For once, we can actually see the result of the word games people are playing while the contest is still on. The number-one reason I don’t fool with politics is on display right here:
When a visibly angry McCain supporter in Waukesha, Wis., on Thursday told the candidate “I’m really mad” because of “socialists taking over the country,” McCain stoked the sentiment. “I think I got the message,” he said. “The gentleman is right.” He went on to talk about Democrats in control of Congress.
On Friday, McCain rejected the bait.
“I don’t trust Obama,” a woman said. “I have read about him. He’s an Arab.”
McCain shook his head in disagreement, and said:
“No, ma’am. He’s a decent, family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with (him) on fundamental issues and that’s what this campaign is all about.”
He had drawn boos with his comment: “I have to tell you, he is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States.”
The anti-Obama taunts and jeers are noticeably louder when McCain appears with Palin, a big draw for GOP social conservatives. She accused Obama this week of “palling around with terrorists” because of his past, loose association with a 1960s radical. If less directly, McCain, too, has sought to exploit Obama’s Chicago neighborhood ties to William Ayers, while trying simultaneously to steer voters’ attention to his plans for the financial crisis.
I actually watched the youtube video of the incident, and it’s as bad as it seemed.
Here’s the thing: I don’t ride hard for Obama like that. I don’t ride hard for any politicians, primarily because they’re politicians. They obfuscate, prevaricate, and outright lie. It’s part of their job. I don’t get mad at em for it, but I don’t fool with em either. It’s like me gettin mad at a snake for bitin me. If I know a snake bites, I should expect him to bite me, because that’s in his nature. Same thing here. So this is not comin from some position of defending Obama because I believe he’s some savior or that I’m all tryin’a get people to vote for him. It IS coming from a position of disgust with the tone the political process has taken.
Politics and policy are different. Regrettably. If elections were all about pointing out the differences in policy between two candidates, I’d probably be more engaged. But they’re not. Politics is sheer gamesmanship, and not infrequently, dirty games are played. Normally, it doesn’t bother me so much as it’s just something I suspect. I can’t even give people the benefit of the doubt any more, though. Now we’re to the point that we have jokers booing their own candidate for having the temerity to suggest that his opponent is a family man and that the country wouldn’t crash and burn if he’s elected president.
Don’t get it twisted, both parties play dirty, but in this particular cycle, Obama’s opponents have been subtly playing up his “otherness.” While, yes, it is accurate that his middle name is Hussein, nobody’s calling him that because there’s this sudden interest in calling candidates by their full names. Naw, it’s to make him seem more foreign. There can be no other purpose. For some people, that doesn’t make a difference, but everybody’s not really aware enough to make the difference. Which means that this lady and the others like her, who believe that Obama is a secret Muslim, an outright Muslim, an Arab, or whatever other cockamamie ideas are floating around out there, are the mature crops of those seeds. Worst part is that it’s not getting any better. Just yesterday, I saw where somebody tried to link whatever hand symbol the Obama supporters do with the one Hitler used. Come. On. (Personally, I thought it looked like The Roc, so I guess that connection was over my head too.) Obviously, it’s not the politicians themselves who make the most extreme statements, they just provide the carbohydrates that break down into the simple sugars.
It’s a shame two candidates couldn’t run on what John McCain said at the rally, “No, ma’am. He’s a decent, family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with (him) on fundamental issues and that’s what this campaign is all about,” and keep it at that level for the entire process.
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