Showing posts with label John Howard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Howard. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Sweet Home Ala-Obama

Talking About Howard Behind His Barack

There’s a wonderful headline in today’s edition of Melbourne’s leading daily paper, the Herald Sun, published by the media company I work for. The headline ``Howard cops Barack-lash’’, on page two of the paper, runs with a report about how Australian Prime Minister John Howard is facing a backlash both at home and abroad over his attack on US presidential contender Barack Obama and his Democratic Party.
Howard had suggested that terrorists would rejoice if Senator Obama was voted into the White House in 2008. He told Channel Nine: ``If I were running al-Qaida in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory, not only for Obama but also for the Democrats.''
He also poured scorn on Obama’s pledge to withdraw US forces from Iraq. As expected, the remarks were widely reported by the US media.
Obama reacted immediately, dismissing Howard's criticism as ``empty rhetoric''. He said, ``I think it's flattering that one of George Bush's allies on the other side of the world started attacking me the day after I announced.''
Interestingly, Democrats and prominent Republicans saw common ground in the fallout. Texas Republican senator John Cornyn said: ``I would prefer that Mr Howard stay out of our domestic politics and we will stay out of his domestic politics.''
In Canberra, Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd said: ``To accuse the party of Roosevelt, to accuse the party of Truman, of Kennedy and Johnson, of being the terrorists' party of choice . . . I cannot understand how any responsible leader of this country can say to the nation that it is his serious view that the Democratic Party of the US is the terrorists' party of choice.''
Howard, however, reiterated his view and denied he had threatened US-Australian relations. ``(America) doesn't want a country and a friend that will leave her in the lurch,'' he said. ``I would say the greatest current threat to the quality of the alliance would be a sense in the United States that Australia had deserted her in her hour of need.''
You can read the whole report at news.com.au/heraldsun.