Obama’s first statement on what is, effectively, a Russian invasion of Georgia, paraphrased: “War is bad.”
Obama’s second statement on what is, effectively, a Russian invasion of Georgia, paraphrased: “Russian invasions are bad.”
McCain’s first statement on what is, effectively, a Russian invasion of Georgia, paraphrased: “Put those tanks in reverse, Putin.”
From those noted pro-McCain propagandists at The New York Times: “Mr. Obama did harden his rhetoric later on Friday, shortly before getting on a plane for a vacation in Hawaii. His initial statement, an adviser said, was released before there were confirmed reports of the Russian invasion.”
Well, at least Obama managed to respond at all, which more than we can say for the ten-year anniversary of the bombings of U.S. Embassies in Tanzania and his father’s home country, Kenya.
(I’m not kidding in the headline about the odd similarity to Tom Clancy’s original Ghost Recon game, which had U.S. special forces secretly going into… T’bilisi, Georgia to deal with Russian invasion forces backed by ultra-nationalist hardliners. The “future date” of the 2001 game was… August 2008*.)
The McCain camp notes that the Obama’s campaign’s reaction echoes the Russian government, criticizing one of McCain’s top advisers Randy Scheunemann, who was previously a lobbyist for the Georgian government. Which makes him evil, because we all know all lobbyists are evil, even if you’re lobbying for a democracy and U.S. ally on the doorstep of the Russian bear.
UPDATE: I played the game and remembered the scenario, but I relied on the Wikipedia entry and some hazy memories for the game’s month. A fine gentleman from the game’s producer, Red Storm Entertainment, tells me their game’s scenario was set in April 2008, not August.