McCain: Obama 'comments are elitist'
Posted: Monday, April 14, 2008 12:17 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- McCain was asked at the annual Associated Press this morning if he thinks Obama is an elitist?
"Oh I don't know, I think those comments are elitist,” McCain said. “I think that anybody who disparages people, who are hardworking, honest, dedicated people who have cherished the second amendment and the right to hunt and the right to observe that and their values and their culture that they value and they've grown up with and sometimes in the case of generations and saying that's because they're unhappy with their economic conditions, I think that's a fundamental contradiction of what I believe America's all about, that I tried to describe in my remarks.
VIDEO: McCain takes several questions on Barack Obama's "bitter" comment during the Associated Press annual meeting in Washington. "These are the people that produced a generation that made the world safe for democracy. These are the people that today their sons and daughters are in harms way, defending this nation. These are the people that have fundamental cultural, spiritual and other values that in my view have very little to do with their economic condition, but has everything to do with what de Tocqueville said America was all about 200 years ago and is the same today."
The AP’s Ron Fournier pressed McCain, asking, if those remarks were elitist, which you say they are, does that make him an elitist?
"I don't know,” McCain said, “because I don't know him very well. I don't know Sen. Obama very well. I can only look at his remarks, and I've seen them now several times and say that those are certainly not the vision that I have of America and its strength and its greatness and what its fundamental values and beliefs are."
McCain was pressed further and was asked, you served with him for a couple years- Did you ever see elitist behavior?
"I know that the positions on many of the issues that he has taken -- I don't know if you would call it elitist -- but certainly are fundamentally different than mine. I am less government, less regulation, lower taxes, etc., etc. Ranging from national security to domestic issues, we are very different. That's why the American people will have the opportunity with either Sen. Clinton or Sen. Obama to see some stark contrasts in our vision for the future of America. And I look forward to that debate; I look forward to having that discussion all across America."
*** UPDATE *** McCain was also asked about about race and the possibility he could benefit from racism in a general-election match up with Obama. He was asked, "Among Democratic voters nationwide, whites who said race was an important factor in picking their candidate, were twice as likely to back Sen. Clinton, the white candidate, than they were Barack Obama, an African-American candidate. Does it bother you at all that you might actually benefit from latent prejudices in the country?
VIDEO: McCain answers a question on the prospect of latent racism benefiting his presidential bid.
"That would bother me a lot, that would bother me a great deal. I rely on -- frankly I rely on the goodness of the American people, I think at the end of the day they will vote for that candidate that has the vision and the ideas that -- for the future in these difficult times both domestically and national security wise, who they feel that they will be able to realize the fundamental -- I believe -- of the American dream, which is to give their kids a better life and a better world than the one that they inherited. I believe in the goodness of Americans.
"Now, having said that, I know we have a long way to go in relations between the races. I'm very proud of where we have come from. It was brought home to me when I visited Memphis the other day on the occasion of the anniversary of one of the great tragedies of our time, and I understand that we've got a long way to go. I look back with great pride at what we've done in America and the progress we've made. Particularly in the military, I'm very proud of the equal opportunity that we provide to a lot of Americans in the military today, and I'd like to see the rest of American continue and there's a lot that needs to be done. So I think it's a balance of great challenges ahead to reach a society where every American is judged by their talents and their ambitions and not by the color of their skin. And we have not reached that point yet. But I rely on the goodness and the decency of the American people, and role models such as the late Dr. Martin Luther King."
