Or, on the other side of the coin, what if Obama is debating Hillary and he calls her “bitch”? Or if he calls McCain a “honkey”? He immediately apologizes. Any Obama supporters willing to state that you are changing your vote based on that? Who do you instead vote for?
Oooh! And what if Hillary shoots Obama with her phaser?
Look, can we at least try to keep this discussion limited to realistic probabilities, not wild fantasies where the candidates act totally out of character?
What if McCain skins and fucks a puppy during a debate? None of these scenarios is going to happen so it’s pointless to talk about.
By the way, “honky” is not remotely comprable to “nigger.”
I think if Obama used the word “honkey” it would be extremely funny. Especially if he followed it up with, “It’s OK – I can say that. My mom’s a honkey.”
Maybe if he said it on Saturday Night Live. Otherwise it would probably be a mistake.
I find that very implausible. I would be more convinced if you could cite a single black political candidate who won election after being caught on tape using that language.
You are right that there are double-standards, but you have forgotten one of them. Acceptable behavior for a presidential candidate is much more highly constrained than for the rest of us. People may not blink when a gangsta rapper says “nigga”, but they sure aren’t going to elect him president.
This is one area where I really worry about McCain. Could he be objective while conducting affairs of state with Vietnam? Would he be able to travel there and remain level-headed if they hosted the ASEAN conference and he were asked to speak?
Having used the word “gook,” I assume he harbors some resentment (and Lord knows I forgive him that) but how deep does his feeling go? Does he think the Chinese are basically no different? Our relationship with China is going to get very interesting in this next term – I don’t want him flipping out and deciding to play “nuke the gook” because he had a flashback.
I thought the match for “nigger” was “DEAD honky”… 
As the article noted, McCain took the lead in normalizing trade relations with Vietnam a decade ago (and, incidentally, provided invaluable political cover to President Bill Clinton in doing so). If I were a Vietnamese leader, I wouldn’t be too concerned about John McCain with his finger on The Button. He seems quite capable of distinguishing between those individuals who tortured him and his comrades in the Hanoi Hilton, and every other Vietnamese.
As to the OP: It would destroy Hillary’s candidacy, given the reliance the Democrats place on the black vote. It would badly hurt McCain, given the widespread taboo against the word even among Republicans (and even more so among the independents who’ve supported him in the past), but he might survive it, given his straight-talk persona. But it would be little more than a bump in the road for Obama, with a week or two of much hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth about double standards, yada yada yada, but he’d get past it without too much trouble, I’d expect.
Where do you get the idea that it’s any more likely that McCain or Clinton will call Obama a nigger than it is that he’d call Clinton a bitch?
You’re right. I’d never call Obama a nigger, but as for calling Clinton a bitch? I might. I’d bet that a lot more people have described her as a bitch than him as a nigger. For one thing, she’s been alive longer. For another, she sure can be bitchy.
Personally, I don’t think any of these scenarios are likely but I think it’s marginally less unlikely one of the candidates would get caught saying something off camera than that they would bust out a “bitch” or a “nigger” during a public debate.
He’d get my vote.
This whole thread is just… bizarre.
If it was a “grainy cellphone video”, it would probably be fake.
But this is a silly question, in light of the macaca incident during the 2006 Senate campaign. That destroyed Allen, and this would be much worse.
Now, let’s get on to more important topics, like what if Hillary got pregnant by Obama? How would that affect the campaign?
That would be tough for her since there’s also an election in 9 months.
Since she’s 60 years old, it would be a miracle.
Then it would have to be Huckabee who did her.
As far as I can tell, this thread was started on wild fantasies of candidates acting totally out of character. Do you really think it’s any more plausible that HRC would be caught saying “nigger” than that Obama would call her a bitch?
To respond, I think Obama would be in deep, deep shit if he called any woman bitch.
Yeah, but the circumstances of where the comment was made shouldn’t have caused Czarcasm to have a hissy fit. It’s the same question if we said “Obama caught on tape calling Clinton a ‘bitch’ or McCain a ‘honkey,’” right?