Associated Press
3 HN mentions · mentioned in 3 months, 2016–2020
1:14 · 1.6M views · Oct 11, 2008
An AP clip from October 2008 of John McCain correcting a town hall questioner who called Barack Obama an Arab, telling her Obama is a decent family man. It is a brief campaign trail moment.
HN cites it as an example of dignified political discourse and of a Republican defending an opponent.
3 comments from Hacker News
>>the GOP has changed substantially in recent years. Both parties have. Both have gotten more extreme and more polarized. From Antifa to the "Alt-Right" Saying that only the GOP has changed is only looking at one side. >is that the GOP is now seen as a party that entertains such nutters. That is largely due to media coverage which only highlights the nutters from the GOP, never the Left, and never any Sensible Members. For example you spoke of Obama and how the GOp embraced the "racial joke" birther non-sense, did you ever see this video on your news of John McCain? this video Granted this is from the 2008 election and maybe that is outside your scope of "recent years" There are just as many crazy people in the Democratic Party as the Republican Party. and I say that as a supporter of the King of Crazy parties, Libertarian party, where we had a guy strip on the stage of the National Convention last year.... American Politics... when it stops being crazy I will be worried
Both sides relish in demonizing each-other, reducing the other side to simple statements like deplorable or corrupt beyond measure. I shutter to think of a time when presidential candidates refuse to even acknowledge that the other is a human, or correct obscene errors in judgement[1] borne from descending into the echo chamber and never coming out. That said, tribalism is as old as time immemorial. An echo chamber is not inherently harmful but the content going into it can be -- more to the point, it behooves our leaders of communities (and the world at large) to acknowledge each-other in a manner that shows the best of us maintain a base minimum of dignity and restraint. [1] this video
That's not true and you are not being fair to McCain. She said she didn't trust him and he's an Arab. He took the mic from her and said no mam, he's a good man. He didn't even address the Arab comment because he had already addressed it previously. I see nothing negative either intentional or unintentional about his responses. We have enough bad in this world. We need to give credit where credit is due and not invent thinks. this video