Washington Insider with Ronald Kessler
100-Plus Former Ambassadors Endorse McCain
Sunday, October 5, 2008 9:38 PM
By: Ronald Kessler
More than 100 former American ambassadors are endorsing John McCain and Sarah
Palin for president and vice president.
To be announced by the McCain campaign later this week, the endorsements
counter Barack Obama’s claims that McCain is inflexible when it comes to
diplomacy and negotiations with other countries, Newsmax has learned.
Obama has specifically said that in contrast to McCain, he would sit down with
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other world dictators to negotiate,
without preconditions.
“Senator Obama does not have sufficient leadership experience, nor has he been
tested in difficult times,” said Mark W. Erwin, a Democrat and former Hillary
Clinton supporter who is a co-chairman of Former U.S. Ambassadors for
McCain/Palin. Erwin was ambassador to the Republic of Mauritius.
Endorsing McCain are Howard Baker, who was ambassador to Japan; former
President George H.W. Bush, who was ambassador to the United Nations; Frank C.
Carlucci III, who was ambassador to Portugal; and Jim Nicholson, who was
ambassador to the Vatican.
Others endorsing McCain are Bruce Gelb, former ambassador to Belgium; Margaret
Heckler, who was ambassador to Ireland; John L. Loeb, Denmark; Ed Ney, Canada;
and Julia Chang Bloch, Nepal.
Former Ambassador Gilbert A. Robinson spearheaded the formation of the group.
Besides Erwin, the other co-chairman is former Ambassador to Sweden Gregory J.
Newell. Robinson was special adviser to Secretary of State George Shultz,
director of the Office of Public Diplomacy, and deputy director of the U.S.
Information Agency under President Reagan. Newell was an assistant to President
Ford and assistant secretary of state under Reagan.
Such designations carry ambassadorial rank and require Senate confirmation.
“Nobody could ask for a greater show of confidence,” McCain said in a statement
to be released to the press. “These former ambassadors are outstanding men and
women who have served their country in foreign lands with great distinction and
devotion to the values we hold dear. They have a deep knowledge of the
challenges facing this country abroad as well as at home. I am honored by their
endorsement.”
The former ambassadors endorsing McCain are Weston Adams, Malawi; Thomas H.
Anderson, Barbados; Leonore Annenberg, chief of protocol; Cresencio Arcos Jr.,
Honduras; George Argyros, Spain; Catherine Todd Bailey, Latvia; Howard H. Baker
Jr., Japan; Douglas H. Barclay, El Salvador; Stuart A. Bernstein, Denmark;
Everett E. Bierman, New Guinea; Julia Chang Bloch, Nepal; Stephen F. Brauer,
Belgium; Keith Lapham Brown, Lesotho and Denmark; Richard R. Burt, Germany;
George H.W. Bush, United Nations and U.S. Liaison Office (Beijing); William J.
Cabaniss Jr., Czech Republic; Richard G. Capen Jr., Spain; Richard W. Carlson,
Seychelles; Frank C. Carlucci III, Portugal; Bruce Chapman, International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Sue McCourt Cobb, Jamaica; Charles E. Cobb Jr.,
Iceland.
Also Walter J.P. Curley, Ireland and France; Peter H. Dailey, Ireland, special
envoy to NATO countries; Richard J. Egan, Ireland; Mark L. Edelman, Cameroon;
Donald Burnham Ensenat, Brunei, chief of protocol; Mark Erwin, Republic of
Mauritius, the Republic of the Seychelles, and the Federal Islamic Republic of
Comoros; Richard M. Fairbanks III, ambassador-at-large; William S. Farish III,
United Kingdom, Versailles; Edward R. Finch Jr., Panama; David Funderburk,
Romania; John R. Gavin, Mexico; Bruce S. Gelb, U.S. Information Agency (USIA),
Belgium; Joseph B. Gildenhorn, Switzerland; Anthony H. Gioia, Malta; Luis
Guinot Jr., Costa Rica.
Also Margaret M. Heckler, Ireland; Charles A. Heimbold Jr., Sweden; Hans H.
Hertell, Dominican Republic; Alfred Hoffman Jr., Portugal; Charles W. Hostler,
Bahrain; Philip Hughes, Barbados, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the
Grenadines; Jon M. Huntsman Jr., Singapore; Robert S. Ingersoll, Japan; James
C. Kenny, Ireland; Alfred H. Kingon, European Union; Lester B. Korn, UN
Economic and Social Council; Tom C. Korologos, Belgium; Mary E. Kramer,
Barbados and Eastern Caribbean; Paul C. Lambert, Ecuador; L.W. Lane Jr.,
ambassador-at-large and Australia and Nauru; Mark Langdale, Costa Rica; Howard
Leach, France; Melvyn Levitsky, Bulgaria and Brazil; John L. Loeb Jr., Denmark;
Earle I. Mack, Finland.
Also Susan Rasinski McCaw, Austria; Thomas Patrick Melady, Burundi, Uganda,
Holy See; J. William Middendorf II, Netherlands, Organization of American
States (OAS), European Union; John A. Miller, ambassador-at-large; Steve
Minikes, Commission on Cooperation and Security in Europe (CSCE); Thomas A.
Nassif, Morocco; Gregory J. Newell, Sweden; Edward N. Ney, Canada; Jim C.
Nicholson, Holy See; Herman W. Nickle, South Africa; Julian M. Niemczyk,
Czechoslovakia; Keith Foote Nyborg, Finland; John D. Ong, Norway; Penne Korth
Peacock, Mauritius; Joseph Carlton Petrone, UN European Office; Charles J.
Pilliod, Mexico; John Price, Mauritius, Seychelles and Comoros.
Also Charles H. Price II, Belgium, United Kingdom; James W. Rawlings, Zimbabwe;
Otto J. Reich, Venezuela; Mercer Reynolds, Switzerland and Liechtenstein;
Gilbert A. Robinson, special adviser to the secretary of state; Joe M. Rodgers,
France; Sig Rogich, Iceland; John Rood, Bahamas; Francis L. Rooney III, Holy
See; Bob Royall, Tanzania; Rockwell A. Schnabel, Finland, European Union; Peter
F. Secchia, Italy; Martin J. Silverstein, Uruguay; Marion H.. Smoak, chief of
protocol; Ronald J. Sorini, chief textile negotiator, Office of the U.S. Trade
Representative; Michael G. Sotirhos, Jamaica.
Also Robert D. Stuart Jr., Norway; Charles J. Swindells, New Zealand and Samoa;
Peter Terpeluk Jr., Luxembourg; Timothy L. Towell, Paraguay; Rodolphe M.
Vallee, Slovak Republic; Leon J. Weil, Nepal; John G. Weinmann, Finland, chief
of protocol; Ronald N. Weiser, Slovak Republic; Pamela P. Willeford,
Switzerland and Liechtenstein; Richard Williamson, assistant secretary,
ambassador IAEA; Curtin Winsor Jr., Costa Rica; Dr. Aldona Z. Wos, Estonia; and
Joseph Zappala, Spain.
Ronald Kessler is chief Washington correspondent of Newsmax.com. View his
previous reports and get his dispatches sent to you free via
e-mail. Go here now.
--- On Tue, 10/7/08, Sarin Nou <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From: Sarin Nou <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: The real Obama by Prof Thomas Sowell
To: [email protected]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Tuesday, October 7, 2008, 1:43 PM
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
The Real Obama
by Thomas Sowell
Critics of Senator Barack Obama make a strategic mistake when they talk about
his "past associations." That just gives his many defenders in the media an
opportunity to counter-attack against "guilt by association."
We all have associations, whether at the office, in our neighborhood or in
various recreational activities. Most of us neither know nor care what our
associates believe or say about politics.
Associations are very different from alliances. Allies are not just people who
happen to be where you are or who happen to be doing the same things you do.
You choose allies deliberately for a reason. The kind of allies you choose says
something about you.
Jeremiah Wright, Father Michael Pfleger, William Ayers and Antoin Rezko are not
just people who happened to be at the same place at the same time as Barack
Obama. They are people with whom he chose to ally himself for years, and with
some of whom some serious money changed hands.
Some gave political support, and some gave financial support, to Obama's
election campaigns, and Obama in turn contributed either his own money or the
taxpayers' money to some of them. That is a familiar political alliance-- but
an alliance is not just an "association" from being at the same place at the
same time.
Obama could have allied himself with all sorts of other people. But, time and
again, he allied himself with people who openly expressed their hatred of
America. No amount of flags on his campaign platforms this election year can
change that.
Unfortunately, all that most people know about Barack Obama is his own rhetoric
and that of his critics. Moreover, some of his more irresponsible critics have
made wild accusations-- that he is not an American citizen or that he is a
Muslim, for example.
All that such false charges do is discredit Obama's critics in general.
Fortunately, there is a documented, factual account of what Barack Obama has
actually been doing over the years, as distinguished from what he has been
saying during this election campaign, in a new best-selling book.
That book is titled "The Case Against Barack Obama" by David Freddoso. He
starts off in the introduction by repudiating those critics of Obama who "have
been content merely to slander him-- to claim falsely that he refuses to salute
the U.S. flag or was sworn into office on a Koran, or that he was born in a
foreign country."
This is a serious book with 35 pages of documentation in the back to support
the things said in the main text. In other words, if you don't believe what the
author says, he lets you know where you can go check it out.
Barack Obama's being the first serious black candidate for President of the
United States is what most people consider remarkable but how he got there is
at least equally surprising.
The story of Obama's political career is not a pretty story. He won his first
political victory by being the only candidate on the ballot-- after hiring
someone skilled at disqualifying the signers of opposing candidates' petitions,
on whatever technicality he could come up with.
Despite his words today about "change" and "cleaning up the mess in
Washington," Obama was not on the side of reformers who were trying to change
the status quo of corrupt, machine politics in Chicago and clean up the mess
there. Obama came out in favor of the Daley machine and against reform
candidates.
Senator Obama is running on an image that is directly the opposite of what he
has been doing for two decades. His escapes from his past have been as
remarkable as the great escapes of Houdini.
Why much of the public and the media have been so mesmerized by the words and
the image of Obama, and so little interested in learning about the factual
reality, was perhaps best explained by an official of the Democratic Party:
"People don't come to Obama for what he's done, they come because of what they
hope he can be."
David Freddoso's book should be read by those people who want to know what the
facts are. But neither this book nor anything else is likely to change the
minds of Obama's true believers, who have made up their minds and don't want to
be confused by the facts.
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