And Sam Stein at the Huffington Post doesn’t like it whatsoever!

“I appreciate many of the very good intentions to Israel and Israeli security that Senator Obama expressed today,” said Lieberman. “I thought in the speech there was a disconnect between things Senator Obama said today, particularly in regard to Iran, and things he has said or done earlier either in the campaign or the Senate.”

The crux of Lieberman’s argument, however, was that Obama was putting the blame for Iran’s rise in the Middle East on America’s doorstep, pushing the argument that the Iraq war had strengthened Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s standing in the region and left Israel left secure.

“If Israel is in danger today it is not because of us foreign policy, which has been strongly supportive of Israel in every way,” he said. “It is not because of what we have done in Iraq. It is because Iran is a fanatical, terrorist, expansionist state and has a leader and a leadership that constantly threatens to extinguish the state of Israel.”

The remarks fit into a traditional GOP rallying cry, that the Democrats have a blame-America-first mentality. But there are outstanding factors that could muddle Lieberman’s message. For starters, most objective metrics indicate that Iran has, in fact, been strengthened by America’s involvement in Iraq. The Persian nation, after all, has increasingly meddled in Iraqi affairs.

Funny how the first thing a Liberal thinks of is how the GOP paints Democrats as having a blame America first mentality. I wonder what a psychologist would make of that!

But also, McCain, despite tough rhetoric on Iran, has several advisers with deep connections to the country; perhaps the most embarrassing of which is Charlie Black, the campaign’s chief strategist. Before leaving his perch as a D.C. lobbyist, Black represented a Chinese oil company that did business with the Iranian government. He and his firm also represented Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi exile who helped churn up support for the war in the United States and has subsequently been accused of selling U.S. secrets to Iran.

Now that is an 8 Stages alert. Notice that Sam Stein never refutes the allegations by Lieberman. Instead, he just deflects off to McCain and, despite mentioning several advisors, only cites one. In essense, Sam has written about the story, then goes on to ignore it and deflect like crazy.

On the 8 Stages list, a #4 is “Blame Conservatives for bringing the truth to light. How dare they do dat!!!!” Who thought that the “conservative” in question would be Hillary?

Since January, the Clintons have pummeled Barack Obama with racially tinged comments and questions about his character.

Hillary Clinton has questioned why he didn’t walk out on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.; why he “denounced” but didn’t “reject” Louis Farrakhan; and whether he is too chummy with the former radical Bill Ayers. She chastised his characterization of white working-class voters as being highfalutin and chided him for not agreeing to a street-fight-style debate.

Bill Clinton has called Obama’s stance on the war a fairy tale, dismissed an early primary win as mere Jesse Jackson redux and recently claimed that Obama was playing the race card against him. Some of this is valid, the result of Obama’s own missteps, but some of it is baffling.

The rhetoric appears to be trafficking in old fears and historic stereotypes. The unspoken (and confusing) characterization of Obama is that he’s militant yet cowardly; uppity yet too cool for school.

The NY Times writes all that to tell us that Democrats have not soured on the Messiah, at least from Whites. His Black support is degrading, but, apparently all those white Democrats are letting their guilt show, and are moving to Obama. Whites increased by a whopping 5%! That’s it, call the General election for Barack NMN Obama, get him his sceptre and crown.

Oh, Black support declined 36%.

Understand, I’m not rooting for Hillary - except in terms of keeping the primary chaos going - I want Obama to be the candidate, much easier, and amusing, for McCain to defeat. I just find it interesting that the Times is attacking Hillary, and Bill, like they do Conservatives.

Barack NMN Obama has take a step back from #7 on the 8 stages of liberal/progressive discussion when they are busted

Raleigh, N.C. — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told WRAL News that he will focus on issues such as gas prices and health-care costs – and not “incendiary comments” made by his pastor – in the final five days before North Carolina’s primary.

Sermons by his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, created a “distraction” for his campaign in the past week, Obama said. The Illinois senator said he “was very angry and had to denounce” those comments, which included suggesting that the AIDS virus was invented by the government to destroy “people of color.”

“That’s been the reporting, and we weren’t talking about gas prices; we weren’t talking about bringing jobs back to North Carolina,” Obama said. “We’re looking forward, the next five days, to focusing on the things that really matter to your viewers.”

Hmm, this sounds somewhat familiar.

Do I even need to mention how humorous it is for a guy who is running mostly on his character is complaining that people are talking about his character?

Furthermore, I wonder what BHO plans to do about the gas prices. He had the opportunity to discuss it, and wiffed. Not finding it in the news or his website.

So, let’s see

Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton turned up the rhetoric Saturday in their increasingly heated presidential primary battle as she issued a new debate challenge and he complained of a race that has largely been reduced to trivia while working families feel economic pain.

Clinton took the debate dispute to a new level, challenging Obama to face off with her in a debate without a moderator.

“Just the two of us, going for 90 minutes, asking and answering questions, we’ll set whatever rules seem fair,” Clinton said while campaigning in South Bend.

Barack “No Middle Name” Obama decided that a #6 on the 8 Stages Of Liberal/Progressive Discussion When They Are Busted was the order of the day

…Clinton argued that Obama won’t debate because he’s unhappy with questions from TV moderators during the April 16 debate just before the Pennsylvania primary. After that debate, Obama complained it focused too much on political trivia and too little on real issues.

On the campaign trail Saturday, he sounded much the same theme.

“I was convinced that the American people were tired of the politics that’s all about tearing each other down. The American people were tired of spin and PR, they wanted straight talk and honesty from their elected officials,” Obama said at a town hall meeting in the aging industrial city of Anderson.

“If you watched the last few weeks of this campaign, you’d think that all politics is about is negative ads and bickering and arguing, gaffes and sideline issues,” said Obama. “There’s no serious discussion about how to bring jobs back, to Anderson.”

A #6 is Whine about the discussion of the topic, proclaiming that it means nothing, and why aren’t we talking about X? This is usually the point where Liberals/progressives truly understand how bad the issue really is for them, typically when even the NY Times cannot ignore it...., and this is exactly what BHO is doing, which is strange, considering that, up to the time people really started to be aware of what BHO’s character really is, all he wanted to really talk about was hope, change, and his character.

He doesn’t seem to be able to move past #6, either, which is what a politician with experience would be able to do. Not that I am rooting for Hillary, but, does anyone doubt that she would have put those issues behind her by now? Consider how she has moved on from the sniper comments.

He is welcome to start talking about actual issues. Perhaps he could tell us what his plan is to bring jobs back to Anderson, instead of whining that no one wants to talk about it.

Gina Cobb also covered this a bit yesterday at RWN and her own site.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Pirate’s Cove.

Since I just posted an 8 Stages post, I figure it would be a good idea to highlight what they are over here at McCain Blogs, not just on my own personal site. So, exactly how do liberals/progressives go about discussion of of stories that do not bode well for them?

1. Ignore the story - pretend it is not happening, or deflect like crazy.

2. Find some sort of moral equivalence or a story from 30 years ago saying a Conservative did something sort of similar.

3. Come up with some conspiracy theories. This is usually the most amusing part, reading and hearing all the strange stuff they come up with in their reality based chat rooms.

4. Blame Conservatives for bringing the truth to light. How dare they do dat!!!!

5. Concoct strange defenses based on wild psychological discourse, which no one understands, including the writer, but it sounds good, and allows a liberal/progressive to say there is no problem.

6. Whine about the discussion of the topic, proclaiming that it means nothing, and why aren’t we talking about X? This is usually the point where Liberals/progressives truly understand how bad the issue really is for them, typically when even the NY Times cannot ignore it, so, now they want to have an in-depth discussion on the point of the Iraq War, which you have had 1,000 times, but, they strangely have never had.

Alternately, this is the point where some liberals realize that they did not receive their talking points emails, so haven’t a friggin’ clue how to respond.

7. Declare victory! Those dastardly Conservatives have been proven wrong again, and why do you keep asking so many questions?

8. Ignore the issue. It never happened. This is similar to the 10 Stages Of Success. See below the fold.

Many may wonder why the irrational seething, virulent vitriol and disgusting language, personal attacks, and abject hatred has not been mentioned. Well, this of course is the natural state of the modern liberal/progressive, and can not only occur at any time, but will occur throughout any discussion. It is a pervasive state of nature for those on the Left.