VIDEO: “He’s Arab” woman got her info from McCain campaign office
Sun, Oct 12, 2008
I got this from Josh Marshall.
Here’s what Josh notices.
The gist is that Quinnell apparently did say “Arab terrorist.” She got the idea from a pamphlet she got not from the McCain campaign but from a fellow volunteer at the local McCain headquarters, where she’s a volunteer. She’s been sending the pamphlet to people in her area. And she thinks that McCain really knows that Obama’s Arab but didn’t want to get into it with her on camera. (You can read a transcript at the Uptake.org site.)
Now, this video and Quinnell I think kind of speak for themselves. But what a number of readers have pointed out about the first video (where she’s speaking to McCain) is this telling moment after McCain says, “No, Ma’am” the first time. Quinnell says ‘no?’ But the tone is the key. She’s surprised. Apparently genuinely surprised. Almost like, wait, I got something wrong? The reply really captures everything that’s going on here.
I noticed her surprised tone immediately as well.
Folks, we all know people like Gayle Quinnell. We all know it’s pretty easy to snow a 75 year old white woman, to scare them, and to get them to think the absolute worst about a black person. When I heard her tone, her surprise, it broke my heart.
What kind of sick people take advantage of a woman like this to get her to think something that is so dangerous, she has to be made a fool of on national television to be corrected? And even then, she isn’t corrected? She still stands by it?
Broke my heart. It’s almost as if she was just told her coupon is expired at the supermarket. It’s that mundane, that sad.
May Republicans rot in hell.
October 12th, 2008 at 6:01 am
From the NYT today:
“I think there have been quite a few reporters recently,” said Mr. McCain’s closest adviser, Mark Salter, “who have sort of implied, or made more than implications, that somehow we’re responsible for the occasional nut who shows up and yells something about Barack Obama.”
Lying, evil scumbags.
October 12th, 2008 at 7:17 am
I am writing you from Portugal in Europe, and let me just say that you are doing a magnificent job. I know a lot of my fellow countrymen, who would like to vote in the US presidentials. Unfortunately this is not possible, because if it were, Obama would win with 95% of the votes. Carry on Tim.
October 12th, 2008 at 9:03 am
Honorable men ?
If you recall the congressional testimony during Oliver North Iran Contra hearings, one thing that conspicuously stood out was so many Republican “character witnesses” incessantly referring to North as an “honorable man.” Yesterday it was widely reported that John McCain stood up for Barrack Obama in like manner when some woman at one of his rallies assailed Obama as an “Arab.” McCain, pulling the microphone from her hands, declaimed that Obama was an honorable man, or some words to that effect. Well now, it seems that the old saw “it takes one to know one” perfectly applies in this case. McCain, after all, dumped his ailing crippled wife for a young beer heiress and then went on to choose a ex-beauty pageant Governor as his running mate. Why wouldn’t such a man admire how Obama parlayed his many years long connections with the Ayers family into a successful run for the Democratic Party Presidential nomination, all the while keeping it at arms length. What was it that Roosevelt said about Joe Kennedy?
October 12th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Shorter Thingumbobesq: Clinton Did It Too™!
– bi, International Journal of Inactivism
October 12th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Thank you so much for your work here. It is important that “normal” Americans stand up and fight those lies and prejudices. That old lady is just one example of the results of fear-mongering and false accusation from Sarah Palin and John McCain. I simply cannot comprehend how easy it is to manipulate people like the Ohio mob on your channel. They are so full of fear and hatred. I have never seen something like this before.
Fight those fears, fight that hatred and divisions. This is not easy, for many Republicans are uneducated and easy to be influenced by fear-mongering. The sad thing is that Palin continues to tell the people Barack Obama was a friend to terrorist. This is so unfair. Barack is a patriotic American, a loving father, a respected SENATOR. How in the world could someone become a SENATOR being a terrorist? I simply can’t grasp this amount of stupidity out there in the U.S. .
Best regards
Peter
October 12th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Peter,
If you’d like to get a close-up view of American stupidity for further study I’ll trade places with you. I don’t care where you live, I’d rather be there.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Yes, it is sad. On the positive side, not all older white women think that way. I am a 62 year old white woman from the Deep South and a big Obama supporter. My sister is a lot older than I am, 77 years old, and she is voting for Obama.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Come to a FLA.Republican Rally and try that Interviewing attitude with me and I’ll stick that Camera up your azz shit for brains.Now go suck Obammys Dick and leave good people alone.Your a fukin low life BloodSuckin Parasire.
October 14th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Go watch Keating Econmics and tell me the Obama isn’t just as invested in misleading voters with spin tactics. It’s online, just google Keating Econmics” and enjoy a few well-produced minutes of an issue dead 20 years which is NOW brought up to mislead those who don’t research a little further.
Misinformation spreads, people, and McCain himself has done it, and so has Obama. In a perfect world, both candidates would run on the ISSUES and not take part in this BS. Unfortunately, it’s the campaign this has turned into. Don’t fool yourselves into thinking because you vote liberal that your view represents the pristine one.
October 14th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
“What kind of sick people take advantage of a woman like this to get her to think something that is so dangerous, she has to be made a fool of on national television to be corrected? And even then, she isn’t corrected? She still stands by it?”
I agree, it is profoundly sad. And she has likely lived her whole life in fear of people of color.
But at some point, the individual must take responsibility for what is in her/his own consciousness. I know, this isn’t something that we teach in public schools, necessarily. Sure, we abstract on things like ‘free will’ and ‘autonomy’, but in the end, what makes an individual employ critical thinking and understand its importance, versus ending up like a Gayle Quinnell, nothing more than a vehicle for whatever powers-that-be get to her first?
Thanks for posting this. We need to be aware of exactly who we share our society with… as depressing as reality may be…