McCain Walks It Back: Obama Is Decent, Nothing To Be Scared Of

John McCain sought to walk back some of the hostility that he and his crowds have projected towards Barack Obama in recent days, saying he wanted to run a respectful campaign and urging his supporters to think of Obama as a decent person.

After an attendee at his town hall said he was concerned about bringing up a child under a president who "cohorts with domestic terrorists such as [Bill] Ayers," McCain didn't take the bait. Rather, he sought to calm the questioner's obviously emotional tone.

"[Senator Obama] is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared about as President of the United States," he said, before adding: "If I didn't think I would be one heck of a better president I wouldn't be running."

McCain was subsequently booed.

Later in the townhall McCain was pressed again about Obama's "other-ness" and again he refused to take the bait.

"He is a decent family man and citizen that I just have disagreements with on fundamental issues," he said.

Earlier in the campaign stop in Lakeville, Minnesota, he told the crowd that while he was "going to take the gloves off" when it came to bringing up Obama's voting record and past associations, the campaign would remain "respectful."

There are two possible interpretations to the somewhat conciliatory tone. McCain could be sensing a political backlash to the vitriol of his crowds, which have labeled Obama a terrorist and traitor, accused him of treason, and called for his death. Certainly, polling suggests raising the Ayers issue has done relatively little to advance McCain's electoral cause. Or he could be playing a classic political game, in which he leaves the mudslinging to his campaign and vice president while he himself stays clean and above the fray.

After all, just hours before McCain spoke, his aide Brian Rogers sent a statement to reporters defending the McCain-Palin audiences as everyday Americans.

Comments

[Icantbelieveher]

He was spouting the same hatred (it was his intention to put fear in voter's minds of Obama) -- he heard people saying those things and he only drew it back because his own people (republican governors and former campaign advisers) were saying it was reprehensible! There's nothing honorable about him. He's willing to do whatever it takes to be president.

I heard this quote: It's not about winning, it's about winning without proving that you don't deserve to win the presidency! He's proven he doesn't deserve it!

He changes his tact as often as we change our underwear! And he only does it because he doesn't know what people want to hear -- he's watching the polls slide the other way, and he's trying a new tact: I am respectful and honorable!

It's a crock!

[1dogs2]

You change your undies three times a day????

[Whinger]

Barack Obama is a decent man, and, my friends, I assure you, I mean that most sincerely!

[Icantbelieveher]

That one is a decent man!

[naeldwyck]

That one, my fellow prisoners, is a decent man.

[XYZ]

He's in a pickle now I can just envision what the Rush Limbaughs and Hannities of the MSM will say about his walk back. With the crowd booing McCain's base might fall out from under him. There will be a lot of hand wringing on the right for this apparent weakness in John McCain.

[Icantbelieveher]

Their heads will explode! you think they spit alot before? Wait until Monday's shows!

I'm hoping this is just enough to pi$$ off his base, and they stay home on November 4th!

[Pierpier]

he followed the fanatics of his campaign. Now that he's back in charge, having the negative attacks miserably failed, he is trying to pull himself together for what he wants to be remembered as: a decent man.

[naeldwyck]

I thought he wanted to be remembered as a POW?

[ReneeZ]

He will be remembered as POC... Prisoner of his own campaign.

[rowzeer]

you can't make up for all the hate you and your VP candidate have spewed which has incited people to yell "terrorist" and "kill him"....wi­th a few kinds words at one rally....

[Intelligence-08]

Hillary make the mistake of going negative and subsequently lost the primaries because she turned a lot of voters off. Now McCain is making the same mistakes. Same outcome perhaps?

[aBr1t]

"made" Key word there

[SilverFoxUna]

We would hope.

[rowzeer]

What a sad excuse for a man McCain has become....­you whip your base into a hateful frenzy and then when you let it get out of control you have to bring them back you get booed for your effort.

You must have looked into those hateful, terrified people's eyes and saw yourself reflected in them

[SilverFoxUna]

He only did it for the camera effect. They're not going to let up on the hateful rhetoric. This is the way a cancerous campaign ends.

[OBXartist]

A "respectful campaign"? Huh. It is too late for that. McCain and his advisors are a bunch of mad scientists who've re-animated a monster filled with hate. And now they've lost control of it. From this point on, it's just a matter of how many people get hurt.

They should be ashamed.

[franwnyc]

Yes it is too little, too late for McCain. Apparently, his attacks backfired and have probably cost him the election.

His campaign is actually "The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight",
not the straight talk express

[LettuceB1]

Don't be fooled!

Who is the REAL McCain?

[AZTrueBlue]

McCain should prove he is sincere by removing his ads and reining in Fox News etc.
It matters very little what he says to crowd of 100 or so, when Palin, his pundits and his campaign are still spewing it's vicious vitriol!

[MadJeffersonian]

Too little, too late. The campaign got what it wanted and needed, a powerful distraction from the fact that they have no coherent plans or ideas for ANY of the issues that are affecting ALL of us. The campaign admitted, "this campaign is not about the issues" and "if we talk about the economy, we've lost." They have indicted themselves. And now they are tearing at the fabric of the country, dragging ALL of us down.

[butterworth]

Yes, too little, too late, and I suspect that the reason is because the negativity is not rescuing his failing campaign, not out of any sense of human decency.

NO CHARACTER
NO HONOR

I can't wait until this election is over and I don't have to watch Mr. McYouOweMe­ThePreside­ncy on a daily basis anymore.

[imagram3785]

Does anyone still blindly believe that McCain is the expert because he has more "experience"? He seems to be afraid to voice any convictions other than that he is a "better" choice than Obama. He waits to see what the majority are doing before he can vote on an issue. He continues to tell the public what he thinks will tarnish Obama, but he has gone on ranting and raving so much he is no longer trusted. Your American hero is no longer Mister McClean, he has descended to the snake pit. Does it kinda make you want to wave a cheerful goodbye? You betcha!!!!

[stopfascism]

It's possible that the secret service or homeland security had a little talk with him about how he is making their job more difficult.­.

It would be difficult to ignore that kind of warning.. Especially if it leaked out that they have had to take surveilance or other action on behalf of protecting Obama from these crazies...

That could be behind his change of tune ... Although I would like to believe it was because his missing honor suddenly kicked back in..

[UsofA]

You know, the last time America and the rest of the world entered a depression, a politician began scapegoating. Creating the "other" as a target of emnity and hate. He parlayed the emotions of the disenfranchised and rode the crest of their hatred, stoking it along the way. He was Hitler and his followers were the Nazis. That was then. This is now. How far are we from the possibility of history repeating itself?