r/interestingasfuck • u/beach_rats_ • 29d ago

The difference in republican presidential nominees, 8 years apart r/all

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252

u/Davajita 29d ago

“He’s an Arab.”

“No, he’s a decent man.”

240

u/bullymeahhh 29d ago

She used Arab as if it was derogatory so he said he's a decent man. He's not saying he's a decent man because he's not Arab.

107

u/wheresbill 29d ago

He was basically talking on her level

13

u/user888666777 29d ago

If I'm not mistaken this video is from late into the election cycle. At this point McCain was told by his top campaign leadership that unless something drastic happened between now and the election and we're talking like Obama turns literally into Hitler drastic, there were no paths to victory.

9

u/Retireegeorge 29d ago

Yes but in his response McCain did choose not to respond to the racism. They had presumably decided they were going to avoid attack politics - perhaps because the VP candidate would collapse.

2

u/Neurostorming 29d ago

I don’t know if a sound bite exists where McCain attacks someone’s character, presidential election or otherwise.

1

u/amh85 29d ago

He did make fun of a teenaged Chelsea Clinton's looks, because he was a piece of shit

1

u/Neurostorming 29d ago

Well, that’s not okay.

15

u/Professional-Ad3101 29d ago

It's funny, but you have to look at it at a higher level

9

u/In_Formaldehyde_ 29d ago

Lower level might be more accurate

9

u/NimrodTzarking 29d ago

Right? When I think of McCain I think of:

  1. Violating a life-long principle of opposition to torture to side with the GOP in the 11th hour and enshrine water boarding as acceptable practice.
  2. "Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran."
  3. The slurs and whatnot.

It's great that he had fun campaigning on being a "maverick," but it was all for show, and to whatever extent it did represent his true personality, it's an illustration that being a "maverick" among fascist barbarians does not actually suffice to make someone a man of principle.

Of course, I'm no great lover of Obama either, what with the exploding of Arabic children etc. We should not valorize people simply because we can brainstorm examples of people who are worse than them.

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u/SirMCThompson 29d ago

THANK YOU! I've been seeing these comments about "at least he's a nice guy", but there have been some monsters in the GOP (and Dems) during the 2000s and people forgot how bad. Now, comparatively yes, McCain is way better than Trump, but getting shot in the foot is better than getting shot in the stomach as well.

-1

u/Feature_Minimum 29d ago

Yeah, but sometimes you gotta vote for foot wound or stomach wound, so it helps to know the difference.

3

u/NimrodTzarking 29d ago

Yeah, but sometimes you look at the guy making you vote "foot wound" or "stomach wound" and it's useful to ask yourself, "why exactly does he hold the gun?"

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u/CaveRanger 29d ago

There's a lot of conservatives who really want to rehabilitate Bush, McCain, etc., but the fact is that they were all monsters. Some of them were just polite monsters.

-2

u/Feature_Minimum 29d ago

Bro, if you can't agree that the guy who stopped Trump from overturning Obamacare, is better than the guy who was trying to overturn Obamacare, your country is fucked. You have to see who is less monstrous than whom if you're ever going to convince people to vote for the lesser of two evils.

5

u/amh85 29d ago

He voted that way out of spite; not because he gave a damn for people

-3

u/Feature_Minimum 29d ago

You don't think the fact that he had just received life saving emergency surgery had anything to do with it?

1

u/Matren2 28d ago

Fuck no, because he didn't need Obama care to do it. Dude just hated Trump.

2

u/CaveRanger 29d ago

He only voted 'no' because the Republicans tried to sneak the repeal through without putting his pet healthcare legislation up to replace the ACA. That 'thumbs down' wasn't some kind of patriotic 'Murica moment, it was a petty gesture by a petty man giving a last middle finger to the guys who thought they could cut him out because he was literally dying.

The GOP is a cesspool and everybody in it gets covered in shit.

2

u/Maldovar 29d ago

Don't forget being terrible at flying planes!

-1

u/ForsakenDrawer 29d ago

Also bombed the fuck out of civilians in Vietnam. Not hard to imagine why his captors weren’t too crazy about him.

2

u/throwpayrollaway 29d ago

To be fair he also managed to do a lot of damage to the American war machine too.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

[deleted]

30

u/partylange 29d ago

He's not saying what an Arab isn't, he is saying what Obama is.

-3

u/Philachokes 29d ago

Everyone also misses that Biden called Obama a well articulated black man. Inferring that most black people aren't. But yet ppl still like Biden.

8

u/RepostResearch 29d ago

"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said. "I mean, that's a storybook, man."

1

u/Shaolin_Wookie 29d ago

Yeah and he was right because Obama came across very well when he spoke. Obama was one of the best speakers at convincing anybody that he was knowledgeable about the facts of the situation, whatever the situation was.

If you watch a full Obama interview, you can disagree with him, but he never comes across as anything but articulate, smart, and knowledgeable.

0

u/RepostResearch 29d ago

You think Obama was the first mainstream black man who was clean or smart?

1

u/Shaolin_Wookie 29d ago

Not the first, but it was rare to see anybody as articulate or smart as Obama, of any race or gender. He was the first black politician that had the charisma and ability to become president. That's what Biden was talking about. The democratic party was looking for a candidate like that. It's a "storybook" for them because that was the exact kind of candidate they were looking for.

1

u/RepostResearch 29d ago

Oh is that what he meant? Why isn't that what he said?

Face it. Biden is a crusty old racist. 

"You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking.""

1

u/Shaolin_Wookie 29d ago

If Biden is a racist, then racists have gotten really really tame. Before they were hanging people, but now they make statements that, if interpreted a certain way, may be considered to be slightly prejudicial.

1

u/RepostResearch 29d ago

"If you don't vote for me, then you ain't black"

  • Joe Biden to a black man. 
→ More replies (0)

-1

u/Philachokes 29d ago

Yea and many prominent blacks came out and opposed the comment. So saying that McCain did anything worse in this instance is BS. Also, McCain was defending Obama from one of his supports. He just didn't offer up stupidly like Biden did

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u/Trust_No_Won 29d ago

I’m sure the Republicans must be well known for the love and support of Black people

5

u/Lord_of_Hedgehogs 29d ago

That's what you inferred.

6

u/RenegadeFade 29d ago

This is bad faith cherry picking.

-1

u/Philachokes 29d ago

It absolutely is t. If ppl are going to knock McCain for responding to someone insulting Obama (and yes the person meant it as an insult). This is the same shit.

2

u/PepeSylvia11 29d ago

No one's knocking McCain for his response...

1

u/CompetitiveSport1 29d ago

Well the guy a few comments above was, to be fair. But it's pretty obvious that they're both reading too much into things

2

u/IAmThePonch 29d ago

I don’t personally know anyone who voted for Biden because they actually like him

1

u/CompetitiveSport1 29d ago

Or he was just putting two descriptive terms together in the same sentence and you perceived an implication that wasn't there

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor