# McCain campaign slams Obama's visit to his grandmother **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 23, 2008, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233 "2008-10-23T17:27:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233/41 "2008-10-23T19:36:56Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > OK, pretty sure the Secret Service would frown on him flying commercial. [Tell that to Nixon](http://books.google.com/books?id=qtCRa7bCz3oC&pg=PA100&lpg=PA100&dq=president+nixon+commercial+flight&source=web&ots=WhUcA3JwPd&sig=HbK1AYytv7bTvY_SeHcQSVozZos&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result). ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233/42 "2008-10-23T19:44:02Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > If McCain has an ounce of decency, he’ll rip his spokesman a new asshole for that. Lucky for McMaverick, he can have it both ways. The clip is out there reaching whatever trogs would find that sort of thing a witty riposte, and ol’ John gets to denounce it, fire the guy (hey, his job’s about done anyway) and come off all righteous. And he can go on with lesser attacks having denounced this one. Of course, he’ll have to turn off the smug and think of that first. Odds are about even. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233/43 "2008-10-23T19:49:02Z")
It is a 757, BTW, a much smaller plane. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233/44 "2008-10-23T19:59:52Z")
**Liberal** , you scamp! Youi’re _killing_ me here, with this made up stuff! I’m trying to imagine a campaign so totally brain dead that they attack a guy for visiting his sick Granny, and I collapse into chortles. Very imaginative, a jelly doughnut of mirth. That would perhaps be my only criticism, albeit a mild one, that this is simply too unbelievable, too perfectly ridiculous. I mean, c’mon, Florida is chock full of Granny ladies, and they would go totally apeshit, and totally Obamoid. Still, a droll bit of fun. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233/45 "2008-10-23T20:17:14Z")
Being somewhat cynical, it occurred to me that Obama visiting his sick grandmother was a useful way to take a few days off from a stressful campaign and since Obama’s best strategy right now is to avoid saying or doing anything that’ll lose him the election, getting out of sight for a while can only help him. Actually, it would be quite memorable if Obama was at his grandmother’s side when he wins the election, she would smile, shed a tear, and then flatline. Since the McCain campaign has nothing to lose, they may as well sneer about it and hope for the best. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233/46 "2008-10-23T20:24:33Z")
Wait a minute, this is for _real_? No shit? Well, heck, why doesn’t he just \*heal \*her? Too gaudy, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233/47 "2008-10-23T20:26:54Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Wait a minute, this is for _real_? No shit? Well, heck, why doesn’t he just \*heal \*her? Too gaudy, I guess. She’s too weak to reach out and touch the hem of his trousers. And that whole spitting in the dirt and rubbing it into her hip thing is REALLY not camera-friendly. Trust me. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233/48 "2008-10-23T20:30:12Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Actually, it would be quite memorable if Obama was at his grandmother’s side when he wins the election, she would smile, shed a tear, and then flatline. Of course it’d be memorable! The problem is that right after that, it would turn out that the whole election was dreamed by Bob Newhart. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233/49 "2008-10-23T20:31:10Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Of course it’d be memorable! The problem is that right after that, it would turn out that the whole election was dreamed by Bob Newhart. Yeah, but when he turns over and asks Cindy McCain if she’s ever thought of wearing sweaters, it’s just hilarious… ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233/50 "2008-10-23T20:34:17Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > Holy cow. On MSNBC today, in an interview with David Shuster, McCain spokesturd Brad Blakeman blasted Obama in response to a question about the RNC’s $150,000 shopping spree for Sarah Palin. > > I paraphrase: > > If you want to talk about spending money, how 'bout Barack Obama taking a 767 to Hawaii to visit his sick grandmother? All the fuel and expense that’ll be. Why doesn’t he just take a commercial flight if he needs to take a break and go to Hawaii? How do you think his contributors feel, paying for him to go on a trip to Hawaii? My response would have been, “Probably the same as tax payers feel, paying for Palin’s girls to stay at the Ritz Carlton for five nights when Mom goes to state events.” BTW, it gets even better-the Freepers think he’s gone to there to destroy his birth certificate and then [“silence Grandma”](http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2110777/posts). :rolleyes: Can that place get any loonier? ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233/51 "2008-10-23T20:37:35Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > BTW, it gets even better-the Freepers think he’s gone to there to destroy his birth certificate and then [“silence Grandma”](http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2110777/posts). :rolleyes: Can that place get any loonier? Yes, and that’s the scary part. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233/52 "2008-10-23T20:40:38Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > Yes, and that’s the scary part. Oh, yeah. Redstate and Free Republic (and, to a lesser extent, Fox News) are going to go up in flames if Obama wins in November (I’m hedging because I don’t want to jinx us). It’s going to be another 8 years of Whitewater-style trolling for scandal. Except I don’t think that Obama is going to give them the kind of opening (excuse the pun) that Clinton did. And hopefully there won’t be a Republican majority in either chamber to initiate another witch hunt for a long, long time. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233/53 "2008-10-23T21:07:15Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > tie it all in with a frivolous mega-buy from America’s priciest clothing stores. Let’s be fair: in a job that requires winning over the public immediately, presentation is key and sharp clothing (even to the extreme) is a legitimate business expense. This is a new low, however–to compare a shopping spree to a visit to one’s dying grandmother is simply beyond the pâté. Beside which, O Force One presumably belongs to the campaign fair and square, to do with it as they will. And what if the reason he didn’t take a commercial flight was because he was told his grandmother might have only eight hours to live? Wouldn’t Blakeman feel like a real asshole? Well, probably not. > [@Yumblie](#): > > For 5 years McCain couldn’t vis…ah, you know. …it Barack Obama’s dying grandmother? Well, it probably didn’t come up. > [@shy guy](#): > > As someone who has donated to the Obama campaign a few times, I must say that I don’t care if every single penny went toward Obama visiting the ailing woman who raised him. I’d give more if I could. Seconded. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233/54 "2008-10-23T21:08:17Z")
Hey, that McCain spokesdouche has Biden hair! The newsguy did him a favor by laughing at him. He diffused the situation and gave it less weight by doing so. So folks, what dimwitted, retarded, counterproductive crap will Camp McCain think of next? There’s only 12 more days to go! ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233/55 "2008-10-23T21:14:24Z")
Why don’t the Republican’s try and pass a law that says Grandma O must be kept on life support? ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233/56 "2008-10-23T21:16:55Z")
> [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > Holy crap. Forget about the stupid things he was saying, the tone of his voice was unbelievable. "To go visit grandma’ was said with such disdain, and even disgust…I don’t think people who are grandmas, people who have grandmas, people who have lost grandmas, and people who have a sense of decency are going to be impressed with the ugliness in his tone. I am a grandma, and I approve this message. I thought it was a joke too, until I watched the clip. I had to watch it twice to make myself believe that it wasn’t an Onion clip. Like **shy guy** , I was too appalled to laugh, but David Schuster laughing in the asshole’s face was very satisfying. The Democratic guy looked as appalled and shocked as I felt. I can imagine what was going through his mind, and trying to figure out what he could say as a rebuttal that could be said on national TV, but he didn’t have to say anything. The look on his face, Schuster’s laugh, and the words themselves were enough. [QUOTE=elucidator] Florida is chock full of Granny ladies, and they would go totally apeshit, and totally Obamoid. [/QUOTE] It’s my most fervent wish that this clip will get massive airplay in (especially) Florida, Ohio and other swing states. Obama won’t do it though. Where’s George Soros when you need him? ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233/57 "2008-10-23T21:33:05Z")
I’m disappointed that David Schuster didn’t channel [Joseph N. Welch](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6123111613046415326). Laughing seems to indicate acceptance in my mind - “Oh, those partisan scamps!” No, this deserves nothing less than confronting this scumbag as the most heartless piece of human refuse to crawl out of a cesspit since old Tailgunner Joe himself. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233/58 "2008-10-23T21:49:21Z")
I’m sure that the clip will play really well in Florida. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233/59 "2008-10-23T21:51:01Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Oh, yeah. Redstate and Free Republic (and, to a lesser extent, Fox News) are going to go up in flames if Obama wins in November. That’s just nonsense. As is often mentioned by people on Redstate, Free Republic and Fox News, in time of war one’s duty is to support the president. Anything else is unpatriotic, anti-American, treasonous and gives aid and support to America’s enemies. I’m sure they will practice what they’ve preached. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233/60 "2008-10-23T21:51:36Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > So folks, what dimwitted, retarded, counterproductive crap will Camp McCain think of next? There’s only 12 more days to go! [McCain says Obama will ‘say anything’ to win](http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/10/22/mccain-says-obama-will-say-anything-to-get-elected/) (Make sure you read that carefully.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-campaign-slams-obamas-visit-to-his-grandmother/469233.md?page=4)