Clash of opinion between McCain-Palin over Obama's role as US President

Tunis, Jan 16 (ANI): Two important Republican leaders appear to have different views on US President Barack Obama ahead of the 2012 presidential polls, with reports saying that his 2008 opponent John McCain has recently called the President a "patriot" contrasting former Alska Governor Sarah Palin's earlier claim that Obama is 'weakening America'.

According to ABC News, Senator McCain praised Obama for his speech in Tucson and called him a "patriot" who wants to "advance our country's cause."

"I disagree with many of the president's policies, but I believe he is a patriot sincerely intent on using his time in office to advance our country's cause," McCain added.

Now, this statement is certainly a contrast to that of Palin, who few weeks earlier had slammed Obama saying, he was "Hell-bent on weakening America" by pushing to raise the national debt ceiling.

"What I believe that Obama is doing right now - he is hell-bent on weakening America," she said.

The former Alaska Governor also accused Obama of intentionally trying to harm the country and acknowledged that her stinging comments might "get some people all wee-weed up again." She had stressed that in 2006, the then-Senator Obama had "said it is a sign of failed leadership to support raising the debt ceiling, and now he is doing exactly that. He understood that debt weakened America, domestically and internationally, and yet now he supports increasing debt."

Earlier, Obama had proposed boosting the debt limit beyond the current 14.3 trillion dollars, which many Republicans oppose without major spending cuts.

The striking difference in this language makes one wonder if McCain was directing his comments in the Washington Post Op-Ed at Palin's rhetoric, as he wrote: what it must have been like, "to have heard in the coverage of that tragedy voices accusing you of complicity in it." (ANI)