McCain Didn't KNow About Martin Luther King?

[sunoftheskye]

 

[JayHawk]

Check out John McCain trying to wiggle his way out of the fact that he voted against MLK day back in 1983. John McCain was born in 1936. He was how old, how old—hmmmm—let’s see…maybe 47 years old I think. He was almost 50 years old and he voted against MLK day! You see he needed just a few more years to figure out the impact MLK had on our society. He certainly can’t say in this statement that he was young and inexperienced. Nope, he has to give the impression that he was young and inexperienced since it was his first year in Congress—so he studied and learned and studied and learned until it dawned on him. And then he suddenly realized he made a big mistake.

Click here to see the video.

McCain: I voted in my first, I think it was my first year in congress against then… I began to learn and I studied and people talked to me and I not supported it but I fought very hard in my home state of Arizona for recognition against a Governor who was against my own party.

And what else did he say?

“I had not been involved in the issue. I had come from being in the military to running for Congress in a state that did not have a very large African American population and it had not been in issue. It just simply had not been.”

In a February 2000 interview with ABC News, McCain said his initial opposition to a holiday was based on his belief that “it was not necessary to have another federal holiday, that it cost too much money, that other presidents were not recognized.”

He didn’t follow teh Blacks all that much because they didn’t really exist in Arizona.

The not usually very good Jack Tapper makes the same points on McCain and MLK day.

Tomorrow Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., will honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by speaking in Memphis on the 40th anniversary of King’s assassination.

He will no doubt sound a bit different than he did in April 1987, when McCain was interviewed by USA Today about his five and a half years as a P.O.W. “They never gave us any meaningful news,” McCain said. “They told us the day that Martin Luther King was shot, they told us the day that Bobby Kennedy was shot, but they never bothered to tell us about the moon shot. So it was certainly selected news.”

Surely the John McCain of 2008 would not hold that the assassinations of King and Kennedy were not “meaningful.” (UDATE: McCain’s top aide Mark Salter says McCain didn’t mean “meaningful” in that interview, arguing that what McCain was trying to say was that the Vietnamese always gave the prisoners bad news from home, not good news.)

In fact earlier this year, McCain told a different version of the story of how he heard of King’s assassination…read on

from the Crooks and liars Website

I'll not defend it. I will say that I have been gone, not tortured by the enemy mind you, but gone in a complete vaccuum for three months at a time. That is a damn site less than John McCain. I have always felt out of touch with just about everything. Months later in simple conversation I find I have missed horrific events because the court cases are being resolved.

I am encouraged that he initially stuck with his people's voice and then when his constituents changed he fought the power base in his own state to ensure MLK day was recognized.

Check out this BLOG with an ABC story for the timeline

 

[Spensed]

...I'll not defend it. I will say that I have been gone, not tortured by the enemy mind you, but gone in a complete vaccuum for three months at a time. That is a damn site less than John McCain. I have always felt out of touch with just about everything....

Let's us agree that McCain is way out of touch and leave it at that. LOL.

 

[chance1]

Thanks for the clip

I think this is the kind of thing that will resonate positively with voters

He made a mistake - he was not well versed in the issue - he learned more

and adjustted

and did the right thing

he admits things that he didn't do so well - talks about them freely

doesn't beat around the bush (haha)

vs. some others

who are not as forthright

seems to me barack obama's racism speech (a good one) where he talked about blacks/whites and their perception of things/history of things - applies

and that mccain was very forthright here

good job

not gonna hurt him

 

[Spensed]

^ Yeah lots of blacks will now vote McCain. LOL.

 

[chance1]

^ Yeah lots of blacks will now vote McCain. LOL.

i think ur writing the same thing in 2 diff posts

probably legal

but not very entertaining

or on point

which seems to be a fairly consistent thingy

 

[Spensed]

....McCain's voting record since 1990 doesn't support [his] explanation. In addition to voting to oppose a state holiday in 1987 (which he later supported) and a federal holiday in 1989, McCain voted in 1994 to cut funding for the commission that promoted King's holiday.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/04/mccain-booed-heckled-at-m_n_95079.html

 

[JayHawk]

No but it does play very well with his desire to cut the pork out of the federal budget.

I do not know the background on the 1994 vote so feel free to give a credible link that supports it.

The Huffington post provides a snippet that surely leaves out the context and is simply a sound bite made to create a feeling.

McCain voted in 1994 to cut funding for the commission that promoted King's holiday.

Thats all it says. No link, no source and no background. Could it be easier to pick out a news agency that is taking something out of context? Aren't we all tired of sound bites? Don't we come here because we wanna make an educated choice not a popularity contest winner?

 

[Spensed]

^ McCain's objection to spending money to celebrate the Martin Luther King Holiday may or may not be about saving pork. It would be interesting to see how many other public holidays he objected to spending money on.

But it is tellingly consistent with his earlier objection to the Holiday. Hardly the mark of someone who thought, at that point, that he had made a mistake with the black community, a mistake which is so apparent to him now that he's trying to pander for their votes.

Sure we want an educated choice, but we also want an educated candidate:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/06/mccain-gets-facts-wrong-o_n_95297.html

Did I mention that McCain was 894th out a class of 899 at the US Naval Academy? We simply don't want another dunderhead as President.

 

[GATXER]

Seems to me McCain was a little buzy durring the time MLK was national news.

AS for the Hoilday.....its become just another day off.....hardly what it should be.

 

[snapcat]

I think this will bite McCain in the butt. This is a huge gaffe.

 

[JayHawk]

^ McCain's objection to spending money to celebrate the Martin Luther King Holiday may or may not be about saving pork. It would be interesting to see how many other public holidays he objected to spending money on.

But it is tellingly consistent with his earlier objection to the Holiday. Hardly the mark of someone who thought, at that point, that he had made a mistake with the black community, a mistake which is so apparent to him now that he's trying to pander for their votes.

Sure we want an educated choice, but we also want an educated candidate:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/06/mccain-gets-facts-wrong-o_n_95297.html

Did I mention that McCain was 894th out a class of 899 at the US Naval Academy? We simply don't want another dunderhead as President.

PR while a candidate by doing a public speech at the scene of the crime...literally at the scene...I would expect.

It would be foolish to contend that JM is pandering for black votes.

 

[chance1]

I'm sorry but that just doesn't cut it. personally, I think he was probably too drunk to notice much of anything.

what did u hear that on Air America?

thanks for adding to the dialogue

 

[Spensed]

PR while a candidate by doing a public speech at the scene of the crime...literally at the scene...I would expect.

It would be foolish to contend that JM is pandering for black votes.

Maybe I'm wrong, but has McCain previously said he was wrong on the Martin Luther King Holiday issue?

If he has, the maybe acknowledging his mistake once again at this point isn't pandering and is just campaigning.

On the other hand, if he has only now just seen the light, then, yes, pandering is what it comes across as.

 

[JayHawk]

I can see him making a move towards the hispanic vote with sound policy intentions as GWB did but history shows that the black vote will not go to the R. So no, I do not think he was pandering.

Are you going to be this mad the whole time JSM is President?

 

[LaloGS]

McCain changed his position on MLK holiday in AZ not because he learned more about MLK, but because Arizona lost a major sporting event (I can't remember which) that refused to be played in AZ by the black members of both teams.

McCain and the truly ignorant Repuglican legislature and governor at the time had to quickly back peddle because of the mountain of bad press the state was heaped with. They switched positions on it to clean up the negative press, and loss of revenue to the state from sports fans.

And the statement he makes in this vidclip is false as well. By the time the Repuglican leaders of AZ realized what a backlash was building to their opposition to an MLK holiday, they all jumped on the same band wagon. It was pure dollars and cents that changed their minds because they were all racist bastards. In fact Ev Mecham the governor at the time was so racist, his aids kept having to tone down his racist rhetoric. McCain just went with the flow. As he does now.

 

[Spensed]

Are you going to be this mad the whole time JSM is President?

Actually guys like you are the ones who are going to be mad.

For me, it's a win win situation. As I did with the Bush Administration, I'm going to take a perverse pleasure in watching Log Cabin Republicans, old Andrew Sullivan types and other gays, who don't think that voting for pro-gay candidates matters, eat dirt and feel disappointed as yet another anti-gay Supreme Court justice is appointed, further advances in gay civil rights are blocked and even the advances that have already been achieved are chipped away at or reversed.

Every cloud has its silver lining.

 

[chance1]

Actually guys like you are the ones who are going to be mad.

For me, it's a win win situation. As I did with the Bush Administration, I'm going to take a perverse pleasure in watching Log Cabin Republicans, old Andrew Sullivan types and other gays, who don't think that voting for pro-gay candidates matters, eat dirt and feel disappointed as yet another anti-gay Supreme Court justice is appointed, further advances in gay civil rights are blocked and even the advances that have already been achieved are chipped away at or reversed.

Every cloud has its silver lining.

wow

that's an eye opener

u just can't lose i guess

congrats