Chris Hayes this morning offered a helpful tip for political professionals everywhere: "Don't compare people to monkeys." And what precipitated this good advice? Sen. John McCain's latest attempt at humor.
Yeah, hilarious. McCain is comparing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a monkey. Pressed on this, McCain said folks should "lighten up," adding, "can't everyone take a joke?"
McCain's comedy stylings, you may recall, have gotten him into trouble before. He thought it was funny when he joked about bombing Iran during his presidential campaign. He's also tried to tell jokes about torture and improvised explosive devices.
And in 1998, at a Republican Senate fundraiser, McCain thought he was very clever when he told a nasty, tasteless joke about Chelsea Clinton, describing the then-president's daughter as "ugly," and suggesting that Janet Reno is a man.
Now he wants everyone to "lighten up" about his "joke" comparing a Middle Eastern man to a monkey. McCain might want to give George Allen a call and ask how monkey comparisons go over with a mainstream audience.
This morning, even a Republican congressman urged McCain to "wise up" and stop making "racist jokes."
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Despite his (long ago) otherwise reputation, McCain has always been ridiculous. Since the night he proved it to the world by nominating Sarah Palin as VP candidate, he has continued to be more openly so. It's as if that real "self" in him stayed hidden behind the decorum demanded in DC, but now is fully exposed. Did Joe Wilson start all this with his ""FU" to decorum?
It is the irrepressible semiotics of an old white guy kind of world.
With Palin, McCain tried to put lipstick on it in order to enlarge the population speaking this dying language. Who knows- maybe they will succeed in renovations to the themes and the network of associations so that more conservative women and minorities begin to feel at home wearing those linguistic and conceptual altered garments.
McCain is an embarrassment. He's about as funny as a dead bird.
When I worked for a large corporation, I always used to tell people that what our CEO did best was sell the story of our products and our company to investors on Wall Street. In other words, she didn't know how to make the product or how to market it to customers, but by cogent and convincing explanation, she was able to increase the company's worth in a vital way.
In much the same way, the U.S. President "sells" the story of America to the rest of the world. And when he is continually putting his foot in his mouth, it makes us all look bad. Think about the damage done to the American brand by W, and you realize it was a good thing that McCain lost in 2008. I shudder to think what four or eight more years of that would have brought.
Excellent commentary, JL. You have really hit the nail on the head in a very thoughtful and articulate way.
Wow, that John McCain sure is a colossal a**hole.
What!? It's a joke. Jeez, lighten up.
Just remember that when someone takes a shot at your, your race, your religion, your whatever...
There's no excuse for racism... or generally obnoxious behavior.
redneckgirl, your snark meter seriously needs adjustment. Do you not understand that mindc was lampooning John McCain by making a racist, obnoxious remark and then saying, it's a joke! Lighten up! That's exactly what McCain said, not in so many words, in his tweet. It's called sarcasm, snark, irony. Except McCain was serious in his malicious humor, mindc isn't.
The true humanity glistens just below Justin Amash's tweet.. We're doomed when it comes to decorum and you wont find much if any there.
We can take a joke, up to a point. See Election Comma 2008.
Remember, in 2000, how he laughed and laughed at Karl Rove's "joke" about his black daughter?
Shows how much McCain knows....A-rabs are camel jockeys. It's the blacks who are monkeys. Maybe Akin can straighten him out.
Iranians are NOT Arabs, they are Persian. The only commonality is their alphabet and thair religion.
"Lighten up." The universal response to being called out for telling a bigoted joke.
"Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran." McCain do quit your day job please.
wish he would!
And of course there was the "joke" about the "wet start" of his A-4 (in which the pilot pumps more gas into the engine just before start-up to "surprise" everyone with a jet of flame about 50 feet long), which caught the loaded and armed and fully gassed-up airplane behind it and set it afire, ultimately leading to the deaths of 177 of his fellow sailors aboard the USS Forrestal, which also took that carrier out of action for 16 months at the height of the Vietnam war due to the damage from the massive flight deck fire that ultimately destroyed 18 airplanes (making him a North Vietnamese "triple ace" one could argue).
Poor "Wet Start Johnny" (the nickname he got) - nobody understands his marvelous sense of humor.
I am not a McCain fan, but that story about the USS Forrestal is a hoax legend. Here is the truth.
The Forrestal Disaster, July 29, 1967
At the time of this incident Lt. Cdr. McCain already had flown several bombing missions over North Vietnam from the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal. As he was in his A-4 Skyhawk, loaded with two, 1,000-pound bombs and waiting on the carrier deck for his turn to launch, a Zuni missile accidentally fired from another aircraft, swooshed across the carrier deck and struck either McCain's plane or one next to it.
That triggered a fire and a series of bomb and missile explosions that killed 134 sailors. McCain himself barely escaped alive. He quickly leaped from his plane into the pool of burning jet fuel that immediately surrounded him. About 90 seconds later he was blown 15 feet back when the first bomb “cooked off” and exploded, killing several nearby firefighters.
No "Wet Start" involved.
As much as I dislike John McCain and his sense of humor, he had nothing to do with the fire aboard the USS Forrestal. We need to stick to the facts if our arguments are to have more merit than the Republicans, Fox News, and their misinformed constituents.
What's the matter, can't take a 'joke'?
He is a legend in his own mind. To everyone else he's an old blowhard, addicted to media attention.
We will always admire him for his dedication to the truth? But maybe those days are behind him,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,a long way behind
Are you people stupid enough to believe that the truth comes from MSNBC? Do you even know how many clips that this moron network has creatively edited while your beloved commentators add their own personal spin on what they want people to believe. You fools fall for it hook line and sinker. The blind leading the blind is what we have with you people.
Dear out of your minds, go run and hide with your Fox News buddies...
Wonderful.
And, he sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Ass.
But that is perfect because relations (as used here) are foreign to him!
John McCain -- making Americans safer, every day.
If a Democratic senator had tweeted what McCain did, is there any doubt McCain and Graham would be all over the airwaves faux-raging all over the place?
I am always amused that those who want others to "take a joke" can't take one themselves!
Gosh DARN, those Republicans are just so FUNNY! See Todd Starnes from over the weekend http://www.mediaite.com/online/how-to-politicize-the-super-bowl-an-evening-with-fox-news-todd-starnes/ and for a REAL laugh riot see Todd Kincannon's tweets...http://www.mediaite.com/online/former-sc-gop-exec-director-fires-off-racially-charged-tweets-during-the-super-bowl/. Can't anyone take a JOKE??? Uh huh.
Those remarks are horribly disgusting. What is with these repukes?
What is with these repukes?
Someone is surprised when southern dumbasses act like southern dumbasses?
Southern dumbass? Your idiotic statement shows who the real dumbass here is. Take a good look in the mirror fool.
Please someone tell John McCain to stop embarrassing himself and go home. He is irrelevant and just an angry bitter old man! The media should ignore him and stop quoting him, maybe he'll get the hint.
you summed it up! I think some of these comments lately are because he can't stand not being the center of attention. He thinks that any attention is better than no attention,,,, not what we need representing the needs of the American people, that's for sure!
Yes your probably right maybe we should ease up on McCain it's not fair to pick on the mentally ill....But if it's not talked about then his anger and bitterness will continue until he shows all the people of America his mental illnesses...............And this guy represents us in congress???????
That is not an appropriate joke, he is just ridiculous as always, just like when he grilled Sen. Chuck Hagel.
And let's not forget the one he told during a debate, when he referred to Obama as "that one"!
Starting to wonder if Harry Reid is really a true Democrat that is for the people. Harry Reid talks about the filibuster so much, but when it gets down to it doesn’t do a thing so everything he has said about it has been a lie. Harry Reid literally kisses the arses of the gun and weapon manufacturers and the Drug Lords who don’t want any gun regulation and than pretends like he will actually do something. This is starting to sound like Republican policies, tell the people a load of crapping lies than do the total opposite of what you will actually do. Junior Bush pulled that load of crap with Latinos talking about immigration reform than does nothing of any real meaning to get it done. But that is the typical load of Republican crap set up something that makes people think your some nice and sweet guy than screw the American people over for rich bastards. So is Harry Reid going to be a true Democrat or just the typical deceiving bastard and disguised Republican? It might be even good to have some primaries on some politicians who pretend to be Democrats.
It's official: John McCain is the old uncle at your Thanksgiving gathering who at the table blurts out something really inappropriate and doesn't realize that there is a family member/in-law at the table who is that person be it race/religion or sexual orientation:
You know the uncle: (from nowhere) Hey remember O.J. driving really slow on the highway? Of course, that is why black people are always late for things!
(Deafening silence as the African American man the niece brought over stares at him. Later he asks the two of them for a ride back to the Single Occupancy Room he is staying at and gets miffed on why they said no.)
He stole that joke from somewhere, I heard it before... I don't think it was a racial joke either. The only people that should be offended by this is the monkeys being compared to the man. :)
The meme about when John McCain was hero, an upstanding American, a maverick for progressive change and an elder statesmen in the Grand old Party are so far removed from the 20 years of reality that I have witnessed that it appears that John is a fraud. My take is he's nothing more than a racist thug with a juvenile sense of humor.
John McCain was a fraud long before that. He was a fraud throughout his Navy career, a fraud in Congress (remember the Lincoln Savings scandal he was at the heart of?). The only time in his life he wasn't a fraud was when the Navy - not knowing what else to do with him - assigned him to working as a pimp with Congress to get them to buy the Big Boy Toys the Navy wanted. He realized how easy pimping and whoring was, and ran for Congress all on his own, once he divorced the wife who stood by him for a younger and richer model.
TC in LA,
We seem to both share a great fondness for McCain. LOL
He has always reminded me of a big white rat. When he smiles, I imagine his teeth to be feral and sharp.
its always the ones with no sense of humor who ask everyone to lighten up
10,000 struggling comedians, and this guy needs a second job?
I actually thought this was kinda funny :P
What you can get away with in the Navy when Dad and Grand Pop are Admirals... then you can come home and abandon your doting wife, become a United States Senator, snare a soft-drink heiress and then run for President. We dodged a bullet, America...
I am just crushed by your criticism of John McCain. I'm sure there are many other posters here that would agree with me when I say ...
Cindy Lou Hensley McCain is not exclusively a soft drink heiress. She is a beer heiress.....Budweiser distributor in Phoenix, AZ. Per their website, hensley.com, Hensley Beverage Company is, "Arizona's leading distributor of beer, fine wine, and non-alcoholic beverages and snacks."
Aaaaaah...........anyone can succeed in AMERICA...............Thank you John and I hope you get all of the meds and mental care you deserve for all of your "service"