(no subject)

[technoir]

I have to give respect to McCain for at least trying to tone down his supporters. I saw some footage of him on cnn where he was saying nice things about Obama. He was actually booed by his own people at a rally for suggesting people should be respectful of the other side.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/10/10/bash.mccain.friday.cnn

He is not afraid to keep running misleading ads but at least he was willing to tell some of his supporters they were wrong about him. Kudos to him for it.

Comments

[solfox.livejournal.com]

He kind of has to... ever since the Secret Service stepped in and started actively investigating an Obama death threat yelled at one of McCain's rallies.

[goblinkatie.livejournal.com]

Actually no, he doesn't have to.

I agree with you Tech, it's classy of him to do so.

[jeffrey.livejournal.com]

It would have been classy of him to do so had he done so immediately, and not a week after it's been going on due to the very words he and Palin used to incite people to that level.

It's not classy, it's ridiculous. If someone had said that at an Obama rally, he would have condemned it immediately as wrong. McCain waits a week to respond to something he egged his supporters into, and that gets called "classy"?

McCain sold his soul years ago, this is just more of the same.

[hoshiadam.livejournal.com]

Had I not seen how badly people were reacting to negativity in the last debate, I might have thought he as trying to go positive because it is the right thing to do. I think that's part of his motivation - but I also think that people are telling him that negative is polling badly, and going positive will win him voters.

[solfox.livejournal.com]

Technically... no, he doesn't /have/ to.

However, the latest round of negative ads and strategies are going poorly for McCain and it's showing in polling numbers that are dropping like rocks. Many of my (more reasonable) conservative friends are upset and questioning whether or not they'll vote at all, much less for him. Either McCain comes out and at least makes the appearance HE is against the sort of politics to try and mollify the growing discontent, or he outright loses the election before it even goes to the polls. All the while his attack dogs continue the theme of "Obama is a muslim" and "Obama pals around with terrorists", and McCain gets to look like he stands against the kind of politics he and his campaign have thusfar endorsed.

So, realistically... yes, he does have to.

It's political strategy. Nothing more. Nothing less.

[whisperwords.livejournal.com]

The only problem I have with it is that it seems like it took him so long to say something. The death threats and ridiculousness have been building to a fever pitch for a while and only when the news media on both sides of the political spectrum started saying, "Hey, this could be a very bad thing," did he come out and say "hey, chill out." It feels like he's only doing it because it was called for by the media and not because he actually believes it.

[msrlapin.livejournal.com]

He's been getting this look of nauseated horror on his face when his supporters start going on about Arabs and terrorists. At the latest "town hall meeting" when someone called Obama an Arab, he literally snatched the mike back from her.

I have this nagging feeling that this campaign has been a series of nightmares for John McCain from the day he won the nomination. There's going to be one hell of a tell-all book written about this campaign when it's all done.

[technoir.livejournal.com]

I am going to have to disagree with you Jeffery(us being on opposite sides of a debate? That never happens!). I have been watching this guy for years. This sort of negative ad is not really his style I really think that is more the thing his strategists came up with. Yesterday the news broke about how the the crowds were getting out of hand. I imagine there is a point where he sees cnn and for the first time really sees how bad it's getting and decided he had to say something. it is hard when dealing with the public directly to honestly get a picture of what all is going on. I think him correcting people when they are scared of Obama is honestly him when he does not have the machine going at him.

Do I think the ad's are ridiculous? Hell yeah. I despise guilt by association. I also dislike the lack of civility in discourse. It was nice to see someone say in a public venue "hey lets be respectful of the other side." It is one of the things I liked about Obama from the beginning. Did McCain have to do that? No he didn't. He could have just blown it off and talked about how people are angry and while he doesn't support the more extreme he can understand it. He could have done that and been clean with his party and the press. He didn't he actually did something he knew would piss off those same angry voices and told them in public they were wrong.

So yes he deserves Kudos for that.

[technoir.livejournal.com]

I honestly believe that it was him breaking away from the party handlers for a change. I have watched him for years as I am political junky. He really is a better man normally than what we have seen lately and honestly I think it is thee party machine that took him negative. I think he finally decided to man up and do what he knew was right.

[technoir.livejournal.com]

I really think that version of him on the stage telling people to be civil and respectful is the more truthful version of who he is. I think the party machine told him he had to go negative to win and he went along. Which ever the reason though I applaud the public voice saying He wait a minute, The other side is not evil. I wish we had more voices saying things like that.

[jeffrey.livejournal.com]

I've been watching McCain for years, too. He USED to be the stand-up kind of guy who would call his own supporters out on this. But then once Bush unfairly savaged him and lied about him and then he turned around and licked his balls just to get the party nomination years later, he sold his soul. That's when McCain stopped being the "maverick" and became the guy who voted with Bush 90% of the time.

And even if you put it off on his strategists, who ultimately is in charge of them and his campaign? "The buck stops here".

There's no "waiting to see how bad it's getting" or not realizing. People were calling for DEATH and ASSASSINATION of Obama at McCain and Palin rallies. He had a moral responsibility to come out and condemn those comments IMMEDIATELY and let his followers know he's better than that and that kind of attitude has no place in American politics.

Instead he waited... to see if it'd give him a bump in the polls. And he did NOTHING about it until he saw it wasn't helping his numbers.

It's more soul-selling. And I think you're just trying to see him be part of the man he used to be, and that'd be great for all of us. But he's NOT that man, because that man would have done the right thing and put a stop to talk of violence IMMEDIATELY.

So no, him coming forward to condemn the comments that he himself riled up by intimating Obama was a terrorist a WEEK after they've been going on is NOT honorable and doesn't deserve kudos, it deserves someone taking him to task over why he waited so damned long to bother to say he was against that kind of bullshit.

...to say nothing of his backhanded insult of "No, Obama's not an Arab, he's a decent family man". So... Arabs aren't decent family men now?

He keeps sinking lower and lower, and it's sad, but selling ones soul is a slippery slope.

[jenharts.livejournal.com]

At the latest "town hall meeting" when someone called Obama an Arab, he literally snatched the mike back from her.

I saw that as well. Yeah, it would have been nice for him to have told people to cool it six months ago. But as the election gets closer, people seem to be getting more hysterical about it.

I was aghast that they actually booed their own candidate for saying they should be respectful, though.

[technoir.livejournal.com]

Yeah that one hurt me a bit. Often I am disappointed in people in the general sense. I trust individuals, not people.