I know this is a few (3+?) weeks old, but I'm curious about reactions...
A while ago John Howard made some comments about Barack Obama, one of the Democratic candidates here in the States. Barrack responded (read below). Trying to *not* start a political flame war, what did you think of this? How'd the Aussie news/people treat it? The (admittedly left-leaning) news sources I saw painted it as a clever Barack verbally pwning one of GWB's pets. I'm guessing the Aussie news didn't report it as that, but what about the vibe (like Mabo) of the general public?
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/...ent/index.html
Quote:
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"If I were running al Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats," Howard said, speaking on "Sunday," a TV show on Australia's Nine Network.
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Quote:
Obama, campaigning in Iowa, told reporters Sunday he's flattered that one of Bush's allies "started attacking me the day after I announced (his presidential run) -- I take that as a compliment."
The Democratic presidential hopeful said if the Australian prime minister was "ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq," he needs to send another 20,000 Australians to the war.
"Otherwise, it's just a bunch of empty rhetoric," Obama said.
The Illinois Democrat dismissed the suggestion that his election would help terrorist groups, noting that even the Bush administration's "own intelligence agencies have indicated that the threat of terrorism has increased as a consequence of our actions over there."
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