Part of the openDemocracy Network

Syndicate content

Navigation

The British Crisis

Do the public really want to change ‘the system’?: Stuart Wilks-Heeg presents polling evidence
 

Don't trust MPs' constitutional poker: Guy Aitchison supports the call for a citizens' convention
 

Brown's 'National Council for Democratic Renewal': Anthony Barnett on the Prime Minister's desperate proposal
 

More in this series

Technorati

delicious | digg | reddit | newsvine | furl | google | yahoo | technorati | diigolet

McCain booed by his own crowds

To his credit, John McCain has started taking on some of the wilder anti-Obama sentiments in his crowds. He took back the microphone from a supporter at a town hall meeting in Minnesota who called Obama an Arab and said: "No, ma'am. He's a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign's all about. He's not." The implication that Arabs can't be decent family men is regrettable, but let's not be churlish. Even more creditable is the way McCain replied to a man who merely said he was "scared" of an Obama presidency and the Supreme Court judges it might bring. McCain said: "I have to tell you. Senator Obama is a decent person and a person you don’t have to be scared of as president of the United States." This earned him boos from a crowd that clearly did not share that attitude.

Update: Ken Vogel reports that Obama himself drew boos by acknowledging his rival's comments at a rally in Philadelphia. So this phenomenon is not the exclusive province of Republicans.

Update 2: Michael Schaffer disputes Vogel's report, and describes the Obama crowd's mood as far more sunny. 

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd><b> <i> <br> <p> <div> <img> <map>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • You may quote other posts using [quote] tags.
More information about formatting options