Thank You, John McCain

[Steve James]

Who today took the mike from some lady's hand when she said that Obama was an "Arab." McCain said, admirably, that Obama was a good family man ... and that he (McCain) wasn't going to put up with the increasing rhetoric. Good for him. Well, it also restores some of my faith. If it weren't for Palin, I'd be back to not caring if he won. As a matter of fact, now that Palin has been found "guilty," I wouldn't be surprised if she stepped aside for Romney or Lieberman.

Yeah, I know, I know. It has already been scripted. "See chapter 10 of ..... " Shit, though, if ya'll know so much, they are giving odds in Vegas all the time.

[CaliG]

I agree, this does help redeem McCain in my eyes.

If you're going to disagree, disagree but at least be a man about it there's no reason for slander.

[C-Hopkins]

Doesn't redeem him for me.

He's just doing damage control.

If it wasn't for McCain's campaign spewing racist rhetoric over the past week or two, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

McCain's recieving alot of backlash from this, and it's creating bad P-R-

So now he's trying to fix it, and contradicting his own statements about Obama along the way, I might add...

Without ending the actual behavior of course...

The McCain campaign has jumped in the deep end with concrete shoes, and they're trying to do anything they can to save themselves on the way down.

[gretel]

i am not a supporter of McCain but i thought he was classy in dealing with that woman and trying to calm down the blood-lust of some of his supporters. too bad he lets his ad people and Palin do whatever they want.

gretel

[Steve James]

I wouldn't ask anyone to forgive McCain. However, imo, words "are" deeds ... with consequences, regardless of intentions. Maybe he's doing it for damage control or to make himself look better. I don't care. I'll take the man at his word, especially since ... again, jmo ... it was obvious that his audience was willing to "go there." All he had to do was say nothing, and he wouldn't have lost a single vote in the house. He actually got booed ... or his favorable remarks toward Obama got booed.

Anyway, I was just giving my .02 on it. I'd hope that I'd have the stones to say the words when it came to it. Hey, how can I argue when what M said was the truth?

[Fubo]

I agree with C-Hopkins mostly on this one.

Seems like convenient damage control. As genuine as he may have came across, it's hard to get into his change of tone about Obama while his TV adds all revolve around dragging Obama's personality through the mud, and people on his rally platforms are playing the "hussein" card.

It seems like now since it'll be hard for him to either tear Obama down or say nice things about him, without getting heat from his supporters, other people and the media, Mccain may have to actually start focusing the important issues at hand in his rhetoric.

[internalenthusiast]

intelligent comments on this thread, imo.

rachel maddow:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp ... 1#27125261

yes, i know some people may dismiss her as "a liberal."

but the clip shows some intelligent comments on the situation from her and her guests, imo...including linking the present moment to others from the 30's to the 60's.

and...the clip includes genuine statements of appreciation to mccain, vis a vis the subject that steve mentions.

myself, i do think mccain's reaction is damage control. at the same time, i think he somewhere believes it, or wants to believe it.

i do think it was a good thing for him to do.

overall, i hope we get a president who has all the peoples' welfare in mind, and can keep a cool head in both national and, perhaps more importantly international negotiations and discussions.

it feels to me we are on the edge of a cliff. both economically and politically.

i hope we don't fall off.

palin...well...

[CaliG]

[nianfong]

This all started with this, and people making it clear that his name is "barack HUSSEIN obama":


Note the ignorant woman still believes it, despite the rebuke from mccain:


this is ridiculous.

[Dmitri]

Romney or Lieberman

Yeah, that would be a lot better...

[zenshiite]

Who didn't see this shit coming from a mile away? I mean, I've got problems with McCain's "rebuke" to that old bag. She says "he's an Arab" and McCain's response is "he's a good man." What? Not that "no, he's not an Arab" or "even if he were Arab, that wouldn't change that he's a good man." The implication is that Arabs are still bad people. He may have defended Barack Obama, but he didn't denounce the woman's racism.

[Steve James]

Well, yeah, he was addressing what the woman meant, not what she said. Your're right that the didn't try to defend Arabs, but --to his audience-- that would have been like defending "Muslims", which would be like defending "terrorists." I'm not saying that he shouldn't have. He should, and if all the countries "leaders" did so, that'd be even better. If they said that black people were good people that would be nice too, but they've been around a long time and it hasn't yet happened. Besides, the Arabs they're talking about are white, in reality. But, if the lady knew that, it wouldn't be so easy to direct her bigotry. Hey, after 9/11, Hindus, Sikhs, Syrian Christians, and anybody else who seemed "middle eastern" were all the same.

Not denying your point. It's right on. But, it'll take a while before lots of people acknowledge your point. We are in a culture that, almost from the very beginning, said ... "the only good .... is a dead ...". That's just our history, unfortunately. Don't feel bad because it's applied to you. It was applied to Catholics and Jews long before people cared at all about Arab (speakers).

[C-Hopkins]

The woman still believes it because irregardless of the truth, she still hates him because of his race.

At this point in time (post 9-11) it's basically acceptable among alot of people to be prejudiced against Middle Easterners under the guise of Patriotism.

It's part ignorance, and part socialization.

What is not overtly PC these days is racism against African Americans.

What these folks are doing is taking their hatred of Blacks, and putting a "Patriotically Acceptable" veneer on it, in order to voice their anger and disdain.

These people will not drop the "Hussein" rhetoric, or the "Terrorist" name calling, because if they do, all that's left is the truth.

They hate Obama because he's Black, and they don't want a Black person in the White House.

They can't say this directly, so they're using this line in order to say what they really mean, without saying it.

[zenshiite]

Well, yeah, he was addressing what the woman meant, not what she said. Your're right that the didn't try to defend Arabs, but --to his audience-- that would have been like defending "Muslims", which would be like defending "terrorists." I'm not saying that he shouldn't have. He should, and if all the countries "leaders" did so, that'd be even better. If they said that black people were good people that would be nice too, but they've been around a long time and it hasn't yet happened. Besides, the Arabs they're talking about are white, in reality. But, if the lady knew that, it wouldn't be so easy to direct her bigotry. Hey, after 9/11, Hindus, Sikhs, Syrian Christians, and anybody else who seemed "middle eastern" were all the same.

Not denying your point. It's right on. But, it'll take a while before lots of people acknowledge your point. We are in a culture that, almost from the very beginning, said ... "the only good .... is a dead ...". That's just our history, unfortunately. Don't feel bad because it's applied to you. It was applied to Catholics and Jews long before people cared at all about Arab (speakers).

Steve, I'm not even Arab man. I'm not Persian or Pakistani or any other stereotypical Muslim racial category. In fact, I'm not of any Muslim Asian background or African background. My roots are in Ireland, England, Germany and God only knows where else in the "great white north."

I'm just pointing out, as a white anti-racist and some might say "racetraitor," that McCain's statements don't get to the core of the problem with that woman's statement... racism. Besides, I don't think she really thinks Obama's an "Arab" either(irony about being Arab... there's a saying from Muhammad that anyone who speaks Arabic is an Arab, regardless of racial/ethnic background), she just latched onto "Arab" as an acceptable racist distinction to say in public. 30-40 years ago she'd have dropped the n-bomb before she'd have ever said "Arab."

[Steve James]

Hey, I'm not disagreeing with the sentiment or your reasons. You're right that, for that lady, "Arab" is just a nicer way to say "not-white" even though it has nothing to do with color, either in Islam or in fact. It's not even like she really has anything against Arabs. Her mom probably lusted over Omar Shariff. CJ is right that it's currently un-pc to be bigoted toward blacks. The lady would have never publicly said "I don't trust him because he's, he's black, ya know." She considered it acceptable to say Arab, because it implies "Muslim", which implies "terrorist" to that lady''s mind.

I guess my point was that McCain had a choice to say something or not. He said something; it wasn't enough, if we're talking about the big issues of racial bigotry, anti-Semitism, anti-Islamism, anti-other peopleisms. Better to light the candle, though, than curse the darkness.