John MaverickMcCain
... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former
foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution...
accused President Barack Obama
I inhaled. That was the point...
on Wednesday of risking a Middle East regional conflagration by failing to show leadership on the crisis in Syria.
The conservative senator and former presidential candidate, an influential Washington foreign policy hawk, compared Obama to former president
Jimmy Carter... the worst president ever. Maybe the second worst. The votes aren't all in yet...
, widely seen here as weak.
McCain, a former navy pilot who was made prisoner during the Vietnam War, is a strong advocate of robust support for Syrian rebels seeking to oust Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir
Pencilneckal-Assad
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators...
Speaking to a radio station in his home state of Arizona, the Republican senator said U.S. indecisiveness and inaction had made the situation in Syria even worse.
So far the administration has resisted McCain's call for the United States to send weapons and other material support to the rebels in Syria, to the U.S. senator's great frustration.
"It has turned to a tragedy of mammoth proportions," he said. "It's becoming a regional conflict. It's spread to Leb, it's spread to Turkey, it's spread to Jordan.
"I have never seen anything like this in my life. I thought Jimmy Carter was bad, but he pales in comparison to this president, in my view."
Carter, who served one term in the White House between 1977 and 1981, when he was ousted by Republican candidate Ronald Reagan, is dismissed by conservatives as dovish and ineffectual.