Originally posted by delobbo
"no maam, he is not an Arab"...
It just goes to show how ignorant his supporters are; the way he handled that, though, was correct, and he's gained back an ounce of my respect.
Trancealot
quote:
Originally posted by R.j.
It just goes to show how ignorant his supporters are; the way he handled that, though, was correct, and he's gained back an ounce of my respect.
laughed a little. Some people actually clapped when Mccain corrected the lady meaning they actual have brains.
Sykonee
quote:
Originally posted by R.j.
It just goes to show how ignorant his supporters are; the way he handled that, though, was correct, and he's gained back an ounce of my respect.
That one moment will probably do wonders for his campaign. It makes him appear like a kindly old grandfather reassuring a fearful public rather than the bitter old man thing he had going for a while there.
Lebezniatnikov
quote:
Weird. Sad. Surreal
This afternoon on the campaign trail, John McCain began dialing back (or began trying to appear to be dialing back) the rising tide of hatred and verbal violence he and his running mate have been whipping up over recent weeks. After all we've seen over recent months, I think it would naive to conclude that McCain did this for any other reason but that the attacks appeared to be backfiring. Perhaps that's ungenerous. But to think so requires a leap of faith, a judgment not grounded in any evidence from the last year of the man's behavior. The aim of such a bludgeoning assault is to force the subject of Obama's relationship to Ayers back to the center of the campaign dialogue. But that's not what happened. By week's end that campaign narrative was all about the ferocity and recklessness of McCain's attacks.
There's something else to note too. Over the last 48 hours several name brand Republicans have come out and either chided or denounced McCain's borderline incitement. And given how taboo it is to level such criticism of your own nominee at this stage of the election you have to assume these criticisms were only the tip of the iceberg, with a far more intense and angry barrage of criticism voiced privately.
Here are a few clips put together by CNN that are worth watching.
The first passage to watch starts at 25 seconds in. A participant tells McCain he's "scared" of any Obama presidency and McCain responds that he "is a decent person and a person you do not have to be scared [of] as President of the United States."
Those are the words. But look at the facial expressions. McCain looks down as he says it and has the countenance of someone who been forced to tell someone else they're sorry. There's some mix of gritting your teeth and saying something you don't want to say mixed with some sort of shamefacedness. Look at the video. Because while I feel like I intuitively 'get' the gestures I find it hard to quite capture them in words. Perhaps you'll do better and you can share your thoughts with me.
In the next clip McCain is speaking up close with a woman in the audience who says she can't trust Obama and then blurts out that it's because he's "Arab". Some reports have it that she said 'Arab terrorist'. But at least on this tape only 'Arab' is audible.
McCain shakes his head, as though losing his patience and snatches the mic back out of woman's hands. "No, Ma'am. No, Ma'am. He's a decent family man, citizen, that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues." Again, there's a lot there when you actually see the video. And I encourage you to watch.
I get from his expression a sense of a man that is, in addition to all the other things he's angry about, is frustrated or angry at the situation he's gotten himself into. But he has sown the wind and now he's reaping the whirlwind. "Even," says TPM Reader RB, "as he says 'You don't have to be scared of an Obama presidency' to a handful of followers (and, more importantly, of national reporters), he is spending millions to bombard as many people as he can with the ad named "Dangerous". The small hand giveth, and the large hand taketh away."
And yet this conveys too much suggestion of planning and intent. I have more the sense of someone desperately casting about and losing control of the situation itself. Even hypocrites can get in over their heads. Indeed, in a more nuts-and-bolts strategic sense McCain has really gotten himself into a hole because the campaign he's been running has almost entirely been premised on the claim that you should be scared of an Obama presidency. Not that McCain, if he'd run a very different campaign, couldn't have run on issue disagreements with Obama. But right now if you take away fear of Obama becoming president, there's almost no reason not to vote for him since McCain has basically conceded the issue agenda to Obama. If you look at every poll for months, voters are dying for change. Fear of Obama is the only thing keeping him from leaving McCain in the dust. Take that away and McCain's done.
I'm not sure what else to say about this episode. But it is something to behold.
Key point above - for McCain to renege on the "Obama is dangerous" line would remove the only obstacle remaining for a complete Obama landslide, since McCain has basically conceded the campaign on the election and Iraq.
woscar99
quote:
Originally posted by R.j.
It just goes to show how ignorant his supporters are; the way he handled that, though, was correct, and he's gained back an ounce of my respect.
quote:
Originally posted by Sykonee
That one moment will probably do wonders for his campaign. It makes him appear like a kindly old grandfather reassuring a fearful public rather than the bitter old man thing he had going for a while there.
Anyone with 2 ounces of brain can see right through his hypocrisy. He's the one who started all the hatred in the first place and seeing how ugly things are getting for his campaign he has no choice but to take it back.
delobbo
yeah he's basically like, OH .. ive created an angry mob
woscar99
quote:
Originally posted by Alex
Nice videos, complete bull of course.
And you know it's bull when you actually agree with the youtube comments:
"This has to be one of the most ignorant, lie-filled piece of garbage ever posted. Love how you just pick a bunch of people and claim that they are connected to Obama. Moron.
NOGUFF, I heard you were friends with the people who hijacked the planes on 9/11. I also heard that you palled around with hitler and Stalin. I also saw you passing money to Sadam a few weeks ago. Prove me wrong."
WASHINGTON - Michelle Obama has joined her husband on John McCain's too-tight-with-terrorists watch list.
A McCain campaign conference call Friday noted that Barack Obama's wife worked at a Chicago law firm "at the same time as Bernardine Dohrn," a '60s radical and the wife of ex-terrorist Bill Ayers.
classy...coming from the guy who said families were off limits.
Groundhog Boy
quote:
Originally posted by Lebezniatnikov
Why?
Because he's an Arab...
Sykonee
quote:
Originally posted by woscar99
Anyone with 2 ounces of brain can see right through his hypocrisy. He's the one who started all the hatred in the first place and seeing how ugly things are getting for his campaign he has no choice but to take it back.
Well, yeah. Frankly, such a gesture isn't for the benefit of Obama; more for the Undecideds who've been leaning Democrat lately out of fear of the McMob.
Lebezniatnikov
Groundhog Boy
quote:
Originally posted by Jabberwocky
You're all absurd to believe in any candidate and their proposals. Regardless, Obama will be assassinated, and McCain will eventually croak. Either way we're ed.
Conservative America doesn't "change."
If that's your opinion, you should be looking at which VP you'd rather have as President, Joe Biden or Sarah Palin.
