Where Is McCain’s Outrage?
October 18, 2008
by The Stiletto
|During the final debate between John McCain and Barack Obama at Long Island’s Hofstra University moderator Bob Schieffer asked about the abased tone of the campaign, and the GOP contender made this cryptic, inside baseball reference: “In fact, some T-shirts that are very… unacceptable.”
What T-shirts? McCain never says. And unless you watch FOX News or regularly read political Web sites, you would not know what the heck he’s taking about.
Unacceptable? The Stiletto is perplexed and dismayed that McCain has never defended the honor of his running mate, who has been called a whore, a c**t – and worse. He should have turned to Obama and said: “As a son, a brother, a husband, a father, an officer and a gentleman I demand, Senator, that you look straight into the camera and apologize directly to Sarah Palin for supporters of yours using the vile epithet ‘c**t’ to refer to her.”
McCain probably would have gotten bleeped by the censors, but Obama – who has accused Palin of being “racist” when she says he doesn’t pal around with people who hold America in the same regard as most of us do – would have been knocked back on his heels. And the press – busy destroying the reputation of workaday citizen Joe the Plumber – would have been silenced. That could have been the game-changer McCain has been seeking all along.
Too bad McCain didn’t have the guts to do it.
Nope. Instead, when Obama was talking about two fifty-something women he’d met at a rally that were out of work and worried about health care, McCain turned the conversation back to Joe the Plumber. I watched that debate and thought, hmm – three guys talking about another guy, and then afterward all the guys on CNN jumped in to have their say, while the numerous women on their pundit panel didn’t utter a peep for several long tv-minutes after the debate. Finally, Campbell Brown spoke up, and then more men jumped in to reply to her, talking over the women who were trying to respond.
Guys talking to guys talking about guys.
I was shouting at the tv by that point, “Shut up! Shut up!”
It got better after that, at least, but until CNN’s pc-ness kicked in, it was the same-old same-old.
Also, didn’t McCain call Cindy a cunt in front of a reporter? And that rape joke. You know – it’s not like any of them are really prepared to stand up for women. At least Obama had finally clued in enough by the last debate to talk about women’s issues a wee bit. It’s why women rated him about 8 points higher than men did.
Too little too late, maybe.
Men who are out of work worry about health care, too. Besides, the 95 percent of those who will get a tax cut under Obama’s plan are families – not single, childless women. Making the same salary, I will suddenly be considered “rich” and more of my income will taxed and redistributed to other people who don’t even pay taxes. And if I should lose my job – my single income – I won’t have the savings to fall back on that I otherwise would have had. No thanks.
I wasn’t aware that McCain had made comments like that. If true, it would explain why this line of attack is foreclosed to him.
John McCain tried to bring up the vulgar t-shirt issue but was immediately and rudely interrupted by Barak Obama. The mediator then quickly redirected the debate. I was yelling at the T.V. and Obama to shut up when he interfered with McCain mentioning the t-shirt. I do agree that McCain should do more to defend Palin against the shari-ah law that has been declared against her by the media and Obama supporters, but I have not forgotten that it was John McCain alone that defended Senator Clinton’s honor against the vulgar sexist rantings of Obama’s dear friend Rev. Pfleger.
Obama’s campaign has encouraged this behavior since it began and the silence of the D.N.C. and the Obama campaign has been deafening as well as telling. It has told me where they all really stand.
McCain needed to be given the opportunity to condemn this but, apparently the moderator didn’t see it as that big of an issue. He would have had it been done to any other group of people and especially if it had come from the right.. It would have been given tons of debate time.
Yes he should be doing alot more, this isn’t a one sided issue and men who are complacent tacity endorse it as much as any woman
Does anyone know of it is true what they say about McCain, calling his wife a c*nt? And what is “the rape joke”?
I have heard that he has lost his temper with her in public, but never anything like this. A quick google search shows that the only places that reported this are lib sites, like raw story, huffington post – and they all got it from the book, “The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don’t Trust Him and Why Independents Shouldn’t,” which one might call the lefty equivalent of Corsi’s hit job on Obama.
Cindy’s family has more money than G-d so I don’t think she would put up with that kind of humilation (being called a c**t) and not give him the boot. After all, she’s bankrolled his political career from the beginning and without her he wouldn’t be where he is today. Personally, I’d have to see a more trustworthy source than a bunch of web sites and blogs that are in the tank for Obama before I would believe this story.
I am not sure what the rape joke refers to.
Olberman (I know—apologies) covers the rape joke story here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhy8bKih8gg
Here’s a PDF version of the orignal newspaper story from 1986: http://www.rumromanismrebellio.....e_joke.pdf
Here’s the 1998 Salon article that reveals the nasty joke he told about Chelsea Clinton: http://www.salon.com/news/1998/06/25newsb.html
[So, bald-faced misogyny on one hand, and malignant paternalism on the other...]
Well that clears up the mystery about the rape joke. Do you suppose in the 22 years since telling that joke he’s become enlightened? He has more senior-level female staffers in his Senate office than Obama has in his, and his female staffers are amongst the highest paid; Obama’s highest paid Senate staffers are all men. Oh, and he’s given a woman a shot at occupying the oval office one day.
As for that Chelsea Clinton joke, Hillary and Bill Clinton seem to have forgiven him – she has repeatedly called him her “friend” and he invited McCain to speak at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative and gave him a noticeably warm introduction.
Great post Stiletto.
I agree with Juliette that McCain did try during the debate, but then bit his lip and stopped.
I wish they would all do more. I fear that the reason the RNC has not done more is because of the reaction from all when HIllary spoke out towards the end of her campaign. She was accused of being a complainer and it seemed to hurt her politically. Palin is also so reluctant to speak out about the sexism. My thought again is they see (unfortunately) the reaction that HIllary got.
Thank goodness WE are speaking out. You all know my feeling on women who are not.
You know, I watched their Al Smith Dinner speeches, and it was as if the ugly campaign rhetoric melted away and I could see the genuine commitment to public service in both McCain and Obama. They’re still men, still paternalistic and misogynist on occasion, I’m sure (aren’t we all misogynist on occasion?), and I will never love either of them.
I campaigned for and voted for a woman in my federal election: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libby_Davies
Maybe one day, she’ll run for Prime Minster.
Thanks, Amy. Is there a way of getting word to Carly Fiorina that McCain has got to take Obama over Palin being referred to as a “c**t” by supporters of his – not to mention the sexual violence you refer to in your post. Everything he and Palin say is being recast as “racist” (a phenomenon Hillary knows all too well), so why isn’t he fighting imaginary examples of racism with real examples of mysogyny and sexism? It’s baffling and infuriating!
Dawn, his sense of humor is what propelled Mike Huckabee past all the other GOP contenders – several of whom were much better known than he (i.e., Giuliani, Thompson), and one of whom (Romney) had more money than the rest of the field (including the McCains) combined. Instead of debates, we should have joke-a-thons. We’d end up learning more about the candidates than we do from the canned sound bites they keep repeating over and over.
I will pass this thought on Stiletto. I can tell that they are struggling with it right now. That’s why McCain bit his lip. He wants to defend her, but knows there would be political consequences from the BFF MSM BOH.
I think it will galvanize all those independent women who still haven’t decided what they will do on election day.
But, really, the time to do it was when 60 million people were watching. Unless he goes on every single Sunday morning show in one day (”the full Ginsburg”) and repeats this challenge to Obama on every one of them he won’t have the same impact. There are just a couple of Sundays left. He better get on the stick.
The McCain camp has denounced the sexism and other unfair treatment of women during the campaign. Cindy McCain, Carly Fiorina, and Nancy Pfotenhauer have publicly denounced the sexism against Palin. Pfotenhauer and Palin have praised Hillary for making cracks in the glass ceiling. Within a few days of the announcement that Palin was running as VP the Oregonian reported on Sept. 3rd that “The McCain campaign launched an aggressive defense of Sarah Palin today, sharply attacking the coverage of her as ’sexist’.”
http://blog.oregonlive.com/ele.....nounc.html
The McCain campaign issued a written statement calling media coverage of Palin a “faux media scandal designed to destroy the first female Republican nominee” for vice president. McCain also defended Hillary Clinton when Pfleger attacked her with hate speech during the primaries. McCain said, “I respect her and I think that kind of language and that kind of treatment of Senator Clinton is unwarranted, uncalled for and disgraceful.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8hWTjWbL2o
Nancy, that’s a good start, but not enough or specific enough. With NO basis in fact, the McCain campaign is being accused of racism. The campaign needs to quash this BS once and for all by very deliberately and specifically listing all the demeaning, sexually violent and dehumanizing things that have been said about Palin. This has gone way beyond sexism – which is discriminatory – to outright mysogyny – which is woman-hatred. It’s funny that none of Obama’s surrogates can point to an unambiguously “racist” statement anyone in the McCain camp has made yet they lob the charges on a daily basis. McCain has very specific instances of woman-hatred he can point to and he says nothing. WHY?
I brought this up at dinner the other night. Someone said Palin was too aggressive and they didn’t like that. I said aggressive for a woman or a man?
When I mentioned the cunt t shirts everyone was surprised but nobody seemed to understand what that actually meant.
I said if t shirts said Obama was a nigger the news would be all over it. Clearly I stopped the conversation. No one knew what to say after that.
Are people just not ready to accept women’s issues as equal to men’s. We are still the beneath men?
Good for you, Mary! You are one gutsy woman.
The misogyny in America is undeniable. The following link is horrid so be cautious before clicking.
http://www.sucksorrules.com/ba.....cunt-face/
OMG. Don’t click on the link. I’m sorry I did.
Yeah, I hesitated to approve the comment, but then I thought, what’s the point of protecting sensibilities when that stuff just keeps on coming?
The “Delicate Flower” portion of our program: also over.
Another horrific You Tube video posted over at Riverdaughter’s place under the thread “And people think this is funny.” It was shocking to me as it was unexpected – the adrenaline that I felt has given me a terrific headache.
I just feel like crying now before I get angry again. It’s exhausting having to watch, deal with and process this sort of violence against women.
Maybe they are gambling on the disgust factor, like with my brother a Democrat all his life who said he is going to vote for Palin/McCain because anyone so viciously attacked must have some talent that is threatening to the Democrat elites. Who knows for sure but it doesn’t fit the image of a former fighter pilot to let such degrading words against man or woman go unchallenged. He was repeatedly taunted and insulted as a POW, yet he stands so mute when his running mate is treated like scum.
I know that McCain’s not perfect, but he and his campaign still have done more to defend Palin against sexism than the DNC ever thought of doing (which they never did).
In the end, WE will have to learn that NO ONE will carry this cause of ours unless it is us. WE have to do the talking, the promoting, the protesting. WE have to keep this issue front and center. And we can’t be worried what people will say or think. We will be called everything in the book until we speak up about it enough. Case in point—–we responded very strongly to Ezra’s vile video, and although he complained bitterly and called us names, he still removed his video and backed off.
Even the men with the best of intentions, and there are many—-including McCain who I believe has mellowed through the years—-can’t possibly experience our lives for us. We have to do it ourselves come what may.
And one more word about McCain—–how could he not respect women—–he’s surrounded by strong ones at every turn—-mother, wife, daughters. And he obviously is proud of them all!!
How about the this from Terry Tate?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN2eZtAPLiY
How can we make this stop? Read the comments. People thinks it’s funny to watch women get beaten up.
goesh: I don’t understand it myself.
Cynthia: The attacks have intensified to a new, violent level as Amy pointed out in her post. McCain needs to defend her again and in terms that are proportionate to the vileness and outrageousness of the attacks. Palin is not only being brutalized but her abusers are calling her a racist to deflect attention from their hateful actions. If this isn’t a modern-day application of the Hitlerian Lie then I don’t know what is.
You can read the comments about it here:
http://riverdaughter.wordpress.....-is-funny/
Of course McCain didn’t say that. He doesn’t use that word in public (unless he’s talking about his wife).
As I wrote earlier in this thread, this story (McCain calling his wife a “c**t”) appears to have originated in a book that was meant to be a whack-job on McCain. If there is a trustworthy source for this clain, then you should provide it. And a single reporter who heard it doesn’t count, since – as we found out – a single reporter who claimed that he heard someone at a Palin rally yell “kill him” in reference to Obama was not backed up by other reporters on the scene, by law enforcement agents on the scene or by other rally attendees. Until I see a well, documented and corroborated source for this I will put it in the urban myth category.
In a court of law, a single person testifying that he overheard something (”kill him” or “c**t” is hearsay and inadmissible. A good standard to follow.
At a rally yesterday, Obama said: “Arguing is fine, but “we’ve got to have a line that we don’t cross.” Apparently his supporters calling Palin a “c**t” is on the side of the line he finds acceptable.
I might be a fatalist Stiletto, but I’m done asking and waiting for others to fight our battles. They’re NOT going to do it the way we want it done. If we want to do it a certain way, then we have to be the ones to do it. There is rampant sexism yes, but we don’t live in an age where we are totally disempowered like it was before we had the right to vote. We have enough voice and enough leverage now to fight this battle ourselves. To count on others to do it for us is to take our own power away. Like the Sojourner Truth quote at the bottom of the page—–let’s stop talking about women’s rights and just take them!!
You all know that I support McCain (my first Republican vote EVER), and although he’s been light years better than the Obama campaign when it comes to sexism, the level of involvement you are asking from him using the exact wording you describe is impractical. I’m happy that at least he kept his promise to appoint more women to executive level positions, Sarah Palin being the first down payment on that promise.
For the rest—–we’ve got voices—-let’s use them!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....Y&eurl
Terry Tate YouTube
Terry Tate body slamming Palin NO MORE of this!!
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