McCain Admits He's "Divorced from day-to-day challenges people have"

Well, Well, Well ...

Isn't this a fine mess you've gotten yourself into Johnny?

At last evenings snoozer, The Candidates’ Forum on National Service, we had Stumblin' Bumblin John McCain concede one of the main points aimed at him by Barack Obama.

That being, he is out-of-touch.

It came late, during his segment (he lost the coin toss and had to go to bat first - at least, that eliminated any "Cone of Silence" controversies), at a point where he was trying to pump up his selection for Vice President, Sarah "I'm not really a Vice-Presidential candidate, I just play one on the campaign trail" Palin, burnishing her experience credentials, extolling on her mayorship.

WOODRUFF: Senator, at the Republican convention, a couple of speakers, most notably your running mate, vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, made somewhat derisive comments about Senator Obama's experience as a community organizer. I've heard you say you haven't taken that tone. So I guess my question is, are you saying to others in your campaign and your supporters that that's not the kind of language you want to hear?

MCCAIN: Well ...

WOODRUFF: How do you -- how are you approaching that?

MCCAIN: First of all, this is a tough business. Second of all, I think the tone of this whole campaign would have been very different if Senator Obama had accepted my request for us to appear in town hall meetings all over America, the same way Jack Kennedy and Barry Goldwater had agreed to do so. I know that, because I've been in enough campaigns.

Look, Governor Palin was responding to the criticism of her inexperience and her job as a mayor in a small town. That's what she was responding to.

Of course I respect community organizers. Of course I respect people who serve their community. And Senator Obama's record there is outstanding. And so I praise anyone who serves this nation in capacities that, frankly, we all know that could have been far more financially rewarding to individuals, rather than doing what they did.

WOODRUFF: Less significant than the work of a small-town mayor?

MCCAIN: I think a small-town mayor has very great responsibilities. They have a responsibility for the budget. They have hiring and firing of people. They have great responsibilities. They have to stand for election. I admire mayors.

I'm -- listen, mayors have the toughest job, I think, in America. It's easy for me to go to Washington and, frankly, be somewhat divorced from the day-to-day challenges people have.

WOW!

He admits that he's out-of-touch!

And notice, in that same exchange, how he blames Obama for his pathetic, scurrilous, gutter--based, insultingly negative campaign?

First of all, this is a tough business. Second of all, I think the tone of this whole campaign would have been very different if Senator Obama had accepted my request for us to appear in town hall meetings all over America, the same way Jack Kennedy and Barry Goldwater had agreed to do so. I know that, because I've been in enough campaigns.

So it's Obama's fault the Rove Rats, and signed off by Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny, have been outright lying about Obama in their campaign ads and charges.

Being that Obama is running for President for the first time, apparently he wasn't aware that he was supposed to allow his competitor to dictate his own campaign strategy.

Because Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny wanted to get away from his weakness - prepared speeches, using teleprompters - be blames Obama.

There's another nugget in there, that blows the Right Wing Freak Show out-of-the-water, of using the "Community Organizer"to smear Obama.

Of course I respect community organizers. Of course I respect people who serve their community. And Senator Obama's record there is outstanding. And so I praise anyone who serves this nation in capacities that, frankly, we all know that could have been far more financially rewarding to individuals, rather than doing what they did.

Michelle "Stalkin' Malkin, for one, was upset McCain threw that one away.

So, for one evening, in a less then two-hours, Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain submarines his own campaign.

• He compliments and endorses Obama's Community Organizer work
• He admits that he is out-of-touch, "divorced from day-to-day challenges people have"

Go to work there, Obama Campaign, you should be able to generate a bevy of ads and talking point from this!


Bonus McCain Out-of-Touch Links

Steve Benen: MCCAIN RATIONALIZES HIS CAMPAIGN STYLE...

CBS News: McCain, Obama Sound Call To Serve; McCain Says He Would Have Pressed Americans To Serve After Sept. 11, Addresses Palin Comments On Community Organizing

We Told You He Was Just Like Bob Dole

Does The Palin Truth Squad Get Per Diems Too?

We Have Our Winner ...

I had been meaning to post on this for awhile now.

That being, when would, either from the RNC, GOP, Right Wing Freak Show, McCain Surrogate, McCain Staff, and most specifically, raising that infamous temper of his, Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny himself, actually say, blurt out, let loose, fire way with an outright, unequivocal racial epithet.

Drumroll, please ...

Congressman Lynn Westmoreland ... C'Mon Down!

Westmoreland calls Obama ‘uppity'

"Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity," Westmoreland said.

Asked to clarify that he used the word “uppity,” Westmoreland said, “Uppity, yeah.”

Other Democrats have charged that the Republican campaign to paint the Illinois senator as an “elitist” is racially charged, and accused them of using code words for “uppity” without using the word itself.

In August, Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) told reporters, “When I hear the word ‘elitist’ linked with Barack Obama, to me, that is a code word for 'uppity.' I find it extremely offensive and John McCain should know better.”

This, coming on the final day of the Republic Convention.

Steven Benen, over on The Washington Monthly noted;

Now, one is tempted to note how truly absurd it is that a Republican feels comfortable calling the Democratic candidate part of "an elitist-class" when the GOP nominee owns so many homes, he's lost count. But let's put that aside.

Lynn Westmoreland is a white, right-wing southerner who, not too long ago, took a bold stand against reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. For him to smear the first major-party African-American presidential nominee as "uppity" is ... what's the word I'm looking for here ... unacceptable.

And, Te Neshisi Coates, from The Atlantic;

UPDATE: Note that this is not anonymous "conservatives." This is not amorphous "Republican bloggers." This is not a strawman. This an elected member of the Congress who supports John McCain calling a woman from the South Side of Chicago, a mother of three two kids, and Ivy League grad, "uppity." And you guys want to rail about shadowy, uncited liberals "looking down" on Sarah Palin? You gotta be fucking kidding me. Cry me a river--and then go jump in it.

Now, to visit the Way Back Machine, for a moment, this person, Congressman Westmoreland, sponsored a bill to display the Ten Commandments, and, then, appearing on Steve Colbert's "Get To Know Your District", when asked, couldn't name the Ten Commandments.

Hmmm ... Maybe, Westmoreland didn't get the days' talking points, and what he should have said that the Obama's are "community organizers", as during the convention, that seemed to be the code-word-of-choice.

Anyway, as the winner, Congressman Westmoreland can expect to receive his Lester Maddox Lawn Jockey ornament this week.


Bonus "Uppity Community Organizer" Links

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Barack and Michelle Obama are ‘uppity,’ says Lynn Westmoreland

Washington Post: Georgia GOP Congressman Calls Obama 'Uppity'

Eugene Robinson: Racism in Plain English


Update: When You Look Up Moron In The Dictionary ...

Atlanta Journal Constitution: ‘Uppity,’ the explanation

Audio Link of "Uppity" Interview