more racism and rage

[rm]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/10/mccain.crowd/index.html

At a rally in Minnesota on Friday, a woman told McCain: "I don't trust Obama. I have read about him and he's an Arab."

McCain shook his head and said, "No ma'am, no ma'am. He's a decent family man...[a] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. That's what this campaign is all about."

Wow, racist much. I can't even begin to process this shit.

Comments

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

oh, fuck me. that was in minnesota?

i mean, yes, racist much, yes, minnesotans are racist too. i'm just stunned that that minnesotans were the ones booing when mccain said, no, decent man who i have fundamental agreements with. usually we're more... uh, repressed than that. and in a pinch, repressed will serve for polite.

[zillah975]

I'm pleased to note that at least McCain seems to be starting to realize that his campaign is encouraging this in people, and to be increasingly dismayed that. I mean clearly that's not good enough, but it's better than I expected from him.

[gina-r-snape.livejournal.com]

You just took the words right out of my mouth.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I'd like to think he has a few shreds of decency left, but my guess is more that he knows he's going to lose. Since McCain will still be in the Senate, he's doing his best to make certain that Obama and the incoming Democrats in the Senate and House don't treat him like a total pariah.

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

I am cynical enough to believe he's just saying this to CYA while being perfectly happy that the various racist and islamophobic elements are still churning out lies about Obama...

[micheleonelonly.livejournal.com]

I wonder if she pronounced it "Ay-rab"

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

No bet.

[digitalsidhe.livejournal.com]

There's video publicly available, and she pronounces the first syllable pretty much like I'd pronounce the word "air". Definitely not "Ay-rab".

After all, these are Minnesotans, not Southerners. No one accent has a monopoly on ignorance.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

"I'm mad. I'm really mad. And what's going to surprise you, it's not the economy. It's the socialists taking over our country."

If the Capitol burns down, I'm calling shenanigans. (I"m looking at you, 1933.)

Is 11 AM too early for a martini?

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Not this year.

[cwoolard.livejournal.com]

11 am is, what, 6 or 7 pm in Moscow?

Vodka Martini.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I was listening to NPR yesterday, about Obama stopping in a diner. He shook this woman's hand, said hi and she took a billion pictures on her cell phone. After Obama moved on, the NPR reporter asked if she was voting for Obama. She kind of laughed and said no. When he asked why, she got flustered and said "I'd really rather not say." which says to me she knows her reason is dumb and knows it.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Suckage indeed. But I liked the guy they interviewed who said who cares if he's an elitist, we want an elite military, and elite athletes, why not have an elite president?

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

The version I saw was "...he's an Arab terrorist...", which is more racist on her part and removes the implication that McCain is suggesting that Arabs can't be "decent family men." Not sure which is the accurate transcript.

But good lord, McCain's base is scary and racist.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

This is what happens when a bigot tries to make a show of not being prejudiced.
If there was any doubt in my mind as to whether McCain was merely a corrupt evil man who was merely willing to pander to bigotry, or sincerely full of contempt and hate himself, said doubt is now utterly vanquished by cold certainty.

[idunn.livejournal.com]

Interesting how McCain didn't refute the first racist statement by saying anything like, "You're mistaken, he's not even Arab" but by saying, "Oh, no, he's a decent family man". Uh, and Arabs can't be because ...?

[rmjwell.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I was trying to address that aspect of it and was failing.

[sykii.livejournal.com]

What gets me is that they booed him for that.

[6-bleen-7.livejournal.com]

Definitely agree about Oklahoma City—and I'd like to throw in a number of attempted bombings of women's clinics in recent years that somehow failed to register on Homeland Security's radar.

[annablume.livejournal.com]

Shameful.

[drfardook.livejournal.com]

Obama has a real opportunity to push for his investment in education with that quip. A country where grown women are unable to realize that Kenya is nowhere near the middle east is a country that really needs to pump some cash into its education system.

[shipchan.livejournal.com]

Ok, I'm glad I'm not the only one who when they heard that thought "What if he was?" Right now my anger level when it comes to the American public is around a 10.

[timelady.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I happened to walk into the living room when they were covering it on CNN earlier today. It's just sickening that McCain's commercial people are totally encouraging that sort of thinking. I know he's said he doesn't agree with it, but that just makes it worse since one of his commercials states Barak's name as "Hussein Barak Obama". (Yeah, with the middle name first). And linking him with that guy who turned out to be a terrorist long after he had known him. Even worse the CNN crew caught up with the lady after the event. And she said she didn't like Obama because he was Muslim. They had to correct her and tell her he was Christian.

It's just spooky how prejudice people can be.

[sociallyawkrd.livejournal.com]

Yes I was pretty pissed when I saw that on the news yesterday. I just kept going he isn't going to say "And if he was an Arab? who cares?"

This is not the McCain of 8 years ago, this is the McCain who has allowed the right wing uber evangelists to overtake his world.