John Sidney McCain versus...
OK, I have to say something about this middle name issue. Yesterday I drove down to Columbus to sell some t-shirts at his OSU rally in a rental car without a CD player or iPod. I found myself stuck with AM talk radio looping the same two or three talking points for the four hours that I was on the road. I was really blown away; front and center was Bill Cunningham's tirade at a McCain rally in which he berated Barack and, in doing so, called him by his entire name, stressing his middle name: Hussein.
The baffling part, was the way the issue was being positioned. It was boiled down to this: is the use of middle names in politics, in general, fair game? When the rare caller suggested that this was clearly meant as a racially-loaded shot at Obama, all these radio hosts just played dumb: It was?! I don't see how. It's the man's name! This is no different than Al Franken yelling John Sidney McCain.
That would be true if McCain, over the past few months, had suffered from a whisper and email-forward campaign that had been filled with lies, suggesting that McCain was the owner of several brothels in the Australian capitol.
Look, Barack has suffered rumors that he was educated in a madrassa, that he was sworn into office with his hand on a Koran, that he refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance (instead he "turns his back to the flag and slouches") that he is actually a radical Muslim etc etc. The use of his middle name in this context and in this way is clearly an attempt to fuel the fire of this larger "Is Obama really not a Muslim?" fear-cloud.
I am so impressed and proud of McCain who came forward immediately and gave a completely genuine denunciation (or is it a rejection?) of Cunningham's comments. I have no doubt that the Obama/McCain race will be civil and one that every American can be proud of.
By Robert - 2/28/2008
27 Comments:
SIDNEY ?????
This make me feel real good about my middle name -
EMMET
Sidney is pretty much a girl name. So he must be transgendered or a cross-dresser or something, right?
I heard Hannity literally asking, "why is saying Hussein any different than saying George Walker Bush"
I feel so sad for his pathetic followers
in a post on another blog entry here, statue of liberty made the same point: that it's his name.
i was going to post this reply there, but since you brought it up, i will post it here.
statue of liberty, you are right. it is his middle name.
i assume, then, that you refer to all politicians with their middle name. and dare i go so far as assume that you refer to everyone you know with their middle name, too? of course, this doesn't work if you don't know their middle name.
to that end, to make you task easier when referring to politicians by their full name, i will supply you with a short list. if i am wrong on some of them, everyone should correct me so that statue of liberty doesn't make a fool of him/herself.
george walker bush
william jefferson clinton
george herbert walker bush
ronald wilson reagan
i don't know james carter's or gerald ford's middle name.
richard milhouse nixon
lyndon baines johnson
john fitzgerald kennedy
dwight david eisenhower
don't know truman's
franklin delano roosevelt.
that's as far as i will go. it's only presidents. does anyone want to supply other names?
i hope this helps you out, statue, if you didn't already know them.
doesnt this worry the people of ohio?
This is something Ohio constituents need to know about before they vote on March 4th!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LtbLEKHsi0
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080227/dems_nafta_080227/20080227?hub=TopStories
Man,
I can tell that this is going to be a tough couple days. Anonymous people drive by and throw a link to some Obama conspiracy, shout "gotcha" and speed off. Then one of us has to do a CSI-esc, mini-research project to disavow it. If we don't then it must be true.
OK, I'll play along.
So the first thing that I notice is that the source is CTV. I've never heard of this Canadian news source, and "credibility of source" is especially important here since this is completely a "he said, she said" story.
This revolves around a quote from an unnamed Obama staffer, as relayed by a Canadian ambassador to this (credible?) Canadian news source. Feel free to trust the exact wording of "campaign rhetoric" as much as you like. That's up to readers to determine how much weight to give this.
Here's what I imagine happened...
I imagine that a staffer called to calm our Canadian counterparts before the debate (remember these people don't cast a vote, so it would be really easy not to bother calling at all. You could argue that its impressive that the Obama camp was even thinking about the international implications of their stance and engaging in pre-damage damage-control diplomacy.) I imagine that the intent of the call was to let Canada know that they should not feel dissed by the anti-NAFTA talk which here in Ohio is really about manufacturing jobs leaving for Mexico and has little to do with them. I imagine that he said, not to be offended and that AS IT CONCERNS CANADA Obama would be a friend of continued trade.
Did this staffer really say that everything Obama says about NAFTA is "campaign rhetoric"? Did he just say that a particular point was directed at Mexico and not Canada? Was it something in between?
We can speculate, but who knows?
But ask yourself this, if it is true why would this Canadian ambassador make the announcement. How would it help him to hurt Obama, the candidate that just called him to assure him that US-Candian trade would not be at risk on his watch?
Forget credibility of source, it just doesn't make much sense to me. Smells funny.
I would also point out that the article that you link to points out: "sources also suggested the Clinton campaign may have given a similar warning to Ottawa"
If this is the best people have in their Obama-drive-bys, then I'm very, very optimistic.
Well, back to the topic...
RNC denounces use of 'Hussein' in Obama's name
I'm impressed. That's the end of that.
(Or is it. We'll see.)
I have to say so far I like a GOP without Rove's antics...if he were involved just imagine the things that would be happening right now
I thoroughly endorse John King of CNN. Last night when asked if he knew John McCain's last name he said yes. But when asked he refused to say it. Now that is what America is all about. Never say or do anything that might offend someone or appear that you may have a hidden agenda. Just look goood and if you must make a point make sure it is on the side of goodness.
ada,
FDR & JFK chose to use their middle names. The middle name qualifier is relevant for the two Bushs.
Meanwhile, Obama does not ever go by that name, nor is it needed to avoid confusion.
it is clearly mentioned by opponents to inflame people and no other purpose.
his middle name is not the problem, it is the objective of those that bring it up for no good reason.
to ignore that or make excuses for the use of Hussein is purely absurd.
Chuck,
You are 100% correct. Lou Dobbs tried to bait John King last night to say McCain's middle name. Hopefully after the election we can silence all the radio talk how hate mongers and Lou Dobbs also. We all know that the only way they can object to the progresssive path is by wallowing in hate speech. We cannot llow these people to disract Anmerica from its proper course.
Well we have done it again.
We have a country on the verge of bankruptcy, addicted to foreign oil and the target of a virulent ideology and we argue over a middle name. No wonder we are the laughing stock of the world.
I'm proud of McCain too, but just playing devil's advocate, I worry that he's going to pretend to play the "good guy" while the republican slander machine gets to work.
I randomly saw that Jack Cafferty guy on CNN mention that although it was nice to see him refute that bigot Cunningham's comments, he also wondered (out loud) whether McCain knew exactly what the tone of Commie Cunningham's comments were going to be and then played it off like he was surprised afterwards. I take McCain at his word, but just food for though.
We can expect some despicable things from some of those far right wacko conservatives. I'm appreciate the Clinton campaign doing their best to prepare us for it.
"we" didnt do anything. Sean Hannity & Company did it.
fred,
You know I like you, but I can't even remember the last time you made a comment that contained anything constructive. This is like the 10th time in a row you drop in just to let us know we're petty.
Look, we understand what's at stake. That's why I took a week of vacation time and flew back to Ohio. I'll be canvassing this weekend for a candidate that I believe in. A candidate that is being unfairly painted with the radical Muslim brush of right wingers and Hillary surrogates.
When people play on the publics fear and hatred of Muslims this way and tie Obama unfairly to Islam I will respond. Kerry did not address the Swiftboaters and look what happened. Not this time.
chuck,
my comment was pure sarcasm.
i was going after the argument i have heard a few times, all along the lines of "what's wrong? it's his name, isn't it?"
when someone, be it hannity or statue of liberty, uses that, the *only* way i think it would be valid is if they habitually referred to everyone they know and all politicians using their full name, middle and all. i strongly suspect that they don't. in fact, i strongly suspect that obama is one of the few ppl they do that for. i also strongly suspect that if obama's middle name were steve or glenn, then s/he would use it.
so statue says it's his name. fine. then does s/he call everyone by his full name? friends? family? politicians?
that was the saracastic intent of my post. i am in complete agreement with you on every point you make.
even though ada is fake, i am nonetheless embarrassed so be put in the same camp with ppl who use such tactics.
that last bit about steve of glenn, i meant to say that i strongly suspect s/he would NOT use it.
one word makes all the difference.
I am watching Anderson 360 tonight on Feb 28th and I just heard them report that both Obama AND the Canadian official quoted have denied this "NAFTA is just campaign rhetoric" story.
ada, apologies. another of the infinite examples of how joking around gets taken wrong thru a computer.
i forgot ada was initially a different anonymous....because you were the anonymous person that would sound like a sane person
no need to apologize. i need to tag stuff like that with **sarcasm** **sarcasm off** or something.
i perhaps amused only myself, but i really liked the sound of barack steve obama
Robert,
We have a country that is on the verge of becoming a third world country. Is there honest discussion about the issues we must face and the policies that are needed to combat the true issues? NO
1. We are bankrupt. Every houshold in America is $440,000 in debt and the number grows daily. Our entitlement programs are out of control and at some point the rest of the world will stop financing our lunacy.
2. We are addicted to foreign oil to the point our economy is threatened and our foreign policy is held hostage so as not to offend those that have the oil.
Meanwhile we argue about how to arrange the chairs on the Titanic.
The politicans ignore the real dangers because to be honest would
end their profitable livelyhood.
The press has no interest in these things. Bob, what is it, about 150 days to the election? That is all the press talks about. The real issues are ignored so they can sensationalize every little thing in order to titilate and drive up ratings.
Meanwhile we play their game. As soon as this election is over the game will start anew and the real
issues that will lead this country to ruin will be ignored.
Fred, I hear you...but of course we wouldn't want to ruin all the reprobatus
fred, you blame entitlements, but our defense spending soars way past that stuff.
that's fine, but lets be honest about our spending.
and if you are fine with the insane amounts we have continued to spend, even in times of relative peace, that's your right.
but to me, it is backwards priorities to be more upset about health care to the elderly than "bunker busters" to help bomb Lebanon. that's just me.
Chuck,
Entitlements are 60% of the budget and growing yearly. I suggest you goggle the name David Walker and read what the man has to say. Hopefully then you will understand my comments about arguing over how to arrange the deck chairs on the Titanic and why I constantly harp about the bigtime wrestling show our politicans and the mainstram press use to divert and divide us.
ps. defense spending is about 20% and all the other things we argue about is also around 20%
the spending figures you gave are the government's slanted stats.
defense spending is far more than 20%, but they pay for defense things in so-called discretionary energy bills, for example.
in reality, defense spending is closer to 40%. entitlements are about 50%. not that big a difference.
one example breaking this down:
http://www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm
chuck, I checked out that website ---VERY informative, thanks
Obviously Defense spending is more like half the budget as in pie one
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