John McCain's Latin excursion works out just fine, thank you very much

As John McCain prepared for his jaunt to Colombia and Mexico, The Times' Mark Barabak was among many writing stories wondering about the trip's political efficacy. As Barabak so nicely put it: "For starters, and most obviously, there are no electoral votes to be had in Latin America or Canada, another country McCain recently visited."

On ABCnews.com., Rick Klein was more pointed. Noting that McCain picked the Colombia stop to spotlight his commitment to fight the flow of drugs into the U.S., Klein wrote: “Maybe this is huge with conservative voters and I’m missing something, but I had Nancy Reagan flashbacks. With the economy teetering, $80 SUV fill-ups, and two real wars, this is what McCain has chosen to spotlight in a foreign trip, four months before Election Day? Just judging from the polls -- shouldn’t he be a little more concerned with the price of gas than the price of cocaine?"

Nor were journalists the only ones asking such questions (the Swamp has a recap too). For some Republicans, the sojourn epitomized their concerns about muddled messages and ill-conceived scheduling by the McCain camp -- criticisms that helped spur a staff reshuffling.

And then one of life's truisms intervened: It's almost always better to be lucky than smart.

McCain was on-site when the Colombian government pulled off a daring, ripped-from-the-pages-of-a-Hollywood-screenplay rescue of hostages held by a rebel group. McCain, in fact, got treated as if he already were in the executive branch of the U.S. government, receiving a top-secret, pre-raid briefing.

There were lots of comments about the advantageous timing for the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, but the best line we saw came from this post at ABCnews.com by Karen Travers and Gregory Wallace: "McCain spends 24 hours on Colombia soil, hostages are rescued. (It sounds almost like a Chuck Norris Interweb fact...)."

-- Don Frederick

Photo: EPA

Comments

[Carracticus]

Before NAFTA, CAFTA and the rest of poorly negotiated free trade treaties, I do not ever remember the ominous issues we now have with imported goods?
Yes! Perhaps, we are today getting cheaper goods, but most are shoddily manufactured. Our nation has been inundated with toxic drugs, lead-laced toys and fruit and vegetables of unknown origin with toxic repercussions. McCain is a hard-core globalist, who is unlikely to renegotiate the unfair, one-sided Trade pacts, that is crippling our industrial nation. He doesn't seem to be interested in fighting for America's jobs, but then nor did his mentor President Bush who sold us out across the world.

Tomatoes have become the latest disaster that has spread quickly throughout the states. It seems strange that the source of the contamination has zeroed in on Florida and Mexico. Yet the safety net supposedly in place, has failed to determine the origin. The source would have been immediately pin-pointed if our politicians had not been corrupted by the special interest lobby. American should demand that every item, no matter what it is must show country of origin. Pharmaceutical giants have found it enormously profitable to produce their products overseas.

We have unknowingly committed economic suicide, because everything we use everyday made or grown somewhere else. Our industrial base has been whittled down and even some of our national security has been outsourced. Most clothing labels indicate its made in another land, and we we have stupidly walked into a carefully engineered trap that the globalist agenda has implemented. Our businesses have attracted cheap illegal labor, while many of the corporate cartels have outsourced jobs to third world countries, We already know the implications of the progressive invasion of illegal foreign workers. As the United states have been flooded with poor illiterate people who have no business even being here. They have broken our laws and the majority of our politicians stay in the the shadows, frightened of causing ripples. Foreign traders send us goods that should be manufactured in America. The American worker both skilled and low skilled have become pawns in this vicious circle, where the only winners are the wealthy elite. America the greatest nation in the world, must now borrow it's own money from Communist China, while foreign governments and commercial enterprises try to buy or lease our infrastructure. NUMBERSUSA.

[Steve]

At least John McCain is consistant. Senator Obama says he believes in Free Trade he just doen't believe in Free trade agreements. Protectionism has never work and continually talking out of both sides of your mouth like Obama does, never works either.

[dave]

mccain has been remarkably consistent in his inconsistency, reliably and 'heroically' lying and cheating throughout his career; obama is showing himself to be competitive. will people choose to punish themselves with 'lesser evils' they will cheeringly adopt as their leaders, until they have betrayed the last of their own freedoms, and sold their posterity into perpetual slavery?

[Dr. Banks]

"McCain, in fact, got treated as if he already were in the executive branch of the U.S. government, receiving a top-secret, pre-raid briefing."

Is there any doubt in anyone's mind that were BH Obama president the US would have done nothing to help those poor hostages. Instead Obama would be meeting with his good friend Hugo Chavez, known naro-rerrorist, and finding ways to fund FARC as a "faith-based" charity! We should never forget how US liberals gave away the Tora Bora raid, allowing Bin Laden to escape, once again, as Clinton had done 4 times during his "watch and touch" years in the Oral office.VIVA Columbia! VIVA President Bush!

[White Black]

The White House or The Black House.

[white Black]

: "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within".