McCain booed after trying to calm anti-Obama crowd

McCain booed after trying to calm anti-Obama crowd - Yahoo! News

McCain booed after trying to calm anti-Obama crowd
By PHILIP ELLIOTT and BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writers

The anger is getting raw at Republican rallies and John McCain is acting to tamp it down. McCain was booed by his own supporters Friday when, in an abrupt switch from raising questions about Barack Obama's character, he described the Democrat as a "decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States."

A sense of grievance spilling into rage has gripped some GOP events this week as McCain supporters see his presidential campaign lag against Obama. Some in the audience are making it personal, against the Democrat. Shouts of "traitor," "terrorist," "treason," "liar," and even "off with his head" have rung from the crowd at McCain and Sarah Palin rallies, and gone unchallenged by them.

McCain changed his tone Friday when supporters at a town hall pressed him to be rougher on Obama. A voter said, "The people here in Minnesota want to see a real fight." Another said Obama would lead the U.S. into socialism. Another said he did not want his unborn child raised in a country led by Obama.

"If you want a fight, we will fight," McCain said. "But we will be respectful. I admire Sen. Obama and his accomplishments." When people booed, he cut them off.

"I don't mean that has to reduce your ferocity," he said. "I just mean to say you have to be respectful."

Presidential candidates are accustomed to raucous rallies this close to Election Day and welcome the enthusiasm. But they are also traditionally monitors of sorts from the stage. Part of their job is to leaven proceedings if tempers run ragged and to rein in an out-of-bounds comment from the crowd.

Not so much this week, at GOP rallies in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida and other states.

When a visibly angry McCain supporter in Waukesha, Wis., on Thursday told the candidate "I'm really mad" because of "socialists taking over the country," McCain stoked the sentiment. "I think I got the message," he said. "The gentleman is right." He went on to talk about Democrats in control of Congress.

On Friday, McCain rejected the bait.

"I don't trust Obama," a woman said. "I have read about him. He's an Arab."

McCain shook his head in disagreement, and said:

"No, ma'am. He's a decent, family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with (him) on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign is all about."

He had drawn boos with his comment: "I have to tell you, he is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States."

The anti-Obama taunts and jeers are noticeably louder when McCain appears with Palin, a big draw for GOP social conservatives. She accused Obama this week of "palling around with terrorists" because of his past, loose association with a 1960s radical. If less directly, McCain, too, has sought to exploit Obama's Chicago neighborhood ties to William Ayers, while trying simultaneously to steer voters' attention to his plans for the financial crisis.

The Alaska governor did not campaign with McCain on Friday, and his rally in La Crosse, Wis., earlier Friday was much more subdued than those when the two campaigned together. Still, one woman shouted "traitor" when McCain told voters Obama would raise their taxes.

Volunteers worked up chants from the crowd of "U.S.A." and "John McCain, John McCain," in an apparent attempt to drown out boos and other displays of negative energy.

The Secret Service confirmed Friday that it had investigated an episode reported in The Washington Post in which someone in Palin's crowd in Clearwater, Fla., shouted "kill him," on Monday, meaning Obama. There was "no indication that there was anything directed at Obama," Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren told AP. "We looked into it because we always operate in an atmosphere of an abundance of caution."

Palin, at a fundraiser in Ohio on Friday, told supporters "it's not negative and it's not mean-spirited" to scrutinize Obama's iffy associations.

But Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania an author of 15 books on politics, says the vitriol has been encouraged by inflammatory words from the stage.

"Red-meat rhetoric elicits emotional responses in those already disposed by ads using words such as 'dangerous' 'dishonorable' and 'risky' to believe that the country would be endangered by election of the opposing candidate," she said.

This is why non-Americans should be allowed to vote in the U.S Presidential elections.

I'm begging anybody in the U.S to vote for Obama, only because I can't. The U.S.A has a massive effect on the entire world, and yet I, personally, can't do anything about it.

YouTube - McCain Trying To Respect Obama Now & Crowd Boos!


It's amazing, McCain and his surrogates have been trying push this ridiculous storyline for weeks and now it's taken hold among their most idiotic supporters. They let the genie out of the bottle, and now they're trying to put it back in.

Retards. And there's morons on this very board who are willing to believe this shit as well.

Why would you vote for Obama?

I could see that if you're a minority and on welfare, but other than that, i have no idea why you would support someone that is on the extreme left.

Here are the reasons why i could never let myself vote for Obama:

1. I am strongly against redistribution of wealth.There are too many lazy people milking our system in America. I have been to poor countries. I KNOW what poor is.
2. I am strongly against Affirmative Action---this is racist.
3. Obama would hurt the middle class the most and they are the ones who need the most help.
4. I can wipe my own bottom thanks. I don't need the government to tell me how to or when to wipe. Would you rather have someone give you fish or give you a rod and bait and teach your how to fish? Which is better for America in the long run?
5. I am against censorship--->Fairness Doctrine(same thing as censorship).

And i won't even get into the details of where Obama got his campaign money from, or even his abortion stance.

The real issues to me are those above. America needs to wake up and take ownership for themselves, not depend on the government to do everything for them. This will only corrupt our country even further.

Funny thing is, a few months ago, before Palin was announced as a running mate, I was one of the VERY FEW people who supported McCain here. Now that Palin has been selected, it seems like half of the board has turned into McCain worshippers, whereas I have completely lost interest in McCain because when he dies from a heart attack or skin cancer, Palin will be president...now that is NOT in the best interest of our economy, national security, or foreign relations, and I don't care what the retards have to say about that, because it's true. The only thing Palin is good for is sucking cock and making babies...and maybe money shots

I am very suprised at this.... it seems that McCain has created this monster (his supporters) that he cannot control anymore. I am very happy that McCain ACTUALLY stood up for Obama because he knew deep down that these things his supporters were saying were completely FALSE. I applaud him at that.

In that same meeting when that crazy old lady said "I don't trust Obama, he's an Arab!".... Those are the type of McCain supporters who should absolutely be ashamed of themselves for making these accusations that are complete bull shit! How also some people say he's a muslim, so he MUST be a terrorist.... when I hear that, one, that's pretty damn racist to say or to think that, and two, I am downright shocked and disgusted with them. Some of his supporters are despicable and pathetic when they think that way.

At least finally McCain is starting to say that some of the things these "supporters" are coming up with are false!

You're going to be VERY popular around here...

The government has fucked up buddy, it's time for it to solve the problems it 's created for Americans.

We can't do anything about the price gas, the price of oil, the price of food, the price of electricity, the falling value of homes, or the depreciation of the value of our money. These problems do not stem from the housing crisis. The housing crisis was caused by these problems. They are the direct result of the overprinting of money, using debt for financing, and the war which has resulted in rediculous prices for oil, whicn in turn lead to increased prices for every product, while the average American is stuck making the same amount of money as they have been for years. ALL of these problems stem directly from governmental mismanagement.

Obama is a moderate at best, he's only on the extreme left if you're on the extreme right.

I'm not sure how voting for McCain would change this. Though I'd like to see your data for how many "lazy people milking the system" there are. I'm sure there are some, but not nearly as many as politicians would like you to think.
How so? It was put in place to combat racism.
This is amazing to me. Democrats have traditionally been better to the middle class, and Obama's tax cuts will help them far more than McCain. What makes you think McCain is better?

Since you didn't include details, I have no idea what you are talking about here.

You and Obama agree on that. He doesn't support it.

I'd love to hear this.

All of this rhetoric about raising taxes & socialism is so much garbage for the disposal - why isn't anyone talking about the trillion dollars that has already been spent on the Iraq war? Off budget, of course. Who do you think is paying for that - the man in the moon? We could have done a lot for ourselves with that money - schools, health insurance, help for the down & out, etc. But no, the bailout will keep the wealthy rich & the poor, poor! AIG got so giddy over their bailout, they spent a half million at a 'get your rocks off' spa! Bunch of brainless poobahs...

It really tells you something about McCain's character and decision making if he chose SARAH PALIN as his running mate.

McCain and Palin did not create this. Encouraged it, perhaps. The truth is there are many angry people, and there are some hateful people, and there is the extremist minority of those who are are going to act.

The same angry people exist on the Democrat side. They exist everywhere.

This is how lynch mob mentalities begin, when responsibility and leadership fail, and hooliganism is not confronted and discouraged.

It's a dangerous course. McCain has demonstrated that his campaign does not put country first, ahead of winning. Quite the opposite it seems, but these are desperate times, and his campaign is calling the shots. He seems willing to try anything for a week until the polling results allow him to challenge the direction and they try something else. The Schmidt and Rove style strategists do see severely negative attacks being their only hope. McCain is from Arizona, and Barry Goldwater in the 60s tried the route of inciting anger and racism and it didn't win him the presidential election. It did demonstrate that it could dramatically affect it.

I'm guessing that he is quite uncomfortable with the latest strategy he has been forced to wage. Watch his body language and demeanor. He's visibly tormented having to do this to try to win. I'm glad he has started to denounce the bad behaviour. Then again, that's why surrogates are the ones who do the heavy lifting, while McCain keeps his hands clean. I hope it's not merely that. I'd like to believe he has genuine sense of honour about this. In the end it's the behaviour that counts. Talk is cheap.

how do you like "Miss Congeniality" October suuuuuprise? Trying to get her slutty sister's X fired. after mcsame picked palin it was all downhill

McCain no doubt has been noticing that his "tent" contains about 50% crazy people. He finally couldn't fucking take it anymore... I almost shed a tear during that moment, he grabbed that microphone and just let it out!!!!! He is a principled man and doesn't deserve this kind of campaign.

He, like a lot of politicians had been looking to many gobtards and dipshits for guidance in how to wage an effective campaign against a "dream" candidate. They have been steering him wrong and he now knows it... it is regretfully too late now though. Sarah Palin has driven his campaign into the gutter, attracting racists and veritible retards to the fold. I'll bet Cindy has been looking at the caliber of people that has been coming to their rallies and has been greatly dismayed.

John McCain's expression was like "What the Fuck?" when he shouted out in a call and response cadence at a busy rally the other day, "What is Barack Obama?" and somone shouted, "A TERRORIST!!!!!"

That was NOT the response he was looking for, his face was contorted and pained when he heard that.

All I know is that John McCain has gone WAY up in my book... God Bless John McCain!!!!!

The RNC is reaping EXACTLY what they sowed. All of the results from their steady negative campaigning, smear tactics and distortions are coming into to light and it's not pretty at all. Some people honestly believe all that crap. But they were expecting the intellectuals to eat this up... not the extreme lunatics.

It's exposing the ugly truths of some people in America. The optimistic side of me really wants to think that the majority of our nation don't fall under this category, but you never know. It'll be interesting to see where McCain/Palin go from here, because it's clear that the gloves are off as well as the phony masks and costumes of some very nasty-minded people.