Arab or Family Man
I'm sure you've seen it by now. A woman at a McCain rally is ever so gently rebuked by McCain for her mistaken impression of Obama. If you haven't, you can see it here. The relevant dialog is:
Woman: I gotta ask you a question. I do not…um…believe in…I can't trust Obama.A commenter at Greg Laden's Blog makes a good point. There's more than a little prejudice in that correction. As the commenter says
McCain: I gotcha—
Woman: —I have read about him and he's not…he's not…he's a…um He's an Arab. He's not...
McCain: No ma'am. No ma'am.
Woman: No?
McCain: He's a decent family man, citizen, that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues.
Ah, so he's not an Arab, he's a family man. Because Arabs reproduce by binary fission.What is up with that?Arabs can't be decent family men, or citizens? Even when he's apparently trying to do the right thing, he can't quite make it.
4 Comments:
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At 6:10 PM, October 11, 2008
The Exterminator had this to say...
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At 7:10 PM, October 11, 2008
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
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At 8:32 AM, October 12, 2008
Barry Leiba had this to say...
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At 8:44 AM, October 12, 2008
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
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<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->Yes, what McCain said was not well put as a response to the slimily phrased question. But it's a little naive of you and all the other critics to take umbrage at the specific words he used.
What he was responding to was the woman's implication that Obama was -- not an Arab -- but a terrorist. And everyone, including you, knows that's exactly what she meant.
There are enough good reasons not to like McCain without jerking your knees over dumb things like this.
I don't agree that it's dumb. Of course that's what she meant. He's Arab, he's Muslim, he's The Other. (Where did she get that idea, anyway? Whose campaign is right now running ads branding Obama "dangerous"?)
Yes, McCain did - as I said - try to do the right thing by correcting her. But even by your interpretation he let the implication that Arab = terrorist stand. I work with Arabs. They are decent family men AND American citizens.
Perhaps I'm not inclined to cut him enough slack. You may be right. But I really can't see that he's earned any.
I agree with Exterminator in that we're spending too much effort picking at "poor" choices of wording — like when Senator Obama said something about people "clinging" to their religion, and a bunch of people got offended.
I had the same thought as Ridger did about the "Arab" thing... and then I let it go, thinking that when someone's standing on a stage with a microphone, and he has to say something on the spot, he doesn't always say the best thing possible. Yeh, he was responding to the woman's implication, and I'm willing to leave it at that.
Geez, there's plenty to be angry with about Senator McCain and his campaign, as your series of posts points out. Let's focus on those.
I don't actually think a post on the topic is "focussing" on it. And trust me, it took very little "effort" to write.
Should I have bothered? I don't know. Maybe not. But I still don't think it's as minor as you two. I think it's symptomatic.
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