The scary context of this election; the decent efforts to calm
From CBS:
Some of the questioners said they were scared of an Obama presidency, and one woman said she couldn’t trust Obama because “he’s an Arab.”McCain shook his head. “No ma’am, he’s a decent family man, a citizen, that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and that’s what this campaign is all about.”
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Comments (28)
First sign of the McCain I remember from the 2000 election. Whether it was a political move or not, it did show some class. I could never see myself voting for him, but maybe we can get back to the real issues in this campaign.
The scary context of this election; the decent efforts to calm. Mr. Oreskes is the executive editor of the International Herald Tribune and was an editor and the national political correspondent at the New York Times. This article was adapted from their recent book The Genius of America—How the Constitution Saved Our country and Why It Can Again.
America’s greatest strength and greatest weakness are the same thing. We are not burdened by a sense of history, our own or anyone else’s. Our detachment from history has liberated us to focus forward. We look to the future in a way that many other societies envy.
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Zain
FSBO
I could never see myself voting for him
So... Arabs aren't decent family men? I know that's not what McCain meant to say, but that is what his word imply.
I'm sorry, but that just doesn't cut it. What does McCain expect, after running ads that explicitly tell us to be afraid of Barack Obama? Of course he's going to get boos, then, when he says on the stump that we don't have to be afraid of him. I do believe McCain is, or at least was, a decent guy, but he's not reigning in his strategists and advisors one ounce, and paying lip service to respect and decency is disingenuous in the context of the entire rest of his campaign, especially including his running mate.
I've even thought about changing my Halloween mask now that I know McCain supporters are afraid of Barack Obama LOL
>So... Arabs aren't decent family men?
May they are, but I dont thing its a good background to be the new president of USA.
Sorry, disagree with you.
McCain has encouraged both Sarah Palin and his wife to incite their rallies to near-riot status, and then turns around, saying we need to be calm, and trying to look statesmanlike. Either he has no control over Sarah Palin, which would not bode well for their serving together; or he's encouraging her to do the worst, and then staging his, "Obama is not the devil incarnate" act. One or the other.
He's using these women to be create such an effect. I despise that man, and everything he stands for.
arabs decent??????
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This morning I was pondering how I would try to sell McCain to the American public if I was McCain's campaign manager. It's a rather tough sell because McCain hasn't done much to distinguish himself as being particularly knowledgeable or visionary. Regardless of the difficulty, the argument I would try to make is that McCain had somehow recognized and solved an important problem with a direct impact on peoples' lives.
Given the credibility problems that the Republicans are facing after aggressively supporting the Bush administration's policies and assertions for the last eight years, McCain would need to do more than make general claims to have improved peoples' lives. He would have to either have statistically valid scientific studies or irrefutable individual examples. Finding such supporting evidence is not an easy task.
But there's a bigger problem. McCain's base isn't into really all that enthused about improving the world generally. One way or another, they're hunkering down for an apocalyptic conflict between the USA and much of the rest of the world. For example, evangelicals like Palin believe in an "end times"/Armageddon scenario that is, in their view, likely to happen in their lifetime (maybe even during the next presidency). McCain's base is not imagining a world where military conflict is gradually phased out and the world's problems are solved through science and technology. McCain's base is imagining an "every man for himself" kind of world where whoever has the most guns wins - but also where society eventually collapses but it doesn't matter because the true believers are raptured up to heaven and spared the unpleasantness.
So, even if McCain could make a compelling fact-based case that he is the best choice to make the world a better place, he would just leave his base cold. A long term future of increasing peace and prosperity just doesn't fit within their world view.
This is just good-cop/bad-cop being played on the electorate by the McCain campaign (and it should be attributed as much to Steve Schmidt as to the candidate himself).
As if the electorate were a criminal that had to be so manipulated. Remember that the tactics of political campaigns are indistinguishable from the tactics of Madison Avenue advertising: manipulate the viewer in ways that the viewer will not consciously detect.
Now that Palin has been reported as abusing her political powers (by a "bipartisan" panel consisting of 10 Republicans and 4 Democrats, which of course is portrayed as a "Democrat election ploy" even though it was underway long before Palin was the VP nominee), one wonders how much traction the bad cop can continue to have. I fear it will not cause her to lose a step.
In any case, I don't for a nanosecond expect that the McPalin campaign will cease its contrived attacks. In an environment where the economy dominates discussion, they are reduced to more and more desperate hail marys as the clock runs down.
The only thing I fear (aside from fear itself) is some October Surprise that somehow brings military issues back to the fore before Election Day. I wouldn't put it past the Republicans to manufacture something out of thin air, like the "yellow/orange alerts" of the past election cycle (what nonsense that was, and worse).
And it's time to focus on the voting machines, voter turnout suppression ploys, the overall validity of the voting process itself. Will we monitor our own elections the way we monitor those of other countries suspected of skewing the process?
If we can't rely on where the rubber hits the road, then the validity of the electoral process itself is voided.
We have moved from "silly season" to the dirty season in the political cycle. Expect the worst, because time is running out and the trailing players get desperate when the lead is substantial. There is no "going down with dignity" when your values say that winning for its own sake is everything, at any cost, and the end (however selfish it may be) justifies the means.
The sh** has only begun to hit the fan, IMHO. The GOP crimson tide is about to turn a smelly shade of diarrhea brown.
What I'm longing for someone - anyone - to ask McCain during one of these town hall-style appearances is, if he can say Obama is a "decent family man," does that knowledge create any cognitive dissonance with political ads ominously asking "do we know the real Barack Obama?"
Some of you and people on the Internet have too much time to think up conspiracy theories.
McCain said the same thing back in MARCH on FOX news in an hour long interview Hannity. I think he said it elsewhere when asked but I can’t remember where.
John McCain Supports Barack Obama on Reverend Wright Issue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed1Tb-vrEww
There is a line between saying you believe the same thing as associates – guilt by association – and questioning your judgment for picking associates. A point often missed in short commercials and rhetoric.
McCain is obviously going after Obama’s judgement and inexperience, but with the economy failing, it’s likely a moot point.
Speaking of scary, the think that scares me is why the market does not think the next president will restore prosperity.
A political move maybe, but I don't see how it helps. McCain and Palin spent all week working the crowd into a frenzy and now McCain has to spend time defending Obama. I welcome the return to the issues, but voters have already seen what the Republican campaign is capable of. What I don't understand is why appeal to the base? There aren't enough of them to make a difference. I can't imagine he's winning people in the middle, or even the intellectual conservative set. I guess at this point that's all they've got.
Ben Porritt and the rest of the mcCain staff don't seem to have received the Decency memo, as they took to the airwaves today and continued to call Senator Obama an anti-american terrorist, etc..
It's hard to blame them. Look at the polls. It's all they have left.
Ben Porritt and the rest of the McCain team don't seem to have received the Decency memo. They took to the air today calling Obama an anti-American terrorist etc,etc..
Hard to blame them, really. Their polling is dismal and, in the wake of the economic meltdown, they have nothing else to say.
Arabs and Muslims are the new Jews!
Sane people know that Obama is neither and Arab nor a Muslim.
But why, in a country that prides itself on diversity and equal opportunity, is it so scary and unacceptable that a person running for office might have even the remotest affiliations with Arabs or Muslims?
An Arab and a Muslim myself, I can understand that the memory of 9/11 will live on for some time to come. That may explain some of the anti-Muslim sentiments. But why fear the Arabs? First not all Arabs are Muslims, nor are all Muslims Arabs. In fact, Arabs constitute only about a fifth of the Muslim population worldwide. And the largest Muslim country in the world is Indonesia, not Saudi Arabia or Egypt. These basic facts seem to be nuances that don't grab the attention of the audiences and McCain-Palin rallies.
If such a remark ("I don't trust him. He's an Arab") were made against any other ethnicity or religion it would have merited strongest denunciation. But its about the Arabs, so glossing over it is a no-brainer. Arabs and Muslims are the new Jews.
And this attitude is against everything the American constitutions institutes. It is a really sad state of affairs.
Arabs and Muslims are the new Jews!
Sane people know that Obama is neither and Arab nor a Muslim.
But why, in a country that prides itself on diversity and equal opportunity, is it so scary and unacceptable that a person running for office might have even the remotest affiliations with Arabs or Muslims?
An Arab and a Muslim myself, I can understand that the memory of 9/11 will live on for some time to come. That may explain some of the anti-Muslim sentiments. But why fear the Arabs? First not all Arabs are Muslims, nor are all Muslims Arabs. In fact, Arabs constitute only about a fifth of the Muslim population worldwide. And the largest Muslim country in the world is Indonesia, not Saudi Arabia or Egypt. These basic facts seem to be nuances that don't grab the attention of the audiences and McCain-Palin rallies.
If such a remark ("I don't trust him. He's an Arab") were made against any other ethnicity or religion it would have merited strongest denunciation. But its about the Arabs, so glossing over it is a no-brainer. Arabs and Muslims are the new Jews.
And this attitude is against everything the American constitutions institutes. It is a really sad state of affairs.
Why does an Internet expert have a blog host that runs so unreliability that people like Al and James above post twice mistakenly believing their first post has been deleted?
Al: while don’t trust him because he is an Arab/Jew/White/Black is obviously racism, I think you overestimate the racism since there is a logically consistent argument (that I don’t agree with in this case):
Don’t trust him because he LIES about being an Arab/Muslim which is more popular on the right than outright racism.
This is similar to don’t trust Jews or Black in the 50s who were trying to PASS as WASPs – don’t trust them not because they are Jews or Blacks, but don’t trust them because they are not telling the truth. This argument was used as recently as 2006 against Republican Sen. (VA) George Allen, when it turned out that he was not a good-old-boy southern Christian, but that his mother was Jewish (Allen’s mother, a Nazi-era refugee hid her Jewishness from her children, so one should not blame George Allen for lying)
Don’t trust him because he LIES about being an Arab/Muslim which is more popular on the right than outright racism.
Or how about: "Don't trust him because he lies about (not) being Japanese/Jewish"?
There is just as much evidence that Obama is Japanese as there is that he is Arab: none at all. There is just as much evidence that Obama is Jewish as there is that he is Muslim: none at all.
So, why choose to claim that Obama is lying about not being Arab/Muslim rather than that he is lying about not being Japanese/Jewish? Because Arab/Muslim has negative connotations while Japanese/Jewish does not.
Imagine that some lady at a McCain rally said that she was scared of Obama because he was Japanese. She would have been laughed out of the room. But why wasn't she laughed out of the room when she said she was scared that Obama was Arab? In a word, racism.
So, why choose to claim that Obama is lying about not being Arab/Muslim rather than that he is lying about not being Japanese/Jewish?
1. His Middle name
2. His Fathers and/or Grandfather's Religion
3. Going to a school in a Muslim country for 2 years
4. Obama Misspeaking "My Muslim faith"
Even Obama realized the first in his book.
There are quite a few comments expressing mixed feelings about McCain. May I offer the following for consideration:
Type in the keywords, mccain non-support, into your favorite search engine, and follow the links for Brandon Friedman's exhaustive compilation of McCain's voting record on veterans' issues. If you take the time to read all the sourced bills cited, you'll realize that McCain has voted against almost every single veterans' funding and healthcare bill that crossed his desk since he began his career as an elected official in 1987. That's 26 years of dedicated purpose to harm or cause as much suffering of as many veterans as possible.
So, what sort of person is this, that would want to harm and cause as much suffering of veterans as possible, for 26 years? Why, an untreated PTSD sufferer, of course. This twisted, pathetic excuse of a veteran who has millions to spend on addressing his medical problems deserves no respect, no mixed feelings, no longing for the "old" McCain who was dead set on voting down any and all funding and healthcare for veterans, because he was manifesting his personal Boundary Maintenance, and making sure any veterans who would call themselves a veteran needed to suffer as McCain did.
Makes one wonder if we shouldn't be asking who McCain is, instead of who Obama is, eh?
And 5 – I don’t know if it’s true but I heard that Muslims consider a son of a Muslim father a Muslim
Makes one wonder if we shouldn't be asking who McCain is, instead of who Obama is, eh?
If this WERE 1983 and McCain was only on the national scene for a couple of years and running for president, concern over his ex-POW mental condition (not to mention his experience and non-military judgment) would be a concern. But McCain has been around Washington for decades.
Obama is more like McCain in 1983 where extreme assertions can’t be brushed off with we have known him for decades.
Maybe if all someone knew about Obama was his full name, and they wanted to choose the most likely ethnicity/religion combination that would make Obama a liar, then they would claim Arab/Muslim. For someone who actually knows his biography, though, Arab/Muslim isn't really at the top of the list of most plausible ethnicity/religion combinations that would make Obama a liar.
Assuming we rule out American/Christian because we're trying to claim that Obama is a liar, the next most plausible combination is Asian/Agnostic followed closely by African/Atheist. By the time you get down to Arab/Muslim you might as well throw in English/Unitarian, with a nod to Obama's maternal grandparents.
Back to the original contention that Obama is lying about his ethnicity/religion, I'm really just not understanding how that's supposed to work. Both ethnicity and religion are multidimensional continuums. For example, a person can be more religious in one way and less religious in another. Mapping a multidimensional continuum down to a binary state certainly has problems but, under mappings that I consider reasonable, it would be a much greater lie for Obama to claim that he was Arab or Muslim than to claim that he wasn't.
The claim that Obama is secretly 100% Arab or 100% Muslim is wildly improbable and the claim that someone who is 0.01% Arab or Muslim (for example, a middle name) should be counted as Arab or Muslim is just bizarre (and somewhat racist, as well).
The NY Times today tracked down the nut (who from the article has documented mental problems) who started the Obama Muslim rumors, and even this nut knew that just calling a person a Muslim was not enough but emphasized that Obama was lying about his religion.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/us/politics/13martin.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin
In his original press release, Mr. Martin wrote that he was personally “a strong supporter of the Muslim community.” But, he wrote of Mr. Obama, “it may well be that his concealment is meant to endanger Israel.”
This election, what is it all about?
There are five kinds of voters in this election. The first group is racially motivated, such as the majority of black Obama supporters and the supreme whites for McCain. The second group consists of Harvard clans and the left liberals and intellectuals. This group not only supports Obama but also is trying their best to influence other voters. The third group is the conservative McCain supporters, including the traditional GOP cores. Very little can sway their votes. The fourth group consists of young and new voters. Obama has an edge over McCain in this group. Young voters are attracted to Obama mainly by his more intellectual but calculated speeches and talks. McCain needs to convince this group that substance is more important than talks. The last group is the uncertain group, consisting of independents and discouraged DEM and GOP voters. They are fed up with the Bush presidency on one hand, and distrust Obama on the other. They worry about the war and the future of the nation. They worry about their pocketbooks. They wonder if McCain represents another term of Bush administration. If this group tips heavily to one candidate, he will be the next president. I belong to this group. I will examine the following important factors carefully. The candidate who gives the better answers will get my vote.
The most important factor is the character. McCain is well known and well respected. However, he seems too stubborn and too temperamental. Does this personality matter? Obama was relatively unknown before he ran for president. However, a person can be judged by his previous actions and by the people he has been associated with. Can I ignore Obama’s previous cocaine usage and smoking habit? Should I care about his association with those questionable figures such as Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, Dr. Khalid Abdullah Tariq al-Mansour, "Tony" Rezko, and the organization ACORN? I am particularly concerned that Obama might become the leader of an ACORN-like social movement.
Both candidate had very little to do with the economy mess we are in. Any attempt to blame the other should be ignored. Because the situation is too complicated and fast changing, can either candidate get us out of this mess? The only thing I can use to judge is candidates’ governing philosophies and experiences. Obama seems to represent the left end of the Democratic philosophy, that is big government and expanded social programs, while McCain promises to restore the Republican ideal of smaller government and capitalism. As senator, McCain has not requested for earmarks, while Obama ($ 1 Billion) did. Thus, McCain seems to be a better bet on fighting against big federal spending.
The war and national security is another confusing area. Obama did not have experiences in this area and he does not know how to end the war. I do not believe that he has better judgments either. McCain seems to have a better strategy to end the war. However, if a candidate does not believe that Iraq war was a wrong war, and our economy has deteriorated because of this war, he should not be elected. Could McCain be so stupid on this issue?
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