McCain's speech was disrupted several times by hecklers from the anti-war group Code Pink.
According to the group, Phoenix resident Liz Hourican, holding a camera aimed at the candidate, stood up when McCain said "I represent Arizona ..."
"John, you do represent Arizona! And we want a peace candidate!" she yelled. "We want a peace candidate! Peace takes courage!"
As the still-shouting woman was escorted from the hall, McCain laughed off the disruption and joked, "That's a long trip out."
"I'm sure you've seen the polls out now about trust and confidence in our government, and the one thing the American people want us to stop doing is yelling at each other," he said.
Five minutes later, two more women jumped up.
"Your silence is consent to war crimes! War criminal!" one yelled. Another woman carried a pink banner that read "McCain=Guerra," or "McCain=War."
It shows a) McCain is not afraid of hecklers, and that b) despite the honorable intentions of Code Pink, they are viewed by many as being very extreme. Doing this to McCain just connects the extreme liberal viewpoint to Obama, which doesn't help him. Where it plays in the heartland...and infact the next line of the CNN report is telling:
McCain, however, was met with a standing ovation by the audience at the end.
Either that didn't happen for Obama or for some reason CNN didn't report it...
This is not the first time Code Pink (who has made it clear they support Obama) have showed up to heckle McCain, and that time did not appear to either:
The Arizona senator had barely uttered those words, charting a course away from Bush, when he was interrupted by hecklers chanting “Endless War! Endless War!”
The hecklers were shouted down by a larger crowd chanting “John McCain! John McCain!”
McCain no sooner started his speech again — announcing he would seek to reduce global nuclear stockpiles — when he was interrupted once more by anti-war protesters.
“What about Iraq? What about Iraq?” one shouted. Another unfurled a banner that said, “Iraq vets against the war.”
When the larger crowd shouted down the protesters again, McCain quipped, “This may turn into a longer speech than you had anticipated.”
This continues to create the risk that it will become more about Code Pink than Obama versus McCain.
5 comments:
Certainly these types of rants hurt Obama. Obama is viewed as being a liberals liberal. This message does not sit well with many Americans... in order to win he has to come to the center just like Clinton (Mr.).
Besides, yelling at an event like that for either a republican or a democrat turns me off. It's just stupid. Being rude and obnoxious just makes me think the group (who ever it is) don't have a good message -- if that is the best they can do.
You want to see a good way to yell. Run swiftboat ads. There was no yelling at all, but those ads were effective in their delivery.
What has peeved me off the most is that fact that the McCain supporters were chanting in favor of McCain while the protestors voiced their opposition to the Iraq War. That peeved me off because that's telling me that those people simply just don't care about the 4,000+ soldiers that have already died during the war and that's not counting the countless more dead Iraqi citizens and the $3+ trillion dollars that the wa has costed us.
I understand that those McCain supporters have a right to voice their own opinions, but don't you find it quite odd that such supporters don't see the trouble that this country is in an how we got into it?
katahu,
In your eyes, please tell me 10 good things in America?
Katahu,
I'm hoping you are joking, you are suggesting that because Code Pink decided to heckle McCain that those who came there to hear what McCain had to say should have sat there quitely and listened to the heckling?
I'd suggest you have not attended many political rallies, they are like sports team events where you shout for "your team", that's the type of energy.
They are very scripted, as far as the crowd response and that is done by both parties, infact the Democrat ones I've attended have been more scripted as far as the crowd response. The only thing missing is the applause signs.
When John Kerry was heckled, we thought it was wrong, so it's interesting now that McCain is being heckled, it seems to be okay...
they certainly are radical
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