Source: Boston.com
Maybe this will enable John McCain to compete for air time.
His campaign announced today that the presumptive Republican nominee will meet with the Dalai Lama on Friday, when Democrat Barack Obama will be hobnobbing with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
McCain will meet the Tibetan spiritual leader in Aspen, Colorado, where the Dalai Lama plans to address a symposium on Tibetan culture.
He has been in exile in India since a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, and was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal last October. The plight of the Tibetan people has drawn more attention leading up to the Olympics in Beijing last month.
UPDATE: "I have been a great admirer of the Dalai Lama," McCain said today while campaigning in Columbus, Ohio. He called him a "transcendent national role model."
In March, after China cracked down on monks demonstrating in Tibet, McCain urged the Chinese government to open a "genuine dialogue" with the Dalai Lama, whom he called "a man of peace who reflects the hopes and aspirations of Tibetans," and urged the release of monks detained for "peacefully expressing their views" and "full outside access" to Tibet.
In response, the Dalai Lama sent a letter to McCain, thanking him for "concern you have shown regarding the sad turn of events in Tibet and for your efforts to persuade the Chinese authorities to exercise restraint in dealing with the demonstrations."
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