Do You Believe We Should Talk with Chavez?

US Sen. John McCain seems to have gotten pretty tired of talking about the economy, and understandably so. After a week of losing on economics issues,  McCain's latest ad attempts to bring the discussion back to foreign policy, where he has a percieved advantage.

The ad hammers Obama for a comment he made in a primary debate, saying he would meet with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, among other less-than-friendly world leaders, without precondition.  Obama has since backtracked on that point

 

This may begin to set the stage for Friday, when the two candidates face off in a foreign policy-themed debate.

 

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Just to provide some context behind Chavez's eloquent speech - this was a rally he held after the expulsion of the U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela as a show of "solidarity" with Bolivia's decision to expel the U.S. Ambassador before that nation.  Univision's political Sunday morning show, Al Punto aired this footage used in the McCain ad last Sunday.  Since then, the Ambassadors of Venezuela and Bolivia to the U.S. have similarly been recalled.  Time magazine wrote more on the backdrop to this "anti-yankee" rant:

Chávez rarely misses an opportunity to sound the Yanqui alarm when doing so has domestic political benefit. Critics, who are questioning whether the alleged coup plot was actually real, were quick to suggest that this latest anti-gringo outburst would conveniently deflect attention away from allegedly incriminating evidence against Chávez and his government emerging in an international corruption trial that began this month in Miami. The case involves a suitcase filled with $800,000 in cash that was seized at the Buenos Aires airport in the summer of 2007, allegedly being delivered on behalf of Chávez as a presidential campaign contribution to Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, now Argentina's President. Chávez vehemently denies involvement in the money's shipment or in the alleged attempts by Venezuelan agents to cover it up and intimidate the U.S.-Venezuelan businessman caught transporting the suitcase.

Others suggest that Chávez may be trying to whip up his base in advance of local and state elections in November. He and his party desperately need a strong showing in order to reverse the unusual downward political slide he's experienced since losing a national referendum last year in which he sought to expand his socialist projects and eliminate presidential term limits.