Several things strike me as interesting about the incident yesterday in which John McCain ended up apologizing for and condemning a supporter who spoke before him at a campaign rally — some loudmouthed right-wing radio guy who kept using Barack Obama’s middle name and excoriating him and Democrats in general:
- First, the headlines — in The Washington Post, it was "McCain Supporter Ridicules Obama. In The Wall Street Journal, it was "McCain Apologizes for a Supporter’s Attack on Obama." Not important; the difference in emphasis just struck me as interesting.
- Second, this is going to keep happening. As "conservatives" (a word that jerks like this one don’t deserve) get over their snit and climb on board with the McCain campaign between now and November, they’re going to bring this kind of garbage with them. Ditto with the more angry, partisan Democrats who will start supporting Obama once it is clear that Hillary Clinton (such Democrats’ preferred candidate) is truly out of it.
- Both McCain and Obama owe much of their appeal to a desire on the part of voters to put this kind of thing behind us as a country. As they try to consolidate their bases, bringing in the fulminators, independents will be watching both of them closely to see how they handle it. It will be quite a highwire act — two highwire acts, actually.
- This one was handled fairly well, on both sides. McCain said what he said, and Obama’s spokesman said, "We appreciate Senator McCain’s remarks. It is a sign that if there is a McCain-Obama general election, it can be intensely competitive but the candidates will attempt to keep it respectful and focused on issues."
That’s what I’m hoping for, at least.
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McCain has been above it, even with Romney, and continues to demonstrate his civility. Obama pretends to be yet actively participates. Can’t understand your crush on the guy Brad. But to each his own.
McCain has been above it, even with Romney, and continues to demonstrate his civility. Obama pretends to be yet actively participates. Can’t understand your crush on the guy Brad. But to each his own.
McCain needs to watch out what his supporters say
Even Rove has said painting Obama this way will hurt the GOP more than help.
I was driving through Cincinnati at night about 10 years ago. I picked up Bill Cunningham’s show on my car radio. He was letting fly with some pretty filthy language. I’m not easily shocked, but I thought, “This guy is going too far”. When I got home next day I telephoned the station manager and told him what I had heard. “He said THAT”, the guy exclaimed. I replied that if he didn’t believe me, he could listen to the tape. The man hemmed and hawed and finally said in essence that Cunningham was a law unto himself, that he was too popular to mess with.When I read about his appearing at McCain’s rally, I wondered how he got through McCain’s screening. Now, this afternoon, I heard Cunningham say that he is supporting Hilary Clinton. What a world!
Twisting people’s names or using them in a mocking manner strikes me as the epitome of empty headed argument. It’s what a person uses when he/she can find nothing reasonable to say. It’s odd that these people would pick on something that the person being insulted/ridiculed had no control over. That person did not choose it. Unless a person has changed his/her name to make a point (e.g. the-artist-formerly-known-as-prince) there is little about the name that is tied to political or personal aspirations or goals.
We can hope that this year we’ll hear more debate on the issues and less swift boats, illegitimate babies, or Willie Horton. Wouldn’t it be loverly?!
I don’t care about the comments in Cincinnati. This is one conservative that will be voting for Nader for three reasons
1Mccain has been a part of the senate that allowed our country to overrun catering to big business
2He wanted to make it right with amnesty.
3.When people shut it down and demand the laws enforced, mccain heard secure the border. he is either hearing things or ignoring what the people want.
So he we are, on the cusp of JFK or LBJ being A-OK when BHO isn’t, because the initials refer to an inconvenient truth.
His name sounds Muslim because he has Muslim heritage, and he shares one name with Saddam Hussein.
If all that were true of John McCain, nobody would be tippytoeing around it, but because Obama’s black, and a Democrat on top of that, and a sky-preaching liberal, too, political correctness and the mainstream media dictate we treat him with kid gloves.
The man’s running for president, for goodness’ sake. He should be able to stand a little heata bout the name he’s lived with the last 40-odd years. Hillary should be able to stand up to being asked the first question in a debate, too.
But no, we’re quibbling over whether Obama denounced or rejected Farrakhan, and Jesse Jackson is picking nits about Bill O’Reilly, when none of it is anything but a distraction from the truth.
Obama’s practically a socialist, and he says we should run from Iraq. That’s reason enough to vote for just about anyone else, no matter what Obama’s name is.
…his middle name gives republicans something to grasp on to instead of admitting they don’t like him because he is BLACK…that way they can feel comfortable with themselves like you know saying…”i have many black friends….”….
No, Rick, what I don’t like about Obama is that he’s promising the moon and planning to make me pay for it when the people who’ll get the green cheese don’t include me.
Yeah, that’s right, I was too smart to take out a mortgage I can’t afford.
Yeah, I have good health insurance, and I don’t have to pay for it directly, and I actually maneuvered my life to make sure that happened.
But, no, I don’t “have many black friends,” just a few, not for the sake of feeling comfortable, but because they wound up becoming friends.
Sorry I don’t live up to the guile and deceit you seem ready to ascribe to any person of a Republican persuasion.
I’d love to reinforce your stereotypes, but, after all, I have a real life to live.
evidently your guilt is coming through with your blog entry…so when the bible says to help take care of poor people, that is part of the bible you can ignore?….as with most republicans, like those who are pro torture, their christianity can get them out of any hole they have dug themselves in to….congratulations on your success weldon7,…how much can be attributed to the prior six weldon’s?…republican health care is as simple as their philosophies….”poor people should not get sick…”…typical republican propaganda to say “i’m gonna have to pay for it…”,…who the hell do you think is paying for this war republicans lied us into, who do you think paid the 47 million to the victims of relatives and civilians in iraq?…get real and try and GET a life or enlist!…i don’t see many wealthy republicans standing outside of the recruiting station…mostly poor to middle class minorities and others…will weldon the seventh care to stand in line with the common folks?…i think not….and by the way to avoid any further embarrassment on anyone wanting to attack my valor, i am a disabled veteran who struggles to receive my benefits on a DAILY basis after 12 years of service and 7 years of republican cutting of benefits to veterans and for republicans voting to not fully fund body armour for the troops…educate yourself before coming my way my friends, i take the back seat to noone and will continue to pursue my goal of becoming the left version of limbaugh without the dope and without the deferrals to keep me from serving because i had a pimple on my arse…
Hussein is an awfully common name in the Muslim world, but that doesn’t mean that Obama is a Muslim–the inconvenient truth that righties leave out when they invoke his middle name is that he is also a “Jr.” Being named for one’s father doesn’t make you an exact copy.
And as for socialism, we’ve had it for seventy years now, after capitalism suffered its abject failure following WWI.
And honestly, said socialism worked pretty well until the government under King Reagan the First started raiding the Social Security fund to pay for all manner of extraterritoral, unconstitutional acts of geopolitical social engineering (designed to pad the coffers of American defense contractors, oil companies, etc).
The weldons of the world yammer and complain, but when the time comes, they’ll cash those SS checks and gratefully allow Medicare to cover their health issues. Unless of course he’s one of the 1-percenters who control XX% of the world’s known wealth and actively live out their lives making sure said funds do NOT in fact “trickle down” to anyone.
Obama brings this on himself with his, and his wife’s, anti-American rhetoric. Here is a US Senator still mouthing the propaganda on-liner from MoveOn.org, that, “There were no terrorists in Iraq until Bush and (Cheney, McCain, …insert smear target) invaded.”
Zarquawi and other Al Qaeda leaders we have killed since 2002 were in Iraq since the World Trade Center bombing in 1993.
Al Qaeda was trained in Iraq. We captured the training bases intact, with the jetliners, trains, and busses they used for practice. We captured the videotapes of hijackers being trained, and Saddam Hussein urging them to, “Kill the Jews, but attack America first.”
Saddam’s captured bank records show the 200 UN officials he bribed, as well as cash supplied to Al Qaeda operatives in Bosnia, Albania, England, France, Praque and the US.
All this is in the full 911 Commission Report, though played down by the Clintonites on other embarassed politicians on the committee.
Everyone’s ignoring the HUGE elephant in the room. Why was the jerk Cunningham at the McCain rally in the first place? Apparently he had a history of this type of vile rhetoric. It was nice that McCain reputiated his disgusting comments but perhaps he should be more careful with who he chooses to appear on stage with in the future. Apparently McCain hasn’t listened to much right-wing talk radio. They all spew a bunch of nonsense that has no basis in facts. (Perhaps Lee could land a job in radio. It would be the perfect vocation for him.)
For once I agree with Weldon. You can assist the poor without giving it to them. The teach a man to fish philosophy works. There are consequences to poor decisions. If you bought a house you can’t afford, move and rent. If you don’t study in school, you won’t pass and you may have less job prospects. Go back to school and teach your kids to take accountability. If you don’t want to go to Iraq, don’t enlist. Multiple additional mismanaged government programs are not going to solve our problems. Blaming those that are successful and taking from them isn’t either. Taking personal responsibility for one’s position in life and working towards improvement will. Government programs that work towards this end are responsible ones.
I didn’t say that Obama’s a Muslim, James. I said he had Muslim heritage. I didn’t even bother to say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Using your kind of logic, the lefties of the world need to work on their reading comprehension.
And then there’s the issue of memory. Before Reagan came along and at least partially fixed the mess a Democrat left him, that socialism that you think has worked so well just about buried us economically under Jimmy Carter.
Apparently, the left doesn’t rewrite history any better than it reads.
Before Reagan came along and at least partially fixed the mess a Democrat left him,….
-Weldon
So which of the 3 recessions that occurred under Reagan was the partial fix? The short, deep recession that set a record for highest unemployment post WW II? The longer, shallow recession that didn’t create the same unemployment lines but didn’t ever seem to end? Or the legacy recession that cost Bush Sr. his job? All 3 contributed to the huge budget deficits that we suffered through during that time and continue to pay for. All 3 are the result of poor policies that essentially ignored the working class. So which is it Weldon: Deep, Long or Legacy?
My father succeeded on the farm before me, Rick, but my great-uncle, who farmed the land before him, got killed in an argument about one row of land in 1929.
I don’t feel any guilt about any of that, but I do wish things could have been different for you.
I’m taking the none-of-the-above option, Bud, because I lived through Jimmy Carter’s double-digit interest, back when it was great to have money but hard to make any. I’m sorry the whammy Carter threw at the economy took so long to undo, really I am. But I’m not taking your bait.
Besides, “Deep, Long or Legacy?” sounds like a choice between the kinds of golf balls you buy at Wal Mart to me.
Better double-digit interest than double-digit unemployment, a staple of the Reagan economy. Throw in multi-trillion dollar debt and voila, we have a grand wage stagnation.
Jimmy Carter certainly made some mistakes but he had the right idea when it came to energy policy. If we had followed his lead we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in now importing 65% of our oil from less than reliable sources. Worse, the countries we’re importing from are likely to produce less, much less in in the coming years. Mexico is already in decline. Kick Jimmy Carter if you want but the fact remains he was the only president to correctly sense the coming energy armagedon. Reagan to his eternal shame reversed the trend toward energy independence that Carter started.
To think this whole discussion started about “Hussein” and digressed into a Carter-Reagin debate.
Well, at least Reagan freed the hostages and had the Libyans shooting missiles they stole from us at themselves.
Oops, sorry, there I go again. I apologize for my part in taking this discussion off topic.
Anyone who believes that Obama or Hillary can create jobs through government programs is living in a dream world.
Just ask New York State, which has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs while Hillary has been their US Senator.
Obama can only get money to create useless government jobs by taking the money from businesses which would have created real jobs.
…muller and weldon remind me of sen. larry craig and sen lindsey graham…not much on facts but they certainely have a wide stance on the issues…
You are just unfamiliar with the facts, so this is all news to you.
If you care to take some of the things that amaze you, we’ll be glad to fill in the background you failed to get in government school.
Why does Obama have so many socialist radicals as friends, including one of the Weather Underground, who admits to setting off as many bombs as the Unabomber?
When has Hillary Clinton ever rejected her years of work with the Communist Party USA, and her speeches and writings of praise for socialist leaders?
…”government school…” ??? what a joke, i have FORGOTTEN more than lee muller will ever KNOW…LOL…”..GOVERNMENT SCHOOL”….JEES!!…and i suppose the grand canyon came from the biblical flood?…
Well, did you attend a school owned and run by the government, a church, or a private business?
You failed to mention what piece of new information you were unable to comprehend or accept.
And how do you feel about Obama and Hillary having such close relationships with terrorists, communists, and socialists who are sworn enemies of the United States?
Tom Teepan can’t be real. He has to be a fictional character, lampooning dumb liberals.
He says we only increased spending on education 21% and prisons 127%, as if there is some sort of connection, in his feeble mind.
Federal spending on education is up 361% so far under President Bush. 800,000 prison inmates are illegal aliens, mostly from Mexico. How is our school system to blame for these carjackers, armed robbers, and murderers coming to America?
I am sure Charles Austin and Bob Coble could come up with some answer, after they did a mind meld.