Update 1 (of 2): John Aravosis has found even more garbage on McCain's site: "McCain's Web site talks about the anti-Christ being 'a Jew,' Hillary being a 'bitch,' Obama being a 'Muslim fag,' and America bringing 9/11 on itself"
:: ::
Yesterday, the Little Green Freakshow (aka Little Green Footballs) lied when it claimed that Barack Obama's website reveals a disturbing pattern of antisemitism. (Edit: Also see this post from Comments from Left Field on how the stuff they did find was likely an example of cut-n-paste political sabotage.)
Well, I can now report to you that their ridiculous claim has also blown up in their face -- apparently, LGF forgot to check if there was any objectionable filth on any of their man John McCain's official campaign forums, and not surprisingly, it turns out there is. In fact, a quick check last night revealed at least one use of the N-word to describe Barack Obama, among other smears.
:: ::
Before I go any further, let me stress that I find this "issue" utterly stupid. Not only are there bound to be some bad apples in any mass movement, but there's also no way of knowing who posted what and why they posted it. For all we know, most if not all of these posts could be attempts at political sabotage. On balance, both the McCain and Obama campaigns have done an impressive job of maintaining an open community while eliminating most of the undesirable elements.
But if the Little Green Freakshow still insists on pursuing this demented line of argument, then fine. It's game on, you petty little turdblossoms, and you aren't going to like what you see: months and weeks old comments from the McCain campaign's online forums calling Barack Obama a "n****r", Hillary Clinton "wife of mr blowjob", and several posts claiming Barack Obama is a Muslim.
:: ::
I should note that for better or for worse, this is an easy game to play -- everything you see here was collected in a little under 30 minutes time, simply surfing through a total of about 15 or 20 videos and blog posts on McCain's YouTube channel and on his blog, both of which have comment systems that enable McCain's web team to delete comments. (The screen shots for everything in this post are here.)
And one last time, please keep in mind my point is NOT to attack John McCain or his campaign -- it’s to demonstrate the utter absurdity of the nitwits over at the Little Green Freakshow.
:: ::
Okay, now that I've got all that out of the way, let’s start with John McCain’s YouTube channel.
Here's a doozy of a comment -- it's been on the site for 3 months and it calls Barack Obama a "nigger" and says Hillary Clinton is "wife of mr blowjob."
arrivaandy (3 months ago) -4 does it matter who you have,a nigger or wife of mr blowjob,you all thick c**ts and gun happy dicks
Another comment, also posted 3 months ago on McCain’s YouTube channel, says "Obama is Black & Muslim" and "Clinton is a drug addict." (I'd heard the Muslim thing, but not he drug thing -- you learn something new every day!)
Raptorx35 (3 months ago) +1 John McCain is the Best Candidate, after all he's Republican...The Democrats are the Shame of America, everybody knows that, they are stupid, they're scum of the USA...But apparently, you are democrats, you don't understand the real situation, you've monkeys brains.... Obama is Black & Muslim, the enemies of America, he sucks, and also he is Democrat, And Clinton is a drug addict, she's
hippie.
:: ::
On McCain’s own website, one commenter posted a veritable treatise claiming that Barack Obama was a "closet Muslim" on three separate blog entries, each on May 4 over a month ago. (Here is #1, #2, and #3.) Each post was identical and contained this gem of a smear:
THE REAL OBAMA (closet muslim)... Obama was enrolled in a "Wahabi" school in Jakarta. Wahabism is the RADICAL teaching that is followed by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging "Jihad" against the western world. Since it is politically expedient to be a CHRISTIAN when seeking major public office in theUnited States, Barack Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background. Let us all remain very alert concerning Obama's expected presidential candidacy.The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from the inside out, what better way to start than at the highest level - through the President of theUnited States, one of their own!!!! ALSO, AND VERY IMPORTANT, keep in mind that when he was sworn into office - he "DID NOT" use the "Holy Bible", but instead the "Koran". IF THIS CONCERNS YOU, please forward to everyone you know. Would you want this man leading our country?......NOT ME!!!
In another comment, an anti-McCain (but not pro-Obama) commenter again pushed the Muslim smear:
McCain's rejection of Pastor John Hagee's endorsement has erased any chance of him becoming the next President of these United States! I have contributed to two other Republican Candidates in an effort to have a better choice to represent our party. If by chance he should be elected, which could only happen now if Obama admits to being a "closet" Muslim, McCain's "soft shoe" approach to dealing with the enemy will be the downfall of America. As a retired military officer, I am truly sorry for his unfortunate experience as a POW, but qualify him to lead this country, no way!!!!
Another commenter on McCain's blog suggested that McCain could win black voters if he put on makeup to look more like Barack Obama. Yet another suggested that blacks were more racist than whites, saying that "white American [sic] has moved further past race than blacks." Another echoed his comment: "I’d agree that whites have moved past it better than blacks." Personally, I don’t mind such a discussion; I might not agree with it, but there’s nothing wrong with talking about it. But by the Little Green Freakshow’s standards these guys might as well be Klansman.
:: ::
I was able to find this junk with hardly any effort, but it's still off the beaten track, and it's not at all representative of the overwhelming majority of comments by McCain supporters. I may not agree with most of them, but by and large they are animated by a genuine enthusiasm for their candidate, and that's great, and the last thing that they would deserve is the same kind smear being attempted by the Little Green Freakshow.
Here's the bottom-line: There's a small amount of nasty stuff on both Barack Obama's and John McCain's websites. Instead of digging for such dirt to score a cheap political point, just report the offensive content to system adminstrators. That way, it can be removed, and the 99.9% of Obama and McCain supporters who have no interest in dealing with such nastiness can continue working their hearts out to elect the candidate they support.
:: ::
Also posted on my blog.
:: ::
Update 2 - Ben Smith just made what I think is an important observation:
The raised level of press and public sophistication on this is striking: I think at this point, most people are willing to accept that both candidates can't control everything that happens on their sites, a source of major confusion in 2004, when MoveOn was accused of using Nazi comparisons because a user of the site did.
This is the key point: inevitably, on both McCain and Obama's web sites, a minute amount of offensive material will fall through the cracks. That's the price of having an open, accessible online presence, and it's clearly a tradeoff worth making.
There is nothing -- not a single thing -- to suggest that either McCain or Obama themselves embrace any elements of the scurrilous materials that are found on their sites from time to time. And that's really the important thing -- we're not electing a damn website, we're electing a president.