There are little things that happen that symbolically explain the differences between the two campaigns. Nancy Takehara, a 58 year-old Chicagoan, was physically attacked yesterday in Wisconsin, while she was canvassing for Barack Obama. A man accused her of being with ACORN, grabbed her by the neck, and beat her about the head. When she got home there was a message for her from Obama, with a number for her to call. She dialed the number and Obama came on the line.
“Sen. Obama understood, reassured me, he was wonderful,” Takehara said. “It made me feel connected to this government again.”
No word on whether John McCain has called her to apologize for inciting a man to violence with false charges against ACORN, an organization that advocates for poor people.
In a nutshell, this episode explains the choice you have in this election.
Jesus!
What kind of man attacks a 58-year-old woman?
Of course, attacks of any kind are wrong, but it just amazes me to see this and see McCain tell the world he’s categorically proud of the people who come to his rallies. WTF?
Some bottom feeder with a brain and —- the size of a gnat.
And yes, I want to see McCain denounce this outrageous behavior. This story needs to go national.
It won’t. Check google.
Oh, I know he won’t and I never assumed he would. He has shown us who he is, and I believe him. But he needs to be asked. Repeatedly.
This is abhorrent behavior, and needs to be called on it.
Oopsie…McKlan needs to be called on it if he doesn’t denounce that man’s behavior. Sorry about that.
NEANDERTAL
(Simple answers to simple questions.)
In the comments at dailykos, someone who knew the victim says the ladies were leaving, when the man grabbed Nancy Takehara’s hair and dragged her across the lawn while punching her.
Our common image of a Neandertal male is a primitive brute dragging a woman by her hair. Traditional family values of male dominance reject 100,000 years of evolution and education. Yes, brute.
Most of us who have the gift of language know how to get salesmen or Jehovah’s Witnesses off the porch. (The last group of them noticed my Loch Ness monster in the garden and said something about “the snake!” I replied, “well, then, I’m Eve”… they blanched and left. No violence required.)
http://www.wisn.com/news/17756631/detail.html
This is heartwarming. The candidate we support also supports us. A hug or a kind word can raise us from the swamp. Reaffirm our essential humanity. Redirect us to the positive.
Obama is a far better person than I am. THAT gives me hope.
BTW, I turned 58 yesterday. But I’m a tall descendant of vikings. This woman is Asian-American, most of whom are petite and quiet. Not only did the brute attack a senior, and a female, but he attacked someone smaller and weaker. Someone who wouldn’t and couldn’t fight back. I bet he is soooooo proud of himself. Some manly man!
Every time the scientists wonder if neandertals really died out, we have to look at the unthinking thugs and brutes and say, “not quite yet.”
A “senior”? Puleeeeeeze! I don’t know about you, but most of the 58 year old women I know do not qualify for the term “senior”. For god’s sake, most 58 year old people are not elderly people, they are active, healthy, mentally and physically firm middle aged people. In fact, I believe the euphemism “senior” generally applies to people older than 60 or even 65. In any case, most of the people I know even in that age group are are not frail or weak. More than the people at my gym are over 50, and most are very fit indeed.
Of course, that man was wrong to attack anyone, and it does seem worse that he attacked a woman.
For what it is worth, I have always hated that term “senior”. It is one of my pet peaves. It is a euphemism, and I dislike euphemisms. They are a way of avoiding a real word for a concept that is viewed as negative. “Senior” is a way of avoiding saying the dreaded “o” word. What is wrong with the idea of someone being old? What is wrong with saying “old person”, “elder”, or elderly, or “over 60”?
Senior is a good solid word. It indicates a contrast with junior.
Here in America we have Junior High and Senior High. Older students go to Senior High… with no denigration or assumed frailty or obsolescence.
At age 50 we qualify for AARP and many senior citizen discounts. There was a cartoon… I think it was “For Better or Worse” which I usually ignore… showing one terribly insulted woman lashing out at a cashier for offering her a “senior discount”, while her friend gleefully saved on her purchase.
I can be insulted… and get all huffy… or I can take the discount and say thanks.
I don’t lie about my age. Women did that a few decades ago. If we stop lying and are proud of years of achievement and experience, then being older isn’t such an impairment.
And the difference between me and the lovely Ms Takehara, is that I would have left the dude’s nuts on the lawn. In self defense. My asshole tolerance is low, low, low.
Good thing there are other ways for me to help than canvassing. In Wisconsin.
::
well, hopefully their will be a large cash settlement that effectively castrates that man’s bank account. And jail time, of course.
McCain does not care.
Yesterday Senators Susan Collins, Norm Coleman and Reid asked McCain to pull the robo-calls, this morning on Fox News he defended the campaign.
Imho McCain should not be made welcome. Given his health issues I see him resigning so he doesn’t give a sh*t.
I think Collins, and especially that empty suit Norm Coleman, are trying to have it both ways by playing “good cop/bad cop” with the calls.
If they wanted to halt the calls, they would. They don’t.
those calls are from the McCain campaign, paid by them that has gone almost nationally now. It’s for McSleaze to pull them.
I hope Obama wins by a landslide in the electoral votes.
McCain stink is straight cesspool.
Yeah, but they’re are among the top dogs in their state, and if they thought it was hurting their campaign, they’d let them know in no uncertain terms.
The campaign doesn’t do anything that they don’t want them to do.
I am hoping for that landslide, too. I hope my fellow citizens vote for Obama. There is no sure thing anywhere.
I hope she pressed charges.
It disgusts me, but it doesn’t surprise me. McCain’s got nothin’, so he’s turning up the heat. It follows that when you turn up the heat some things boil over, some things explode. I expect to see more of this behavior as the election day grows closer and McCain/Palin continue to turn up the heat. They’re encouraging the ugliness and bringing it onto the public stage.
In a rebuff to the Rethugs:
There can be no argument that what Colin Powell said and the way he said it was exactly what needed to be said.