These Are the People McCain is Defending

[toasty]

remember in last night's debate when McCain declined to clamp down on the invective coming from his supporters at rallies, e.g., "terrorist," "kill him," etc. when Obama's name is mentioned, instead chastising those who would question his supporters? This exchange:

Obama: I mean, look, if we want to talk about Congressman Lewis, who is an American hero, he, unprompted by my campaign, without my campaign's awareness, made a statement that he was troubled with what he was hearing at some of the rallies that your running mate was holding, in which all the Republican reports indicated were shouting, when my name came up, things like "terrorist" and "kill him," and that you're running mate didn't mention, didn't stop, didn't say "Hold on a second, that's kind of out of line."

...

Obama: But when people suggest that I pal around with terrorists, then we're not talking about issues. What we're talking about...

McCain: Well, let me just say I would...

Schieffer: (inaudible)

McCain: Let me just say categorically I'm proud of the people that come to our rallies. Whenever you get a large rally of 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 people, you're going to have some fringe peoples. You know that. And I've -- and we've always said that that's not appropriate.

But to somehow say that group of young women who said "Military wives for McCain" are somehow saying anything derogatory about you, but anything -- and those veterans that wear those hats that say "World War II, Vietnam, Korea, Iraq," I'm not going to stand for people saying that the people that come to my rallies are anything but the most dedicated, patriotic men and women that are in this nation and they're great citizens.

Well, these are the people McCain is defending:

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRqcfqiXCX0[/YOUTUBE]

I actually thought McCain's response was an odd dodge, because he knows damn well that Obama wasn't talking about war vets or "military wives for McCain," as does everyone watching that debate. It would have been very easy for him to distance himself from those on the fringe after acknowledging they are out there -- I'm frankly stunned that he didn't.

[88Mariner]

Re: These Are the People McCain is Defending

ok, but what else would McCain have said? "fuck you weirdos"?

[toasty]

Re: These Are the People McCain is Defending

ok, but what else would McCain have said? "fuck you weirdos"?

He could have said something to the effect of:

"To the extent that anyone at any of my rallies has said anything like that, I would point out those sentiments are not consistent with my campaign's message or my own personal beliefs, and I strongly reject those words. The overwhelming majority of my supporters are good, tolerant people who are passionate about this country, and the few on the fringe that get attention in the media do not speak for me, my campaign, or my supporters as a whole..." and then pivot to talk about how great his supporters are.

[Miroslav]

Re: These Are the People McCain is Defending

I actually thought McCain's response was an odd dodge, because he knows damn well that Obama wasn't talking about war vets or "military wives for McCain," as does everyone watching that debate. It would have been very easy for him to distance himself from those on the fringe after acknowledging they are out there -- I'm frankly stunned that he didn't.

Too many of McCain's responses have been odd dodges. That's exactly why he is where he is in the polls right now.

He did the same kind of a thing right after basically re-accusing Obama of "palling around with terrorists". Obama responds articulately and asserts that it all said more about McCain's campaign than it did about him. And instead of taking that assertion head-on, McCain just grimaced like he was passing gas again and said a bunch of stuff in rapid succession that really wasn't a direct answer - he put in the soundbite about Ayers not being apologetic for his actions, and then in the same breath switched the topic to taxes.

huh?

And this is supposed to be a strategy to instill confidence and credibility in his claims?

[sammwalk]

Re: These Are the People McCain is Defending

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRqcfqiXCX0[/YOUTUBE]

the tragedy here is that the kind of hateful, ignorant, uneducated people that these folks are so afraid of (such as radical islamists) is actually indeed what they are. and they live in the safest part of the country, one which would never get attacked by terrorists.

just goes to show that we have so much farther to go in even becoming anything more than, as Bill Hicks would say, "a virus with shoes".