Is It Wrong If It's True?

Asks Rod Dreher, a conservative Republican journalist and blogger: "Continuing in yesterday's vein re: Hillary and race, I was watching Obama interviewed on CNN yesterday when Wolf Blitzer repeated a recent quote from John McCain, saying that it's clear that Obama is the favorite presidential candidate of Hamas. I winced, and thought Obama handled this coolly and classily. 'This is offensive,' he said with banked heat, and then elaborated. I thought well of him for that, and sat down this morning to write an item dinging McCain for such a low blow, and praising Obama for the way he dealt with it. It turns out that McCain was not pulling that out of thin air -- a Hamas advisor really did say to the media last month that 'we like Mr. Obama,' and praising his JFK-ness. So, was it wrong for McCain to have said that Hamas prefers Obama to him? Not if it's, you know, true. To be sure, Obama responded to this in his CNN interview with a clear, forceful defense of his commitment to Israel, and I'm sure that he was appalled to learn that Hamas wants to be his BFF. Still, I don't see that McCain's remark was unwarranted, given that it's not a crude smear -- as I'd initially thought -- but based on something a Hamas big actually said."