Die Welt on the McCain Affair: It’s Clinton’s Fault!

Last evening the New York Times published a damaging article concerning an alleged inappropriate relationship between John McCain and a (considerably younger) female Washington lobbyist.  McCain is well-known in Germany, but has not attracted nearly the attention in the presidential as Barack Obama.  Scanning the German press this morning on the fall-out from the NYTimes article, I came across this over-the-top commentary from the conservative daily Die Welt. Rather than commenting on the substance of the report – that John McCain may have used his office on behalf of a lobbyist with whom he had an intimate relationship – Die Welt attacks former president Bill Clinton:

"Kann denn Liebe Sünde sein? Klar. Und zwar dann, wenn – wie dem Republikaner
  John McCain unterstellt wird – ein Politiker mit einer Lobbyistin schläft
  und ihrem Klienten dafür einen Gefallen tut.Übrigens auch dann, wenn – wie es der
  Demokrat Bill Clinton tat – ein Präsident mit einer abhängig Beschäftigten
  oralen Sex hat und sich dadurch nicht nur lächerlich, sondern politisch
  angreifbar macht, so dass er seinen eigentlichen Job, das Land zu
  verteidigen, vernachlässigt."
(Can love be sinful?  Sure, especially if a politician sleeps with a client and then does a favor – as is alleged with the Republican John McCain.  But also – as we saw with the Democrat Bill Clinton – when a president engages in oral sex with an intern and not only subjects himself to ridicule, but also makes himself politically vunerable, so that he neglects his job: protecting the nation.)

But Die Welt knows what is really behind this investigation by the "left-wing" New York TImes: an advocacy of the "socialist" candidate Barack Obama, and a smear campaign against the "champion of capitalism and freedom" John McCain:

Barack Obama, der
  Favorit für die Nominierung der Demokraten, führt einen Wahlkampf mit
  antikapitalistischen Parolen, die ihn hier in Deutschland irgendwo zwischen
  der SPD und der Linkspartei ansiedeln würden. Hillary Clinton steht ihm
  darin kaum nach. Amerika steht im Falle eines Demokraten-Siegs vor einem
  Linksruck.John McCain hingegen war immer ein Freund der
  Marktwirtschaft und der Deregulierung. Diese Haltung soll nun von der „New
  York Times“, der bevorzugten Lektüre der linksliberalen Szene in New York
  City, als moralisch anrüchig hingestellt werden. (Barack Obama, the Democratic front-runner, is waging a campaign using ant-capitalist slogans, which in Germany would place him somewhere between the SPD and the LEFT party. Hillary Clinton is not far behind in this orientation. America will shift to the left should the Democrats win.  John McCain on the other hand has always been a friend of the free markets and deregulation. This policy is now being presented as morally reprehensible by the New York Times, the preferred newspaper of the "left-liberal" scene in New York City)

Again, what the "left-wing" New York Times is doing here is a deliberate attempt to undermine the "kapitalistische Demokratie". I wonder how Die Welt will react if it turns out that McCain did indeed block legislation in return for sexual favors – but that’s the essence of free-market democracy.

Flashback: Die Welt has always been on the side of democracy, even if it means defending torture.