McCain finally steps in and tells his audience to be respectful. Good for him. It's not exactly an easy thing to do at a campaign rally, but it's the right thing. David Kurtz has more. [talkingpointsmemo - no comments there]
My guess is he was informed that the character assassination was not working and , in fact, making things worse for him.
-It's nice to see that McCain has the honor and integrity to scale things back a bit once they mob rallies, hate talk became a pretty big story and potentially damaging to him politically. so that's sarcastic then.
So in the same day he's doing this his organized conference calls to try to make ridiculously thin connections between Ayers and Michelle, and released this statement in response to Obama saying "Nothing's easier than riling up a crowd by stoking anger and division. But that's not what we need right now in the United States.":
"Barack Obama's assault on our supporters is insulting and unsurprising. These are the same people obama called 'bitter' and attacked for 'clinging to guns' and faith. He fails to understand that people are angry at corrupt practices in Washington and Wall Street and he fails to understand that America's working families are not 'clinging' to anything other than the sincere hope that Washington will be reformed from top to bottom. Attacking our supporters is a new low for the campaign that's run more millions of dollars of negative ads than any other in history." what? (is that just a straight up lie, or?) how bizarre to say the Obama campaign is at new lows of negativity.
- re: juxtaposition above. Either the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, or McCain is more cynical than I thought possible.
-Both are true, probably. Let's face it, however hard it is to do something like this during a campaign, I don't see why McCain should get any bonus points for doing it, for doing what any decent politician -or person- would do. It muddies the moral waters a bit that he stoked this kind of thing before, but now says 'we must show respect'. My hat's not off to him.
...lots more comments...
-On the arab vs. decent man front, I actually think he answered rather well. The fact isn't only that you can't reply in a short time to all the racist and outrageous presuppositions in that question, but that they won't listen. Saying "Obama isn't an Arab" is important, saying "if he were there would be nothing wrong with that" is even more important, you can point out that Arabs are as likely to be terrorists as Irishmen or Basque are, you can say explicitly that the implications are racist and should have no place in the discourse. But the people who make those accusations won't listen, because ultimately that's not the point: the point is that they're scared and project that fear on Others and hatred thereof. McCain knew this, and went straight to the heart of that woman's issue: Obama is a good man, a person like you, you don't have to be afraid of him. I don't know how this influenced that woman, but I'm pretty sure that's the only way he could have done it. good. yes. I think I do give him some credit, for this reason: that answer was to the point.
ok wait. confused.
it is a guy who says "We're scared. We're scared of an Obama presidency." and it's this answer I like, from McCain: "I have to tell you: he is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared (of) as president of the United States." I was glad to hear him say that. followed of course and sensibly with "Now look if I didn't think I'd be one heck of a lot better president, I wouldn't be running, and that's the point. that's the point."
then there is an older woman qstnr who says "I can't trust Obama. He's a.. he's a Arab." and McCain starts shaking his head, takes microphone: "No. No, Ma'm. He's a decent family man citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues." so I think 'citizen' more than 'decent' was his specific response to her worry. (not so much the 'decent' ~ a US citizen).
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well this woman specifically was not reassured - video & transcript of her conversation w reporters later: Theuptake: McCain Volunteer Sends Out "Obama is an Arab" Letters
Gayle Quinnel, a John McCain supporter says at a McCain Rally that "Obama is an Arab". She is quickly corrected by John McCain who takes away her microphone.
This is an interview video with her done no recorded by a live streaming cell phone. 'live streaming'? ~ are all videos recorded on cell phones 'live' & 'streaming' ~ weird. Interviewers include Noah Kunin, Senior Political Correspondent from The UpTake, Adam Aigner of NBC News and Dana Bash of CNN.
Quinnel says she obtained the information on Obama being an Arab at "her local library" and from a pamphlet obtained at a local McCain campaign office (provided by a fellow volunteer not the campaign itself). She has taken it upon herself to redistribute the information as widely as possible by making copies of the pamphlet and sending it to random names in the phone book.
Gayle Quinnell: I went to the library in Shakopee and I got lots of … three pages of information about Obama Adam Aigner of NBC News : And what kind of information did you get? Quinnell :I got to tell you , you call me. It’s a long story I’m afraid of what’s going to happen to this country.
Aigner: So even though Senator McCain told you that he didn’t feel that was true and you ought to be more respectful, you still fear that?
Quinnell I still do. I’m not alone. I go to Burnsville, the main Republican headquarters and I do a lot of work over there. A lot of sending out mail and talking to people. And all the people agree with what I’m saying to you about Obama.
Quinnell Yeah I sent out 400 letters. I went to Kinkos and I got them all printed out. And I sent about 400 letters. I went in the telephone book and sent them out to people.
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