Ta-Nehisi Coates

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Going down in flames

19 Oct 2008 03:34 pm

Any time you're getting into beefs with Fox News, you're in trouble. You know how I know this dude is in trouble? He keeps playing "the race card" card with Lewis, and that ain't even working. Remember when that was supposed to be kryptonite for Obama? No one cares, now. People are scared They are losing their homes. They are losing their retirement. They don't now how their going to send their kids to college. No one has time for this. I never expected McCain to become such a small, small candidate.


Comments (25)

McCain has zero credibility at this point. One wonders if he'll ever sense just how much he's damaged his reputation with this campaign.

He also said in this interview that in terms of a pure political calculation, he couldn't be more happy with Sarah Palin. I doubt he meant to put it in such terms, but it was revealing.

I served on a board with some Enron folks (Heck, you couldn't serve on a board in Houston without tripping over them).

Am I responsible for the fall of capitalism?

First of all, McCain has acted like disgusting man and a disgrace to all that I consider to be American.

Second, and I am looking for a substantive answer, does anyone know what McCain's campaign is looking for in terms of a response from Obama? I mean, WHAT "truthfulness" about the Obama-Ayers relationship are they asking for from the Obama campain?

"I never expected McCain to become such a small, small candidate."

Come on, TNC, don't tell me you're of THOSE PEOPLE in the media who are convinced! convinced I tell you! that McCain is basically a decent and honorable man. Say it ain't so!


Have never been too impressed with McCain. Yes, he can turn a phrase and be entertaining, but I have never seen to much their in the there. This view goes back 20+ years; many have noted that he is a conservative republican first and foremost, given recent events he has not disappointed. The maverick persona is the product of his many years of cultivation of the press, many in the MSM acknowledge this cultivation. Rolling Stone recently had a definitive profile of McCain, this article explains McCain's fascination with the flames of glory, he seems to relish the flames by labeling it glory.

"I never expected McCain to become such a small, small candidate."

Yeah, I agree. I think McCain's taken this way to personally and has slipped into 'I need to teach this whippersnapper a lesson' mode. When what's really happened is that the political fundamentals make it simply impossible for McCain to win. Of course, McCain cannot accept that reality and keep a viable campaign going.

He keeps playing "the race card" card with Lewis, and that ain't even working. Remember when that was supposed to be kryptonite for Obama? No one cares, now.

What does "that" refer to in the 2nd sentence here. Playing "the race card" card? Or playing the race card? Or race?


Robert Murphy

Oh my God, I just saw a Republican candidate getting grilled on Fox News! I knew I shouldn't have drank that whole bottle of cough syrup this morning... I need to lie down...

Robert

OMG. John McCain is so full of shit, I can't take it. I mean I literally can't listen to the things that he says anymore. Did you see his face when Wallace pointed out that his own chairman said that the calls crossed the line? The man is nutz. In one breath he says that he doesn't care about Ayers, and in another, he says that the American people need to know more about the relationship. give me a break.

And John Lewis? Sorry. Dude is better than me, because I would take McCain to the woodshed over his bullshit interpretation of his remarks. Lewis didn't say that McCain was Wallace or a segregationist, he said that by stirring up a sentiment that whips people into to a frenzy, he creates an environment where things can get out of hand and innocent people are harmed. And he is absolutely right. Look at what's happening to ACORN.

McCain has characterized ACORN as basically trying to destroy this election without zero evidence and now the members are receiving death threats, and are subject to vandalism. Way to go.

He is not and never will be ready to lead this country. If this man is elected, I give up. I really do give up.

Carrington Ward

Obama has an uncanny knack for choosing opponents who will destroy themselves...

Deep*3000: That's the whole point. There is no truthfulness. At the debate, Obama discussed his relationship to Ayers and pointed out facts, all but one have been substantiated. Ayers lives in his neighborhood. True. Ayers works at the Univ. of Illinois. True. Ayers is a prof. of English. Not true, he is a professor of education. Ayers does not advise his campaign nor has he shaped his political beliefs. True. Ayers and Obama served on a board together. True. Obama attended a political event at Ayers' house. True.

What else is there? Is Obama supposed to list by category how many times he saw Ayers on the street?

And I find it truly interesting that JM is raising all of this innuendo about Obama and ACORN when he had no problem working and lauding ACORN for their immigration reform.

I mean, how much lower can he get.

Its just as Powell said. All this is being done is to connect Obama to some type of radical, anti-Americanism, and I am sick of it.

@dewberry:
Yes. It is All Your Fault.

@Deep:
They mean the part about how Ayers and Obama are close personal friends, Ayers mentored Obama from childhood on, and they used to burn American flags into the night while discussing possible terrorist actions. Acknowledging that Ayers wrote everything Obama has ever been credited with writing, including that kindergarten essay, would be icing on the cake.

McCain is such a lying sack of shit. He accuses Obama of serving on the board of the Annenberg Foundation with Ayers and giving a grant to ACORN. Well, guess who's in charge of The Annenberg Foundation? The widow of GOP bigwig Walter Annenberg, Leonore Annenberg. If she didn't personally ask Ayers to serve on her Board, she certainly could have stopped him from joining. And over on Open Secrets you can see that Mrs. Annenberg donated $2,300 to John McCain in May!.

The American people deserve answers. Why is John McCain taking money from someone who sponsors a known terrorist whose organization bombed the White House and the Pentagon and killed Americans? What exactly is the nature of the relationship between John McCain and the terrorist-sponsoring Annenbergs?

Another Ari Melber smackdown

Although they are catching on to him now and have reverted to the "screaming while he is answering" tactic.

Maybe Mccain should be forced to return the $2300 he received from the known terrorist funder Annenberg.

That is how ridiculous this argument is. Mccain and Palin keep saying "We need to know" and "Obama isn't being truthful", but what else is there for him to explain. The minutes for those board meetings were released weeks ago and I haven't heard anything about it since, so I guess there is nothing there.

This whole thing is a distraction from so many bigger issues. I am looking forward to the landslide on November 4th.

You know, at this point I'm prepared to believe that John McCain is a closet Muslim.

So how come no reporter or pundit or whatever has ever asked McCain the obvious question?

"OK Senator McCain - what more do you want to know? Do you have some reason to disbelieve what Obama has said about the relationship? Do you have some reason to believe the relationship goes further than having served on a board together and Ayers having hosted a campaign event for Senator Obama's state senate campaign? What do you think the 'real' relationship is, if not the one that Obama has described? Why do you think that?"

This should be obvious, right? Yet I've never seen him pressed on it. Scheiffer should have asked him that at the debate. This FOX guy should have asked him that. What's the deal?

You get the sense that, unlike Bush, McCain doesn't believe the bullshit he's peddling. So the bullshit doesn't work, with the majority.

So he's got the thugs and racists, and the Republicans who won't ever pull the lever for a Democrat. That's it.

I can't see how he wins.

Thank you, TRW and Deborah. But I guess my question is Randall's: why don't the media just press a simple question... "What do you want to know Johnny Mac?" OR "What do you know, Senator McCain, that we don't?"

Unfortunately, the race card may work in Ohio, possibly in Florida, just enough to tip them both to McCain. It's hard to say... I don't think we've seen a campaign quite like McCain's, since George Wallace in 1968. Obama has always gambled on the goodness of most Americans... I hope he's proven right.

I never expected McCain to become such a small, small candidate.


I told you:

He's a punk.ass.bitch


But, they're all stunned.

What is this world coming to when you can't use the Black Bogeyman to flip an election for you with ease?

iron pimp hand

I don't much care whether "the race card" card is politically effective. I nevertheless liked what McCain had to say about lewis because I have become increasingly irritated by the way race has been used in this campaign by certain Obama supporters.

Take the supposed echoes of Wallace Lewis and others claim to have heard in McCain's rhetoric and the 'coded racial language' the two are supposed to share.

Hello, Wallace ran as a fucking segregationist. Why on gods fucking earth would he use coded racial language? when you run as a segregationist I think the cat is out of the bag on the race issue.

The 'coded language' argument is specious and is offered only so the most tenuous of rhetorical similarities between Wallace and McCain/palin can be taken and used to delegitimise criticisms of Obama as racist(For example, Diane McWhorter in slate noting both Palin's and Wallace's tendency to portray themselves as being animated by a deep love of america, as if this wasn't a trait shared by every other politician in history). It is breathtakingly cynical way to shield your candidate from having to address his vulnerabilities, especially since so many who are currently using the racial history of the united states as a cheap prop in a tawdry argument claim it is something that needs to be taken seriously to progress toward a more tolerant society.

EngineerScotty


Bravo, Randall...

Furthermore... if McCain thinks that Obama is fundamentally untrustworthy--he should be able to articuluate a) WHY Obama's answers concerning Ayers--which have not been debunked by any reliable source, should nonetheless be viewed with suspicion, followed by b) why shouldn't John McCain's biography be viewed with the same suspicion and scrutiny?

After all, the whole underlying theme to the Ayers attacks is (taking a step beyond the underyling racial and cultural overtones) is "Obama can't be trusted; McCain can".

The "Obama wants to raise your taxes" bit that we occasionally hear is a similar strand to the same argument. McCain hasn't come out and said it, but he seems to be hinting that Obama's published budget and tax plan is a political ploy; that once elected, what he'll REALLY do is Raise Your Taxes Like All Liberals Want To Do. A gong that the Repubs have beaten fiercely over the years.

At any rate--I see no evidence whatsoever to support the proposition that McCain is more trustworthy than Obama (and in fact, I can see sample evidence to support the opposite conclusion; however Obama has largely resisted going there). About the only conceivable "advantage" McCain might have in the "trust" category is a longer career of public service, and thus a lengthier record and resume to examine. But this argument--like many experience-based arguments--is once again undone by the presence of Sarah Palin on the Republican ticket. Palin, after all, has a shorter resume than Obama--but has shown herself to be quite dishonest and unethical nonetheless.

A robo-call company attacks my family. So I hire them to work for me at a later date. Erratic? Strange?

iron pimp hand

Neither. It is plainly obvious that McCain's objections in 2000 were to the content of the robo-call ads, not robo-call ads in themselves.

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