“That One” … You Know … “The One” … It’s Now ‘Racist’
(Oct. 7: One of many “That One” T-shirts available on Web site Cafepress.com, inspired by John McCain’s comment during Tuesday’s presidential debate in Nashville, Tenn.)
Okay … I am beyond sick and tired of the damn race card being thrown down like some damn back alley card-flip game for crack money by the Obama Comrades.
It’s time someone said it … and out loud. Maybe Gov. Sarah Palin’s balls are big enough to do so.
If all this Obama campaign has to fall back on every time he is judged on his merit and record is to throw down that g.d. over-worn dog-eared race card as a counter to anything said about him then he IS proving himself to be completely void of any substance. Hell, he couldn’t even qualify for park clean up.
So, if I were McPalin every time before I said something about Hussein in a rally speech I would preface it with, “I’m going to say something racist about my democrat opponent …”
The McCain-Palin campaign NEEDS to address this constant nagging about racism RIGHT NOW!
Look at what James Carville and Paul Begala are INCITING right now … Just read:
(CNN Transcript … post-debate)
[ ... ]
COOPER: So they’re not going to run a commercial with James Carville saying the dogs are wet bring them in or whatever that — I can’t remember exactly or do the laundry or I can’t remember what it was.
CARVILLE: Let me be clear, I said you can call the dogs and light the fire and leave the house. I think it sounds over.
Now let me be clear here, if Obama goes in this race with a 5- point lead and losing this election, the consequences are — bull, man. I mean I don’t think that’s going to happen, but I think David it’s a point to bring up
But you stop and contemplate this country if Obama goes in and he has a consistent five point lead and loses the election, it would be very, very, very dramatic out there.
BORGER: I think it’s about age, also, demographics plays into this tremendously. Because if you get a youth vote, race is going to be much less important and this is what the Obama people believe and this is what a lot of pollsters believe.
It really affects older voters much more than younger voters.
COOPER: Paul you were going to —
BEGALA: This is why what Sarah Palin was doing is so dangerous. I love, love, love attack politics, I love it. But she has — at least in the views of the Associated Press, they said her attack on this whole Bill Ayers thing was racially-tinged. That’s not what the Democrats said, this is what the Associated Press said and if harkens back to at the convention.
She had this quote in her convention speech a kind of argued court of the house small towns are good. Well, Buddy Kennedy Jr. look at it up and some of the guy named Westbrook Pegler, who Kennedy described as a fascist and about racist who wrote this about Buddy’s father, Senator Kennedy.
“Some white patriot of the southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow flies.”
Now, why does this governor have such an affinity for such a hate monger to quote him in her speech? Why is she saying things that at least the Associated Press says is very divisive.
McCain’s Usage of ‘That One’ Sparks Questions of Intent
The only two words anyone may recall from Tuesday’s town hall-style presidential debate –”that one” — could be memorable because of their many different meanings to voters.
(FOX)
John McCain uttered two words that could turn out to be the only ones people remember from Tuesday night’s presidential debate: That one.
But what those words meant is being spun in many different ways.
Halfway through the town-hall-style debate, McCain, discussing a bill before the Senate in 2005, said:
“There was an energy bill on the floor of the Senate loaded down with goodies, billions for the oil companies, and it was sponsored by Bush and Cheney,”he said, turning the tables on the Obama camp’s continuous attempts to link the Republican candidate to the unpopular president and vice president.
“You know who voted for it? You might never know. That one,” he said, pointing to Obama, who was sitting on a stool several feet away. “You know who voted against it? Me.”
The GOP candidate’s dismissive manner in saying that one generated much talk afterward about what McCain meant.
For some, it was nothing more than McCain pointing at his opponent and saying that Obama was the one who voted with Bush.
But for others, the expression represented something sinister: a suggestion that that one — Obama — is not like the rest.
That undertone wasn’t lost on critics who have watched the McCain campaign attack Obama’s associates and relationships, including the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Weather Underground founder Bill Ayers, rather than his policies in the last week.
“To my knowledge, I have never heard that used as a common phrase before,”said University of California-Berkeley linguistics professor George Lakoff.
“The phrase was meant to say, ‘You and I are in the same area, but he’s the outsider,’” Lakoff continued. “It’s the political equivalent of what (Sarah) Palin said the other day, which is, ‘He’s not one of us.’”
That one may also be the raging yang to a yin offered by the McCain campaign over the summer, when, in an ad, it compared Obama to Moses and mockingly suggested that the Democrat was “The One”who is hoping to achieve a messianic image and celebrity status.
University of Richmond Director of Debate Kevin Kuswa said that one probably grabbed the collective conscience because it was one of the very few “unfamiliar lines from the debate.”
Kuswa said that because of the town-hall format, the candidates were merely repeating their talking points.
“If these were more direct debates — in which candidates can ask each other questions directly — we would have more content material in our brains the next day,” he said.
“Any thing that stands out becomes magnified and more significant as people’s attention spans become shorter,”he said.
Kuswa added that individuals have homed in on the phrase because they can seize no other “defining gaffe” or “moment of total awkwardness in the presidential debates thus far.”
Whatever the intent, the description had caught on Wednesday among both Republicans and Democrats. Almost immediately after the debate, pro-Obama Web sites sprang up proudly describing Obama as “That One.”
The Republican National Committee also tried to have a little fun with the comment, calling that one the “most memorable line” of the debate and saying it plans to make use of the phrase in the coming days.
Obama campaign aides called the phrase “odd” and said it depicted the Arizona senator as “angry.” One aide characterized the phrase as McCain’s “get off my lawn moment.”
“It reminds you that McCain is sort of angry and agitated. He looked uncomfortable,” said Obama Communications Director Robert Gibbs.”I guess the pillow seat wasn’t soft enough. He stood and walked around.”
Senior adviser David Axelrod said the phrase suggests McCain is “a little bit irascible, a little bit peevish.”
“Last time we had the debate, Senator McCain didn’t want to look at Senator Obama, and he made this reference today,” Axelrod said after the debate.
A McCain campaign aide said she doesn’t know what the hullabaloo is about over McCain’s use of the phrase. The candidate has often singled out Obama that way.
“I’m shocked that at a moment of national crisis, where our economy is on the minds of every single person, I am shocked that they are again proving to be the fussiest campaign in American history, McCain adviser Nicole Wallace told reporters after the debate.
In an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America on Wednesday, Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden dismissed questions about the implication of singling out Obama as that one.
“I think when John knows he’s sort of in attack mode, it’s always kind of difficult to look the other person in the eye and say, ‘It’s you, John, it’s you, Barack, it’s you, Harry,’” Biden said, noting that McCain’s camp has gone on defense. “I think it reflects his more — he’s ill at ease with the attack he has under way.”
Kuswa said he suspects McCain most likely meant to use the expression in a non-hurtful way.
“I’m not sure I would consider it a gaffe. It might have been a slip,” Kuswa said.
“It struck me during the debate as unexpected. I don’t think McCain intended to be disrespectful, but it certainly sounded dismissive at the least — and if we’re concerned about how each candidate is referencing each other, I think saying that one is certainly below using one’s first name in terms of respect,” he said.
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