If Only Obama Agreed To McCain's "Town Hall" Meetings

When John McCain grabbed the microphone out of the hand of that disheveled Republican lady in Minnesota who called Barack Obama an "Arab" he was sincerely trying to rise above the woman's racist misconceptions to set the record straight. But what came out of his mouth was this: "No ma'am, [Obama's] a decent man, citizen, that I just happen to have disagreement with on fundamental issues." His response speaks for itself.

When McCain's ignorant tool, Samuel "Joe The Plumber" Wurzelbacher, agreed with someone at a McCain-Palin rally that if we elected Obama it would mean the "death of Israel" even Fox News had to reprimand him.

Lately, the McCain campaign is claiming that Obama's 2003 interaction with a Palestinian professor, Rashid Khalidi, has nefarious implications. They never miss an opportunity to link Obama with Arabs, Muslims, and "terrorists."

And then there's the McCain campaign's "voter fraud" histrionics against low-income African-Americans in the cities who are just trying to register voters. Voter suppression is the Republicans' bread and butter and the attacks on ACORN are just subterfuge.

And let's not forget Ashley Todd, the 20 year old Young Republican volunteer in Pittsburgh who carved a backwards "B" on her own cheek to fake an assault by a rampaging black Obama supporter, and how the McCain campaign jumped at the chance to milk the hoax for maximum political effect.

And when John McCain and Sarah Palin say that Obama will turn the Internal Revenue Service into "a giant welfare program" they choose their words carefully and know exactly what they are saying.

And when they slam "community organizers" as second-rate people no one on the campaign staff bothers to inform them that they are dissing people from our nation's history like Samuel Adams, Susan B. Anthony, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Cesar Chavez.

And don't forget the phony pamphlets that have popped up pretending to come from the Obama campaign and trying to scare white voters in swing neighborhoods of swing states.

And there was also a fake broadsheet pretending to be from the state of Virginia falsely alerting voters in African-American precincts that due to high voter turnout Democrats and Independents will be voting on November 5th instead of the 4th.

And out on the stump Sarah Palin likes to talk about Obama's "early surrender in Iraq" and his secret plan to "gut" the defense budget. She also talks about how terrible it will be for the nation if the "Democrat Party" takes power. Nobody hurls red meat to her supporters better than Sarah Palin. She fuses together the cluelessness of Elisabeth Hasselbeck with the meanness of Susan Molinari. I hope the Republicans nominate Palin in 2012.

Add to this mix of McCain campaign slime the accusations about Obama's ties to Bill Ayers, his relationship to Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the questions about his country of birth and his "true" religion, the charge of being a "socialist" and sympathetic to "terrorists," and what we have is one of the most vicious, dishonest, and mean-spirited presidential campaigns in American history.

It is fitting that at the miserable close of the George Bush-Karl Rove era we are finally seeing, at long last, the Republican Party's true colors divorced from the verbal pabulum of "compassionate conservatism" and "reaching across the aisle." McCain and Palin, Hannity and O'Reilly, Limbaugh and Medved are singing to the choir, spewing their bile in an endless loop inside an echo chamber whose walls are closing in all around them. The party is shrinking. It's becoming whiter and more intolerant at a time when the country is moving in the opposite direction.

But McCain sticks to his absurd story that it was Obama who forced his hand. It is Obama's fault that McCain had to embark on one of the most fiercely negative campaigns in history.

If only Obama agreed to appear with his esteemed opponent in the series of "Town Halls" that McCain proposed at the beginning of the campaign.

All of this unpleasantness could have been avoided.

Comments

[mmgbizgirl]

The "if you're not with us, you're against us", philosophy.

[indeevoter]

Yeah...it's called "The devil made me do it!" defense.

[yasmeen]

guys, vote on paper ballots. many types of machines unreliable (unverifiable or hackable) spread the word

[Willow712]

Just like an abusive partner. "If you hadn't made me mad...." or "Its all your fault that I got upset." that's exactly what McCain is trying to say. and it doesn't wash. Not any more.

[CrackerJacker]

I don't know if anyone's picked up on this, but Politico has a well-written observation made on this very subject - that Sen. McCain's avoided the town hall format he favours so much to avoid the angry mobs that make up the audience of the town hall meetings.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/15147.html

[krocklin]

Nothing exposes McCain more than this fraud he clings to - most recently on the Larry King show last week.
McCain easily lost every debate and would have been even more exposed for what he is in 10 Town Hall debates.
Had Obama agreed to them, McCain's ads would have had to be even more negative, as that is the only way he penetrates the news cycle when he's slipping in the polls.
A new lie or smear or a revival of all ones are the only ways he stays close, if not ahead. Townhall debates or not.

[Megley]

Don't forget--McCain comes by his stubbornness and petulance honestly. This is the man who, as a child, would hold his breath until he passed out when he couldn't have his own way. If he had anyone in his campaign who truly cared about him and wasn't afraid of him, that someone would have put McCain in the bathtub of cold water a long time ago.
If you're voting for Obama on Tuesday, your vote can do two things: elect a new president who is willing and able to do the heavy lifting to get this country back on track, and send a message to the Republicans that the American people are mad as hell and aren't going to take this crap anymore.

[XME]

The only thing I wonder is, if Obama had agreed to the town hall meetings, how would McCain have excused running the campaign he's run. Because I have no doubt that he would still have taken this low road, and I also have no doubt that he would have still found a way to blame Obama for HIS actions.

[realpolitic]

Mr. Palermo is so right about the Republican party: "The party is shrinking. It's becoming whiter and more intolerant at a time when the country is moving in the opposite direction." Republicans have always had a chip on their collective shoulders and have always felt aggrieved about something. It is a strange state of mind to have, however, when they controlled all three branches of government. They can not stay the angry white male party when this group is growing fewer. Young people on all sides of the political spectrum see the environment as a very important issue.

McCain's reasoning that he can justify vicious attacks on Obama because Obama would not consent to Town Hall-style debates is the reasoning of a petulant child. As is Mr. Palermo, I am surprised that no one in the press asked McCain the question that how does Obama's decline of a series of Town Hall debates give McCain the right to launch smear attacks? All of us who expected McCain to take the high road in this election were miserably disappointed. He has tarnished his legacy beyond repair.

[krocklin]

Rational people have to stop debating with these 'petulant children". Once you do, it puts you on the defensive.
It's time to understand that the thought processes of Republicans are not vetted by their own brains and follow a course that validates their own preordained ideas and ideology - no matter how mean-spirited and wrong they are.

[realpolitic]

Yes, I think I know what you are saying. Republicans are very ideological by nature. This characteristic is a reason why their policies do not work. They pay little attention to the evidence of their failed policies, but attempt to alter the evidence to fit their preconceptions. They deal in an increasingly alternative reality that can only be spelled out by Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly and other mind control specialists.

[pacsaved]

Let's stop talking and make sure that Senator Obama is the next President of the US.

Action speaks louder than words.

OBAMA/BIDEN **08**

[HowIronic]

If there would have been town hall meetings, then the McCain campaign could have planted people in the crowd to bring all of this vile nonsense up. Now, McCain has been reduced to doing it himself. See, it really is Obama's fault.

[MX]

Good luck for Tuesday, we are rooting for Obama all around the world - you probably saw the BBC poll that was conducted in 22 countries that found that 80% wanted Obama.. I'm not sure what will happen if the repugnant Republicanss successfully steal a third election but I can't see anyone taking it lying down this time.

[repubsrbad]

Nope. We'd have a series of work stoppages like they do in Paris when the transportation workers go on one day strikes. That would shut this country down in a hot minute.

[DorightWoman]

McCain's whining that Obama wouldn't do town hall meetings is evidence of the hubris that McCain has. McCain feels he can DICTATE as to HOW, WHEN, WHY and WHERE, Obama must OBEY him, or suffer the wrath. Yep, that's what we need in a leader.

If Obama HAD agreed to it, he'd have ceded to McCain. Obama is smarter than that. McCain wanted the upper hand in getting Obama to do his will. That didn't work, and now the endless whining we are all subjected to by McCain. If I wanted to listen to that kind of thing, I'd be working in daycare.

McCain comes off as a petulant child, who has been taught that if he stamps his feet, yells loud enough, and doesn't get his way, he is entitled to punish you if you dare say "NO" to him. That is how a spoiled brat acts. Too bad no one ever told him, that this kind of behavior is uncivil, unwanted, unpleasant, and no one likes bully's. Time for McCain to put his big boy panties on.

[marasgram18]

please go to rollingstone.com mccains bio says he as a child would hold his breath until he turned blue and would pass out during tantrums funny how you can still see this still there

[CrackerJacker]

Yep. An especially illuminating article that as far as I know, has been neither refuted or repudiated by Sen. McCain. As such it seems to me to be a very worthwhile read.

rollingsto­ne.com/new­s/coversto­ry/make_be­lieve_mave­rick_the_r­eal_john_m­ccain

[Joseph A. Palermo - Huffpost Blogger]

Great Comments! Thanks! I saw McCain on Larry King and he trotted out that old line about "if Obama would have agreed to town halls . . ." And he said that JFK and Barry Goldwater had agreed to do "town halls" together but it didn't happen because JFK was killed. Now that was the most bizarre thing I've ever heard: 1). How does McCain know that JFK and Goldwater had an ironclad agreement to do anything? Goldwater wasn't even the nominee in Nov. 1963; 2). If is it true, then why didn't LBJ do it in 1964? (He was going to trounce Goldwater anyway); 3). Why is it Obama's problem if he decides that he would rather campaign in his own style and manner instead of capitulating to McCain's wishes (is it because McCain sees himself as entitled and "greater" than the younger, black man?); 4). Obama had every right to reject that stupid political ploy -- I mean, give me a break, the two of them on the same stage (what the hell does McCain think -- it's the Lincoln-Douglas debates?); 5). Offering a conciliatory gesture (even if empty) does not justify staging a slimefest in response; 6). McCain is as petulant as Bush with this response; 7). Why doesn't a "journalist" ask a follow up question: "Isn't it Obama's right to respectfully decline your offer and doesn't that not justify in the least your dirty, filthy campaign tactics?"

[hypocritesonallsides]

“If only Obama agreed to appear with his esteemed opponent in the series of "Town Halls" that McCain proposed at the beginning of the campaign.”
Your words then you send this post giving all these reasons why he shouldn’t. The fact remains he said he would do the town meetings then he didn’t. He said he would take public financing then he didn’t. What else does he change if he wins on Tuesday?

[CrackerJacker]

Ahem. He was being SARCASTIC. There is no logical reason why Obama should have done so, just the same as there would have been no logical reason why McCain should have felt compelled to accept any meetings with such preconditions as "Well, we'll wander around a lot and take questions from the crowd. And no spitting".

[reno1190]

LISTEN UP WHINER MCCAIN HAD BETTER BE GLAD THAT HE DID NOT DO THOSE 10 TOWN HALL MEETINGS OBAMA CLEANED HIS CLOCK IN 3 AND THAT FINANCING GOOD FOR HIM NOW MCCAIN RUNS AROUND LIKE A CHICKEN WITH HIS HEAD OFF HE IS IN HIS SECOND CHILDHOOD YOU GROW UP WITH GRANDPA CHANGE HE WILL CHANGE YOU

[realpolitic]

Obama never said he would participate in Town Hall-style debates.

[siciliabel]

I'm no psychologist, but McCain sure sounds like a classic abuser every time he does his "if only...town hall meetings" patter. He's not the one who caused the abuse, it's the one who receives the abuse who could have prevented it. It's not his fault his campaign has gone so negative that to describe it as negative doesn't quite do it justice. It's Barack Obama's fault. So pathetic.