Contrast that with the comments coming out of the White House today in reaction to the elections in Russia, where human rights groups, election monitors, and journalists have roundly condemned as unfair and undemocratic. Here is the Q&A today with the press gaggle aboard Air Force One, and being led by stand in press secretary Gordon Johndroe:
Q Gordon, does the President feel that the elections yesterday in Russia were fair and free?
MR. JOHNDROE: Dimitri Medvedev is now the President-elect of Russia, will soon be the President of Russia. The President looks forward to working with him. It's in our mutual interests that the United States and Russia continue cooperation in a number of areas, including counter-proliferation, counter-terrorism, fighting transnational crime. So I expect that in the coming days the President and Mr. Medvedev will have a chance to talk.
Q Right, but the President has been very eloquent in the past about the need to hold free and fair elections all around the world. That's not quite the question I asked. What does he think about how the elections went in Russia?
MR. JOHNDROE: I think the United States position in the lead-up to the elections was clear. But now I'll refer you to election observers who have made some comments about the election. They're also continuing to take a look at it. So we'll wait to see what these observers have to say.
Really grabs ya, doesn't it? I am sure the new Russian government--which increasingly has modeled its governing style on either the Tsars or the Bolsheviks, or some combination of both--has sat up and taken notice. Say what you will about Iraq and the failed effort to punish the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11--the next big issue that will define the Bush administration foreign policy failures is its complete lack of resolve to counter what has been happening in Russia over the last several years, starting with Bush's looking into the soul of Putin and seeing an honorable man. What has happened in Russia will consistently hang as a black cloud over the Bush administration's commitment to defend democracy wherever it was blooming in the World.
Senator McCain should think twice about how closely he wants to align himself with that.
