McCain's Racist History

You may have heard about the latest lie in the McCain campaign. They are now saying that Barack Obama called Sarah Palin a pig. The reality is that Obama used the expression “you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig” in reference to McCain’s addition of the word "change" to his own campaign. Obama’s point was that McCain is saying change but the reality is that McCain voted along with George Bush 95 percent of the time. Here is the video that caused the stir.

McCain is now running campaign ads perpetuating the lie. This is not surprising but it does raise concerns as far as just how damaging this might be for the Obama campaign. The same people that are most likely to get their news from watching TV alone are the same ones that are likely to have racist views and take offense at a black man calling a white woman a pig.

The McCain lipstick ad is no longer available on YouTube due to CBS demanding it’s removal. There is another McCain ad that says that Obama is not respectful of Sarah Palin. I am not understanding why Palin deserves so much respect. Was Hillary Clinton shown more respect than a male running for president? If so, I am not aware of it. I almost hate to suggest it but it’s starting to feel like McCain/Palin are planting the seeds of racism.

John McCain has had some issues with racism in the past and I would think that he would be reluctant to do anything to draw attention to that. As everyone knows, John McCain is quick to utter “POW” given half a chance. He is so prone to this in interviews that at times it almost seems like a tic, “POW”, cough, “war hero”.

Since I have been doing research on McCain, I came across his account of being held prisoner. I was shocked to read that he referred to his captors as “gooks.” I was further shocked by the sheer number of times he used the clearly offensive term. He used the term a total of 13 times. Here's an except.

"After I had been there about 10 days, a "gook"—which is what we called the North Vietnamese—came in one morning."

John McCain continued to feel free to use the derogatory term until as recently as 2000. Prior to this McCain had some other issues with inappropriate comments. In a book titled “The Real McCain”, an incident between John and Cindy McCain was witnessed by reporters.

“Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain's intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, "You're getting a little thin up there." McCain's face reddened, and he responded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt." McCain's excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days."

I think we all should be concerned. If that wasn't enough, here is Palin being interviewed by ABC's Charles Gibson. You've just got to love the way she tries to hide the fact that she has no clue what he's talking about.