The Ugly Implications of McCain and Palin's Questions
Sarah Palin keeps asking people to ask more questions about Barack Obama. Now McCain has joined in on this refrain. But I don't get it. What more do they need to know? They keep saying he has to answer more questions about Bill Ayers, for example. But he has answered every ridiculous question on this topic a hundred times over. So, what are they really looking for?
It's not the McCain and Palin really think there is some deep and pertinent question that the media just has not gotten to yet about Obama's so-called relationship with Ayers. Otherwise, why don't they ask it themselves? Why doesn't John McCain take the next debate as an opportunity to ask Senator Obama about any profound question he has about Bill Ayers or any other disturbing connection Obama has?
The reason they don't do this is because there are no real questions there. This is a ploy to raise doubts in people's minds about Obama. They have nothing, but it's easy to say, "What else is Obama hiding?" The implication is that Barack Hussein Obama has more terrorist connections he is not telling us about. But since that is patently ridiculous and shameful, they can't say it out in the open. So, they hide behind the implications of questions like, "What else is he not telling us?"
What I want a reporter to ask Sarah Palin and John McCain is, "What is that you think Senator Obama is hiding? You keep asking the question, so you must think there is an answer. What is it? What is Senator Obama not telling us about Bill Ayers or anyone else?"
They don't have answer to that. Because they're real objective is to smear Obama as "the other." Palin has said several times in her rallies that Barack Obama is not like the Americans she knows. Someone should also ask her what she means by that. Then she brings up Ayers and "palling around with terrorists." It's not hard to see the picture she's drawing. Obama is not one of us. Look at his name; be careful, he is one of them.
They don't have the nerve to say it out aloud, so they hide behind their questions and implications. It is a despicable strategy and it has turned this into the ugliest presidential campaign I have seen in my lifetime.
Follow Cenk Uygur on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheYoungTurks
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McCain's all about transperen
"Palin has said several times in her rallies that Barack Obama is not like the Americans she knows."
This is the thing about Sarah Palin. She has no sense of diversity. She has an extremely limited knowledge of Americans.
Barack Obama is very much like the Americans that *I* know. I grew up in the rural deep South and now live in the urban Pacific Northwest. The Americans that I know are a diverse lot. Black, white, Hispanic, Asian, religious, atheist... you name it. And that's one reason I support Barack Obama for President.
Sarah Palin has spent most of her life in a town where the the population is 84% white. So of course Barack Obama is not like the Americans that she knows. She has no clue of life anywhere outside of her insulated world in Alaska.
Judging by her inability to string a few intelligent words together, she probably has not been exposed to too many intellectuals, either. Did anyone catch the Daily Show in Wasilla? OMG...
You nailed it Cenk.
@GrainOSand
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Actually logic does not suck, faulty logic sucks.
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Once again, we find common ground..
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My point in responding to you is that we are all guilty in that we have all played a role in allowing this country to be so divided on questions of race, religion, gender�whatever.
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Add "politics" to race, religion and gender and we would agree here as well.
Political bigotry is sometimes just as insidious, hateful and perverse as all the other bigotries.
Michale...
Politics politicizes politics.
Water makes the moist wetter.
It is better we look at the problems free of political affiliation, and rooted in a desire to bring meaningful change to a nation. Unfortunately, I cannot do anything with the nation we do not have and I find I can only do so much with the nation we do have. Prior to this election, I was part of the silent majority and I am hoping my compulsion to speak out will leave once this is over. A President Barack Obama is not the end all be all for me. It is a significant step in the right direction. I am not a sheep or a groupie. I looked at the field of candidates and was a Hillary Clinton supporter based on how she acted in the years prior to the primary. Then the primary happened, and I saw hypocrisy in all of its glory being passed off as righteousness and I was appalled. Right about that time, the good people of Iowa did something very few expected, they spoke up and said we are one America and we are ready to embrace change and hope. I was so moved I have been on board this train since then. As one who decided prior to this election to be isolated due to reaching a tipping point in America, it has been difficult for me to re-engage. I play my small role and patiently wait to return to obscurity in all things.
It's an old ploy.....g
First, get 'em focused
http://www
Then you spread it.....lib
http://www
What is McCain hiding? He had his military records, and medial records sealed!! He is not the one who should be asking about ANYONE hiding anything. What is wrong with his cheeck, it seems to be getting bigger. If we could have a doctor examine his medical records, we could find out. I feel that his military records contain information that would burst his bubble about being a HERO. Obama's life is an open book compared to McCain/Palin. What about her $552,000.0
@GrainOSand
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I am sorry Michale32086 that you see my question as a cheap shot for it was not meant to be.
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I accept your statement that your question wasn't a cheap shot.
In that case, I will answer more fully..
I am a registered NPA. No Political Affiliation. With a few exceptions (4 to be exact) I am probably the most liberal one here..
I don't really care about all the bad things about McCain or Palin, as I don't intend to vote for them. Consider wanting to vote for your best player in the NFL. Do you care about how bad Brady is or the crummy things that McNair has done?? Or are you more concerned with what players you SUPPORT have said and done??
So is it with me. While it appears on the surface that I am knocking Obama, really the opposite is true. I support Obama in a manner that, when he does things that I think are wrong, I want to know why..
To me, blindly following someone like a lemming is not "support". It's hero worship. And that has no place when choosing our next president.
Hope things are a bit more clear now.
Michale...
I do not see the Ayers affiliation as bad. Barack Obama was involved in community service and politics when he met Ayers -- not terrorism. To make the terrorist connection is to be Jesse Owens or Carl Lewis -- proficient at long jumping.
I am not Party Affiliated either. I am ideas affiliated and the idea that because a person committed criminal and deadly acts of misguided youthful stupidity for good causes (opposition to illegal war) over forty years ago, and that somehow those acts speak to the character of another person who is loosely associated, does not compute.
The discussion is good though for it is through peaceful examination of who we are and what we stand for that we will arrive at sound solutions for who we need to be to face an uncertain future. I do not think most Americans want America to fail or decline. I think the people of the GOP are mostly good people who have embraced a fatally flawed ideology of dismissive, divisive, destructive approaches to governance of the masses of people who come in all shapes sizes hues and degrees of capability to survive, live, and flourish. I want more prosperity for all Americans and all people worldwide and less dismissal, division, and destruction.
Peace and love to you and yours beyond stump speeches and platitudes.
Great article. And yes, Obama has answered this "question" hundreds of times. Over and over and over. The fact that John McCain won't ask it to his face, speaks volumes.
What I want to know is why Sarah Palin won't answer ANY questions. None whatsoever. Her husband was a card carrying member of the AIP as recently as two years ago. Crickets.
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Great article. And yes, Obama has answered this "question" hundreds of times. Over and over and over.
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Can you point to ONE instance where Obama answered the question fully and completely??
No, you can't...
Michale...
{{{{{{Can you point to ONE instance where Obama answered the question fully and completely??}}}}}}
How can you know if he has not answered it fully and completely? The only way for you to know, is if you already know the answer first.
So what is the answer? You do not state it, because..
No, you can't...
You're a dog with a bone and your desperation is showing.
Obama's last one hundred or more answers all satisfy ME fully and completely. But no matter what he says, he will never satisfy you. Ever. No matter what. If he agreed to a lie detector test and passed, you'd still be having a hissy fit and no doubt calling the results a left-wing conspiracy.
So rather than hiding behind this phony outrage of yours, why don't you come right out and say what's really got you riled. Obviously, it's got nothing to do with Ayers.
I notice you have no such "truth" test for Palin.
@ChimesOfFreedom
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"Do you or do you not believe that a person can change in their lifetime?"
Would anybody care to answer that question? I've put it to Michale32086 twice now, and Michale has refused to address it.
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I have answered it both times. I am guessing it didn't make the cut..
Hopefully, third time is the charm.
In my not so humble opinion, there are certain crimes that are "defining". Crimes against children are one such instance. Terrorism is another.
In short, once a terrorist, always a terrorist.
Several of Ayers terrorist cohorts have acknowledged their terrorism and apologized for it. Ayers, like the coward he is, refuses to even CALL his crimes terrorism, let alone show any remorse over them. That pretty much seals the deal for me.
Ayers is still a terrorist.
If Ayers were to recant and apologize, I would HOPE that I would be a big enough man to accept that and forgive. Given my background, I probably wouldn't be, but I would HOPE that I could be.
But he hasn't so it's not an issue I have to deal with.
Now, let me ask you something.
Would you be so quick to dismiss the association if we changed AYERS to BIN LADEN??
It's a serious question. I would appreciate a serious answer.
Michale...
When will the terrorist who brought us the Vietnam war admit they were wrong? Some have, but I am waiting on full disclosure.
"The moral code of the end of the millennium condemns not injustice but failure. Robert McNamara, one of those responsible for the war in Vietnam, wrote a book in which he admitted it was a mistake. That war, which killed more than three million Vietnamese and fifty-eight thousand Americans, was a mistake not because it was unjust but because the United States carried on in full knowledge that it could not win. By 1965, according to McNamara, there was already overwhelming evidence that the invading force could not prevail; nonetheless, the U.S. government continued as if victory were possible. The fact that the United States spent fifteen years visiting international terrorism on Vietnam in order to impose a government the Vietnamese did not want does not even enter into the discussion. That the world's premier military power dropped more bombs on a small country than all the bombs dropped during the Second World War is utterly irrelevant
--Eduardo Galeano
Terrorism is defined as ongoing and systematic attacks of violence specifically targeted against innocent civilian persons or property for the purpose of furthering a political, economical or ideological agenda.
Making a wrong decision in a war or about a war does not terrorism make.
Michale...
>> I have answered it both times. I am guessing it didn't make the cut.
You don't have to guess - it's clearly not on the board.
>> once a terrorist, always a terrorist ... Ayers is still a terrorist
No possibility of rehabilitation for someone like that, eh? After almost 40 years of non-violence, a man who's never been tried for much less convicted of a crime is still guilty in your eyes ... what a sad, myopic, uncharitable view of the world you have. By the way, Ayers' book (Fugitive Days) is devoted largely to a repudiation of the violence of the Weather Underground, and yes, he HAS publicly expressed remorse over his past actions.
>> Would you be so quick to dismiss the association if we changed AYERS to BIN LADEN?
I would be quick to question the judgment of the University of Illinois in hiring Osama bin Laden as a professor of education, not to mention the wisdom of Columbia in granting him his PhD. And I would wonder mightily why all those Republicans chose to serve on the board of the CAC with him.
Sorry, but that is NOT a serious question, due to the ridiculous implication that there's no difference between Ayers and bin Laden.
"Would you be so quick to dismiss the association if we changed AYERS to BIN LADEN??"
Get over it. You really are reaching pretty far to make a connection to 9/11. Do you really believe that Barack Obama has connections to the terrorists who committed the 9/11 acts? If so cite your sources.
Much more likely to link Bush with bin-Ladens.
"If Ayers were to recant and apologize, I would HOPE that I would be a big enough man to accept that and forgive. Given my background, I probably wouldn't be, but I would HOPE that I could be."
In civil society it's not up to you to decide. What are your feelings about are legal systems? Come clean?
It is the ugliest campaign I've seen in my lifetime as well. I will go so far as to say that I now truly believe that anyone who votes for McCain/Palin is irresponsible. I just can't see even one justifiable reason for voting for them. None at all. They've lost every last shred of decency either one of them ever had, and I'm even doubtful that they ever really had it to begin with. It's deplorable.
Please don't forget the primary benefit McCain/Palin gains from this type of campaigning. While we sit here haggling over whether or not Obama's peripheral, distant association with Ayers is germaine, none of us is discussing the economy, the war, the environment, etc. Certainly, the McCain campaign isn't offering solutions or insight.
They are doing what they do best--providing a distraction. What makes it more heinous this time is that their "distraction" is race-baiting and hate mongering. Whatever collateral damage that results from it will only serve to further distract us from all that McCain doesn't want to talk about. The cynicism that comes up with this plan of action turns my stomach. I don't want these kind of people anywhere near my government.
Sorry, but they are running our government now. The numbskulls that show up for Palin rallies are the same people who fall in the 28% that approve of George Bush's policies.
They have always been amoung us. I find it amusing that anyone is surprised or shocked at the rabid right wing nazi-like crowds that show up for Sarah Palin. This is the base of the republican party and it is laughable that RNC officials claim they are shocked. Horse hockey.
I should have added one more word to my post. I don't want these kind of people anywhere near my government anymore. And, I agree I can be annoyed or disgusted at the rabid right-winger crowds turning up at McCain/Palin rallies lately. I can be sickened or (insert adjective here), but I can't be surprised.
They got nothing! That why they can't attack him openly the GOP probably spent millions investigating Obama and if they had anything they would have use it by now! Has for Palin well the correct answer to her BS is. "Hey honey we don't even know you! And the more we learn about you the more we dislike you so shut up or we play the Muthee tape live on prime time!"
Exactly right about questions. I hope it happens. Astonishing that it has not. On "Meet the Press" yesterday, Tom Brokaw, who is rapidly becoming irrelevant, actually asked former Rep. Tom Portman a serious question that REINFORCED the lie:
"Governor Palin has gone so far as to say he's palling around with a terrorist. Is that a really fair characterization in your judgment?"
That's like asking "Sarah Palin has said the world is flat. Is that an accurate view of the world in your judgment?"
It IS the ugliest campaign of my lifetime. I hear folks say "oh, all politicians do that." NOT. Senator Obama has run the best campaign in my lifetime.
"Do you or do you not believe that a person can change in their lifetime?"
Would anybody care to answer that question? I've put it to Michale32086 twice now, and Michale has refused to address it. The fact is, it is the crux of the Ayers "problem," because the ONLY reason Ayers MIGHT be an issue for Barack to deal with is if you believe the Bill Ayers of today is no different from the Bill Ayers of his Weather Underground past, nearly 40 years ago.
While the online denizens of HuffPo ponder that one, we can certainly infer that the education community in and around Chicago, at a minimum, feel the answer is Yes.
For anyone who doesn't believe that a person can change, all they have to do is take a look at the reality to be proven wrong. Has Ayers gotten in ANY kind of trouble since? On the contrary, he pursued his education, became a professor, husband, father...e
It certainly looks like an example of rehabilitation to me, and obviously was good enough for Republican Ambassador Walter Annenberg.
Each and every American should be outraged by McCain and Palin subtle racist innuendos and not so subtle remarks to the press and their supporters,invoking extreme hatred at times,not only from their supporters but Fox News,Hanni
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