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Of course this will help BO. Not that he needs any more help, though. :) |
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I do not think will have any impact. Several people have been calling him by his full name and McCain appologized right away. |
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I hate to say this but it IS HIS NAME! Barack should be proud of that. The entire media needs to stop treating Barack like he is in the nicu. He is grown man who is treated like some sort of God. I never thought I would say-- "I feel sorry for Hillary Clinton". She can't do or say anything without being labeled as a slime. Barack Hussein Obama is Barack Hussein Obama and that is just a fact. He is unqualified because he hasn't accomplished anything in particular in his life besides being elected to the US Senate and for the [ast 2 years he hasn't been present to represent his state. I am saying this because it is fact-- not because his name is Barack Hussein Obama. Another thing-- McCain should not have apologized for it! He didn't do anything wrong and the person who said his name didn't do anything wrong! |
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Why is someone a bigot for using someones full name. Last I checked George Walker Bush, George Herbert Walker Bush, William Jefferson Clinton, so on and so forth were not labeled as offensive terminology |
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You go, girl. My thoughts exactly - it IS his full name. It really bothers me that McCain found it necessary to apologize. This tells me that he, just like Hill, will not be able to lay a glove on Obama out of fear of being called a racist. |
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...it will help him. Maybe she should spare the country a tough general election and declare Obama the winner now. Because, if he can do no wrong or if you can't say anything about him, then its over. |
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Americans will not get side tracked by soft peddling from Clinton or McCain. Many people realize that Obama is seriosly connected with black muslims and his entire foreign policy is put other countries first and america second. He is not qualified ON ALL LEVELS to become president. Americans are smart and they will not be taking an unnecessary risk based on empty promises of change without any substance. I SUPPOSE EVERYONE WILL BE CALLED RACIST FOR OBJECTING TO B.HUSSEIN BUT THAT WILL NOT STOP PRIVATE AMERICANS TO VOTE AGAINST HIM IN THE PRIVACY OF THEIR BOOTH. THE GENERAL ELECTION IS NOT A CAUCUS WHERE EVERYONE IS WATCHING AND ALSO MCCAIN DOES NOT HAVE THE HATRED ISSUES FACING CLINTON SO THAT WILL NOT WORK AGAINST HIM AS IT HAS AGAINST CLINTON. |
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I too think the name game is silly but McCain is wisely taking the high road, especially since the rest of Cunningham's comments "a hack, Chicago-style Daley politician" is needlessly inflammatory and then saying "peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama" (in regards to investigating his Rezko ties, etc) a vile and violent expression in the circumstances. |
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I imagine the sections of the Right that already hate the man will continue to hate him and those that view him as a closet jihadist ready to spring Sharia on everyone will continue to believe as such.
While the Lefties who view him as the second coming will rally around him.
The danger for McCain will be in turning off the moderates and independent voters who will see such pandering and fear-mongering as nonsense and hold it against his campaign.
So yes, he was right to apologize. As much as you'd like to think so, McCain needs to appeal to the moderates and independents if he wants a snowball's chance of winning the General Election. The right-wing talk show crowd though passionate, doesn't have the numbers to vote him in by themselves. (If they did, we'd all be talking about Romney winning/losing the general election.)
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Should've read the linked article before I commented above. It appears that McCain was apologizing for the nasty comments made by Cunningham, not necessarily the use of Obama's middle name. Yes, he should have apologized for that and be very careful who "opens" for him in the future. We need less heat and anger and nastiness in politics and more light and reason. Nastiness such as Cunningham's just turns people off (including me, a staunch conservative). |
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The REAL story is this quote my McLAME:
"I apologize for it," McCain told reporters."
My comments:
Apologize for what? That's HIS name!
Why can't the GOP find a candidate with some Spine? Great....now we're stuck with McLame The Apologist. He may as well apologize for everything else: slavery, AIDs, global warming, Tony Romo, the Dec 2004 Tsunami, etc.
Good GAWD McLame, grow a pair!!!! |
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I am pretty impressed that McCain was able to apologize quickly. While there is no issue in saying his full name, quite frankly it has been used on talk radio and in the Clinton campaign in derogatory ways before. I cringe when I hear Laura Ingraham go Barak Husseeeeeeein Obama.
I think you can attack Obama in so many non-racial religious ways. Try his near treacherous approach to foreign affairs for one.
The fact is frankly that it is Obama's heritage that is one of the few things about him that I admire. It should probably also be one of the few things left untouched. I think it would be great and incredibly ironic to have a president with the middle name Hussein. It would mean that we have gone beyond labels. McCain should change his name!!! |
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. . . when you apologize for using someone's full name, doesn't that just add fuel to the fire?
It just makes it the elephant in the room from here on out and draws more attention to it.
What's Barack going to do? Repudiate the "right wing hate machine" for saying his name?
Barack's in a hard place here . . . |
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Why should anyone apologize for using his name?Is he ashamed of it? Is he ashamed of the picture of himself in the news yesterday? Is he hiding something? Inquiring minds want to know.Political correctness is killing us. We had free speech at one time in this country. Now,if you tell the truth about some people,it is called "hate speech". Somewhere along the line we acquired the "speech patrol". The only group who it is appropriate to insult and villify is "white conservatives". Others are off limits.It is really getting tiresome. |
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Craig-- your last comment said it all "it would be great and incredibly ironic to have a president with the middle name Hussein" That is exactly why Obama was even given a chance--The irony that we may have someone with the same name as the evil dictator that BUSH took out of office is wonderful to the latte liberals. It doesn't matter that he is unqualified, it doesn't matter that everything he preaches he is unwilling to do. ( He keeps saying everyone must be unified-- when has he ever reached across the aisle?-- Oh I am sorry he has only been there for 2 years so he shouldn't be held accountable for that either. Or belonging to a church who hates white people-- that will surely make us all want to hold hands and sing his praise.) The bottom line is a person who is running for the highest office in land needs to be more than a great speaker and needs to have accomplished something real, something you can grasp. Obama just hasn't! |
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THank you, I agree with every single word you wrote!! |
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Of course it helps Obama. There's a lot of politically tone deaf people here. But it IS his name...what's wrong with using his name...I don't understand the problem...etc.
Well, what is McCain's middle name? Nobody says John Sidney McCain. Why?
The fact of the matter is that some people are latching on to "Hussein" because they think it will bring out the bigot vote. The problem is that those who are voting out of bigotry are already voting against the black man.
John McCain deserves credit for not wanting anything to do with this. |
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You're mixing apples and oranges here. Read the article. The things Cunningham said about Obama (and the way he said them) were nasty and demeaning and not fit for a "warm up" act for the Republican presidential candidate, and McCain WAS RIGHT to apologize. I would never agree that he should apologize for the use of Obama's middle name, but that was not what he was apologizing for. Frankly, Townhall has created this whole controversy with its misleading, inflamatory headline for this post.
Oh, well. |
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The real question is whether McCain will go after Obama for his liberal votes and views and lack of qualifications. If he is too afraid to challenge Obama becuase of his race, he is doomed.
Which, BTW, won't matter to me at all, because McCain does not represent me. |
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Sure, it's his full name. However, there are reasons that certain people use the full name. Let me go out on a limb and say that Cunningham used the middle name on purpose to associate Obama in a bad light. Seriously, the guy doesn't need anymore votes from "guilt." Hit the guy where it hurts, he believes government is the answer. That is all you need to do. Low blows don't work today. Just ask Clinton. |
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I don't think McCain's apology is sufficient. This type of reprehensible behavior should not be condoned or enabled. McCain should concede the race and end his campaign immediately. As Mike Huckabee has already shown a disturbing bigotry toward other religions, he should end his campaign as well.
Think I'm being absurd? To me apologizing for saying a name is absurd. That b*lless hack McCain called pro border enforcement people racists, bigots; he told a fellow senator to f*ck off when discussing the amnesty bill; now he wants to apologize for someone using Obama's full name? Yet again, McCain shows what an utterly worthless candidate he is. He'll gleefully savage his own party but shys away from an opponent during an election year. McCainiacs, you should be embarrassed. God, I can't even wallow in my indifference to this stupid election..I keep getting drawn back in. |
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Oldest trick in the political book. Get somebody else to say something vile about your opponent then act shocked, shocked and protest madly so that you look like the good guy while the bad guy's words still reverberate in the room and everybody sure heard them and remembers them. I assume we can all spell S-U-R-R-O-G-A-T-E. |
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When all these do-nothings who post on the Internet all day talk about someone who was president of the Harvard Law Review as someone who has 'accomplished nothing." It's almost as hysterical as when people whose biggest pobjection is that Barack is 'insubstantial' rely on incredibly insubstantial arguments loike 'his middle name is Hussein!'
Barack is far, far more accomplished than W., who coasted through life, drove a lot of businesses into the ground and then was a caretaker of an extraordinarily weak governor's office for a few years (Texas' governor has far less power than most).
Also, you people really should read the whole article. It wasn't just the name, it was Cunningham's whole introduction that was nasty. But of course, so many of you are so inherently nasty that you can't even recognize incivility when it parades around in front of you in a tutu. |
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They knew about this guys positions when they hired him to warm up the crowd.McCain was a big wuss apologising for this.Nothing was out of bounds IMO. Somebody needs to point out Obama's fraud,. |
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will get creamed in NOV. This crap about respecting the opponent is horsesh*t. The media and the Dem sub groups aren't going to respect McCain once the general starts.This after an absurd gaffee about Iraq yesterday form the old coot. |
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If you can say that W. was not qualified to president, but Barack is -- I guess you are the one who sent your mom to school because "it's just not fair, the only reason she got that grade was because ....." Give some credit where credit is due. George W. Bush may not be perfect, but he is consistent and he has kept my family and I safe for the last 6+ years. What have you done lately. And as for the do nothings -- you are one of us-- I run a very successful business, what do you do sweetie? |
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We need more praise for "W." He has also kept MY family safe these past years. As my uncle Toby says, there is meat on the table and milk in the fridge, what's yer complaint??? |
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for using a full proper name. I guess being named after your father (Barack Hussien Obama Jr. and John Sidney McCain III) is something Senator McCain is ashamed about.
We really do GET IT Senator and that is why many conservatives and former Republicans will never support you.
Voting for Huckabee on 3-4 in Texas and
Writing A Name In in November |
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I guess racists and bigots won't vote for McCain now.
I am sure he is crying. |
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Where’d we get all these GIRLIE-MEN??!!
Disparaging remarks, my as*.
IT’S HIS NAME!! Barrack Hussein Obama. Don’t like it- BLAME HIS MOTHER!
Geez, let’s grow a pair!
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Something along the lines that he will win or lose the election based on whether people think we're winning the war in Iraq. He then had some other explanation. This is the problem with McCain as the nom. He's put all his eggs in the war/terror basket and there's no other reason to vote for him. His domestic agenda is crap,if there's even anything at all.This guy Cunningham said what no one else has had the nads to say about Obama.Clinton camp was probably cheering the whole time watching the video. People want a red meat candidate no an old hunkered down goat like Mccain. Hardly anybody in talk radio has warmed up to McCain.The only thing he has going for him is the fear and loathing of the Dems. Isn't it also interesting that Mccain's national numbers are only 54% for republicans even though he has the nom locked up. The reason? he sucks.People are praying the guy blows up and he's thrown out on his ear at the convention. |
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The Democrats had their own petty use of a (nearly) full name in 1988. Trying to incite class warfare against the Bush-Quayle ticket, the future VP was repeatedly and sneeringly referred to as J. Danforth Quayle, as though Quayle was unworthy of one's vote because he came from a family that employed the blue-blood custom of using a family name for a child's given name.
And so, today, certain Republicans consider it beneficial to remind voters that Obama's father considered it appropriate that his son have a Muslim name. So what.
Neither use of a candidate's fuller name involves taking the high road, as both cases appeal to voters' prejudices rather than addressing real issues. McCain is right to distance himself from cheesy jabs, and he should ensure that no future campaign events go down this path again.
Obama's supporters need to lighten up, too. Obama's background is his background, regardless of the prejudices tha his background might (unfairly) elicit. I don't recall priveleged BMW drivers jumping up and down in their penny loafers in 1988, feigning insult like the Obama camp is doing this time around. |
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McCain didn't do anything, I just don't think there ever needs to be an apology given for using a persons full name-- I am not a racist and I won't cut off my nose to spite my face-- although he wasn't my first choice-- he is the most qualified of the candidates that are left and I don't want to give every penny I work for to the government! |
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Get over Romney being knocked out of this race.He took acroos the board conservative postions on everything whether they were conversions or not. He would have stood up for the principles through the election and I doubt you would see all the fluff comments about the Dems McCain is making.McCain thinks/thought he's entitled to the job because of all his years of public service and time in Vietnam. The politics of RINOism sucks.Compromise sucks. Reaching across the asile sucks. I want a hardball conservative giving people of this country an alternative vision of how the country should be run. One disadvatage Romney had was he couldn't critisise Washinton without critisising Bush at the same time. He couldn't smack McCain like he should because of the hero stuff and now we wind up with a super crap candidate.We're going to have a smooth talking Jesse Jackson as Pres as a result. All the decades of liberal indoctrination in the schools is paying off with Obama. These people have no clue what it should mean to be President. |
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When did using a proper given full name become racist? With all the TRUE racist words that can be used, full name once showed respect. I guess that makes me a bigot and a racist when I use my Employees, Supervisors, Board Members, family...names.
How times have changed!!
Writing A Name In in November!! |
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Someone please explain to me why his "reaching across the aisle" is considered an asset for McCain? Why do Republicans think it is so great to have a nominee that help democrats accomplish liberal goals in congress? This is supposed to be one of the things that makes McCain "electable"???
Obama has not once reached across the aisle and yet he is now considered to be the most electable democrat. Obama has never done a single thing to help conservatives accomplish their goals but he's seen as the greatest thing since sliced bread by the dems!
I would think Republicans would want a guy that is known for fighting against the dems and fighting to advance conservative goals. Not a guy that has his name plastered all over every piece of liberal legislation since 2001. I guess that's the difference between Republicans and conservatives in thew new moderate/liberal Republican party. Pathetic. |
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...might CONSIDER VOTING FOR MCCAIN.
Ole' John turns right around and does something stupid like this that just PROVES he cares more about bein' a Dem-friendly, beta male than being a REAL MAN- CONSERVATIVE.
Come'on John, grow a pair. |
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How does appealing to bigotry make one a man?
It didn't work for George Allen in Virginia in 2006. Where would it work for John McCain in 2008? |
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When did you ever see a Democrat "reach across the aisle" to a Republican for anything that would benefit us? If Republicans could just grow a spine,it would help. We take everything they throw at us,then thank them for throwing it. When we gained control of congress,some acted guilty for doing it.We need to get down and dirty and treat them as they treat us. |
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When I sit and watch my favorite football team play on TV, I want to see them win. I want to see them score and many TDs as possible and hold the other team scoreless. I want my team to bury and humiliate the other team.
What angers me more than anything is to see a player on my team not give 100% effort and do all he can to beat the other team. If the coach of the team sees a player out on the field that is not focused or not trying his best, he sits him on the bench in favor of a player that has the desire to win and the motivation to beat the other team.
Having John McCain as the Republican nominee is like having a QB that is intentionally throwing INTs to the opposing team. This is worse than not trying to beat the other team, this is acting as an agent for the opposing team. Any player caught doing this on a football team would be kicked off the team immediately. Why can't the Republicans see that we should take the same action for Mr. Juan "Amnesty" McCain???? We need a QB that is out there trying to win and embarrass the opposing team! |
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McCain goes back for a pass, there's the old McCain-Feingold play....
The Democrats make the interception....Touchdown Democrats!!!
McCain's back out under center, he takes the snap, he's going to run the McCain-Kennedy play....
The Democrats read the play perfectly and pick him off....Touchdown Democrats!!!
1st and 10 Repubicans, McCain under center, he's calling an audible, it looks like the McCain-Leiberman razzle-dazzle....
The Democrats step right in front of the pass and pick him off again!....Touchdown Democrats!!!
McCain looks like he's almost trying to throw this game Jim... |
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Cunningham’s comments were too polarizing. Instead of outlining why McCain is the candidate of choice, Bill went down a destructive, unsubstantiated blather that did a disservice to John McCain. Cunningham left John with little choice; John had to distance himself from such negative rhetoric. It was the right decision. Stick to the issues that outline substantive differences, make a compelling argument. Playground, junior high tactics are a losing proposition. |
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Look I know I am overdramatizing this and believe me I am as sick and tired as many people about having to walk on eggshells around this issue, but the "Hussein" comment is not about saying his full name. It is about a pattern of subtle digs that demeans a persons lineage.
I do listen to talk radio as do most of the bloggers here and I know that we all have heard many people including Cunningham commnent about his family heritage and middle name and casting aspersions about about his religion and lineage.
None of us should be so naive to think that is not the case here.
To be fair, I am a republican. I can't stand Obama and can hardly find a position in which I agree with him on. I will never vote for him in a million years and in fact actively campaigning against him. But I am proud that in America a man with a black father and a name part African and part muslim can run for president and be accepted just as I would be incredibly proud (But a little nervous) if Condaleeza Rice ran for president.
These digs on his name and insinuations that he is muslim really do have to stop now though. McCain wants to make it clear as early as possible. The Republicans can't play that game and win the election, and if they do it would probably not be worth winning.
Unlike Michelle Obama I have always been proud of America's continuing ability to make racial and religious progress. We Republicans should be at the forefront of that and not fall into the childish ethnic and gender tribalism of the Democrats. |
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