how many ss can you find in:
president bush and the knesset speech kerfuffle
before i delve into obamas reaction to bushs speech at the knesset, i want to look at the speech itself. heres the part of the speech that caused controversy, expanded a little for context. transcript from the white house..
first of all, nowhere in this speech does president bush name any specific person. the closest he comes is the quote about hitler. this quote came from william borah, a gop senator from idaho who was also a staunch isolationist.
look at the third paragraph. there are good and decent people who cannot fathom the darkness in these men and try to explain away their words. it seems clear to me that jimmy carter was the person president bush was criticizing. bush gave his speech in israel, and jimmy carters recent meeting with hamas is still surely on the minds of many israelis. from that, it looks like bush was criticizing jimmy carter, not barack obama.
next, look at the last paragraph of this excerpt. president bush criticizes people who want to break ties with israel, as a solution to problems in the middle east. barack obama has said nothing of the sort, and i cant remember anyone important accusing him of such. this accusation is actually aimed at people like ron paul, pat buchanan, and some leftist academics.
so, now to the reaction from obama. yesterday, his campaign responded with a statement.
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and today, he responded with a speech in south dakota.
barack obama rebuked republican rival john mccain and president bush for dishonest, divisive attacks in hinting that the democratic presidential candidate would appease terrorists, staunchly defending his national security credentials for the general election campaign.
[...]
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i think this is a strategic move by the obama campaign, which has been stuck in a primary battle. obama has all but clinched the democratic primary nomination, and his campaign is ready to switch their aim from clinton to the republicans. and they felt this was our opportunity to begin that switch.
seizing the opportunity, the obama campaign created a controversy from a speech in which neither obama nor any other politician was named. it is also telling that the obama campaign automatically thought this speech was directed at them. when somebody overreacts to something, theres usually a reason for that overreaction. i certainly think that applies here also.
trying to create a controversy for political gain, sounds like old politics.
(hat tip: hot air)
user
The text includes one hundred and forty-two "s"s in total.
assistant