Academic

Debate Follies: Of Hurt Feelings and Denunciations

By Sherrilyn Ifill

So Sen. John McCain?s feelings were hurt because Rep. John Lewis, said that the rallies in which supporters of the McCain/Palin ticket called out threatening remarks, and at which Palin herself suggested that Barack Obama was dangerous, reminded Lewis of George Wallace supporters during the Civil Rights Movement?   http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/11/john_lewis_condemns_gop_campai.html    I credit Obama for his restrained response at the debate last night and Rep. Lewis for pulling back on those remarks, clarifying that he was not directly comparing McCain to George Wallace.  http://www.ajc.com/services/content/news/stories/2008/10/15/lewis.html

But why should Obama be called upon by McCain to denounce Lewis? remarks?  Rep. Lewis barely survived white supremacist violence on the Edmund Pettis bridge in Selma 40 years ago. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/03/AR2007030301239.html  In a very real sense, John Lewis a veteran of a war on his home soil.  He bears the scars of white supremacist beatings.  Those experiences must deeply influence his sense of the dangers of unbridled racism, and the obligation of responsible white leaders to call-out and check the impulses of their most extreme supporters.  Just as John McCain?s personal experiences as a former prisoner of war enabled him (at least initially) to hear the Bush Administration?s justifications for using so-called ?harsh interrogation techniques? differently than many of his Republican colleagues, so too do John Lewis? unique experiences as a survivor of some of the worst violence of the civil rights movement, influence how he hears those McCain/Palin crowds.     

                With all this talk of hurt feelings and denunciations, you?d think that some news reporter or even Sen. Obama would remind Senator McCain that early in the primary season, when it was still thought that Hillary Clinton was his only rival, Sen. McCain stood smirking while one of his supporters in South Carolina asked him directly, ?How do we beat the bitch??  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLQGWpRVA7o   No crowd.  Just 20 or 30 people in a room, and a direct question to McCain.  After making a lame joke, his response to the crowded room was ?that?s an excellent question.?  Does he think that maybe his colleague Hillary Clinton?s feelings were ?hurt? by that comment and by his response?  Any apology offered?  Not even when he called Sen. Clinton several weeks ago to try to and learn more about the mortgage relief plan she?s been touting?  http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14599.html    

                All of this is just theater.  McCain doesn?t think that Obama?s dangerous or a terrorist.  McCain does know that right now he can?t win on the issues.  That possibility ended 3 weeks ago with the perfect storm of McCain?s bizarre response to the financial crisis (I?m suspending my campaign to go sit in a room and say nothing;  I?m not coming to the debate/ I?m coming to the debate) and the deadly Katie Couric/Sarah Palin interviews.  That?s when undecided voters started en masse to issue ?no confidence? votes on the McCain/Palin ticket.   It?s still 3 weeks to Election Day.  Let?s hope that the false ?denounciation game? doesn?t fill the void of real engagement with the issues until November 4^th.

ShareThis

Full post as published by BlackProf on October 16, 2008 (boomark / email).