doesn't mean that you agree with everything they did in the past.

It would be great if Obama were to bring this up in the debate on Tuesday, in a positive way.

presumably he's served his time, as determined by a court and a jury of his peers. He, like all American citizens and defendants, has a right to rehabilitation and renewal on the settlement of his debt to society through incarceration and/or otherwise.

Perfect way to negate the Ayers thing in a "high road" sort of way. Twisting the knife with a smile.

i rest my case.