Just dreadful stuff from the paper that seems on some days to want desperately to be Pravda on the Potomac.
First this.
McCain hails from an America that exalted service to country, and he is the scion of a military family who endured five years in enemy captivity and who preaches a mantra of personal honor and of the nation over the individual — “Country First,” as his campaign slogan declares.
Because clearly John McCain’s family is so different from the rest of us in their belief in honor and patriotism. I mean, the rest of us unwashed masses couldn’t dare to hold a candle to their belief, right?
Then it gets worse.
Obama’s embodiment of a newer America begins but hardly ends with the fact that he would be the first black president. In a country where people liked to know where you were from, Obama lacks a ready answer — he is part Hawaii, part Kansas, part Chicago. In a recent speech in Berlin, he declared himself a “citizen of the world.”
OMG BARACK OBAMA’S FAMILY MOVED. Clearly this disqualifies him as a True AmericanTM. Of course, I’ve moved around a lot too (I even lived in a foreign country!) so I might as well be an alien. As to the quote in Berlin, here’s what Sen. Obama actually said:
I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen – a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.
Wow, that’s really… a lot less controversial.
MORE: Why doesn’t the Washington Post read its own paper?
Oliver, you seem to have a lot of trouble with context don’t you?
Let’s discuss basic sentence structure:
McCain hails from an America that exalted service to country, and he is the scion of a military family who endured five years in enemy captivity and who preaches a mantra of personal honor and of the nation over the individual — “Country First,” as his campaign slogan declares.
Besides the clumsy run-on sentence, which includes two uses of the word “and,” are we being asked to read that his entire military family spent five years in captivity?
How do these people get jobs as writers if they don’t know how to write?
Also, you know who else has a hard time telling people where they’re “from”? Children of military men and women, who often moved from base to base.
Spider beat me to it. I was gonna say those VC are pretty hard core for imprisoning McCain’s whole family.
And John McCain wasn’t born in Panama, and didn’t move all around the Pacific with his family growing up, I suppose? No, apparently he’s been living in Arizona all this time, or something.
Can you even begin to image the shit storm from the right if Obama had been born in PANAMA, the way a certain GOP candidate was? They can barely contain themselves over the fact that Obama actually lived in a foreign country at one time, which obviously makes him a closeted Islamofascist spy.
“Oliver, you seem to have a lot of trouble with context don’t you?”
Care to say that with a straight face while explaining McCain’s accusation that Obama has pledged to raise taxes on those making $42K a year.
Or maybe you just expect more from a liberal blogger than you do the GOP’s candidate for the most powerful office in the country.
As a Navy brat, I also lack a ready answer to the age-old question. When people ask me where I’m from I reply “all over”, or “no where really.” I may not have a hometown, but I have never considered myself a woman without a country! Since there are millions like me… people who serve and their spouses and children (like, um, McCain), are we really that exotic? I will now answer, when asked the question, “America.”
Count another hometown girl for Obama!
I truly want to discontinue our subscription to this once proud and independent newspaper, but my wife wants to keep it for its other coverage. I stopped reading the Op Ed pages, w/ the likes of Will, Novak, Krauthammer, Ignatious, Hiatt, Broder, et al, and now Gerson, years ago. Its transformation into a center right neocon rag will be complete should it endorse McCain.
Oh noes! I guess as the daughter of a USAF career officer, my moves across 3 states as a kid (no choice–thanks, US government) and then my choice as an adult to live in 3 more make me a furriner!
This has to be one of the stupidest Post article topics ever. But I’m sure I’ll repeat that sentence many times during this election season.
In addition, Obama had a grandfather who served in WWII as well for the US. Guess that counts for nothing in the eyes of the Post writer.
but it’s even dumber than that…
relocating one time as a child and one time when you take for first adult job doesn’t even qualify one as having “moved around a lot.” that’s exactly the number of moves i’d made in my life and i’m pretty sure it’s less than the average person my age.
but it’s even dumber than *that*…
john mccain is part panama, part virginia, part florida, and part arizona! and that’s not even counting all the places he lived while his father was still moving for military assignments.
McCain himself in 1982, answering charges of carpetbagging
From Iqra’i: http://snipurl.com/3fhn0 [www_counterpunch_org]
Money quote:
“Listen, pal. I spent 22 years in the Navy. My father was in the Navy. My grandfather was in the Navy. We in the military service tend to move a lot. We have to live in all parts of the country, all parts of the world. I wish I could have had the luxury, like you, of growing up and living and spending my entire life in a nice place like the First District of Arizona, but I was doing other things.”
“An effective response, to be sure, but note the subsurface contempt for those who stay in one place” (italics mine)
Count me in with the “exotic” crowd. I am an Army brat and I normally say I am from Heidelberg,Germany but that is only because i there the longest. I don’t know if anyone saw the recent Simpsons episode, but there is a scene where Nelson gives his “haha” line and basically lays waste to why print journalism is dying.
Or maybe you just expect more from a liberal blogger than you do the GOP’s candidate for the most powerful office in the country.
I know I do.
I could never answer that question, either. I usually say “nowhere, I’m an Army brat”. Or just “none of your fucking business”.
It’s interesting how the Post can take the fact that there are a lot of racists among the 65 population (which isn’t too surprising, considering racism was still practically the official state ideology in their younger years) and turn it into “Obama’s age problem.”
But then for our McCain worshipping media, I guess everything is Obama’s problem.
[...] Brad DeLong and Oliver Willis, The Washington Post’s Alec MacGillis explains that one important contrast between John [...]
This pretty much sums it up.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/15/AR2008081503100.html?sub=AR
Case. Closed.
This delusion some of you have that most of the media is for McCain is exactly that…….a delusion.