McCain apologizes profusely for 'Hussein Obama' comments by radio host introducing him @ event

[sabra]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/02/mccain-apologiz.html

ABC News' John Berman Reports: Senator John McCain apologized profusely today for comments made by radio host Bill Cunningham who was introducing him at an event in Cincinnati. Cunningham referred to the Illinois Senator three times as "Barack Hussein Obama."

...

"At some point the media will quit taking sides in this thing and maybe start covering Barack Hussein Obama the same way they covered Bush, the same way they covered Cheney and the same way they cover every Republican," he said.

There was a quick reaction from McCain today.

McCain apologized three separate times for Cunningham's remarks. He said he takes "responsibility" for him being here but says he has no idea who chose him and says he doesn't know him and didn't hear the comments when they were uttered but was told about them before he came on stage.

His swift reaction was a bit of an evolution for the candidate, who several times this campaign, has had to watch not only his own mouth, but the mouths of those around him.

[COFoothills]

1. Stay classy John McCain...

... that Cunningham guy is repugnant. I've heard his show before. Absolutely offensive on every level.

[CottonBear]

4. McCain isn't "classy" at all and anyway, the GOP uses the RW radio hosts as their nasty mouthpieces

then apologize for the crap that they spew.
:grr:

[COFoothills]

19. I'm well aware of that.

....I guess my sarcasm mode wasn't turned up high enough. Sorry.

[CottonBear]

25. You can always utilize the sarcasm smiley as needed.

Here it is: :sarcasm:

I've never heard of this particular RW radio host. He is so disgusting. :grr:

[sabbat hunter]

60. McCain

isn't exactly on the best of terms with some of the RW talking heads.

[Connie_Corleone]

11. I despise that guy.

He is always saying something racist, making racist jokes. I remember when he joked about donating money to the 100th black men killed in Cincinnati one year.

And he is by far the ugliest radio talk show host ever.

A face definitely made for radio.

[livetohike]

2. Bush received a pass from the media in his campaign

and in his Presidency.

These people need called on the carpet every time they try to smear any candidate, imo. It's the only way to stop it.

[Raven]

3. Even crazy John knows that this will backfire. n/t

[Lerkfish]

34. so why hasn't the clinton campaign figured it out yet?

oh yeah, because they're overpriced idiot consultants.

[Purveyor]

5. I've heard this cunningham's show a couple of times on sunday night (he took drudge's place)

and he is a real asshole, indeed!

Yes, on the show, he ALWAYS refers to Obama as "Barack Hussein Obama."

[AtomicKitten]

6. Whether he's sincere or not doesn't matter; McCain did the right thing.

[maddiejoan]

7. OMG

If this was HIllary, there would be a rush to say her apology didn't matter, and that she obviously put it out there in the air on purpose.

Unfreakingbelievable.

[hendo]

30. is this really how little you think of us?

McCain did the right thing here, and if Hillary were to ever come out and appologize about the nasty things her supporters have said regarding Obama I am sure that everyone here would support her in that as well.

Remember, just because some right wing talking head is bashing the democratic candidate that doesnt mean the republican candidate is supportive of that message. I highly doubt there are big right wing conspiracy meetings where Bush or McCain meet with most of these tightwads and give them an agenda to follow. It would be best if McCain would just wash his hands of these jerks all together.

[JimGinPA]

8. The GOP Have Been Having These Focus Groups...

I'm sure they're telling them that shit won't fly.

[Ichingcarpenter]

18. All they have to do is throw it out there by a surrogate then apologize

But the message still gets out there.

They are testing the water to see how racist or sexist they can go without
alienating voters too much, but still sending the hate message out.


GOP Polling On Racial/Gender Pitfalls Of Facing Obama Or Hillary
By Eric Kleefeld - February 25, 2008, 8:41AM
The Republican Party has gotten around to confronting a new challenge this cycle will present — how to deal effectively with either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton without appearing racist or sexist. The party has commissioned polling and focus groups designed to test how far they can go with an attack, and where the line is between an effective attack versus one that alienates voters.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/gop_examining_racialgender_pit.php

[oviedodem]

9. At least McCain has the guts to IMMEDIATELY denounce what was said

unlike Hillary's team who has never "truly" denounced circulating anything.

[maddiejoan]

14. ahem

"I just want to make it very clear that we were not aware of it, the campaign didn't sanction it and don't know anything about it," Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said in a teleconference with reporters. "None of us have seen the e-mail in question. If anybody has independent reporting that they've done on it I would welcome it."

[Occam Bandage]

22. "We were not aware of it, we did not sanction it" is not an apology or a denunciation.

[maddiejoan]

26. Nothing to apologize for.

Nothing to denounce.

You bought into Drudge's story and his framing of the incident -- that's not the fault of the Clinton Campaign.

That's the fault of the Obama Campaign --and anyone else who bought into this BS.

[Occam Bandage]

43. All a matter of interpretation. You certainly can't say that the coverage

of this incident has been favorable to Clinton's image.

[maddiejoan]

46. When is it ever?

[Occam Bandage]

48. Not often. She simply can't win an negative-blast exchange,

which makes her post-NH strategies seem almost as if they were designed to inflict damage to her campaign.

[City Lights]

28. Exactly. And Team Hillary was still trying to make the most of the Obama pic

this morning through Stephanie Tubbs Jones. So much for sticking to the issues. :eyes:

[I Vote In Pittsburgh]

10. Uh oh

If McCain takes the nice guy approach, this election is much less likely to be a landslide for Obama.

[ingac70]

27. No way...

The Republican base despises "nice guys".

[Tatiana]

12. This is a bit surreal. So we have the REPUBLICAN candidate apologizing PROFUSELY

regarding an unfair smear by one of his supporters/surrogates?

What does that say about our own... oh hell, nevermind!

[Hoof Hearted]

21. and again. . .

"I just want to make it very clear that we were not aware of it, the campaign didn't sanction it and don't know anything about it," Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said in a teleconference with reporters. "None of us have seen the e-mail in question. If anybody has independent reporting that they've done on it I would welcome it."

[Occam Bandage]

23. Claiming lack of knowledge is neither apology nor denunciation. McCain did not say,

"Gee, I didn't tell him to say that, and I didn't sanction those words." He apologized for them.

[TwilightGardener]

41. He is trying to burnish his maverick honorable image, by apologizing to

the press--he DIDN'T act like a man in front of his audience, notice. This is a game, and I'm surprised so many DUers are falling for it.

[Tatiana]

45. Does not excuse Maggie's initial reaction, though it was an improvement to be sure. n/t

[Occam Bandage]

49. Her initial reaction was stupid. An early denial and attack on Drudge (much as DUers were doing)

would have shut this story down. They thought they could make hay with this, though, and it (like practically every other attack on Obama) blew up in their face. Wolfson's later statement was more appropriate, but still not as good as it should have been.

It's a sad day when your DU support base is less idiotic than your campaign manager.

[Marrah_G]

13. Good for him for doing the right thing. He still won't get my vote though

[npincus]

15. and promised it "would never happen again"

yeah, right.

[ingac70]

16. I love this...

McCain knows this stressing of Obama's middle name will do him no favors with Independents.

Of course, not stressing Obama's "nefarious" middle name will only enrage the bigoted base of the GOP.

:popcorn:

[BenDavid]

17. Yes, stay above it all. Hell, that's what you have the RNC for

and the swiftboaters of america.....

[Occam Bandage]

20. Awesome. If we're getting the Republicans apologizing profusely for saying his full name,

they have absolutely no idea what's acceptable and what's racist.

[K Gardner]

24. LOL.. yanno? Too funny. It IS his middle name.. I don't run from it, but

I think they KNOW when they try to use it in an inflammatory manner, its going to backfire.

[renate]

29. good for him

His standing with this wing of the Republican party is mushy at best and he did good by taking the risk to piss them off further.

I believe in giving credit where credit is due: :applause:

(applause for McCain... boy, that felt weird)

[AlinPA]

31. McCain "apologizing profusely" for something a right-wing talk show host said?

Sounds like ABC news is trying to make McCain look good. I still remember the filthy "joke" he told about Chelsea Clinton to a bunch of republicans. What they do is use rotten language and "joke", to get their desired effect, then apologize after their damage is done.

[TwilightGardener]

44. Exactly--I can't believe there are so many gullible people on DU applauding this asshole.

[Shine]

32. Well-played this time, Mr McCain

It was appropriate, but I'm sure we can count on more verbal mistakes from him in the coming months.

This guy is too blunt for his own good. :D

Did ya catch his comment yesterday about saying "he'll lose" if he can't convince the American public about our "success in Iraq"?

He immediately had to back-track on his comment. :eyes:

We'll be seeing more of those sorts of gaffes, I'm certain. Stay tuned.... :popcorn:

[TwilightGardener]

33. For all of you gullible idiots who think McCain "did the right thing", you just fell

for a typical RW trick--get the nasty words out there by a surrogate, and then let McCain look like an "honorable nice guy" for apologizing. This will happen over and over again, I guarantee it.

[dysfunctional press]

35. we can only HOPE that the media covers obama the same way they did for bush & cheney...

but they won't.

[Alhena]

36. My respect for McCain just went up a lot

[TwilightGardener]

39. Don't--you're falling for a game the GOP is going to play--smear with surrogates, McCain defends--

looks like a "good guy"--he's not. He didn't stick up for our Dems until AFTER the audience left. This is good cop/bad cop.

[AlinPA]

47. McCain told a rotten "joke" about Chelsea Clinton some years back and lost any

respect I had for him. Some around here may still remember it.

[cottonseed]

37. Like Obama or not....

It's nice to see Republican's apologizing to Dems for once. I'm not naive enough to think this will be the norm, and realize a hell of a lot more smearing will go on in the background, but I do see the opportunity here.

[TwilightGardener]

40. He's not defending Dems--this is a trick, and we're falling for it.

[I Vote In Pittsburgh]

55. Correct

We are falling for it by thinking he is some nice guy. The truth is that someone did research and found that emphasizing Obama's middle name will not gain any voters. I know this because McCain is a calculating politician nutball.

[rox63]

38. I believe McCain's middle name is Sidney

Shall we all start calling him John Sidney McCain? What is Hillary's middle name? And don't say Rodham, that's just her maiden name. (Gawd I hate that term - it's her pre-marriage name)

[zbdent]

42. By "profusely", they must mean that he went on right after Cunningham, talked for nearly

half an hour, and then quietly met with reporters to say "well, he shouldn't have said that ..."

I remember there was something said a while back ... most people attack/insult publicly and apologize privately ... a good person would publicly apologize for a private insult/attack ...

[Dhalgren]

50. Why did he apologize? Hussein IS Obama's name. When Obama

is sworn in next January, he will be asked to repeat, "I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear..." I think that it is kind of insulting for McCain to apologize for someone using Obama's actual name! This is beginning to to be silly. Pretending Obama's middle name doesn't exist is an insult to Obama, his father, and all of his Obama side of the family...

[dethl]

51. Because the name Hussein was emphasized each time it was said

in order to draw a connection between Barack and Saddam (EDIT: even if the asshat didn't say Saddam directly). It was intentional and extremely condescending. While I absolutely disagree with McCain and will be voting for the Democratic nominee, he did the right thing at least publicly and politically. What's going on in McCain's head is an entirely different story though.

EDIT2: Just watched the full intro (I had seen the video of Cunningham saying "Hussein" but not the before or after) - holy hell this guy is nuts. And McCain's crowd cheered him too.

[K Gardner]

53. Yeah, I thought that at first too. I JUST NOW watched the video of this and

hope I can find a link to post here. This guy was vicious. He slimed all the networks before he started in on Obama. You really have to hear it. I was surprised and now I understand why McCain apologized.

I agree tho, about the name. Its his name ! LOL. Unless you couch it as a slur, like this guy did. Context is necessary in this case. :hi:

[Dhalgren]

58. O.k, context and usage might make a difference. I'll check out the vid.

But I think that this is a learning moment for the American people. Hussein is just a name, as good as any and better than some. We have to be able to rise above this kind of ignorance; we have to be better than this...

[Ichingcarpenter]

52. MSNBc is covering it now. McCain said nothing about it during the introduction

McCaom said nothing until he talked to reporters and was asked to comment.
after the event.

[K Gardner]

54. Did you see the video? I thought it was absolutely vicious. The intro, I mean.

[Ichingcarpenter]

56. I just watched it and his apology came talking to reporters

I didn't see anything else except the introduction the ass hole did.

[Ichingcarpenter]

57. dupe delete

[TheCowsCameHome]

59. McCain should've made that dirtbag aplogize before the crowd

Let's hear the words come from his own mouth, John.

[Catherine Vincent]

61. Why didn't he apologize profusely for that stupid woman that called Hillary a "B****"? nt