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Top McCain Adviser Charlie Black Regrets Saying Terror Attack Would Help Campaign
Top McCain adviser Charlie Black is now backpedaling hard from his claim in an interview that a terror attack on the United States would help McCain in political terms, though he is acknowledging that he did say this.
Black was quoted by Fortune magazine that should another terror attack hit, "certainly it would be a big advantage" to McCain.
I asked the McCain campaign if this was their view of things. Here's the statement they sent me, from McCain spokesperson Tucker Bounds:
"Charlie deeply regrets his comments. They were inappropriate and he recognizes that the candidate we work for has devoted his entire adult life to protecting his country and placing its security before every other consideration."
Earlier today McCain himself said that he disagreed with the comment. But he added the caveat that he wasn't sure that Black had said this.
Now we know from Black himself, via the campaign, that he did indeed say it.
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This has become the standard McCain/Republican camp MO. Someone says something absolutely outrageous and/or disgusting to get it out there in the media and fan the flames of the right-wing base, followed by fake contrition and McCain's supposed distancing from the statement. This is the third or fourth time they have pulled this stunt. How extremely pathetic the Repubs are as they go down to a resounding defeat by Senator Obama.
June 23, 2008 4:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know, I think they actually just fucked up here. I mean how would this in any way help McCain?
Now if there is a terror attack, the fact that he said it will actually hurt McCain, not help him. If there's no terror attack, he'll just look like an idiot who's hoping for a terror attack.
June 23, 2008 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
vote republican because if you don't the terrorists will kill you and your family and kick your crippled dog.
June 23, 2008 4:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
From dictionary.com:
re·gret
–verb (used with object)
1. to feel sorrow or remorse for (an act, fault, disappointment, etc.): He no sooner spoke than he regretted it.
2. to think of with a sense of loss: to regret one's vanished youth.
a·pol·o·gize
–verb (used without object), -gized, -giz·ing.
1. to offer an apology or excuse for some fault, insult, failure, or injury: He apologized for accusing her falsely.
2. to make a formal defense in speech or writing.
June 23, 2008 4:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I'm sorry I got caught"
June 23, 2008 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't this standard operating procedure for McCain, at this point?
The staffer who was "suspended" over the loathsome anti-Obama web site, and the requisite McCain "We're going to run an honorable campaign" talking point?
Keeps the issue out there.
I hope this comment gets wide coverage, and generates discussion. I'm not holding my breath, though.
June 23, 2008 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know...I bet it hits all the 24 hr networks...CNN, MSNBC, FNC...
June 23, 2008 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think Fox is going to be fixated with Obama's new "seal", MSNBC is going to talk more about Tim Russert, and CNN will obsess over those pregnant highschoolers in Gloucester.
But maybe I'm just a cynic.
June 23, 2008 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
I first read about the seal from hillaryis44.org. They must have used the word "pompous" and its variations at least 2-3 dozen times.
June 23, 2008 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I hope you didn't get attached to it:
RIP, Seal
June 23, 2008 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who hates America now Corporal Pyle?
DENOUNCE AND REJECT Charles Black
June 23, 2008 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's not sorry for the statement; he's just sorry he got caught telling the truth.
Is'nt that right sarge?
June 23, 2008 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
what Charlie said is a classic "gaffe." He told the truth and got burned big time. I bet he goes to bed every night praying that we get hit by some terrorist.
June 23, 2008 4:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
charlie black is not sorry.
June 23, 2008 4:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Charlie deeply regrets his comments."
Good to hear. So when is he resigning?
June 23, 2008 4:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh come on. He doesn't regret them that deeply.
Just deeply enough to buy enough time for this to blow over.
June 23, 2008 5:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
seriously, charlie black ought to resign...what he said was extremely distateful... how can anyone want to profit from american deaths?
June 23, 2008 4:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Apparently you have never heard of Dick Cheney and Haliburton.
June 23, 2008 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
"50 years, maybe 100 years"
"an attack would help McCain"
"bomb bomb bomb Iran"
It's not accidental, folks. It's simply incompetence.
McCain wants to be POTUS, for whatever reason. When you are POTUS, and you say some dumb-ass thing, people pay attention.
McCain is simply not competent.
June 23, 2008 4:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
"What I meant to say is that all those terror victims would be good for McCain!
No, no wait! That's not right.
What I really meant is that the ensuing escalation of the war would be good for McCain!
No, that's still not quite right.
What I meant to say is the the resulting xenophobia would be good for McCain!
Darn, none of this is coming out quite right...."
June 23, 2008 4:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm glad I am just an anonymous blog commenter (though not so anonymous, since my picture is on what I write). What's fascinating to me about media coverage is that sometimes the truth is a very dangerous thing to say.
Take, for example, Charlie Black's comments. Though politically unwise, isn't it kind of true that people will probably pull the lever for the incumbent, or the incumbent's party, should an attack occur near the election?
It's sad, I know, but alot of low information voters (of which the electorate is primarily made up) will respond to a crisis in just that way. Wave the flag, support the president, etc, until the crisis has died down.
Black is only being excoriated because of the truth of his statements. The people here calling for his resignation are merely attempting to score political points on behalf of their candidate, whom I support.
And the merry-go-round goes round and round.....
June 23, 2008 4:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Which is why I'm hoping that there is widespread coverage of this comment, so that a discussion gets started, and people start thinking about this issue.
Charlie Black said, of the Bhutto assassination that it was unfortunate, but really helped his candidate.
That degree of cynicism needs to be unmasked. Or have some sunshine on it, at least.
June 23, 2008 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, and I'm sure the comment's going over real well in Pakistan. Oy.
June 23, 2008 5:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I get where your coming from. If we accept that it is true on some level, I think the logical next question is "why is it beneficial to the GOP candidate?"
I've found it very disturbing since 9/11 that the GOP benefits from terrorism. The GOP benefits from fear. The GOP benefits from war. The GOP benefits from telling us how much danger we're in. The GOP feeds on these things and grows like The Blob.
It seems to me a leader should inspire confidence in a dangerous time, not just take the opportunity to tell the people he's supposed to be leading that they should be scared out of their minds.
Anyway, I'm not disagreeing with you. I just wish the country would be more reflective on how much the GOP wants their own country to be scared, and why they feel that way.
June 23, 2008 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
If we get attacked under the GOP's watch, why in God's name would we want to elect another GOP to deal with it?? Because they've done such a bang-up job with the current situation? GEEEZ. A third-grader could figure this one out. Why is the automatic response in times of fear STILL to cling to the GOP when we've been burned so many times??? You'd think someday we'd learn.
June 23, 2008 5:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not interested in apologies from people I don't know. People like Charlie Black need to be held accountable for what they do and say. Ideally, McCain would hold him accountable, but at the very least the media should do so. However, Black has gotten away with lobbying for dictators, thugs, and even a suspected Iranian double-agent. The way to hold someone accountable for pimping himself out as PR man to thugs and spies is to publicly expose them and destroy their credibility. A person with no public credibility would not be able to function in the capacity that Black functions in for McCain. That should be the consequence of the choices Black has made.
Apologies resolve personal matters. They repair relationships between friends and family. I'm not personally hurt or offended by this or anything in Black's history and I have no personal relationship with him. I don't care if he regrets what he said. I want these kind of scumbags to be held accountable.
June 23, 2008 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Will the serial betrayer John McShame throw Poor Charles under the bus like he did his spiritual advisors, his first wife, and his Navy comrades in Vietnam?
Bet the farm on it
June 23, 2008 4:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry, Charlie.
Only the best tuna gets to be Starkist.
June 23, 2008 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Watch how this plays out:
A member of Obama's VP search committee who no one has ever heard of, or ever will again, is forced to resign over the terms of his perfectly legal mortgage.
John McCain's top advisor talks openly about how advantageous a terrorist attack would be on his own country, and he'll stay right where he is.
The media which is supposed to be so biased towards Obama, and went into a feeding frenzy over Obama's VP committee, won't go into any such frenzy over this. Mr. Black will be there next month - no problem.
June 23, 2008 5:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Tell them Charlie spinned you"!!!
June 23, 2008 5:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, pathological cynicism and tasteless remarks: IOKIYAR
Instead of discussion what this comment reveals about voters' stereotypes, or about the inner workings of Mr. Black's mind, let's talk about whether Obama flip-flopped on the seal!
June 23, 2008 5:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can't wait to see how the press handles this story. Are they going to ignore the story or are they going distract us by blasting Michelle Obama's hair dresser for saying something about no child left behind. Which approach is most helpful to John, the press is his base, McCain?
June 23, 2008 5:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't get how McCain is going to 'protect' us--he was a crap pilot in the Navy, blowing up more of our aircraft than the enemy's. Also, after the muck that was spewed about John Kerry, I have no problem saying that this guy was just a prisoner, not a war hero.
I look forward to hearing from McCain's fellow shipmates from the USS Forrester this summer, regarding his military competence.
June 23, 2008 5:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
AP Photo Caption
June 23, 2008 7:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
...and i regret saying charlie black is a piece of shit.
oh wait...no, i don't.
never mind.
June 23, 2008 6:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
how can anyone want to profit from american deaths?
Bush,Cheney(Haliburton,Guliani, etc.
June 23, 2008 6:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wouldn't put it past Bush to "accidentally" let one slip (again) in order to bail out McCain's poll numbers:
http://www.thepersonalispolitical.com/2008/06/terrorist-attack-mccains-miracle.html
June 23, 2008 8:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
From "Head of State"
http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/06/what-republicans-have-already-figured.html
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
What the Republicans Have Already Figured Out: "Arrogance" Equals Allowable Racism
What you will be seeing in the coming days:
The Republicans have already figured it out.
They know that precisely because Obama's greatest strength is in the fact that he offers something new, a change from long-held traditions of the past--that it is also his greatest weakness.
They know that the fervent bubbly enthusiasm is a concern--deeply buried ambiguities about race, deeply held racism, especially among older voters.
For a time, they were caught by the dilemma that Obama seemed invulnerable--that any attack, particularly the attacks that they have honed and used for so long, steeped in insinuation and vicious invention, would be regarded as racist.
Hence, the dilemma for the usual swift boat strategy.
Now they have found it. They have realized that:
1) Americans want to be free of the burdens and division of racism;
2) Many of them--including many of those who wish to be free--are not;
3) Republicans cannot raise racist issues frontally, because many people hold such views at the same time that they do not wish to see themselves as holding them;
4) They need a substitute--distanced enough from overt racism to be acceptable to those who wish to see themselves as egalitarian but still hold deeply seated racial prejudices, and fears, yet close enough to evoke those very doubts and fears--yet one that they can claim is *not* racist--with the traditional smug pose of Republican innocence, hands up, pleased at their cleverness at providing one message while claiming another, the tradition of attack over thought and truth that carried us all the way to Iraq--and beyond.
The substitute is "arrogance".
As the 527's gear up, look to see "arrogance" and "elitist" used again and again as this cycle's dark touchstone to evoke the deepest and unspoken doubts and fears, as they work in the mental demilitarized grey zone between racism and rationalization, calling up the vitriol with that classic combination of the pose of "clean hands" inevitably broken though by the barely contained, smug, blunt, adolescent glee of insinuated attack.
Elitist. He who grew up with a single mother. Who earned his academic progress through scholarships. Who turned down top law firms for the streets of Chicago.
No matter--the term itself will be enough to unleash the self-satisfied vitriolic scrawl--just enough of a peg to hang itself on to loose the traditional and safest prejudices, as always, so boldly feeling their unloosed anger as they ironically turn to the most familiar and comfortable shibboleths.
"Arrogance" equals acceptable racism here. One that can always be disclaimed. In other words, hiding truth behind a known facade, in the most common and seemingly pleasurable Republican tactic--fear inducing insinuation behind a known facade--and pleasure and pride in the manufacture of the known guise.
Wise up. Don't buy it. Turn such insinuated doubts away. If they need to manipulate you to stimulate your belief, question their motives.
If you didn't do it for Iraq--if you fell for the directed manipulation of fear, of the use of innuendo to stir undemonstrated and unrelated fears--you now have a second chance.
Do it now.
Cite:
Head of State
http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/06/what-republicans-have-already-figured.html
June 24, 2008 10:21 AM | Reply | Permalink