When McCain Ripped Michael Moore -- and Incited Republicans
In the thousands of articles and blog postings about John McCain in recent weeks, I haven't seen anything about that notorious night in late-August 2004 when he attacked Michael Moore from the stage on opening night of the GOP convention in New York -- causing a chorus of boos and fingerpointing at the filmmaker, who soon left the hall. I remember watching it all, in amazement, on TV and then posting the first story about it on the E&P site (our Joe Strupp got the only word from Moore as he left the area).
McCain was in the midst of a stout defense of the Iraq war when it happened. ''Our choice wasn't between a benign status quo and the bloodshed of war," McCain said. "It was between war and a graver threat. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Not our critics abroad. Not our political opponents. And certainly not a disingenuous filmmaker who would have us believe that Saddam's Iraq was an oasis of peace, when in fact it was a place of indescribable cruelty, torture chambers, mass graves.''
Moore, in the hall as a columnist for USA Today, doffed his trademark red cap and waved as the crowd offered prolonged boos, pointed at Moore and yelled, "Four more years!"
and worse. Moore's movie, Fahrenheit 9/11, hadn't gone down well with them, obviously.
McCain later claimed, with a straight face, referring to Moore, ''I had no idea he was sitting there."
Moore had been repeatedly halted by security attempting to reach his reserved press seat in section #340 facing the side of the stage. Responding to the chants, he exclaimed, "Two more months!" He also said, "I can't believe they'd mention the film and help the box office."
Some Republicans nearby were not shy about sharing their views of Moore with reporters. A GOP consultant from Pennsylvania, David Welch, said, "He's a troublemaker. I think he's here to cause trouble."
A short while later Moore exited, accompanied by heavy security, as boos reappeared. He told E&P on the way out that he was not fleeing just because of the catcalls: He had to speak to a Planned Parenthood gathering at a theater uptown.
About this time, his first USA Today column, appeared online, titled "The GOP Doesn't Reflect America." Moore congratulated the Republicans for being able to seize power while only representing one-third of the populace. "Our side is full of wimps who'd rather compromise than fight," he explained. "Not you guys."
Noting that the convention would focus on moderates, Moore charged that Republicans know "that the only way to hold onto power is to pass themselves off as, well, as most Americans. It's a good show."
Greg Mitchell's new book is So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq. It includes a foreword by Joe Galloway and a preface by Bruce Springsteen. He is editor of Editor & Publisher.
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Michael Moore, like everyone else who tries to address the abject failure, unlimited corruption, and absolute hubris of the Bush Administration, has been ridiculed and vilified by the right wing noise machine.
Personally, I don’t benefit from tax breaks for ultra-rich multi-millionaires, but I get to pay for them. Likewise, I do not benefit from paying over three dollars for a gallon of gasoline. I suspect most of the BushCo cheerleaders don’t benefit from anything the GOP has dumped on us in the last few Republican administrations. These cheerleaders do have the stupefying ability to ignore the debt we’re leaving for our children and grandchildren. The Anti-Tax crowd apparently doesn’t realize this is a tax on our children. They deny global warming and embrace creationism, torture, lying to the public, and breaking our laws in the absurd premise of providing national security. There seems to be a complete absence of even a minimal grasp of logic or morality.
Some of us just don’t seem to know when something is in conflict with our own self interest.
Yes, isn't it interesting that anyone who disagrees with the President or his policies and particularly anyone who has the balls to point out lies and corruption is in reality a very, very bad person. At least in the terms of the Republican slime machine?
By repeating the narrative of Moore being a horrible human being the Repukes can ignore the issues and repeat their propaganda of Mission Accomplished, the Surge Is Working and America Has The Best Health Care System In The World. They don't have to talk about the facts.
And of course the Corporate Media is more than happy to repeat the "narrative
The article didn't really tell me what was so egregious about what McCain did here.
TheAirport - None are so blind as those who will not see.
Ah, I read the little quote thing. Seems pretty shitty, nothing really out of line, McCain-gaffe-wise. But could you really not expect Moore to be booed?
I'm old enough to remember when,
Government served the masses not the few.
Neighbor cared for neighbor back then,
And every word uttered by reporters was true.
I'm old enough to remember.
When the rich didn't bleed the poor
(Few were poor back in those days).
Bosses left Christmas presents at your door,
And there were no such sex as gays.
I'm old enough to remember.
When people were people__
No color of skin differed the other__
All joined together beneath the church steeple;
She our sister and he our brother.
I'm old enough to remember.
When lies weren't told,
And truth had set us free
Poisoned food and drink were never sold
And lives lost to floods could never be.
I'm old enough to remember.
A past that never was,
Just wistful thinking near the end.
Guess it's what every old man does
Hoping there is a real Heaven just around the bend.
I remember when....
...you remember when
I can only assume that you are old enough to recall the 40's 50's 60's?
Not to be disrespectfull to a senior, but I've read plenty about what happened in the South during these times and saying that color made no difference is a stretch, and the same for the number of poor anywhere in this country. Today not having a HD TV makes you poor.
The difference, what you remember, is revisionist at best.
Good luck.
Young person, MerlinJames,
The purpose of this poem was to expose the myth that times were so much better back "when". As people age, they tend to romantize the past__believing things were better, then, than today.
All the ills of the world today existed then__the 90s, 80s, 70s, 60s, 50s; etc.
My point was to think otherwise is foolish.
Perhaps you are too young to have understood. Perhaps I am too old for thinking everyone would.
Michael Moore asks the country to look deeper into government than most people want to look. The Republicans discredit him with as much might as they can. People don't want that to happen to them, so they back off and let the government do what it wants while they pray it doesn't hurt them too much before the next election; then, the cycle begins again.
Moore discredits himself, he makes a documentary that doesn't even qualify for the category in the awards because it wasn't fact. He says Cuba's health care is better than ours but then when asked when he needs treatment if he will go there . . . he dodges the question.
Moore's gone a long way to point out truths which are castigated by right-wing pundits, and subsequently MSMedia, as non-journalism -- all the while MSM regurgitates White House spin.
Michael Moore can afford the best medical treatment. Few Americans can. If you were an uninsured American who couldn't afford medical treatment which country would you go to. Cuba has a population that is well educated and has good medical care. You should go and see for yourself. Oh - I forgot - you can't go and see for yourself.
Please post links to disprove whatever falsely presented facts you're mouthing off about, or STFU.
Oh yes BO, it's Moore who discredits himself by having the audacity to do something none of your pinheaded brethren on the right will ever do. Moore strays off the reservation that is maintained by the mainstream press. But you prefer the lies on the right because they don 't step on the toes of corporate America or even hold America to any standard at all. They just say over and over again "everything is fine, the surge is working, taxbreaks for the rich aren't emptying our treasury and our health care system is just nifty. I don't think even you can swallow whole that last whooper can you? You would have to come to this thread armed with something most of you on the right gave up a long time ago. Facts and reason. But truth be told you've got nothing do you? Can you explain why the richest country in the world can't cover all of it's citizens when other industrialized peers do exactly that for less money? Can you explain why we run with the pack in terms of public health issues like infant mortality ?(Cuba, for god's sake, has a lower infant mortality rate) Why we spend more and get less than any other industrialized nation? Our privatized health care system is a joke and it's just getting worse.
The one thing the Republican party cannot stand is the truth. The problem, in America, is that people don't want to hear the truth. They want to be comforted by jingoistic statements that don't require thinking, only nodding. The Republicans have camped on god, motherhood, apple pie, and war, and have built a following who want to nod at their simplistic views of the world. When Wonky Democrats try to explain the truth, most people turn them off. There is a difference between a Republic of head nodders, and a Republic of educated, thinking people. I wonder what happened to America?
Really? Did you take a nap from 1980-1992, and again from 2000-today?
Obviously desmirl was awake. That's how desmirl's aware of how the Repugnians operate.
PS-
Hillary is using the calls for her withdrawel as a fundraising tool saying that "Washington insiders" want her out, but she'll keep fighting for the little guy... despite the fact that she represents the free trade anti-union corporatist pro-war DLC wing of the party that does anything BUT fight for the little guy... but hey, brief allusions to this on both This Week and Face the Nation without ANY clarification for the ignorant Hillary is hoping to sway with these claims is all we can expect from our top pundits.
Interesting times.
The whitewash and revisionism of recent history is alive and well.
McCain and the neocons are blaming Rumsfeld (not unlike PBS's Frontline I might add... coincidence?) for the debacle in Iraq now "succeeding".
Not unlike the wing of the Democratic party that went along with Bush that is now maintaining Iraq was "the right thing to do at the time, but with poor execution" while at the same time saying "if I knew then what I know now" AND "we are where we are"... absolving themselves of responsibility for their parts based on ignorance now corrected, putting themselves in the "anti-war" category to appease voters, AND leaving the door open for the hawk label to continue the occupation based on the neocon justifications of stability and excellent ratings of Extreme Makeover Iraq should either of the Bush enablers (McCain and Clinton) win the presidency.
With Hillary and Bill providing McCain with cover, and Lieberman saying to Stephenopolous this morning that the 67% of the country opposed to endless war represent a "radical left fringe" that has somehow unfairly taken control of the Democratic party by showing up to vote, thus his endorsement of McCain is justified despite decades as a Democrat, it's hard to imagine what a factual representation and debate would look like.
Some believe the corporate media is going along with this script out of journalistic laziness or too much focus on ratings, they need a refresher course on what it means to be an American.
The Republicans have had enough years in office over the past 3 decades to have changed what it means to be an American. Follow the money.
In other words, let them buy your soul, be a sell-out?
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