Blogger Response #8

This week I am commenting on a Sam Stein blog entitled “McCain Speaker: Have Your Tiger Woods, We’ve Got McCain.” This article was posted on April 8th 2008 and can be found at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/08/mccain-speaker-have-your_n_95665.html.

The main piece of news that this blog talks about are the comments of Former Army Staff Sgt. David Bellavia. Bellavia has sparked a lot of controversy from people from both parties by saying “men like Sen. McCain will be the goal and the men that my two young boys will emulate and admire. You can have your Tiger Woods, we’ve got Sen. McCain.”

Most Americans know that there are many similarities between Barack Obama and Tiger Woods. They are both African American with mixed heritages, they are both well spoken and charismatic, they are both popular and more importantly they are both winners. The democrats are upset because Bellavia is trying to spark more racism in hopes that Obama would lose in November. The republicans are upset because Bellavia referenced Obama to the biggest winner of the past decade: Tiger Woods.

The blog has a video from a shaky cam of the speech in question. I’m sure it was not shot by a professional because the camera shakes around a lot. It is apparent that this is citizen journalism in practice. This video has gotten around the internet and the news world. This piece of citizen journalism has sparked debate from traditional news sources trying to catch up to the story. This video could have been up on somebody’s blog and posted to the web before any traditional news organization had any inkling that something newsworthy was happening. The blog also has a few in-line links to some editorial pieces on the story and a link to an Obama conference call.

The blog does not comment on something that I learned from watching Countdown with Keith Olberman. After this speech McCain embraces his introducer and I’m pretty shocked about that. A few weeks ago McCain took another introducer to task for insulting Obama by making multiple references to Obama’s middle name Hussein. Why did he accept Bellavia’s obvious racist remarks, but not the remarks made by his other introducer? Was it because Bellavia was a former member of the Army? Or does now McCain think Obama is a bigger threat now?

Normally, I don’t focus on the comment board when I am writing this because I rarely see Stein reply to them. There is one line that I thought deserved additional spotlight, and it was from a posted named WLA who said “I think an accurate golf metaphor reply in this case would be, "Yes, we'll keep our Tiger Woods and you can keep your Fuzzy Zoeller." Zoeller is well known in the sports world for being racist and originally didn’t believe Woods had any right playing in the PGA. This is a tremendous comment, and I think it speaks perfectly toward the situation, and the golf metaphor used by Bellavia.

Bellavia before making his Woods comment made a comment with a little bit more weight when he said “There (Congress) will has been replaced by political maneuvering and partisan politics.” This is not new news as it is always the minorities in congress who clamor about bipartisanship. The minority power always thinks the majority should subjugate to their will and not the other way around. No matter what party is in control in congress, the other party whines about bipartisanship. I never complain about bipartisanship because I know the danger of when these people work together. The last time both parties worked together we got the PATRIOT ACT. For the good of the nation, we need partisan politics.