If someone cares about something, they tend to speak about it. If someone does not care about something, they tend not to speak about it. Seems pretty simple, but it is a concept with which Senator McCain seems substantively unfamiliar. The GOP candidate has a favorite way of broaching the subject of the connection between Senator Obama and William Ayers. He does so while seeming to maintain a built-in level of plausible deniability against the inevitable retaliation of the facts. He alleges that he does not care about Ayers. He makes this claim so it looks like he is reluctantly discussing the man featured prominently in several of his Campaign advertisements. But how plausible is his deniability when he logically contradicts himself every time he associates the two figures?
Observe as Mr. McCain repeatedly asserts that he does not care about Mr. Ayers, then immediately lays down qualifications about him.
“As I say, I don’t care about Mr. Ayers who on Sept. 11, 2001 said he wished he’d have bombed more. I don’t care about that.”
-Interview with Charles Gibson, ABC News, October 9, 2008
“And I don’t care about two washed-up old terrorists that are unrepentant about trying to destroy America.”
-Interview with Charles Gibson, ABC News, October 9, 2008
“The fact is that William Ayers was a terrorist and bomber and unrepentant. I don’t care about that.”
-Interview with Jay Warren, October 12, 2008
“Well, because William Ayers was an unrepentant terrorist. I mean he’s a person who, on 9/11, said that he wanted to set off more bombs. I mean this is a very big question I think that people have to ask.”
-Interview with Dana Bash, CNN, October 13, 2008
“Because Mr. Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist. And that’s — that’s a unique individual in American history — a person who still wants to destroy America. He and his wife — they both want to still destroy America. That’s an unusual breed of cat.”
-Interview with Dana Bash, CNN, October 13, 2008
“Very, frankly, Dana, I don’t give a damn about an old unrepentant terrorist.”
-Interview with Dana Bash, CNN, October 13, 2008
“I don’t care much about an old terrorist and his wife who are still unrepentant. By the way, she was as much or more active than Mr. Ayers was.”
-Interview with Sean Hannity, Fox News, October 13, 2008.
“Yes, real quick. Mr. Ayers, I don’t care about an old washed-up terrorist.”
-Final Presidential Debate, October 15, 2008
If he didn’t care, as he claims, about Mr. Ayers, then why does he offer a footnote about him every time he brings him up? Why would he bring him up at all? The fact is that John McCain relentlessly speaks of Mr. Ayers and, each time he does, he affirms him as a terrorist and gives his audience a supplementary, detestable fact about him. Logic would dictate that this is done in order to juxtapose Mr. Obama with all that is reprehensible about Mr. Ayers. It is important to Mr. McCain to relate the Senator from Illinois both to William Ayers and to the actions of William Ayers. There is only one conclusion to be drawn here: John McCain does care (about a washed up old terrorist who targeted his country, and is unrepentant along with his wife, and wished he had done more on 9/11). He does care and perhaps he should because the more he reminds them about the negative aspects of Mr. Ayers, the more powerfully the association with Barack Obama will resonate, negatively, with voters.
If John McCain feels (in spite of evidence to the contrary) that harping on a tenuous connection between Ayers and Obama can help get him elected, then he is entitled to make it the centerpiece of his campaign. But he must stop asserting that he doesn’t care about Ayers. It is a preposterous claim and it insults our collective intelligence. Further, it offers no deniability, as the claim is so transparent. It is obviously a marketing technique designed to frame the issue in a manner favorable to the McCain Campaign.
Contradictory to his claims, Senator McCain cares a great deal about Ayers, and Senator McCain has his fingers crossed that you do too.
“Average” Todd Nitschelm, October 16, 2008
1 Comment
October 16, 2008 at 8:21 pm
I do care, both about Obama willingly associating with an unrepentant terrorist and about Obama associating with a man – the same one – who has put up his bombs in favor of suborning the educational system with the same admitted and avowed agenda as when he was actively a terrorist.