McCain Believes it's tough to be proud of the U.S.A

maybe maybe not, that's just speculation. don't worry, there will be plenty of hounds for either side going after one another and overexaggerating non-issues.

 

Personally, like Michelle Obama's original comments, I don't see it as a big deal. Both quotes are taken out-of-context and not particularly inflammatory, even at that. I do find the silence from the right on this convenient, but I think McCain's got a couple things in his favor compared to Michelle Obama:
1) He's considered a war hero, so people are less likely to question his patriotism (doesn't explain the Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry)
2) The people who usually question patriotism are from the right (that expplains the Kerry attacks), and in this case, he is their candidate.

 

This tips the silly scale.

You have to ignore all the qualifiers in McCains statement to make it remotely offensive. He will (and has) given much better sound bites to take out of context.

Let the games continue...

 

I haven't seen a TJ or bigtexxx post in a while.

 

I agree. It should have been a nonissue when Michelle Obama made it, and it should be a nonissue now.

 

In the spirit of team politics and sound bite wins, however, Michelle's quote was pretty juicy. "for the first time." Right up there with "we'll be in Iraq for 100 years" or "I don't know economics." If this is the game we're going to play...I suppose it she lobbed them an easy one with that bit.

Not to say it's an 'issue' or 'fair' by any means.

Just the parallel here is pretty stretched. So if someone really wants to counter that nonsense with this nonsense it's pissing match they won't win. Why start it at all?

 

Sidenote: Michelle isn't running for president. John is.

 

fair enough....

I was responding to the goading of Basso et all to somehow defend the comments....or the insinuation that the "media" was giving McCain a free pass here.

IMO there is simply no comparison between the two out-of-context comments.

If I say..."It can sometimes be difficult to cheer for the Rockets when they play that JVG defensive ball" -- it's quite different from saying "for the first time I found myself cheering for the Rockets"

So there is nothing insiduous, or 'interesting' with the comparative reactions to the statements.

That's all.

 

Also, saying

"for the first time I found myself proud of being american"

is quite different from

"in terms of people's involvement in electoral politics, for the first time I found myself proud of being american"

 

nice post vlaurelio

I agree. Though still an unforturnate choice of words -- I'm sure she'd reword the 'first time' bit if given half a chance.

I don't think McCain would change anything about his statement. Nor should he.

 

Yes, we all hate the word, but ditto. One comment was from a 71 year old man, running for President, and the other was from a 44 year old woman, who's the wife of a 46 year old guy running for President. The thing in common? Both comments getting way too much attention. Watching the development of computers and later, the attendant internet, from the time that a computer could fill a room, or several rooms, or the entire floor of a building, with data laboriously put on individual punch cards, and then seeing what we are all doing here today, and taking it for granted... well, it blows the mind.

It is going to get to where no one will want to run for the office. Who among us is without flaw? Who hasn't done something they wish they hadn't? Who doesn't have some skeleton in their closet, a relative, even if from decades long past, that we would prefer the world didn't discover? A comment we wish we could take back that, taken out of context, could be around the world, on countless computer screens and countless TV's, in less time than it took for me to type this post? Is it any wonder that we see such a dearth of truly great candidates for the office?

Sometimes I think about that, scratch my head, and wonder where it will lead. Are we doomed to have a steadily declining pool of presidential candidates to choose from? Perhaps, instead of looking for every possible flaw in these two men, we should consider how lucky we are that both are running. Look at the man they are attempting to replace... the living embodiment of the Peter Principal. A Man for No Season, without reason, who rose beyond his level of competence, plunged the nation into a needless war, and is leaving whoever wins with an almost impossible task cleaning up his mess.

We could have far worse than the choice we face.




Impeach Bush.

 

The two statements are not equal. Being proud of our country "For the first time in your life" is different from saying "It's tough to be proud" at a given moment.

That said, everything is blown out of proportion... always.

 

McCain's comment is being blown of proportion from the left, as a way to highlight the hypocrisy of the right. "I really didn't love America until I was deprived of her company." was edited out of an interview transcript on Fox. If Obama (or anyone he's ever met) made that comment it'd come up 24/7.

 

Why would we? The thread isn't about Obama...

 

fixed

 

I think if Michelle had said "for the first time in a while/year/few years, I am proud of my country." it would have been met with much less hostility. I know I am not mad at McCain for saying that, because his qualifier was much smaller than Michelle Obama's.


As for the Rockets example, one says some things the Rockets do I dont really appreciate/like. The other says despite being a Rockets fan, for the first time in my life I cheered for/was proud of them. THAT's a very major difference. And quite honestly, its a solid metaphor for what is being talked about here.