and I’ve really decided that John McCain is a racist. His disdain for Barack could be any one of a dozen things; envy for someone who has succeeded on their own merit, rage at someone who is on the brink of taking away the prize that he has been lusting over since he entered the Senate, or bitterness at the vitality, energy, and competence of a much younger man. Envy, rage, and bitterness are common emotions for McCain, as he readily admits. “Not going to win any Miss Congeniality awards, heh heh.”
But two small moments really stood out for me when he was interacting with the crowd, and apparently I am not alone in noticing them. McCain made a real point to remember the names of the questioners, and pointedly used their names in his answers. Until he came to a young, beautiful, and well spoken black woman. He didn’t use her name once, and he didn’t make the eye contact with her that he did with the previous questioners. That was bad enough.
But when he spoke condescendingly to the black man who asked him about the economy, saying that he had probably “never heard of” Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the meltdown, I was stunned. So was Rachel Maddow.
David Zurawick of the Baltimore Sun agrees that McCain was strangely condescending and offish:
In TV terms, one of McCain’s worst moments came when a young African-American man asked how the Wall Street bailout plan was going to help members of the middle class.
“You probably never heard of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac before this crisis,” he said patronizingly…
… And worse, while McCain seemed at times as if he would actually climb into the audience to make person to person, up close and personal T- style contact with some of his white questioners, he kept his distance from this young black man. And it was noticeable.
Yes, it was. Very noticeable.