McCain Slightly heckled on MLK Day
By John Amato Thursday Apr 03, 2008 2:17pm
John McCain was lightly heckled during his speech today down in Memphis---on the site and the day that ML King was assassinated. When he apologized for his vote, a vote that will haunt him, a vote he made when he was very old---some spectators chose to honor the memory of ML King by showing him a little kindness. Something that was unavailable to the Black community so many years ago. I also included Soldedad O'Brien's commentary at the end of the video. She called it very accurately.
In his speech today, McCain tried to explain his misguided vote by stating, “We can all be a little late sometimes in doing the right thing”:
We can be slow as well to give greatness its due, a mistake I made myself long ago when I voted against a federal holiday in memory of Dr. King. I was wrong and eventually realized that, in time to give full support for a state holiday in Arizona. We can all be a little late sometimes in doing the right thing, and Dr. King understood this about his fellow Americans. But he knew as well that in the long term, confidence in the reasonability and good heart of America is always well placed.
During these statements, some in the crowd said, “We forgive you,” but many others began loudly objecting to McCain’s comments. CNN reporter Soledad O’Brien called it “a little bit of heckling.
We got a long ways to go to dig out of this mess.
Hey, I knew right and wrong back then, I'm younger than Grampa, and Grampa was WRONG and knew it.
No forgiveness.
OT: Love the new flashing ads here...really junks it up nicely.
"We can all be a little late sometimes in doing the right thing"
Maybe now would be a good time to un-invade Iraq!
Lollimom @ 2:
Totally.
"McLame was slightly freckled today and, worried about recurring melanoma announced that he would not be releasing his medical records any time soon."
I forgive him.
He's too fucking old to be President.
Grandpa is at the age where we should be questioning if he has the faculties to operate a car, much less run a country.
I think U2 once refused to play Arizona because of McCain's MLK holiday stance.
Another problem is young people are no longer into tradition. So it's going to be impossible to continue to prop up the American way of life without dramatic shifts in the way people think about things.
Tradition in the sense of Industrial Age Discipline. Supporting entitlements and IOU's and such.
I don't think an IOU is a tradition, but I get the gist of your point...
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, no?
Same shit different day. Anything to get a vote. I might be able to find some respect for the man if he had a bit of integrity and simply laid low today. Instead I heard something a Bush might say... but with a little more command of the English language.
mcsame would vote against mlk day again if he thought he could get away with it.
he is a racist and a blantant opportunist. like bush, he only thinks of himself and
we don't need 4 more yrs. of another asshole dumb president.
Grampa, we might believe you more if you weren't pandering for votes at this time...
How long will we have to wait for him to apologize for supporting the "war" in Iraq?
i think they were shouts of support, actually.
... saying this while an African American gentleman holds his umbrella???
McCain is not healthy. Check his health records. He has cancer!
Voted against the holiday in the Senate because the people from Arizona didn't support it.
Only when the NFL and the other sports leagues threatened to BOYCOTT Arizona (esp. the Superbowl) did they relent.
I wonder if McCain would care to go over his 'evolution' on the issue. What changed his mind?
Mc100yearwar will be making a similar speech years from now about it being a mistake for supporting herr dubyah’s war. It will go something like this:
RichStraightWhiteAmericanMale @ 14:
he will never apologize for supporting the war, in fact he will bomb iran if bush
does not beat him to it or we impeach bush/cheney before they do another
illegal invasion.
dadams @ 20:
Like the Japanese did for years following WWII, the reich-wingers are going to have to apologize to the World for their invasion, murdering, and war.
Whatever happened to admitting your mistakes, and you being allowed to move on? The man obviously made a bad decision in the past, and he's owning up to it and attempting to make good. True, this IS a Presidential election, so I'll allow that the motivation might be less than sincere, however I highly doubt that anyone in here has the ability to see into his mind or heart, to tell what his true intentions are.
How many times have we ripped the hell out of Billo because he continues to harp on someone that has admitted that they were wrong and that the apology just wasn't good enough for him? Or Hannity for that matter.
And yet here you go, doing the exact same thing.
He apologizes and it's "oh he's not being honest, he's just bullshitting because it's convenient", or it's "oh he was an old man"
50 isn't old, to be honest. It's older than me, and it's older than a lot of people who may be in here, but it's not old.
Whenever someone dies at 50 someone says "oh he was ONLY 50".
I just get frustrated at the venom that goes out against anything that dares to be in contrast to what we believe. At times it seems that the lines between what WE do and what THEY do (they being the right wing) is being blurred more and more.
The things we protest that they do, we do as well.
*shrugs* it's the way it is I suppose.
Good lord he is a bad speaker. He would be lost without his notes. Can't wait for the debates.
Pitiful! He'll never get dobson's vote THIS WAY!
edit: the "old man" comment was in referral to people assuming that because he was "an old man at 50" that somehow everyone at 50 is able to see things the same way.
There's lots of people who have done horrible horrible things for a long time and then later in life saw the errors to their ways.
Just because he made that decision at 50 doesn't mean that he's not trying to make good on that now.
Can't believe I'm actually defending that guy.
Mwangangi @ 10:
Downstream liabilities and unfunded commitments including Medicare, Social Security, Public Debt, Pensions, etc.
Weird...he decides to give a speech and take back his past stance on King at the same time he's running for president. Two, completely non-related occurrences...
I don’t think he’s an outward racist, I also think he doesn’t know a damn thing, care about or understand the black community and their (especially economic) struggles. So nice speech, nice way to oppose most of what King stood for while getting a nice photo op for his campaign, which King himself would surely have opposed.
The fact is that he would never honor King by pacing legislation that King would support, because that would require an extreme ideological conversion.
i imagine that his speechwriters thought that it was a good idea to put this admission into his speech...
whoopsies!
Pitiful! McBarelyInTheClosetRacist is going to lose the James Dobson vote.
jazzysoul @ 22:
It was less of a mistake as opposed to a bending to political pressure to support something he doesn't agree with or actually support.
jazzysoul @ 22:
WHY did he oppose King in the first place? What would make him not oppose him now? It isn't like King's message or McCain's ideology has changed and it isn't like McCain would agree with much of anything King stood for or said, so why would McCain take back what he did? If he had an ideological conversion it would make logical sense, it doesn't otherwise. If you sat McCain down, gave him some quotes by King regarding Vietnam, economic issues, or much of anything else McCain would 100% disagree with his stances and probably call someone echoing the same ideas now "un-American", so why should he not be opposed for using King's death for his own cynical reasons, especially when he and everyone else knows that King would have opposed the very policies that McCain is and has pushed for?
He can apologize his damned warmongering ass off for all I care. How on board with war in Iraq and campaigning for war against Iran would Dr. King be?
L.A. Confidential @ 26:
With your enhanced clarity you have now made obvious what I had inferred from your comment. Although as a young person, I think paying your taxes is one of the most patriotic things a person can do. (This means that I do believe in 'IOU's' per your definition.)
On every significant progressive issue, the reactionary GOP is ALWAYS LATE, if they come around at all. And they always have a "good excuse" for doing the wrong thing; i.e., "we're not against equality or basic human rights -- we just don't think it's a federal matter."
Sen. McRacist was against the MLK holiday vote until he was for it.
BTW, he actually did represent his state appropriately. It was not until the NFL withheld the SuperBowl that Az. decided to approve the holiday. Sort of like Houston not getting the baseball team until they ended legal segregation.
jazzysoul @ 22:
Hows about sticking with your mistake for years?
From http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15107.html
"If McCain “began to learn” and “studied” after his opposition to the King holiday in ‘83, he was a very slow learner. Four years later, he didn’t fight against a governor or his own party; he endorsed the governor’s move to eliminate a King holiday.
Six years after his House vote he began supporting a state holiday, but still opposed a federal King holiday. Eleven years after his vote, he tried to strip federal funding from the MLK Federal Holiday Commission. Seventeen years after his vote, McCain publicly endorsed South Carolina’s right to fly the confederate flag over its statehouse."
jazzysoul @ 22:
Nothing wrong with that, as long as you add, "My judgment on this was flawed, and warns that any future judgments I make (especially on a topic as EASY to judge correctly as this one was!) may be equally as flawed. I'm moving on, but I don't blame you if you now mistrust everything I say."
I wonder what sort of 'straight talk' good ol' John was saying to his friends about Dr King BEFORE he had his change of heart all those years ago.
Your a big phony John. People like you spit on Dr. King's grave, you have no business being there.
Straight talk, yeah right.
Mwangangi @ 33:
I'm not saying ALL young people are adverse to these things. Actually the main problem is a progressive person would stop and say "okay let's do what we have to do I'm willing to sacrifice even in my precarious position for the betterment of society." The Rethug supporters say "I feel sorry for the poor bastards who are victims but it's not my responsiblity! Get a job!!".
Then you say "well what do you think I have been doing sitting around picking my nose?" and they reply, "that doesn't matter!! Respect your elders and authority!!!"
Kind of no win situation.
jazzysoul @ 25:
why do you hate america? :)
With this sort of redemption in his speech, sounds like more GOPers might stay home for election day afterall.
Dr. Hussein Matt @ 21:
On which planet is that going to happen?
Gee wonder how Bu$h would have voted?
Are we still playing?:
Sen. McKingHater?
earl @ 43:
With his coke straw.
Who could possibly know how McCain really feels about anything? He was against the Bush tax cuts before he was for them. He was against South Carolina flying the confederate flag after he was for it and after he was against it. He was against Jerry Falwell before he was for him. He has no true principles.
"ML King? ... that one a' them...one a' them... blues musicians? ---hehehe"
---George.
SassySandy @ 46:
McCain was born into a military family and is a military man.
He's trained to obey orders. So we can expect that what he'll do from the "aboves" as President.
What an insult to the sad day that marks the 40th anniversary of another bigot, james earl ray, who decided he had "the right" to take a man's life that was more valuable to this country than anyone since.
Sad that mcbush would show his bent up, ugly face there to commemorate a man for whom he fought to disown recognition for in AZ. A sad day in which the repug party, the bigots of America, would show their face in Memphis to take some glory from one deserving with hollow words that are bullshit and lies. A disgrace and insult to Dr. King.
mcbush should be ashamed of himself. He is no hero. He is a vet....and to that he even disowns his own by refusing to back benefits to vets that would give them a chance to find their place in society after he and his responsible parties rape their mental and physical well being for their greedy and criminal acts.
Damn mcbush and all of his neocon criminals to hell.
jazzysoul @ 25:
The fact that he embarrasses himself with HIS actions in the past gives him NO RIGHT to be standing on the grounds commemorating the death of Dr. King. What a pig to show his face in that city. I'm surprise at his gall and the audiences patience to this pig.
jazzysoul@22 :
The fact is MLK was killed 40 yrs. ago and McCain made that vote 25 yrs. ago, so that's 25 years worth of April 4ths that Grandpa has had to go to Memphis and apologize for doing the wrong thing. And he waits until he's running for prez to do it ? And you wonder why we can't just accept that ? Old guard politicians will say or do ANYTHING to retain their grip on power. Once the wheels fall off their respective campaigns, look for election fraud to ramp up significantly.
Left&Left @ 35:
During this thread, some in the comments section said, “We forgive you,” but many others began loudly objecting to McCain’s comments. "He 's a racist. He's old! He has cancer! He's a lousy speaker!....
"We're better than you are, John McCain, and we can prove it- just read our comments!"
I'm sorry but I just don't buy it. Watching John McCain read his speech to the crowd was like watching a child in elementary school read his/her book report to the class. John McCain seemed devoid of any thoughtful emotion or remembrance for Dr. King. He kept stating over and over that he was wrong to vote against the Martin Luther king holiday but his inflections and tone while speaking would indicate otherwise.
CoIntelPro - against Divisive Democrats @ 36:
Thank you. Great historic points. The NFL and MLB had to actually ransom off professional teams to the Southern businessmen. Morality had nothing to do with these racist voting for a MLK holiday. This "Maverick" bullshit is just a MSM generated myth. McCain's just an ole time bigot from a time when some people thought that it was cool to be a bigot. I forgive you too McCain, but I'll never vote for your "socially suspect" ass.
just a little heckling from this end ...
"very old" at 50?
John McCain: Political Whore
Joe O. @ 53:
True, but the media and the PR spokesmen won't care. They have to realize that King stood against everything they protect and they've shown for decades, if not a century, that they don't understand and show an ability to comprehend bottom up political movements. Come, say, June this day will be no more important in regards to McCain's reactionary views than his support for the war, his (by his own admission knowledge-less) economic or foreign policy views and the media will be back to the platitudes that got us Bush.
Closer to the Truth:
"I am very sorry for my 1983 racist vote against one of the most brilliant men ever to walk the streets of the U.S..I now want to tell you that I am no longer the racist,white devil slave-master I once was.I now base my bias on class and whether or not you agree with me.If you don`t make enough money,or you don`t kiss ass;I could care less what race you are, you`re going down the river."
On other note, its quite shameful to have a man like McCain, who always bends to the will of those in power, give a speech about man that never did. Dr. King was a man that took on many issues like the Vietnam war and civil rights and he never wavered from his positions. McCain on the other hand, for broke like a twig on the waterboarding issue.
Snore @ 56:
Is that you, Randi?
how can i get my own cheesy CNN cap? i want to look like a big dork too.
That youtube video doesn't play very well. stop-start-stop-start. What up?
Liberal AND Proud @ 7:
But think of what 'experience' this vote gives him!
Look, vile crooked racist scumbags, and Barry for different reasons, need to shut their corpse-breath pieholes about MLK.
He belongs to progressive America not every opportunistic butthead, this is where Barry comes in, who thinks if he mentions MLK the 'darkies' will magically vote for him.
Shut up about Martin Luther King Senator McSame.
Shut the Fuck Up!
mike @ 61:
Pull a Trojan over your head.
Umm...was it just the sound quality or did she say "James Earl Ray who spends his life in prison today..."? Ray died 10 years ago.
jazzysoul @ 22:
I agree totally.
It's an improvement having someone run for President who is able to admit to mistakes.
There are other more important things to criticize about McCain.
What I say here should in now way be interpreted as opposition to King's holiday (which I believe is essential to our nation) but as a qualifier and as one way of looking at things that does not automatically turn opposition to the holiday into opposition to King.
I personally would have preferred they ELIMINATE an existing (and perhaps redundant) national holiday - or at least reclassified it in a way that kept offices open - when MLK's holiday was created. There are expenses and issues of lost productivity in government tied to these holidays, and we have far too many of them. How many military holidays to we currently have? How many is too many?
Will JFK & RFK ever get a holiday - perhaps to share? How much more history is ahead of us, yet to be made? How many more great Americans worthy of their own Holiday might this country have left to produce? Could we reach 300? You get my point, right?
Combining Lincoln and Washington was the right idea. Perhaps a "Martyred champions of American Democracy" day would be appropriate. (Not to replace King's day - which definitely requires separate and individual recognition.) I'd just like to see the practical side of these issues recognized, without being force-fed the idea doing so must equate with opposition to the idea.
Conyers just put the smackdown on Alix halfWitt of MSNBC. She kept trying to interrupt him to say McCain apologized today for his past vote and Conyers interrupted her to say how McCain more or less only apologized because he is running for pres. Priceless!
pretty on topic, his feelings of being "enclosed in darkness"... just stop talking about "chasing out the darkness"...
"Hey, guy with the umbrella, could I get a shoe shine over here or what!?"
They weren't booing, they were yelling "McBoo"
i wasn't waiting for the freudian slip, "chasing out the darkies, dur, DARKNESS! whoa.."
Too bad W wasn't giving this speech! ahahahah
i mean I WAS waiting for the freudian slip...
whoopsies, i'm feeling a little alzheimer's comin on
Janet @ 68:
I saw that. He said about the same thing as one of the previous commenters. McCain has had over 20 years to apologize, but didn't do it until he runs for President.
Canuknotusa @ 66:
I totally disagree. This was a very important vote to us black folk. McCain began his "getting to know me" tour in Mississippi, just like his idol Reagan(another insensitive bigot). He's all but ignored us negroes(also like Ronnie). To me, McCain is suspect. Hey, you have your issues, I have mine, and Sen. McRacist definitely has his.
dennis @ 52:
Classic deflection from the real issue Dennis. Spin all you wish, McCain is not a victim in this story. He should answer the questions(particularly on this day) and be forthcoming...he hasn't. People like you never want to deal with historical truths....especially race issues.
Bigots always "do the right thing" if they need votes.
Today is not MLK Day.
From what I remember, MLK was not that large of a historical figure at the time outside of the black community. Please don't misread that, he was a large figure but he was not someone that everyone in this country regarded so highly at the time. It took 10 years for him to be recognized with a medal of freedom and not until the mid 80's did he receive the very well deserved recognition that he now has. McCain explained that he did not support the day at a time along with several other states mostly due to his criticism of the Vietnam war (King's criticism). For that reason and that reason alone many people including some BLACK Americans did not vote for the holiday. I view it as a mistake in the past but he did correct it and this was many many years ago, something he chose to do of his own accord.
The Ghoulini Effect: poor McSame, just as Ghouliani was at one time nationally ahead in the polls, when more people took a closer look, he started to sink like a stone.
McSame and Ghoulini. Samo samo.
Stan in LA @ 78:
Actually as a registered Democrat, Guiliani was a great mayor of NYC. He did wonders for cutting down crime and cleaning up the streets. Bloomberg on the other hand is a joke, charging people 9$ to get into the city is absolutely idiotic, if I want to leave the city on the weekend to visit family and friends I have to pay 18$ on TOP of gas. Idiot.
Left&Left @ 74:
Look - I'm not defending McCain, and I really don't care who wins your presidential election. I'm entertained by the convoluted process and the ridiculous way your self-important media covers all the candidates - that's it. But what would you want him to do? He apologized for his vote, said he made a mistake and has changed his mind completely. Maybe you'd be happier if he were tar and feathered, drawn and quartered, hung from the nearest tree? Or maybe no apology would sit better with you? Then you could continue to be angry at the world for past injustices.
I'm feel sure whoever was McCain's Democratic political opponent back in the day was coming out in favor of MLK holiday and McCain found it politically expedient to beat him over the head with it and no doubt won more than one election in lilly white Arizona by bashing a MLK holiday and the Democratic candidate who supported it. Now that the Democrats at great political costs over the years have helped make MLK and a holiday recognizing him acceptable, McCain and others in the GOP find it politically opportunistic to apologize and say me too, me too!
Roast in your political karma McCain.
Was that a freudian slip when he said, right at the beginning of the clip, "We will not endure cruelty nor will we abide justice"?
Maybe McCain still thinks (white) justice is the way it's been described in the black community for so long: "Just us".
Canuknotusa @ 81:
You hit the nail right on the head. An apology is not good enough for these people. They are angry at the world (hence they spend a tremendous amount of time alone browsing the internet) and they like being angry and jaded towards everyone. Let them stew in their anger, the rest of us will move along.
Canuknotusa @ 81:
McCain, as others have said here, changed his mind about an MLK holiday for purely politically expedient reasons - the wind changed, so he changed with it. Now he wants us to believe he's truly contrite about his prior bad acts. If you look at his overall record of such actions, it's obvious that he'll say and/or do anything to further his political opportunities and election chances. It doesn't matter if he apologizes, makes mea culpa, or gets down on his knees and begs forgiveness - he's still a senile old hypocrite.
esm @ 77:
No, it's the anniverary of his death - or perhaps you missed that.
Left&Left @ 75:
Yes I do, Left and Left. You guys are going way,way,way,way fucking overboard in this pathetic attempt to paint McCain as racist.
I'm actually more than happy to see you do it though. It's swing and a miss, swing and another miss- but maybe one of these swings will hit something someday. And it really doesn't matter if it is a hit because even if it's a foul ball, the word that he's a racist will be taken as gospel among the nutroots.
Think Progress- they're the nice folks who worked so so hard to claim McCain palgiarized a speech Adm. Timothy Ziemer gave in 1996-they searched Nexis and never thought to call the McCain campaign to vet the story. Their entire research was by Google. Turns out Ziemer plagiarized McCain's speech.
Ever read that on here? Read that up above? And guess what, the above link to the Think Progress website really doesn't attack McCain on this MLK speech regarding his no vote for the holiday. Know why? Because now they can't, can they, after their complete and total f'ing embarrassment of a totally false hit-piece. Remind you of the New York Times story on McCain's adulterous affair? How can they attack him now with anything unproven, or ever again? As if that rag was ever to be believed in the first place.
DHSmd @ 67:
Um, may I ask one question: how is a political dynasty of Democrats (the Kennedys) any more democratic than one on the right (the Bushes)? What distinguishes the Kennedys from the Bushes in terms of their station as elite New England political families who attract fanatical loyalty from supporters and scorn from much of the country (in his time, JFK was less popular than Bush)? Oh, wait, I know the answer: they're leftists. :rolleyes.: Political dynasties have no place in a democracy, no matter what side of the aisle they're from.
And McPapen's bungled something else, again. If this is experience, by the Invisible Pink Unicorn, I'll take the tenderfeet. If Democrats lose this election by letting it get as close as 2004 did so stealing it can be attributed to McPapen's popularity, they're done as a political force.
If you listen carefully, you can hear the skulls of the hecklers pop as they're hit with bats by the RNC security detail.
Bob @ 84:
"These people" you already lost me. Also, you don't know me so don't try that third grade psychoanalysis bullshit. I'm not angry, I simply don't trust McCain. I see too many red flags that maybe, because of who you are, don't see. This not a right or wrong argument. If you would READ carefully what I said, you would see I just disagreed. I DID say that you had issues.....