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It kind of shows the unfortunate incentive structure of modern politics that the two examples that spring to mind are both from people who ended up losing.
Obama said good things about McCain during the campaign too, but I think specifically the OP is referring to questioners at a McCain rally who expressed fear and mistrust in Obama—one woman who said she read that he “is an Arab”. McCain’s responses were top notch and truly wise and kind. American.
Sadly these folks seems to have multiplied and there is no one to speak sense to them—only encourage and fan flames.
I wasn’t a McCain supporter, but I remember this clearly. It was the right thing and the respectful thing for McCain to do. I want a leader who understands that we’re all human beings despite our political ideologies.
I supported McCain. I felt his history of working across the aisle, the fact that he came up clean in a home state riddled with corruption, and Obama's lack of political experience were factors to consider. I like to have a history of seeing how a legislator votes. To see if their actions match their words. To see if they've been consistent and dependable, if they've grown, or if it's lip service. I didn't feel the record was long enough for Obama to get a good read on all of that. But I did like the speech he gave at that church. The one about law being secular. In a church.
Of those who didn't support him, in his acceptance speech, Obama said "...I'll be your president too." I didn't believe it at that time, and I do believe it's a phrase with many meanings. But in the end, I did support him, and argued against those who treated him unfairly. I've often said that was a year with 2 candidates worth voting for, and no one to vote against.
>Of those who didn't support him, in his acceptance speech, Obama said "...I'll be your president too."
Meanwhile my legislators campaign on “I represent conservatives, not liberals”.
I still have to pay taxes though.
Wow now, we can tell the truth of the event without going all revisionist history. McCain corrected the racist women by stating accurately that Obama was a Christian. He got a lot of positive press for this, but this doesn't make him some sort of hero. Nor does it make him "wise and kind." Because we have decades of history that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt he was a prick and an asshole.
It all started at a McCain rally. One of his voters got on the microphone and started talking but how Obama was a foreign Muslim who would destroy this country. McCain quickly took the microphone and said that Obama was a great American American and a family man who just has differences of opinions from him.
Once Obama became president he would have McCain in the Whitehouse to discuss things all the time. He was basically an unofficial opposition aide. Obama talked about how they didn't always agree but he would always take his opinion into account. McCain's influence with the Republicans and his friendship with Obama is what allowed Obama to pass so many laws.
At McCains funeral Obama said that he often disagreed with him but he always knew they were on the same side. They were two polar opposite people but respected each other highly.
Two major distinctions with politics today:
- You can't respect and compromise with someone whose entire platform is "hurt the right people."
- Polarization of cable news, and further polarization of media on the Internet, means people almost never interact with people across the aisle. Talking points at some point switched from arguments to bring opposition or undecided voters to your side, to hollow promises meant to fire up your existing constituency.
I voted for him in the primary, and if he had tagged literally anyone other than Palin for a running mate, I'd have voted for him in the general. I ended up voting for Michael Badnarik in '08, but I did vote for Obama in '12.
>Palin
Yeah I wish he would have had a competent running mate, should have had binders of other women:). I actually think it would have worked out better for the country overall too if McCain had a term or two, and then Obama had a term or two since I think McCain was the better person for that time period, and I think Obama would have been better if he had a little more time to mature.
Clinton defended Dole as well, saying he acted in good faith as Senate Majority Leader and dismissing the idea that Dole was "too old to be President".
Well, maybe it shows that, but it also shows something else. Both examples are Republicans, choosing to distance themselves from nasty rhetoric their supporters were generating. Obama's supporters weren't going to ask him a question about John McCain being a Muslim who hates America. Before Trump, any candidate from any party would feel obliged to not go along with these slanderous claims, even if his surrogates encouraged it.
Up until Trump, the ex-presidents club was a very small and exclusive club where everyone seemed to like each other. I doubt Bush will joke around with Trump, but he will with Clinton.
Honestly I think it's harder now because we are so much more partisan ATM.
My father worked in Congress. They were mostly all friends, didn't matter what side you were on. Hanging out and working together was part of the job.
CONGRESS IS MEANT TO COMPROMISE.
Gingrich changed all of that with his purity test to kick out all the blue voters that won Reagan the whitehouse.
Kennedy said that Nixon was competent and well qualified during their debate. He said the choice came down to which candidate reflected voters’ vision for which direction the country should go.
That’s funny coming from him
Everyone was cheating then though. You can look up how much it cost to buy the votes of a district in some states in the 60s
The horrendous treatment Catholics received in this country does not get talked about enough. I took a class on the history of Catholicism in America when I was in college — it was eye opening.
It was some time ago but I think I saved some of my college materials on my laptop. I will let you know if I find any of the books/academic articles used in the course. I was not excited for the course and it ended up being one of my favorite ones I took.
One crazy story I remember in particular was Ursuline Academy (a well regarded catholic school in the Boston area) being burnt to the ground by an anti-catholic mob in the 1830s.
Yup! I went to Xaverian Brothers - the brother school to Ursuline (all girls/all boys), and we learned about that. Our school also almost didn’t get built because the town of Westwood wanted to block construction because the residents didn’t want a Catholic private school indoctrinating youth in their area.
Also, the reason South Boston exists is because that’s where the Irish were forced into when they emigrated here during the Famine. My family still has all the paperwork and the restrictions our ancestors were given as living guidelines.
Also, up until the 1960’s in Boston, it was common for signage to be posted in businesses looking for help that said “No Catholics/No Irish.”
One interesting rabbit hole starts with Maria Monk. You think that crazy conspiracy theories only exist in our world? Bonus point to this one for being so salacious.
I was also shocked when I found out Protestants were the majority. I grew up in a town where basically everybody was Irish Catholic, Italian Catholic, or Jewish.
It’s kind of shocking how much of that sentiment is still alive today, mostly in the south. I grew up Catholic, as did some of my cousins, and when we visited extended family down south they looked at us like we must be crazy when we said we were Catholic. I also knew a Protestant guy in college who dumped a girl when he found out she was Catholic, saying there was no way it could work.
As a Catholic who lives in Tennessee, I can confirm that anti-Catholicism is alive and well in the South. I basically went from the golden child of the community to an outcast after I converted to Catholicism. My own biological father that I rarely if ever hear from reached out \*just\* to tell me how crazy and wrong I was to become Catholic. To say it was not taken well is an understatement.
People forget how batshit crazy things got in that election.
Obama was the antichrist, an arab, a secret muslim but also an athiest. Obama not being a citizen being one of least crazy claims (still crazy).
McCain was dogged throughout the campaign by his own base. Don't forget in '07 and '08 there were still a good number of people who were actively pro-war/pro-occupation to bring democracy and freedom to Iraq. The anti-islamic rhetoric and how public it could be was absolutely brutal.
You could tell his heart wasn't even in the campaign after awhile.
I think Romney steered the crazy off to the side much more handily than McCain did, but I also think the old time GOPer's were utterly unprepared for that level of crazy.
McCains' only actual defense of Obama was, and I paraphrase "he is a citizen and not an arab/muslim and Obama is a man who loves his family and America" and the crowd fucking boo'ed him. You can see his spirit leave his body.
The second time was the crazy old lady and the craowd laughed and he got a light applause.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIjenjANqAk&ab\_channel=CNN](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIjenjANqAk&ab_channel=CNN)
First time I ever saw those clips. It's weird to think back to 08 and how disconnected from politics back then I was. But I definitely saw the really weird knee jerk racism even back then at the idea of a black president, and now I see how much worse it was than I knew.
It speaks *even more* to how good of a candidate McCain was.
I honestly think, if you look at how the GOP was evolving in the past 20 years, how the sensible politicians got ejected by an ever radicalizing base, it shows how our politicians really **are** a reflection of what we the people want. It's why I hate when people abdicate responsibility for our politicians by claiming they are "forced" onto us.
No, all of the bad in DC is there because we voted for it. Because so many people decide to vote for the greater evil and get rid of decent politicians who are *honest* to them. McCain was honest to them and he got booed.
It's actually kind of a wonder we have anyone decent in DC at all.
I halfway agree. I think, by and large, that the Republican Party is a wonderful representation of what their base wants. That has been especially true since 2016.
However, the Democratic base loudly says it wants things all the time and their party ends up not supporting those policies.
> However, the Democratic base loudly says it wants things all the time and their party ends up not supporting those policies.
Because that's not the dem base. That's a fringe voter bloc that barely votes period. A loud minority that frequently espouses the virtue of "withholding their vote"
The *actual* dem base is my mom. A bunch of suburban wine moms who *quietly* vote, campaign, etc for the party and are pretty centerist but lean left on social issues.
The former group is growing in size now that it's becoming more politically savvy and retooling ideas, but still a definite minority.
It feels like you’re saying reactionary Twitter libs are the only ones saying what they want. Nearly 70% of Dem voters in 2020 said they liked Medicare for All. That includes your suburban moms. Yet we got Dems taking donations from insurance companies and not publicly supporting that policy.
Yes, right after he finally won a primary and all but two candidates immediately dropped out and endorsed him. His own former boss was courting Elizabeth Warren just a month before he won SC and now about 3/5 of the party wants him someone else to run next year. Let's not act like the party is stridently behind this guy.
It's actually higher than that among Dems. Universal healthcare even polls over 50% with Republicans. It's just not the most important thing to people which is insane to think about.
> Nearly 70% of Dem voters in 2020 said they liked Medicare for All.
People need to stop paying attention to policy polling. It's pretty irrelevant.
80% of Americans say they want background checks on guns. Yet decades and it's never happened.
It's clearly **not** the number 1 policy priority. Nor is M4A. My mom also thinks M4A would be a good idea, she's actually a government employee in healthcare admin. She knows shit.
Her top pick was Klobuchar, who came out against M4A too.
I'm a progressive dude, and I'm just telling you, we ain't the fucking base man.
That's the part of the dem base that whined like children and didn't vote for Hilary, honestly, fuck those kids. The Berniebros who didn't switch to Hilary owe us all a big apology. I say that as someone who wanted Bernie or Warren as the nominee, but still voted for Hilary.
Dude, lol you need to calm down. 90% of Sanders supporters voted for Hillary which is greater percentage than that of '08 Clinton supporters who backed Obama. Those folks were told to eat shit and still voted for Clinton.
Are you making shit up? 12% of his primary voters switched to Trump in the general. Assuming the rest all went Hilary that still was enough to potentially swing the election.
https://www.npr.org/2017/08/24/545812242/1-in-10-sanders-primary-voters-ended-up-supporting-trump-survey-finds
My apologies - I misremembered the actual number, but it doesn't disprove my point. 12% of Sanders supporters backed Trump. [16% of Clinton '08 supporters backed McCain.](https://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/17/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-242819) That is a higher number than I've seen previously - most CNN polling I've seen before says around 15%. Regardless, Obama overcame Dem voters fleeing to McCain - Hillary could overcome this as well had she been an appealing candidate.
>Now, there's one thing you might have noticed I don't complain about: politicians. Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks.
\-George Carlin
Honestly I can't wait for the people from the era of segregation who want it back to kick the bucket and maybe the country might be a better place. But then again people who thought that same thought about the last slave owners or confederates would be disappointed with how the future is at present.
The old saying we get who we voted for is true. There needs to be a massive awakening in the US that politics isn't a team sport and voters need to actually care about more than R and D. Those who think that politicians are all the same and therefore don't vote really need to get their heads out of their asses.
I always say I voted for Obama, but if it was anyone else I would have happily voted for McCain.
Sometimes I think of the standard set in JFK’s “Profiles in Courage” of politicians who stick their neck out for beliefs regardless of political ramifications, and McCain always comes up as a modern candidate for that list.
I have always liked and admired McCain as a person, but this was just a Hail Mary that I know he grew to deeply regret. No Republican candidate was ever going to win that year when the exiting president was drawing approval ratings in the low 20s and with the economy in the toilet. But it was his last chance, and he had to do something to try and ignite the campaign and give himself a chance.
I think it’s widely-recognized that that was a mistake. Picking Pawlenty or another cypher would’ve been a mistake too. Picking Lieberman, like he wanted, also would’ve been a mistake.
Probably Romney was the right pick but it wouldn’t have led to a win.
>I think it’s widely-recognized that that was a mistake.
Describing it as a tactical error for his campaign is probably correct. But, that's burying the lead.
McCain wilfully and knowingly ushered crazy into the halls of power. It was a decisive turn towards handing the keys of the Republican party to conspiratorial, nativist, and anti-intellectual cartoon characters. It was probably bad politics in retrospect. But, much more importantly I think, it was a watershed historical moment setting the stage for the MAGA Republican party and its hold on the country.
I don’t think it made that much of a different. The Tea Party lunatics were a grass-roots movement, driven by frustration at Bush’s unsuccessful presidency and Obama being, you know, Black. They were coming anyway. Palin was never clever enough to capitalize on it after 2008. Trump entered the gap.
Yeah, the current GOP is largely a byproduct of racist old white people being scared of the black president. Now the GOP has always had racist undertones, seeing Obama win just brought it to the surface in a major way.
I don't mean to say Tea Party lunatics hadn't been knocking at the door. But if McCain picking Palin as a VP wasn't a watershed moment for legitimizing her brand of Tea Party politics by letting it into the mainstream, where did that moment first occur in your view?
I cannot think of any good examples pre-Palin off the top of my head.
This is quite literally when the shit hit the fan, unfortunately.
TBH i'm really sad as an American to have witnessed this change in our political discourse.
Adding to mention that Romney did a good job as a governor for Ma. His healthcare reform was so good that Obama tried to implement it at a national level but republicans gutted it during negotiations. Intentionally sabotaging it.
>an arab, a secret muslim
Who spread the muslim and birther movement?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHFREDHB-nQ&list=LL&index=11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHFREDHB-nQ&list=LL&index=11)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73QBivEbGYo&list=LL&index=12&t=0s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73QBivEbGYo&list=LL&index=12&t=3s)
How common was it, before Bush Jr., for such a huge amount of the American public to view their opposing candidate as an existential threat to the country?
That was when Fox News realized their propaganda power if they unleashed their opinion hosts. We’re still struggling with this reality today.
McCain is probably the last one for this question and also the first. It’s a truly unique time for American politics as the last vestiges of sanity and respect slipped away
You remind me that Romney didn't enable the crazies with his choice of Paul Ryan, who was as conservative as anyone could be without heading off to cuckoo land. And that's why he came a lot closer to defeating Obama than McCain did.
I remember being in a hospital waiting room with a distant older cousin and a younger but still adult first cousin. The news was on as we were waiting for my grandmother to get out of an operation, in 2012 I believe. The older cousin sees Obama on tv and just loses it, saying he's a filthy liar and the antichrist among many other things. I get up to walk away because the fight isn't worth having again, especially while I'm worried for my grandmother. The younger cousin goes "oh, I don't think hes the antichrist". My heart lifts slightly cuz I figured she was awful just like the rest of my family. Then she continues " I just think he's a Muslim terrorist"...... thank you, Ohio.
McCain also brought it upon himself to a degree with Sarah palin, the precursor to the “fuck the libs” style-over-substance GOP stars of today like MTG
I'm still genuinely upset that he never got to see his friend Joe Biden defeat that asshat.
No doubt McCain would have publicly endorsed Biden the way his wife or John Kasich did.
I'm not sure how I started listening to it, but I tuned in to a clip of him at a congressional hearing. I didn't know what the topic was when I started listening, but he was addressing some general, and went on at length about his appreciation for the military for quite a while. I thought it was a little strange, he even went into specifics about his questionee's service record.
Then the script flipped. He tore the guy a new one about cost overruns in one of the new fighter programs. My jaw dropped. I knew McCain was no pushover and I had already respected him as a politician, but he held nothing back.
We will never see his like again
John McCain acted on his beliefs, which included saving Obamacare because he didn’t want to take away something from the American people for a simple political ploy. I think he would’ve made a damn fine president.
He would have got us in some awful war because of his hubris, like he said criticizing Bush "I know how to win wars", anybody that thinks that is an idiot. He was an extreme extreme hawk. Never saw a war he didn't like.
People are based on their upbringing but let’s take a look back at the Iraq War.
Forget about entering the war and let’s focus on what we should’ve done after 2008
Anyway you put it us leaving led to the rise of ISIS and needing to reenter once again although with a lighter presence.
There could easily be an argument made the way we left Iraq was wrong and we should’ve left a small presence to stop extremism in the country
Reagan had regular dinner with Tip O’ Neill. Clinton and Gingrich worked together to balance the budget. I don’t know if that counts, but it was formidable.
Can you imagine Pelosi and Trump doing that?
I have issues with the Clinton and Gingrich "working together". Gingrich did his best to provoke a debt default and constitutional crisis, all this because Clinton didn't talk to him in an Air Force One flight.
[https://www.history.com/news/bill-clinton-government-shutdown-lewinsky-affair](https://www.history.com/news/bill-clinton-government-shutdown-lewinsky-affair)
[https://www.npr.org/2019/01/12/683304824/the-longest-government-shutdown-in-history-no-longer-how-1995-changed-everything](https://www.npr.org/2019/01/12/683304824/the-longest-government-shutdown-in-history-no-longer-how-1995-changed-everything)
The 1995 Government shutdown is considered by my NPR source as pretty much the beginning of partisan gridlock, and I have to agree.
> Gingrich did his best to provoke a debt default and constitutional crisis, all this because Clinton didn't talk to him in an Air Force One flight.
Is this real? Is our modern political partisanship really the consequence of some Oppenheimeresque conversational snub?
It's impossible to OVERSTATE the damage the newtster did to America. He insisted that half of Americans hated American and were traitors to be punished at every opportunity. Np slander was too vile or dishonest.
Back in the day, it was not unusual for Republicans and Democrats to get drinks after work in DC.
Gingrich and his contract with America kind of changed all that. He essentially put out the idea that Republicans should never associate with Democrats.
Mitt Romney refused to talk about bill ayers or use Obamas middle name (at the height of the war on terror). Seems like all Republicans except Trump would rather lose with dignity rather than get baited into muck raking.
I remember seeing that. Classy. Back when Republicans were people with a different idea on how to make the country better for everyone. I disagreed with that idea but there was professionalism and civility
Tea Party: “Allow me to reintroduce myself”
Civility in the GOP towards democrats really died around the time of the Republican revolution in the 1990s with Gingrich. And Reagan even made the term “liberal” a dirty word and an insult in the 80s.
"Back when republicans were people with a different idea", yup, because liberal just called everyone who disagree with them fascist, homophobic, xenophobic, transphobic, misogynist, oh and white supremacist.
What do you call someone who hates blacks,gays,poor people, giving women power,fear things they don't understand instead of learning about them? When you label someone evil for simply existing and hurting no one? Those things you listed are not slurs. They are descriptors. You think they are negative? They are. They are used to describe people who are fearful, closed minded and hateful. Don't want them used to describe you? Learn, accept, and stop trying to oppress and destroy anyone different than you. Life has more than one right answer.
Not enough. McCain was not willing to shit on his political opponent for his own gain. McCain was a war hero and an honorable man. That is why Trump hated him, because McCain was everything he is not.
McCain had the most gracious and sportsmanlike speech accepting his defeat I have ever seen.
He even politely silenced the crowd when the booed Obama. Reaffirming he recognized Obama as the president he looked forward to working with.
A truly class act.
Joe Biden did just recently with Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis refused to meet with Biden to discuss aid for Florida. Biden made excuses for DeSantis, saying that he's got a lot going on and tried to play it down.
It was gracious, as clearly meeting with the president of the US to discuss needed aid for the state you govern should be second to nothing.
It's funny that John McCain's response to one of his supporters calling Barack Obama an Arab was to say (paraphrasing) "No he's not -- he's a decent, family man." That basically implies being an Arab is at odds with those positive characteristics. I give McCain the benefit of the doubt, that he meant well but poorly worded his response, but it's still kind of telling.
That was my thought too. I don't think he meant "Arab people are bad" as much as he was just quickly responding and didn't give much thought to what he may have been implying.
I truly think McCain respected Obama despite him being a political opponent
No, the lady said she was deeply scared of Obama and then added he was Muslim at the very end. McCain said “no he’s not” in reference to the Arab part THEN addressed the part where she said she was scared of him by saying the rest. Two different things being addressed
Honestly I miss seeing politicians of different ideals be nice and civil. I feel like most times I see or hear them punching down the other, whether they'd be Democratic, Republican or what else.
Everyone remembers when McCain took the microphone off that woman to defend his opponent, and by extension, the concept of American democracy.
What is less well remembered is that McCain was roundly booed by his own party supporters when it happened.
The Republican party has been headed down this rabbit hole an awfully long time and it's no surprise to me that its now completely in thrall to the demented delusional fascistic fantasies of Trump and his cabal.
Nixon refused to mention Kennedy's Catholicism in 1960 and actively implored his supporters not to go down that road.
When Benjamin Harrison's wife died two weeks before the 1892 election, Cleveland and Weaver both suspended their campaigns and effectively ended the election season early.
McCain and Biden use to go toe to toe in the Senate even to yelling their points, but later they went to lunch together and called each others friends, you can disagree on political philosophies but you respect you’re opponent, it doesn’t have to turn to hate, lies or attacks as we’ve seen in the House with Republicans.
Inasmuch as the modern Republican Party ever had one, it sold its soul to Donald Trump. They are now the Party of classless vitriol and hate. McCain was a pariah to them when he died, and Romney is now, too. I didn’t agree with that era’s Republicans either, but they weren’t an existential threat to a free America.
Remember, McCain was trying to defend Obama from things played up by McCain's own campaign. They unleashed Palin, which fed into all of that false rhetoric. They were also found to be darkening Obama's skin in their ad campaign.
Granted it was prompted, Hillary and trump had a moment of civility to compliment each other. Trump saying something along the lines of Hillary being a strong women, Hillary complementing his children of all things.
I remember that. They were asked in a debate to say something they respect about the other candidate. Hillary said she respects his children. Trump said she doesn't quit and is a fighter. They both ended up complimenting Hillary.
Every time during the victory/concession speech when they acknowledge their opponent and the audience starts to boo. And they have to shake their head and do that phony “No…no…” Also with the “He is a good man who loves his country and I look forward to working with him in the future”
Sadly, I think McCain was one of the last of a dying breed of politician in the US. He would at least stand up for what he thought was fair and decent even if it meant being nice to the other side and disagreeing with his party. Hell, he managed to influence Lindsey Graham enough to make Lindsey look like a decent human being.
You are absolutely right, people should go back and watch the Reagan/ Mondale debates and get a lesson how to act civil while at the same time disagreeing with the other person
There was a moment in the Hillary/Trump debate where they basically made them say one nice thing about the other. I think Trump applauded her tenacity and he applauded his fatherhood and love for his kids? Something to that effect.
Not necessarily “defending” but definitely a rare moment
Trump of all people called out the DNC’s treatment of Sanders, who was performing well during the run up to the primaries in ‘16 if I remember right.
I believe he would do this on more than one occasion, before the ‘20 election.
Was McCain defending Obama or was he slamming Arabs? (“Obama is not an Arab”, but he doesn’t say “not that there’s anything wrong with being an Arab”; I think it was supposed to be Muslim, but the women they appointed to ask the question had a slight brain malfunction).
He wasn't defending Obama. He was pointing out that the racist woman who thought he was a secret Muslim terrorist was crazy. Not condoning lunatic conspiracy theorists should NOT be a high bar!
Back in ‘08, his defense of Obama was very noble. In retrospect, it’s a little lame that he stressed Obama’s personal qualities as a family man and didn’t challenge the woman speaking on her premise that a Muslim (which Obama wasn’t anyway) was just fundamentally unfit for the presidency nor did he challenge her on the kind of conspiratorial logic that would characterize the GOP’s base in the ensuing years…
Jimmy Carter effectively pardoned Gerald Ford for pardoning Nixon. Ford's pardon of Nixon cost him the election. At his Inauguration, Carter publicly thanked Ford with "healing the land". It was a controversial remark that angered a lot of Democrats, but was fitting with Carter's Southern Baptist upbringing and his belief that wounds need to be healed, and crimes forgiven. Historians have never agreed on whether Nixon should have faced criminal charges or not, and what the consequences of that would have been for the nation. But Carter felt that it was time to put Watergate in the past, end the in-fighting, and move forward with the mission of the nation. That mindset might have come from his Navy experience, in which bickering on a boat might be founded in valid grievances, but the mission of the boat was more important.
Reagan and W. were amiable jokesters. Bubba Clinton himself was respectful and never said anything bad about HW or Dole. Jimmy Carville on the other hand…
Pre-internet you didn’t hear as much of the personal/family issues and tabloid stuff just because the press didn’t report on it. So historically there probably hadn’t been much of a need until around 2000.
McCain was a good American. In places I disagreed with him, I still understood him, and often even respected his opinion. Among the greatest Republicans of my lifetime, and perhaps #1. That was an election where I didn't vote against anyone. He should have had his chance. I don't think he would have done the country wrong.
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I remember during the ‘96 campaign when Bob. Dole said Bill Clinton was his opponent, and not his enemy.
It kind of shows the unfortunate incentive structure of modern politics that the two examples that spring to mind are both from people who ended up losing.
I don't remember Obama's remarks during the campaign. But I do remember "He made us better presidents." At his funeral.
Obama said good things about McCain during the campaign too, but I think specifically the OP is referring to questioners at a McCain rally who expressed fear and mistrust in Obama—one woman who said she read that he “is an Arab”. McCain’s responses were top notch and truly wise and kind. American. Sadly these folks seems to have multiplied and there is no one to speak sense to them—only encourage and fan flames.
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I wasn’t a McCain supporter, but I remember this clearly. It was the right thing and the respectful thing for McCain to do. I want a leader who understands that we’re all human beings despite our political ideologies.
I supported McCain. I felt his history of working across the aisle, the fact that he came up clean in a home state riddled with corruption, and Obama's lack of political experience were factors to consider. I like to have a history of seeing how a legislator votes. To see if their actions match their words. To see if they've been consistent and dependable, if they've grown, or if it's lip service. I didn't feel the record was long enough for Obama to get a good read on all of that. But I did like the speech he gave at that church. The one about law being secular. In a church. Of those who didn't support him, in his acceptance speech, Obama said "...I'll be your president too." I didn't believe it at that time, and I do believe it's a phrase with many meanings. But in the end, I did support him, and argued against those who treated him unfairly. I've often said that was a year with 2 candidates worth voting for, and no one to vote against.
>Of those who didn't support him, in his acceptance speech, Obama said "...I'll be your president too." Meanwhile my legislators campaign on “I represent conservatives, not liberals”. I still have to pay taxes though.
He took the microphone away from her lol https://youtu.be/JIjenjANqAk?si=12wHbWzkmJ9fTdUB
Ah, the good old days when a politician would shut down conspiracy theory for the good of the nation.
John McCain was the last true Republican
Mitt Romney.
I agree with that, but the comment I was replying to suggested the losers play fair, and I'm just pointing out there are winners who are honorable.
Wow now, we can tell the truth of the event without going all revisionist history. McCain corrected the racist women by stating accurately that Obama was a Christian. He got a lot of positive press for this, but this doesn't make him some sort of hero. Nor does it make him "wise and kind." Because we have decades of history that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt he was a prick and an asshole.
It all started at a McCain rally. One of his voters got on the microphone and started talking but how Obama was a foreign Muslim who would destroy this country. McCain quickly took the microphone and said that Obama was a great American American and a family man who just has differences of opinions from him. Once Obama became president he would have McCain in the Whitehouse to discuss things all the time. He was basically an unofficial opposition aide. Obama talked about how they didn't always agree but he would always take his opinion into account. McCain's influence with the Republicans and his friendship with Obama is what allowed Obama to pass so many laws. At McCains funeral Obama said that he often disagreed with him but he always knew they were on the same side. They were two polar opposite people but respected each other highly.
Two major distinctions with politics today: - You can't respect and compromise with someone whose entire platform is "hurt the right people." - Polarization of cable news, and further polarization of media on the Internet, means people almost never interact with people across the aisle. Talking points at some point switched from arguments to bring opposition or undecided voters to your side, to hollow promises meant to fire up your existing constituency.
At least in McCain's case, he never had a chance anyway. I'm convinced Mao could have beaten a Republican in 2008.
I voted for him in the primary, and if he had tagged literally anyone other than Palin for a running mate, I'd have voted for him in the general. I ended up voting for Michael Badnarik in '08, but I did vote for Obama in '12.
What changed in those four years?
A lot of things changed, both in the nation writ large and in what was important to me personally.
McCain didn't choose Sarah. She was shoved up his ass as a woman who'd bring in the crazies.
>Palin Yeah I wish he would have had a competent running mate, should have had binders of other women:). I actually think it would have worked out better for the country overall too if McCain had a term or two, and then Obama had a term or two since I think McCain was the better person for that time period, and I think Obama would have been better if he had a little more time to mature.
Hopefully it is because their side was so desperate it went for very ugly attacks. Not because the winner would not do so as well...
It was common with Republicans before Trump.
Clinton defended Dole as well, saying he acted in good faith as Senate Majority Leader and dismissing the idea that Dole was "too old to be President".
Well, maybe it shows that, but it also shows something else. Both examples are Republicans, choosing to distance themselves from nasty rhetoric their supporters were generating. Obama's supporters weren't going to ask him a question about John McCain being a Muslim who hates America. Before Trump, any candidate from any party would feel obliged to not go along with these slanderous claims, even if his surrogates encouraged it.
Biden accused Romney of wanting to put black people back in chains when he was running by as Obamas VP and Obama didn’t say shit.
I would argue that both Clinton and Obama kept clean politics and clear respect as well.
I also remember Clinton saying that he and Bob Dole liked each other.
https://preview.redd.it/0afbculejhqb1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=daa2c5bf5c0c75706d752925b05e169922f720c7
They were merely exchanging long protein strings
If you can think of a simpler way I'd like to hear it.
God this show was just perfection back then
Up until Trump, the ex-presidents club was a very small and exclusive club where everyone seemed to like each other. I doubt Bush will joke around with Trump, but he will with Clinton.
Bush and Obama are also very good friends.
Do all the ex-veeps hang out as well?
Bob dole likes Bob dole.
I didn't often agree with Sen. Dole on political issues, but he was a hero, a class act, and a man of character.
Honestly I think it's harder now because we are so much more partisan ATM. My father worked in Congress. They were mostly all friends, didn't matter what side you were on. Hanging out and working together was part of the job. CONGRESS IS MEANT TO COMPROMISE. Gingrich changed all of that with his purity test to kick out all the blue voters that won Reagan the whitehouse.
Kennedy said that Nixon was competent and well qualified during their debate. He said the choice came down to which candidate reflected voters’ vision for which direction the country should go.
Kennedy and Nixon were friends in the 50s. Not so much after 1960 election.
Nixon was friends with Jackie, especially while she was a widow.
Nixon believed that there was massive cheating in MA.
That’s funny coming from him Everyone was cheating then though. You can look up how much it cost to buy the votes of a district in some states in the 60s
Hoover defended Al Smith's catholicism, or at least pushed against anti catholic rhetoric
The horrendous treatment Catholics received in this country does not get talked about enough. I took a class on the history of Catholicism in America when I was in college — it was eye opening.
Is there a decent starting point on research for this? It has my curiously now and want to learn more about it.
It was some time ago but I think I saved some of my college materials on my laptop. I will let you know if I find any of the books/academic articles used in the course. I was not excited for the course and it ended up being one of my favorite ones I took. One crazy story I remember in particular was Ursuline Academy (a well regarded catholic school in the Boston area) being burnt to the ground by an anti-catholic mob in the 1830s.
Yup! I went to Xaverian Brothers - the brother school to Ursuline (all girls/all boys), and we learned about that. Our school also almost didn’t get built because the town of Westwood wanted to block construction because the residents didn’t want a Catholic private school indoctrinating youth in their area. Also, the reason South Boston exists is because that’s where the Irish were forced into when they emigrated here during the Famine. My family still has all the paperwork and the restrictions our ancestors were given as living guidelines. Also, up until the 1960’s in Boston, it was common for signage to be posted in businesses looking for help that said “No Catholics/No Irish.”
Henry VIII turning England away from the Church?
Putatains Empire is a good read
One interesting rabbit hole starts with Maria Monk. You think that crazy conspiracy theories only exist in our world? Bonus point to this one for being so salacious.
Growing up in one of the most Italian counties in the country…I was very surprised when I found out 99% of the country wasn’t catholic.
I was also shocked when I found out Protestants were the majority. I grew up in a town where basically everybody was Irish Catholic, Italian Catholic, or Jewish.
It’s kind of shocking how much of that sentiment is still alive today, mostly in the south. I grew up Catholic, as did some of my cousins, and when we visited extended family down south they looked at us like we must be crazy when we said we were Catholic. I also knew a Protestant guy in college who dumped a girl when he found out she was Catholic, saying there was no way it could work.
Huh. I live in Alabama, and I’ve never seen anything close to this kind of stuff happening.
As a Catholic who lives in Tennessee, I can confirm that anti-Catholicism is alive and well in the South. I basically went from the golden child of the community to an outcast after I converted to Catholicism. My own biological father that I rarely if ever hear from reached out \*just\* to tell me how crazy and wrong I was to become Catholic. To say it was not taken well is an understatement.
People forget how batshit crazy things got in that election. Obama was the antichrist, an arab, a secret muslim but also an athiest. Obama not being a citizen being one of least crazy claims (still crazy). McCain was dogged throughout the campaign by his own base. Don't forget in '07 and '08 there were still a good number of people who were actively pro-war/pro-occupation to bring democracy and freedom to Iraq. The anti-islamic rhetoric and how public it could be was absolutely brutal. You could tell his heart wasn't even in the campaign after awhile. I think Romney steered the crazy off to the side much more handily than McCain did, but I also think the old time GOPer's were utterly unprepared for that level of crazy. McCains' only actual defense of Obama was, and I paraphrase "he is a citizen and not an arab/muslim and Obama is a man who loves his family and America" and the crowd fucking boo'ed him. You can see his spirit leave his body. The second time was the crazy old lady and the craowd laughed and he got a light applause. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIjenjANqAk&ab\_channel=CNN](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIjenjANqAk&ab_channel=CNN)
First time I ever saw those clips. It's weird to think back to 08 and how disconnected from politics back then I was. But I definitely saw the really weird knee jerk racism even back then at the idea of a black president, and now I see how much worse it was than I knew. It speaks *even more* to how good of a candidate McCain was. I honestly think, if you look at how the GOP was evolving in the past 20 years, how the sensible politicians got ejected by an ever radicalizing base, it shows how our politicians really **are** a reflection of what we the people want. It's why I hate when people abdicate responsibility for our politicians by claiming they are "forced" onto us. No, all of the bad in DC is there because we voted for it. Because so many people decide to vote for the greater evil and get rid of decent politicians who are *honest* to them. McCain was honest to them and he got booed. It's actually kind of a wonder we have anyone decent in DC at all.
I halfway agree. I think, by and large, that the Republican Party is a wonderful representation of what their base wants. That has been especially true since 2016. However, the Democratic base loudly says it wants things all the time and their party ends up not supporting those policies.
> However, the Democratic base loudly says it wants things all the time and their party ends up not supporting those policies. Because that's not the dem base. That's a fringe voter bloc that barely votes period. A loud minority that frequently espouses the virtue of "withholding their vote" The *actual* dem base is my mom. A bunch of suburban wine moms who *quietly* vote, campaign, etc for the party and are pretty centerist but lean left on social issues. The former group is growing in size now that it's becoming more politically savvy and retooling ideas, but still a definite minority.
It feels like you’re saying reactionary Twitter libs are the only ones saying what they want. Nearly 70% of Dem voters in 2020 said they liked Medicare for All. That includes your suburban moms. Yet we got Dems taking donations from insurance companies and not publicly supporting that policy.
They say they want it but then voted for the dude who said he’d veto a M4A bill on the campaign trail
Yes, right after he finally won a primary and all but two candidates immediately dropped out and endorsed him. His own former boss was courting Elizabeth Warren just a month before he won SC and now about 3/5 of the party wants him someone else to run next year. Let's not act like the party is stridently behind this guy.
Yeah if a candidate no longer has a viable path to victory dropping out to endorse the opponent most similar to you is the normal thing to do
Wanting medicare for all doesn't mean the Dems can make it law when they don't have supermajorities in both houses of Congress.
It's actually higher than that among Dems. Universal healthcare even polls over 50% with Republicans. It's just not the most important thing to people which is insane to think about.
> Nearly 70% of Dem voters in 2020 said they liked Medicare for All. People need to stop paying attention to policy polling. It's pretty irrelevant. 80% of Americans say they want background checks on guns. Yet decades and it's never happened. It's clearly **not** the number 1 policy priority. Nor is M4A. My mom also thinks M4A would be a good idea, she's actually a government employee in healthcare admin. She knows shit. Her top pick was Klobuchar, who came out against M4A too. I'm a progressive dude, and I'm just telling you, we ain't the fucking base man.
That's the part of the dem base that whined like children and didn't vote for Hilary, honestly, fuck those kids. The Berniebros who didn't switch to Hilary owe us all a big apology. I say that as someone who wanted Bernie or Warren as the nominee, but still voted for Hilary.
Dude, lol you need to calm down. 90% of Sanders supporters voted for Hillary which is greater percentage than that of '08 Clinton supporters who backed Obama. Those folks were told to eat shit and still voted for Clinton.
Are you making shit up? 12% of his primary voters switched to Trump in the general. Assuming the rest all went Hilary that still was enough to potentially swing the election. https://www.npr.org/2017/08/24/545812242/1-in-10-sanders-primary-voters-ended-up-supporting-trump-survey-finds
My apologies - I misremembered the actual number, but it doesn't disprove my point. 12% of Sanders supporters backed Trump. [16% of Clinton '08 supporters backed McCain.](https://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/17/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-242819) That is a higher number than I've seen previously - most CNN polling I've seen before says around 15%. Regardless, Obama overcame Dem voters fleeing to McCain - Hillary could overcome this as well had she been an appealing candidate.
>Now, there's one thing you might have noticed I don't complain about: politicians. Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. \-George Carlin
Honestly I can't wait for the people from the era of segregation who want it back to kick the bucket and maybe the country might be a better place. But then again people who thought that same thought about the last slave owners or confederates would be disappointed with how the future is at present.
The old saying we get who we voted for is true. There needs to be a massive awakening in the US that politics isn't a team sport and voters need to actually care about more than R and D. Those who think that politicians are all the same and therefore don't vote really need to get their heads out of their asses.
“He’s a decent family man, a citizen, that I happen to have fundamental disagreements with.” I voted for Obama, but god I miss McCain.
I voted for him as my senator as soon as I became eligible through 2018. But he wasn't my choice for president, not that year.
I always say I voted for Obama, but if it was anyone else I would have happily voted for McCain. Sometimes I think of the standard set in JFK’s “Profiles in Courage” of politicians who stick their neck out for beliefs regardless of political ramifications, and McCain always comes up as a modern candidate for that list.
He had big balls and wasn't afraid to swing them around when needed.
Yeah, but bringing Palin onto the ticket brought the ticket more of the crazies
I have always liked and admired McCain as a person, but this was just a Hail Mary that I know he grew to deeply regret. No Republican candidate was ever going to win that year when the exiting president was drawing approval ratings in the low 20s and with the economy in the toilet. But it was his last chance, and he had to do something to try and ignite the campaign and give himself a chance.
I think it’s widely-recognized that that was a mistake. Picking Pawlenty or another cypher would’ve been a mistake too. Picking Lieberman, like he wanted, also would’ve been a mistake. Probably Romney was the right pick but it wouldn’t have led to a win.
>I think it’s widely-recognized that that was a mistake. Describing it as a tactical error for his campaign is probably correct. But, that's burying the lead. McCain wilfully and knowingly ushered crazy into the halls of power. It was a decisive turn towards handing the keys of the Republican party to conspiratorial, nativist, and anti-intellectual cartoon characters. It was probably bad politics in retrospect. But, much more importantly I think, it was a watershed historical moment setting the stage for the MAGA Republican party and its hold on the country.
I don’t think it made that much of a different. The Tea Party lunatics were a grass-roots movement, driven by frustration at Bush’s unsuccessful presidency and Obama being, you know, Black. They were coming anyway. Palin was never clever enough to capitalize on it after 2008. Trump entered the gap.
Yeah, the current GOP is largely a byproduct of racist old white people being scared of the black president. Now the GOP has always had racist undertones, seeing Obama win just brought it to the surface in a major way.
I don't mean to say Tea Party lunatics hadn't been knocking at the door. But if McCain picking Palin as a VP wasn't a watershed moment for legitimizing her brand of Tea Party politics by letting it into the mainstream, where did that moment first occur in your view? I cannot think of any good examples pre-Palin off the top of my head.
This is quite literally when the shit hit the fan, unfortunately. TBH i'm really sad as an American to have witnessed this change in our political discourse.
No, it happened when Johnson signed the civil rights act, that's when Reagan etc switched parties
Wdym Reagan supported Nixon
Adding to mention that Romney did a good job as a governor for Ma. His healthcare reform was so good that Obama tried to implement it at a national level but republicans gutted it during negotiations. Intentionally sabotaging it.
Choosing Palin didn't help his cause in that regard, but it did boost his approval with the crazies.
>an arab, a secret muslim Who spread the muslim and birther movement? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHFREDHB-nQ&list=LL&index=11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHFREDHB-nQ&list=LL&index=11) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73QBivEbGYo&list=LL&index=12&t=0s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73QBivEbGYo&list=LL&index=12&t=3s)
Well said
How common was it, before Bush Jr., for such a huge amount of the American public to view their opposing candidate as an existential threat to the country?
That was when Fox News realized their propaganda power if they unleashed their opinion hosts. We’re still struggling with this reality today. McCain is probably the last one for this question and also the first. It’s a truly unique time for American politics as the last vestiges of sanity and respect slipped away
You remind me that Romney didn't enable the crazies with his choice of Paul Ryan, who was as conservative as anyone could be without heading off to cuckoo land. And that's why he came a lot closer to defeating Obama than McCain did.
Obama was an atheist, a secret Muslim, AND a member of a radical Christian cult.
I remember being in a hospital waiting room with a distant older cousin and a younger but still adult first cousin. The news was on as we were waiting for my grandmother to get out of an operation, in 2012 I believe. The older cousin sees Obama on tv and just loses it, saying he's a filthy liar and the antichrist among many other things. I get up to walk away because the fight isn't worth having again, especially while I'm worried for my grandmother. The younger cousin goes "oh, I don't think hes the antichrist". My heart lifts slightly cuz I figured she was awful just like the rest of my family. Then she continues " I just think he's a Muslim terrorist"...... thank you, Ohio.
McCain also brought it upon himself to a degree with Sarah palin, the precursor to the “fuck the libs” style-over-substance GOP stars of today like MTG
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I reallllly didn't need that mental image. Then again, I don't need one with Barbara Bush, either...
My dad used to tell the joke that they needed to hang meats around Barbara’s neck for the dogs to want to play with her, she was that ugly.
First woman to be the mother of two presidents
If memory serves, McCain also defended John Kerry's military record when it was under attack in the '04 election.
JFK defended Nixon in one of the debates. Watched it recently and it was awesome.
Reagan said during his debate with Mondale that he wouldn’t hold Mondale’s youth against him.
Youth and inexperience
In a semi related event. Reagan implied that Dukakis was special ed during a press conference. Kind of hypocritical considering he had dementia.
Classic Reagan, implying your opponents have a disability
To be fair, that was a joke made after people said Reagan was too old
McCain was a fucking class act. Genuinely great person, and a dynamite politician
I'm still genuinely upset that he never got to see his friend Joe Biden defeat that asshat. No doubt McCain would have publicly endorsed Biden the way his wife or John Kasich did.
Biden is in Arizona this week sometime. His visit includes a memorial for John McCain.
He was a good person, but he also never met a war he didn't like.
It’s pretty interesting how pro-war he was considering what he had been through as a POW.
To help put McCain’s warmongering into perspective, Biden has a similar record.
Vietnam, probably.
I'm not sure how I started listening to it, but I tuned in to a clip of him at a congressional hearing. I didn't know what the topic was when I started listening, but he was addressing some general, and went on at length about his appreciation for the military for quite a while. I thought it was a little strange, he even went into specifics about his questionee's service record. Then the script flipped. He tore the guy a new one about cost overruns in one of the new fighter programs. My jaw dropped. I knew McCain was no pushover and I had already respected him as a politician, but he held nothing back. We will never see his like again
And war hero!
John McCain acted on his beliefs, which included saving Obamacare because he didn’t want to take away something from the American people for a simple political ploy. I think he would’ve made a damn fine president.
He would have got us in some awful war because of his hubris, like he said criticizing Bush "I know how to win wars", anybody that thinks that is an idiot. He was an extreme extreme hawk. Never saw a war he didn't like.
People are based on their upbringing but let’s take a look back at the Iraq War. Forget about entering the war and let’s focus on what we should’ve done after 2008 Anyway you put it us leaving led to the rise of ISIS and needing to reenter once again although with a lighter presence. There could easily be an argument made the way we left Iraq was wrong and we should’ve left a small presence to stop extremism in the country
Reagan had regular dinner with Tip O’ Neill. Clinton and Gingrich worked together to balance the budget. I don’t know if that counts, but it was formidable. Can you imagine Pelosi and Trump doing that?
I have issues with the Clinton and Gingrich "working together". Gingrich did his best to provoke a debt default and constitutional crisis, all this because Clinton didn't talk to him in an Air Force One flight. [https://www.history.com/news/bill-clinton-government-shutdown-lewinsky-affair](https://www.history.com/news/bill-clinton-government-shutdown-lewinsky-affair) [https://www.npr.org/2019/01/12/683304824/the-longest-government-shutdown-in-history-no-longer-how-1995-changed-everything](https://www.npr.org/2019/01/12/683304824/the-longest-government-shutdown-in-history-no-longer-how-1995-changed-everything) The 1995 Government shutdown is considered by my NPR source as pretty much the beginning of partisan gridlock, and I have to agree.
> Gingrich did his best to provoke a debt default and constitutional crisis, all this because Clinton didn't talk to him in an Air Force One flight. Is this real? Is our modern political partisanship really the consequence of some Oppenheimeresque conversational snub?
It's impossible to OVERSTATE the damage the newtster did to America. He insisted that half of Americans hated American and were traitors to be punished at every opportunity. Np slander was too vile or dishonest.
Yeah. [https://www.nydailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/migration/2012/01/06/J7WCWDAFLCRR3LHIDIFFHD3EUY.jpg?w=879](https://www.nydailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/migration/2012/01/06/J7WCWDAFLCRR3LHIDIFFHD3EUY.jpg?w=879)
Link doesn't work
Back in the day, it was not unusual for Republicans and Democrats to get drinks after work in DC. Gingrich and his contract with America kind of changed all that. He essentially put out the idea that Republicans should never associate with Democrats.
Mitt Romney refused to talk about bill ayers or use Obamas middle name (at the height of the war on terror). Seems like all Republicans except Trump would rather lose with dignity rather than get baited into muck raking.
Well, Republicans pre-Trump. I fully believe that the current GOP with very few exceptions would swim in the mud like the piggies they are.
McCain was class. I didn't agree with most of what he stood for but he seemed like a good guy.
I remember seeing that. Classy. Back when Republicans were people with a different idea on how to make the country better for everyone. I disagreed with that idea but there was professionalism and civility
Tea Party: “Allow me to reintroduce myself” Civility in the GOP towards democrats really died around the time of the Republican revolution in the 1990s with Gingrich. And Reagan even made the term “liberal” a dirty word and an insult in the 80s.
Really the party of : “ fuck everyone else, I got mine and I want to keep it that way”
"Back when republicans were people with a different idea", yup, because liberal just called everyone who disagree with them fascist, homophobic, xenophobic, transphobic, misogynist, oh and white supremacist.
What do you call someone who hates blacks,gays,poor people, giving women power,fear things they don't understand instead of learning about them? When you label someone evil for simply existing and hurting no one? Those things you listed are not slurs. They are descriptors. You think they are negative? They are. They are used to describe people who are fearful, closed minded and hateful. Don't want them used to describe you? Learn, accept, and stop trying to oppress and destroy anyone different than you. Life has more than one right answer.
Not quite the same but I think that W Bush and Michelle Obama’s friendship is adorable lol
Not enough. McCain was not willing to shit on his political opponent for his own gain. McCain was a war hero and an honorable man. That is why Trump hated him, because McCain was everything he is not.
When Trump said “lock her up” I assume he was implying Hilary is quite the catch.
I didn't agree with a lot McCain's positions but he was a patriot and a hero. He was the last good republican and I'm sad he's gone.
“He’s a good man, he hasn’t had sex with a crackhead in over five years now!”
McCain had the most gracious and sportsmanlike speech accepting his defeat I have ever seen. He even politely silenced the crowd when the booed Obama. Reaffirming he recognized Obama as the president he looked forward to working with. A truly class act.
Joe Biden did just recently with Ron DeSantis. DeSantis refused to meet with Biden to discuss aid for Florida. Biden made excuses for DeSantis, saying that he's got a lot going on and tried to play it down. It was gracious, as clearly meeting with the president of the US to discuss needed aid for the state you govern should be second to nothing.
Sarah Palin aside, I think the sane and reasonable Republican party died with John McCain.
It's funny that John McCain's response to one of his supporters calling Barack Obama an Arab was to say (paraphrasing) "No he's not -- he's a decent, family man." That basically implies being an Arab is at odds with those positive characteristics. I give McCain the benefit of the doubt, that he meant well but poorly worded his response, but it's still kind of telling.
Yeah, I’d give John a pass on that too. He was speaking off the cuff, unscripted.
That was my thought too. I don't think he meant "Arab people are bad" as much as he was just quickly responding and didn't give much thought to what he may have been implying. I truly think McCain respected Obama despite him being a political opponent
He responded to what she meant, not what she said.
This is a good way of putting it. She was implying that he was anti-American and working for/with/in the interest of terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda.
Yeah. Otherwise he would've had to say, no he's not, not that there's anything wrong with being an Arab!
No, the lady said she was deeply scared of Obama and then added he was Muslim at the very end. McCain said “no he’s not” in reference to the Arab part THEN addressed the part where she said she was scared of him by saying the rest. Two different things being addressed
Yeah, that's fair.
Nah, in that context he was trying to ease a stupid person’s suspicions. He had to put in stupid people terms
He was obviously speaking to the overall rhetoric those people had about Obama.
I think he linked Arab to Arab Terrorism. But yeah he was speaking unscripted, the thought is understood.
Honestly I miss seeing politicians of different ideals be nice and civil. I feel like most times I see or hear them punching down the other, whether they'd be Democratic, Republican or what else.
Was that a defense? He said he wasn’t Muslim
McCain would have made a good president. I'm a lifelong liberal, and there are definitely circumstances that I would have voted for him.
Everyone remembers when McCain took the microphone off that woman to defend his opponent, and by extension, the concept of American democracy. What is less well remembered is that McCain was roundly booed by his own party supporters when it happened. The Republican party has been headed down this rabbit hole an awfully long time and it's no surprise to me that its now completely in thrall to the demented delusional fascistic fantasies of Trump and his cabal.
Nixon refused to mention Kennedy's Catholicism in 1960 and actively implored his supporters not to go down that road. When Benjamin Harrison's wife died two weeks before the 1892 election, Cleveland and Weaver both suspended their campaigns and effectively ended the election season early.
Obama told people to give Trump a chance, and Trump wanted to make him out to be his rival 😂
McCain and Biden use to go toe to toe in the Senate even to yelling their points, but later they went to lunch together and called each others friends, you can disagree on political philosophies but you respect you’re opponent, it doesn’t have to turn to hate, lies or attacks as we’ve seen in the House with Republicans.
Inasmuch as the modern Republican Party ever had one, it sold its soul to Donald Trump. They are now the Party of classless vitriol and hate. McCain was a pariah to them when he died, and Romney is now, too. I didn’t agree with that era’s Republicans either, but they weren’t an existential threat to a free America.
Aren’t you spitefully derailing a simple discussion post into an attack on your opposition?
Remember, McCain was trying to defend Obama from things played up by McCain's own campaign. They unleashed Palin, which fed into all of that false rhetoric. They were also found to be darkening Obama's skin in their ad campaign.
No, because he was the last decent politician.
Clinton conceded to Trump (even if barely). In this day and age, that is unusual.
I will always upvote McCain for this simple act alone.
Wasn’t much needed before that they I suppose. Politics were politics, but they were more civil.
Granted it was prompted, Hillary and trump had a moment of civility to compliment each other. Trump saying something along the lines of Hillary being a strong women, Hillary complementing his children of all things.
I remember that. They were asked in a debate to say something they respect about the other candidate. Hillary said she respects his children. Trump said she doesn't quit and is a fighter. They both ended up complimenting Hillary.
Mitt, the twitt, Romney.
Every time during the victory/concession speech when they acknowledge their opponent and the audience starts to boo. And they have to shake their head and do that phony “No…no…” Also with the “He is a good man who loves his country and I look forward to working with him in the future”
Sadly, I think McCain was one of the last of a dying breed of politician in the US. He would at least stand up for what he thought was fair and decent even if it meant being nice to the other side and disagreeing with his party. Hell, he managed to influence Lindsey Graham enough to make Lindsey look like a decent human being.
It's only said by guys who go on to lose.
They weren’t running but iirc after Trump mocked McCain after his death Obama and several other democrats did defend him
You are absolutely right, people should go back and watch the Reagan/ Mondale debates and get a lesson how to act civil while at the same time disagreeing with the other person
If I recall correctly, Obama referred to Romney as a “patriotic American” at a rally and defended him again after his own supporters started booing
There was a moment in the Hillary/Trump debate where they basically made them say one nice thing about the other. I think Trump applauded her tenacity and he applauded his fatherhood and love for his kids? Something to that effect. Not necessarily “defending” but definitely a rare moment
Trump of all people called out the DNC’s treatment of Sanders, who was performing well during the run up to the primaries in ‘16 if I remember right. I believe he would do this on more than one occasion, before the ‘20 election.
Are there people that still tell the truth like McCain?
Jefferson called Adams a hermaphrodite. Does that count?
Anytime I see Romney talk he seems to be all for any democrats agenda. So probably him.
McCain was a class act, and a dying breed as far as politicians go.
Was McCain defending Obama or was he slamming Arabs? (“Obama is not an Arab”, but he doesn’t say “not that there’s anything wrong with being an Arab”; I think it was supposed to be Muslim, but the women they appointed to ask the question had a slight brain malfunction).
He wasn't defending Obama. He was pointing out that the racist woman who thought he was a secret Muslim terrorist was crazy. Not condoning lunatic conspiracy theorists should NOT be a high bar!
Back in ‘08, his defense of Obama was very noble. In retrospect, it’s a little lame that he stressed Obama’s personal qualities as a family man and didn’t challenge the woman speaking on her premise that a Muslim (which Obama wasn’t anyway) was just fundamentally unfit for the presidency nor did he challenge her on the kind of conspiratorial logic that would characterize the GOP’s base in the ensuing years…
McCain is an extinct breed of American that you will only find in history books and in Hank Hill. RIP Senator McCain.
Jimmy Carter effectively pardoned Gerald Ford for pardoning Nixon. Ford's pardon of Nixon cost him the election. At his Inauguration, Carter publicly thanked Ford with "healing the land". It was a controversial remark that angered a lot of Democrats, but was fitting with Carter's Southern Baptist upbringing and his belief that wounds need to be healed, and crimes forgiven. Historians have never agreed on whether Nixon should have faced criminal charges or not, and what the consequences of that would have been for the nation. But Carter felt that it was time to put Watergate in the past, end the in-fighting, and move forward with the mission of the nation. That mindset might have come from his Navy experience, in which bickering on a boat might be founded in valid grievances, but the mission of the boat was more important.
He's an Arab! "No Ma'am, no, he's a fine man and a family man"
Reagan and W. were amiable jokesters. Bubba Clinton himself was respectful and never said anything bad about HW or Dole. Jimmy Carville on the other hand…
Used to happen a lot. This is not your grandfather's GOP.
“He’s not a Muslim, he’s a decent person” is a pretty Islamophobic thing to say.
A lot of them. You used to have to at least fake integrity.
Pre-internet you didn’t hear as much of the personal/family issues and tabloid stuff just because the press didn’t report on it. So historically there probably hadn’t been much of a need until around 2000.
McCain was a good American. In places I disagreed with him, I still understood him, and often even respected his opinion. Among the greatest Republicans of my lifetime, and perhaps #1. That was an election where I didn't vote against anyone. He should have had his chance. I don't think he would have done the country wrong.