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IS MCCAIN OBLIVIOUS?
Via Andrew, this video of John McCain asking who Barack Obama is and getting the answer "terrorist!" has been bouncing around the internets:
For this entry in the annals of amateur political psychology, take a look at McCain's face after one of his supporters shouts his answer. He looks a little surprised, no? We've wondered why the Republican nominee can gave speeches, oh, like this one, that are just brimming with easily rebutted charges, or angrily claim that he has been 100 percent honest in front of editorial board. Is it possible that he simply doesn't know what his campaign is up to? The obvious and correct response is that he is in charge of his campaign, and he is responsible at the end of the day for all its actions. McCain may simply be surprised by how far he has had to go down the road of Bush in his hunt for the presidency.
But as the McCain-Palin campaign spirals ever deeper into the gutter -- someone yelled "Kill Him!", referring either to Obama or William Ayres Ayers, at Palin rally yesterday -- take a moment to reflect on the structural factors in the conservative Republican party that essentially demand these tactics. Before this 2004, McCain was many things -- very conservative, very angry -- but he was not the type of person to attack someone's patriotism (see his very real, and very touching, rapprochement with John Kerry in the early '90).
Increasingly prescient-looking boss Mark Schmitt touched on these factors in his spring feature, "Can Identity Politics Save the Right?" But it looks like identity politics -- conservatism's only recourse in these times -- may be destroying the right instead of saving it. Some conservatives will buy this idea as well, nurturing a phoenix-like rise from the ashes creation myth for the rebirth of their movement. Tonight's debate will be a watershed: Will McCain bring these attacks to the debate, face-to-face with Obama? Can he even look him in the eye? But if McCain cannot make ground tonight, barring some major surprise, this race is all but over.
-- Tim Fernholz
P.S. See Noam Scheiber for a good run-down of tonight's options.
COMMENTS (11)
This race will not be over until all of the votes have been counted. we are in unchartered territory here. We must all pitch in to GOTV.
Posted by: Kay | October 7, 2008 9:17 AM
McCain and Palin are trying to incite hatred and bigotry to win an election.
All this "terrorist" talk leads down a dangerous path.
If the McCain/Palin audience members are yelling "terrorist" and "kill him", then you know the smears, lies and divisive politics they are promoting have gone too far.
This screams assassination.
No, they aren’t actually saying it but there’s always some nut-job who takes this kind of talk seriously.
Posted by: Anonymous | October 7, 2008 9:30 AM
It's Ayers. A-Y-E-R-S.
Sorry, but I find this misspelling particularly obnoxious because it seems mainly to be perpetrated by ignorant right-wingers with the same callous disregard for fact-based spelling as for fact-based history.
Posted by: zznspj | October 7, 2008 9:45 AM
I blogged my modest contribution over at IIRTZ on this point. Essentially, McCain's actual voters, the true believers, demand that he attack Obama personally, viciously, finally, at the Debate. Because they take his and Palin's "end of the world is coming" Obama is the new terrorist antichrist liberal enemy *very seriously*. Since McCain can't actually afford to go batshit crazy on public tv he'll have to ratchet himself back to mere sneering and that simply isn't going to feed his ravenous base. He's going to lose credibility with them because you can't tell people the sky is falling and they are going to be crushed and then refuse to act as though you actually believe it. The rage of the betrayed winnut will be something to see.
aimai
Posted by: AIMAI. | October 7, 2008 10:04 AM
MCCAIN-OBAMA DEBATE
I wouldn't bet on slime-free debate tonight. McCain has a nasty streak that may lead him to repeat the recent sleazy attacks by his campaign. Meanwhile, surrogates, Fox news, and Palin broadcast the lies and innuendos.
Portraying Obama as a man of mystery is beyond belief. The man has written two forthright books about his life and his beliefs and political philosophy, attended two U.S. universities, served as President of the Harvard Law Review, has been in politics for over 10 years. and survived grueling primaries.
I hope that the American people will not fall for these unwarranted and unsubstantiated attacks.
homer www.altara.blogspot.com
Posted by: altara | October 7, 2008 10:37 AM
Fear not the ramblings of the fund-a-mental crowd...McPalin can sit in the corner of the echo chamber with their 'base', but these attacks will do little to help them win a single swing-vote (likely the opposite). Hate rhetoric works on people that were already racist morons, but people with their houses and jobs on the line want to know what he will DO.
Posted by: snowball | October 7, 2008 10:47 AM
Is it possible that he simply doesn't know what his campaign is up to?
McCain has been a Senator for well over two decades. He hasn't been in a tight race for a long time. He's not used to this. In Warshington, he's usually talking to a handful of obsequious reporters, not an excited crowd, and people don't interrupt him when he speaks.
Posted by: Tyrone Slothrop | October 7, 2008 10:48 AM
I'm sure from his reaction that he heard the "terrorist" answer; he's not responsible for that first answer but by continuing to ask "Who is Obama" he becomes responsible. Both he and Palin are responsible for not telling their "fans" that they don't approve of that kind of talk.
Posted by: diane42997 | October 7, 2008 12:39 PM
In no way do I believe that Obama is a terrorist. Unfortunately Obama has been able to out right lie about his association with Ayers and he has gotten away with it.
What I mean by lie. Obama claimed Ayers was someone he met when he was six. A guy who lived in his neighborhood and whose children went to the same school. A causal acquaintance. Obama neglected to mention that they worked together and that his political launch party was at Ayers’ house. More than a causal acquaintance.
For those
Posted by: james | October 7, 2008 1:36 PM
James - Obama didn't MEET Ayers when he was six. Obama was an adult when they met. He was eight years old when Ayers committed the atrocities.
Posted by: Dogpound | October 7, 2008 2:26 PM
The way McCain's campaign has gone so far, I wouldn't be surprised to discover that these repeated random outbursts were from a GOP plant.
Posted by: Sam | October 7, 2008 2:41 PM