McCain Scores Some Points With Me
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, McCainSome conservative radio show talk host acted like a, well, a conservative radio show talk host at one of McCain’s rallies. So when McCain found out he called him out on it.
Cunningham called Sen. Barack Obama a “hack Chicago-style Daley politician.” He also said he couldn’t wait until the media “peeled the bark” off Obama and accused the senator from Illinois of dubious financial dealings.What’s more, he kept dropping the H-bomb, as in Hussein which is, of course, Obama’s middle name. [...] “Hussein” is often used by many of the senator’s fiercest critics to insinuate something sinister about Obama since the name obviously has plenty of negative associations for many Americans, thanks to the late U.S. and Bush family nemesis.
So McCain apologized. He told reporters after the rally that he hadn’t heard Cunningham’s schtick because he hadn’t arrived at the hall yet. But after his staff told him what Wild Bill said, McCain wasted no time in saying he was sorry.
“I take responsibility and I repudiate what he said,” McCain gamely said. “I will not tolerate anything in this campaign that denigrates either Sen. Obama or Sen. (Hillary) Clinton.”
Bravo John.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, McCain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 26th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Justin, you are too easily impressed.
The impressive thing would be if Cunningham wasn’t there in the first place.
Cunningham is well know for spewing this kind of racist crap on his show and his presence at McCain’s campaign stop makes me very skeptical that someone there did not know.
If McCain didn’t know about this guy that doesn’t speak well about his control over his campaign’s image and the people he has around him.
If he did that is worse.
This is the kind of tactic that the GOP will use to get these kind of smears out into the media while leaving McCain looking “clean” because of plausible deniability.
This does not deserve a bravo. This deserves greater scrutiny of the people McCain will have around him in the future and the things that they say.
But anyway congrats for falling for the oldest trick in the book Justin.
Bravo!
February 27th, 2008 at 12:14 am
McCain found out, took full responsibility for the incident and he said it would never happen again. That’s important in my book.
February 27th, 2008 at 7:44 am
McCain is an old Vjayjay – he was napping after taking his pill, they woke him up and told him what happened and he reacted as scripted. The radio duch-bag guy apparently denounced (rejected?) McCain after that McCain abmonishment and endorsed HRC – what’s the matter with those people on the right? Oh I know, they couldn’t care less about politics and public policy because they are corporate whores who get paid to “spout” what ever corporate/pro-business crap need’s to “spout”. Now everyone want’s to tune into “baby” Rush and his political crap job.
tpc
February 27th, 2008 at 8:36 am
You didn’t touch upon my concerns.
Oh well. Perhaps this reaction is a hangover from the Clinton campaign’s non-denial of a similar smear before.
Perhaps you just feel I’m being harsh on the Senator. I don’t know.
All I know is that the GOP specializes is this kind of fear-mongering and if McCain were to stand up to it he would be this first GOP campaigner in my lifetime to do it.
As an African-American who had to endure a right-wing campaign after campaign using my people as a punching bag you’ll forgive me if I’m skeptical.
But supposing McCain is sincere in his objection, how do you think that’s going to play with his base who loves this kind of xenophobic crap?
I mean the crowd cheered Cunningham as he smeared Obama.
Do you think that McCain can remain above the racist fray and still keep the GOP base happy and more importantly get them to vote for him?
Do you think he won’t be pressured to change his tune?
February 27th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Since when do accusations of financial misconduct equate to racism and xenophobia? There’s not a candidate out there that hasn’t been accused of some kind of money monkeybusiness; just because it’s leveled at a sweetheart candidate doesn’t elevate it to an idictment of race or creed.
February 27th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
ExhiledIndependent:
“Since when do accusations of financial misconduct equate to racism and xenophobia?”
I was about to ask the same question, just before I read the above comment.
And THEY accuse conservatives of credibility issues?