John McCain: The Al-Qaeda candidate?

Remember in 2004, when Denny Hastert said that Al Qaeda wanted John Kerry to be president:

At a campaign rally Saturday in his Illinois district with Vice President Dick Cheney, Hastert said al Qaeda "would like to influence this election" with an attack similar to the train bombings in Madrid days before the Spanish national election in March.

When a reporter asked Hastert if he thought al Qaeda would operate with more comfort if Kerry were elected, the speaker said, "That's my opinion, yes."

I wonder what Denny Hastert (and his party) thinks of this:

Al-Qaida supporters suggested in a Web site message this week they would welcome a pre-election terror attack on the U.S. as a way to usher in a McCain presidency.

The message, posted Monday on the password-protected al-Hesbah Web site, said if al-Qaida wants to exhaust the United States militarily and economically, "impetuous" Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain is the better choice because he is more likely to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"This requires presence of an impetuous American leader such as McCain, who pledged to continue the war till the last American soldier," the message said. "Then, al-Qaida will have to support McCain in the coming elections so that he continues the failing march of his predecessor, Bush."

SITE Intelligence Group, based in Bethesda, Md., monitors the Web site and translated the message.

"If al-Qaida carries out a big operation against American interests," the message said, "this act will be support of McCain because it will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaida. Al-Qaida then will succeed in exhausting America till its last year in it."

I wish I could say it was insulting that the person who wrote this thinks that Americans are so stupid that they would rally behind the candidate of the party that allowed Al Qaeda to commit not one but two attacks on American soil -- and did nothing to retaliate against those who actually committed the first one; that they would not be able to put two and two together and see the ineptitude of the Republican approach to terrorism.

But then I think about McCain/Palin voters and realize that while it might be insulting to me, it describes all too many Americans.