McCain defends Obama
I'm very pleased to see both candidates acting more civil and respectful to each other than the previous candidates did in the last two presidential elections. Chris
McCain defends Obama:
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. greets supporter...
2 hours ago, 10-10-08
Loading... Must Read?Thank YouYes 322LAKEVILLE, Minn. — The anger is getting
raw at Republican rallies and John McCain is acting to tamp it down.
McCain was booed by his own supporters Friday when, in an abrupt switch from
raising questions about Barack Obama's character, he described the Democrat as a
"decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of
the United States."
A sense of grievance spilling into rage has gripped some GOP events this week as
McCain supporters see his presidential campaign lag against Obama. Some in the
audience are making it personal, against the Democrat. Shouts of "traitor,"
"terrorist," "treason," "liar," and even "off with his head" have rung from the
crowd at McCain and Sarah Palin rallies, and gone unchallenged by them.
McCain changed his tone Friday when supporters at a town hall pressed him to be
rougher on Obama. A voter said, "The people here in Minnesota want to see a real
fight." Another said Obama would lead the U.S. into socialism. Another said he
did not want his unborn child raised in a country led by Obama.
"If you want a fight, we will fight," McCain said. "But we will be respectful. I
admire Sen. Obama and his accomplishments." When people booed, he cut them off.
"I don't mean that has to reduce your ferocity," he said. "I just mean to say
you have to be respectful."
Presidential candidates are accustomed to raucous rallies this close to Election
Day and welcome the enthusiasm. But they are also traditionally monitors of
sorts from the stage. Part of their job is to leaven proceedings if tempers run
ragged and to rein in an out-of-bounds comment from the crowd.
Not so much this week, at GOP rallies in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida and
other states.
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, citizenthat 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.
The Alaska governor did not campaign with McCain on Friday, and his rally in La
Crosse, Wis., earlier Friday was much more subdued than those when the two
campaigned together. Still, one woman shouted "traitor" when McCain told voters
Obama would raise their taxes.
Volunteers worked up chants from the crowd of "U.S.A." and "John McCain, John
McCain," in an apparent attempt to drown out boos and other displays of negative
energy.
The Secret Service confirmed Friday that it had investigated an episode reported
in The Washington Post in which someone in Palin's crowd in Clearwater, Fla.,
shouted "kill him," on Monday, meaning Obama. There was "no indication that
there was anything directed at Obama," Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren told
AP. "We looked into it because we always operate in an atmosphere of an
abundance of caution."
Palin, at a fundraiser in Ohio on Friday, told supporters "it's not negative and
it's not mean-spirited" to scrutinize Obama's iffy associations.
But Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at
the University of Pennsylvania an author of 15 books on politics, says the
vitriol has been encouraged by inflammatory words from the stage.
"Red-meat rhetoric elicits emotional responses in those already disposed by ads
using words such as 'dangerous' 'dishonorable' and 'risky' to believe that the
country would be endangered by election of the opposing candidate," she said.
___
Beth Fouhy reported from New York. Associated Press writer Joe Milicia
contributed to this story from Cleveland.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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of McCain supporters. I can't imagine how he wouldn't be, but still.
Originally Posted by Rebel Jeb
