Why did McCain have to start with news about Kennedy?

[question everything]

I went to the LBN forum and according to a post there

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3514013&mesg_id=3514203

Kennedy was reported to be back home 15 min before the debate started.

[msongs]

1. didnt he say he wasnt feeling so good himself? nt

[crim son]

2. He was adding the human touch. Plus, he may actually care.

I would give him a pass on that, seriously.

[question everything]

16. I admit, I thought that he was reporting worse news about Kennedy

when he started "I have some bad news to report." That Kennedy was "only" rushed to a hospital made me take a sigh of relief.

[crim son]

17. I guess I'd already heard the news.

And they are both old-timers... there may be a bond there. Benefit of the doubt and all that shit. :D

[Left Is Write]

33. I saw it as exploitative, and it ticked me off.

[RichGirl]

3. He has a face and voice made for sad news.

[rzemanfl]

4. Haven't you noticed he is a drama queen? n/t

[Xipe Totec]

5. To remind us that his Bimbo, Sara Palin, could become president

Not a smart move on his part.

[willing dwarf]

6. I think he's trying to make up to Irish American voters he alienated

with his stupid drunken Irish twins joke he told in Scranton the other day. The head of AOH International denounced his "humor" as demeaning. Kennedy is a standard bearer of Irish-ness, and McCain wants the Irish American vote.

Did you notice how he also referenced Ireland as having 11% tax rate for corporations. (He didn't mention that the economy in Ireland has taken a nose dive this past year which makes us look like our economy's really thriving by comparison...)

[question everything]

15. I did notice and was "taling back" at him that businesses in Ireland

and in the EU have to provide a lot more to their employees than businesses here.

[willing dwarf]

20. He needs to insure the Irish stay with him on the right.

It used to be the Kennedy's were all we had, but since so many Irish have moved to the suburbs and made common cause with the Christian right, they are a political block McCain wants to hang on to.

I wonder too if he hancies that he could be another JFK, being Irish American and Catholic himself. He's so old,maybe he thinks JFK is still everyone's hero. Mostly he neglects to consider his own remarkable lack of charisma

[kedrys]

7. Because Obama started with thanking the organizers of the debate

so Johnny had to go one better and pretend to give a shit.

I didn't buy it.

[madeline_con]

12. Same here. It was some of that "compassion" the chimp was

always talking about before the pre-election gag order thankfully silenced him for the most part. :evilgrin:

[Overseas]

8. To show Obama up I think. And fake that he's bipartisan.

"Kennedy rushed to hospital" was still fresh on the news. Obama didn't mention it. McSame did.

Seemed to me like a weird gotcha.

Now that I hear what you're saying, I guess Obama knew Kennedy was fine by the time the debate started and McSame thought he was still in the hospital.

[HughMoran]

9. 26 years in the Senate?

C'mon - give him a fucking break - they've been working together for ages.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

10. Because he was hoping to appeal to Democrats?

The man is SUCH an ass. Capitalizing on the illness of a Democrat.

[11 Bravo]

11. Sociopaths are remarkably adept at feigning human emotion.

[ladjf]

19. But they are good a fooling those who are familiar the sociopathic

behavior.

[karynnj]

13. He wanted to win points, seeming to be a kind, good hearted person with

close friends on both sides of the aisle - and he did do the immigration bill with Kennedy.

He genuinely may not have known Kennedy was home - I would guess Obama had no additional news or he might have said it.

[eshfemme]

14. It was all about McCain name-dropping.

Now I know why I hate him because he's just like those people who don't do actual work but are quick and eager to capitalize on actual work that more modest people who are just doing their jobs turn in. Schmoozing while slacking off tends to get rewarded in the business world, as well as politics and that's part of the change Obama needs to bring. Obama himself is a symbol of the repudiation of such a culture-- you can say all you want about affirmative action but that also meant the winds were stiff against him and he still worked through it to get to where he is now. He's still there in front of us with a polished facade but people don't realize that it hides battle wounds inflicted in his past being raised by a single mother with an absent father, being seen only as a black man despite his biracial nature, the long and arduous primary campaign. Obama's worked hard for it and it's easy to forget this fact in our ADD society.

EDIT: McCain name-dropped:

-Teddy Kennedy
-Kissinger
-Albright
-Iranian president
-Georgian president
-Mullen
-Petraeus
-Putin
-Bracelet GI & his mom
-Ike Eisenhower

So yeah, I fucking hate McCain's antics. Just because you've been somewhere, it doesn't mean that you're right. It's that ridiculous Palin statement that because she's next door neighbors with Russia and Canada, she has foreign policy experience. Those two are just peas in a pod.

[MadrasT]

22. Don't forget "Ahmadinejad"

He really dropped that one. :rofl:

[eshfemme]

24. Yeah, I didn't want to be bothered with spelling it so I just wrote Iranian president

What's worse is that Obama was actually correct in saying that the Iranian President isn't the supreme authority in Iran and McCain had the fucking balls to kinda sneer at Obama's "naivete." I was pissed off because it's that lack of understanding of foreign cultures that gets in the way of being effective in our foreign policy.

Just because Iran has a President, it doesn't mean that the President is an all-powerful figure like in the US (which, granted, wasn't meant to be all powerful either until the expansions of power for the executive branch throughout US history). So yeah, WTF?

[question everything]

26. And I think that he even mention Clinton

was at the end of a sentence and was barely audible - wonder whether it made it to the transcript - and I wondered whether he was trying to make points with her voters.

[ladjf]

18. As usual, he was not current on the situation. It had already been

reported that Kennedy was back at home after having suffered a mild seizure due to a medication problem.

[Lint Head]

21. He did it for selfish reasons. He wanted people to see him as

a sympathetic human being. My brother in law is a bigoted, homophobic racist republican and thinks Kennedy should be dead and has said as much. McCain has pissed off these types of republicans. :dem:

[sarcasmo]

23. Reaching across party lines, imho of course.

[firedupdem]

25. Grandstanding! Ted supports Obama 100% so he was trying

to be an ass and insinuate that Barack had forgotten him or didn't care. He's a son of a bastard!

[hisownpetard]

30. Exactly!

[kerry-is-my-prez]

27. He wanted to do it before Obama could do it.

n/t

[EC]

28. To make himself appear bi-partisan from

the get-go...

But as usual he was behind the times, Kennedy was home already...

[gblady]

29. trying to show...

what a compassionate conservative he is...

or trying to get people's minds distracted off the debate...

or putting out an excuse for not being at his thinking best...


who knows what his motives were, he probably doesn't
to me it came off disingenuous...

[Essene]

31. because mccain wouldnt have the latest update and probably 100% meant what he said...

[LiberalAndProud]

32. That was McCain reaching across the aisle.

I thought the code was rather clear. He wanted to demonstrate a spirit of bipartisanship right out of the gate. And I believe he really does admire Senator Kennedy. How could he not after working with him over many years? So it was a sincere gesture with political underpinnings. Just MHO.