Senator McCain realizes “it was a gross exaggeration” to compare President Obama shaking Raul Castro’s hand with the agreement to hand over part of Czechoslovakia to the Nazis, which is mighty generous of him. But he doesn’t get this perverse need to observe basic standards of polite interaction with Bad Guys (defined, obviously, as “guys John McCain doesn’t like”):
On Sunday, CNN host Candy Crowley asked the former Republican presidential nominee if he regretted the comparison.
“Oh, I think it was a gross exaggeration, but have no doubt that is a great propaganda value for the Cuban government,” McCain insisted. “I don’t think you should shake hands with someone who continues to violate his own country’s human rights. It happened, but it is what it is. And I’m sure that Mr. Castro appreciated it.”
Why would anybody want to shake hands with someone who violates his own country’s human rights?
There’s just no excuse for an American President to be shaking the hands of a brutal autocratic despot.
We can’t be seen as validating these kinds of repressive, Communist regimes.
We certainly shouldn’t be exchanging pleasantries with leaders of countries that help fund terrorism.
I mean, Cuba isn’t even a friendly nation! Why would any President shake the hands of a country that regularly opposes American interests?
Well, at least no American President has shaken the hands of a damn Castro before.
OK, fine, but you’d never catch John McCain shaking hands with a tyrant like this.
The Foreign Exchanges Companion 
Funny you should bring this up. I was reading about McCain’s allegations that the CIA has not been forthcoming with details about this guy missing in Iran, and all I could wonder was “who is paying him, this time?” It can’t be the Georgians again, can it?
We can of course discount the possibility that it’s just a cheap political stunt, a pathetic attempt to squeeze the White House into an embarrassing position, because His Maverickness would never stoop to such antics. Cui Bono, people.