Win the vote and lose a war?
At a recent campaign rally, U.S. Sen. John McCain yanked a microphone out of an elderly woman's hand after she called Barack Obama an "Arab." McCain shook his head and corrected the woman: Sen. Obama is a "decent family man" with whom he happens to have disagreements.
Curiously, McCain implied that he equated being a "decent family man" with NOT being Arab. What he should have said first is that Obama is a Christian and has been one for many years. Next, McCain should have corrected the audience member by saying that being an "Arab" doesn't automatically make one un-American or a terrorist. Many in the American media have not commented on McCain's remark but instead chose to focus on the fact that he was put in the odd position of defending Obama against attacks by his own supporters.
Although the media might have missed this slight, people of Arab descent did not. The remark stands in sharp contrast with McCain's soliloquy at a recent presidential debate -- that America must win the hearts and minds of the populace if it is going to win the war in Afghanistan.
McCain not only has demonstrated that he is willing to allow his campaign to make the most outrageous assertions that Obama is tied to terrorism, but he also has provided fundamentalists with more anti-American rhetoric. Clearly it is a new low in American politics.
Hopefully McCain will change his campaign and stop inciting xenophobia in Americans, because what the senator from Arizona needs to understand is that America must fight racism at home if it is to win hearts and minds abroad.
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