Look, this guy grew up in the home of a Navy admiral, his old man, where there were likely a few "aides" functioning as butlers and servants and cooks. During his formative years, blacks served on ships in support capacities only: cooks, launderers, man servants to officers, and so forth. How many black students do you think were at Annapolis when he attended 50 years ago? Likely quite a few servants, cooks, and "valets".

McCain is a nasty SOB. Despite his "hero" branding, and his POW life interruption, he has lived a life of extreme privilege since coming back from the war--9 homes, 17 cars, married to a multi-millionaire trophy wife--and here he is last night, having to share a "town hall" (if that was a real town hall meeting, I'm Ironman) with a black guy 30 years his junior, who's never served in the military as a servant or cook and is, what?, 100 times smarter and 50 times better looking than him! What unmitigated gaul!

We're lucky he didn't just use the N-word out loud. At least that would've been the one instructive thing he said. "That One" was pretty good.

Good post. This is hard for me because I am irate at how ugly McCain has made his campaign and I have no doubt that he is consciously invoking racial biases in the last week or so...But, I'm simply not sure how to read that moment. Yes, of course, it could be revealing racial dynamics that are buried, not-so-deeply, in McCain. That could very well be.

The more I watch it, the more I can imagine it in other ways. I think Joan Walsh could be correct in her interpretation as well: that McCain was using it in the parental manner...

But it could also be that McCain was thinking ahead of himself and thought he was setting up a contrast between himself and Obama and was then pointing out that "that one" is the one, no "this one".....anyway....I've done an awful job in writing up this post if I'm leaving the impression that I don't consider it very possible that McCain's comment was primarily racist. I just don't know and I want to show the kind of discrimination that I wish "they" would show Obama on issues of his preacher and his terrorist "friends".....

That galled me too, my wife and I exchanged looks of surprise, morphing to disgust. He may get away with this. Obama is too gracious to have taken notice of this provocation.

Stonecutter - here's the thing. Whoever is elected is going to be president of everyone, white, black, brown, yellow, green, etc. And he's going to have to keep his wits about him. So if he can get away with treating his opponent like a naval servant, like his old days on board the aircraft carriers, then the USA is going to have a racist for a president - assuming he gets elected. Things aren't like that in today's Navy (or other branches of the services) and he should know that, and he should be accepting of it. And if this is indicative of his prejudice against people of color, how might he treat women (forget Palin, she's his attack terrier) and women's issues?

We don't expect a kinder, gentler John McCain; but we do expect a smarter, wiser one if he intends to be President.

"That one" was a bad slip. Pretty shameful. Heck, even if Obama were white, I would interpret McCain's comment as a rude dismissal.

BTW, Googling "That one" brings up a tirade of angry comments about McCain's use of it and even a pro-Obama website already selling T-shirts embracing the phrase.

Oh, come on. With all the things we can talk about, why talk about McCain's use of "that one?"

Seriously, I've used that, and I've used that when referring to my friends. I'll say something like that one over there might differ with you.

Does that mean I'm prejudiced against my friend? Of course not! Let's get real here!

But Tony, aren't you talking about a different context? Joking around with friends vs. referring to someone you clearly dislike and using a serious/nasty tone?

If Obama didn't already have my vote, the 'That One', comment would have done it for me.

I might have the eyebrow of dubiousness on the hidden racism. Perhaps McCain, who was flustered in the debate, slipped into a flustered grammar mistake. Could it be Palin's influence? You betcha.

Vote That One '08

I thought it was tin-eared and condescending, but not racist. For what it's worth, there's no evidence that McCain is a racist. He's just an old, old man, an old angry man, an old bitter angry man who is seeing his dream crumble to dust before his eyes, and at the hands of a whippersnapper no less.

I think he's probably pretty incredulous that this is actually happening. I think people told him, There's no way that this country will elect a black man this year, and that he believed them. I think people told him, He's too young, he looks too ambitious, he's not experienced enough, this will be a cakewalk, and he believed them.

And if the economy hadn't imploded, this would be a MUCH tighter race. But it did. And the American people aren't anywhere near as reluctant to vote for a black man as those espousing "the common wisdom" could have suspected. And while Obama is young, and certainly ambitious, he does in fact look like he belongs in the office to which he aspires. Even Republicans have ceded that ground.

McCain has wanted to be president for a very long time. This is it, this is his very last chance. And he's extremely disappointed and angry right now, so he's being dismissive.

But, like I said, I don't think it was a racist comment so much as a "GET OFF MY LAWN YOU ROTTEN KID" kinda thing.

Poor old fart.

Thanks for providing the inspiration to post "That One or Sit Down, Boy?"

I agree with Leigh--it was rude, contemptuous, and dismissive, but that doesn't automatically make it racist. It certainly points to the temper and outlook of the man, though, which really shouldn't surprise anyone who's been paying attention.

I’m as honky as they come, and so is my 18 year old son, and we still figured it out. We were completely squicked.

I used to fall for the whole “McCain has honor and character” line of crap, but no more. He’s just another creepy old man who doesn’t get that the world, and the country, doesn’t owe him a single thing; except for , “thanks for your service”, now go home. To one of your homes.

I think it is clearly just a "senior moment." After a certain age, even your own name flies out of your head under certain circumstances, like being stressed and over-tired.

That's "just" as in "not racist." Not "just" as in "not important."

here's the thing -
there's no evidence he's racist.
but then again,
there's no evidence he's not.

Leigh wrote:

I thought it was tin-eared and condescending, but not racist. For what it's worth, there's no evidence that McCain is a racist. He's just an old, old man, an old angry man, an old bitter angry man who is seeing his dream crumble to dust before his eyes, and at the hands of a whippersnapper no less.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All the more reason to point out that maybe he should not be the next president of the United States. ???