McCain Calls People Making Making Under 80,000/year, “Stupid”

What is the context to McCain’s statement?

Did it start with “Obama thinks things like…”?

Second, and more importantly, the tax breaks for the rich are actually rewards for re-investing in our economy, thus employing more people and making the market do for people who want a job what liberals would have the government do for people staying at home, doing nothing.

I just did a search and could find no reference to such a statement other than this website. One would think it would be bigger news, unless the obvious suggestion that perhaps McCain has the media on his side, keeping this one quiet.

-=T=-

That unsourced McCain quote about “stupid people” is now on 7 sites (according to Google), all of them equally unsourced as this one is. I will be voting Obama and am strongly against damn near everything McCain stands for, but smear tactics & whispered innuendo are embarrassing and dishonorable. Unless you have some first hand knowledge of the truth of this statement (like, you witnessed it, but didn’t have a recorder), it’s pretty much just libel, akin to the filthy “Obama is a secret Muslim!” crap. Shame on you.

@Jonathan

I agree with you that it’s ideal to have some sort of corroboration for quotes like these, and I agree that the lack of such support weakens the impact. But the difference between the “Obama is a Muslim” stuff vs. this is that nobody’s saying, “Obama said he was a Muslim last week in a Mosque.”

In other words, this is 100% consistent with what McCain might do at a dinner, which he did go to, for rich people. Remember, this is the guy that sang “Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” at a similar meeting. This is not fringe stuff in the slightest for McCain.

It is pretty hard to track down quotes like that, but besides the OSI article you referenced, some comment on a partisan blog is the only other google result: http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=2725#comment-205051

And I know rich people can get around places pretty quickly and this isn’t definitive counter-proof, but it sounds a little odd to have a private elegant dinner with the elite after a day at the Iowa State Fair eating some “pork chop on a stick”. http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/mccain-at-the-iowa-state-fair/

Point is: You could argue the Trickle-down economics vs fairness tax issue without the unsourced ad hominem attacks.

The context of the statement was a private dinner, where he was discussing “lopsided taxes”. I think it was said as a joke, but obviously you don’t joke about things like that when you’re running for pres

So you’re not even gonna add an “allegedly” to the statement, huh? He officially “said” it. To a roomful of rich people. On August 8th.

According to a rumor whose source you won’t even quote.

This is pretty low.

I agree with Jonathan… I first saw this quote on the anti_mccain livejournal community. I was so psyched to see such a bad quote by McCain, I was about ready to use it as my available message on AIM! But then I realized it didn’t have a source (I searched google and just got other blogs that also did not cite it or cited this post).

Please please please tell me this is a legit quote with a source! If not… well, shame- we really don’t need to use smear tactics. Unlike Obama, McCain actually HAS done and said things IN REALITY that can be portrayed truthfully and in context while still proving our point. For example, he’s stated outright that he’s ready for the Iraq war to drag on and on, and that he’s against pretty much any reproductive rights for women (from birth control to abortion), yet there are people who don’t know this because they’ve been fooled by the media’s portrayal of McCain as a moderate candidate. And these claims have sources!!! (google ‘em… it’s late and I’m tired) As much as I love this quote, I cannot use it because I know not of its veracity!