Earlier today, speaking to a friendly crowd at a town hall forum in his home state of Arizona, Republican Senator John McCain met a not so friendly response when he defended President Barack Obama. Asked by an elderly woman if the President knows that we still live under a Constitution (the woman, apparently, found Obama’s fiscal policies to be unconstitutional), McCain answered, “I’m sure he does,” then adding, to a laughing audience, “No, no. I am serious. I am sure that he does and I’m sure he respects the Constitution.”
That was apparently the wrong answer, as the crowd cried out with boos and shouts of “No!” Not one to back down, McCain continued, “Wait a minute. Wait a minute. He is sincere in his beliefs, we just happen to disagree. And he is the president. And let’s be respectful.” The Arizona Senator was also later booed for insisting Guantanamo Bay be shut down and for saying Republicans couldn’t just “nuke” Obama’s health care reform.
Now, Senators being shouted down at town hall meetings is nothing new, especially in the last several weeks. And it’s not entirely new for John McCain either – remember during the election when he had to defend Obama against allegations that he was a secret Muslim? Yeah, that didn’t go so well for McCain either. The thing is, though, these questions shouldn’t even be up for discussion.
As hard as it may be to believe, Obama is not a secret Muslim nor was he born in Kenya. Also, he respects the Constitution – he was a professor in Constitutional Law after all – and he does not support “death panels” or want to kill your grandma either. And finally, it is not possible to be a Socialist, a Communist, a Fascist, a Muslim and a liberal peacenik all at the same time. Yet, for some reason, people believe all of these things. And more!
Why is that? Well, maybe because a certain subsection of talking heads – found prominently on blogs, talk radio and cable news – propagate this stuff non stop. If pundits keep scaring their viewers and listeners with crazy talk, guess what, those viewers & listeners are going to start saying crazy stuff too. Weird, huh?
Here’s the video:
Comments
Max
August 25th, 2009 - 4:32:31 PM
man, it's like facts don't even matter anymore. it's as if we're entering Orwell territory