Salter and McCain
Salter and McCain, according to this story in TNR cited by Andrew Sullivan, have a sad and bizarre relationship. It appears that Salter has created the McCain hero in a grotesque, narcissistic version of Pygmalion to meet his own needs, and, it seems, McCain's as well. Salter's rage at perceived insults to McCain is unnerving, to say the least. It would be worth examining this relationship further.
By the way, in the article, a sample of McCain's prose, when he returned from Vietnam, is supplied. Salter must have done an awful lot of the writing. McCain wrote:
"'The Oriental, as you may know, likes to beat around the bush quite a bit'; 'A lot of [the guards] were homosexual, although never toward us'; 'you never can fathom the 'gooks.' McCain's conclusions tend to be banal. 'Now I see more of an appreciation of our way of life. There is more patriotism. The flag is all over the place.'"
By the way, in the article, a sample of McCain's prose, when he returned from Vietnam, is supplied. Salter must have done an awful lot of the writing. McCain wrote:
"'The Oriental, as you may know, likes to beat around the bush quite a bit'; 'A lot of [the guards] were homosexual, although never toward us'; 'you never can fathom the 'gooks.' McCain's conclusions tend to be banal. 'Now I see more of an appreciation of our way of life. There is more patriotism. The flag is all over the place.'"
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it seems he helped invent that Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Gulag story about the Cross in the Dirt as well, considering McCain only started mentioning that story after 2000 when he and Salter began working together on his campaign.
Funny that McCain right after he came back from Vietnam wrote a detailed reflective 12000 word essay in US News and World Report and failed to mention this Cross in the Dirt story.
This was an accusation brought up by not anyone on the left, but on the right wing fringe blog Free Republic, in 2005!
August 18, 2008 10:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Arizona Sen. John McCain refused to apologize yesterday for his use of a racial slur to condemn the North Vietnamese prison guards who tortured and held him captive during the war.
"I hate the gooks," McCain said yesterday in response to a question from reporters aboard his campaign bus. "I will hate them as long as I live."
McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent five years in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp, was questioned about the language because of a story last month in the Nation magazine reporting his continued use of the slur.
Since then, reports of McCain's language have been circulating on Internet chat sites and e-mails among Asian Americans, many of whom find the the term offensive and inappropriate for an elected official.
McCain's appeal to voters has been as a wartime hero and a feisty politician who speaks his mind and damns the consequences. But his comments on the eve of the key South Carolina primary show the candidate's vaunted "straight talk" in another light.
"The use of a racist slur can't be acceptable for any national leader, regardless of his background," said Diane Chin, executive director of the San Francisco-based Chinese for Affirmative Action. "For someone running for president not to recognize the power of words is a problem."
While McCain's words may have little effect in conservative South Carolina, where few Asian Americans live, they could come back to haunt him in other states.
"Historically, straight talkers who say things off the top of their heads eventually hang themselves with those sorts of remarks," said Bruce Cain, a political scientist at the University of California at Berkeley.
"While it might not hurt him now, Democrats are not going to have any hesitation about using this stuff to string him up later."
SF Gate. 'Slur' Originally published in 2000, again in 2008.
Note: America has millions of Asian Americans, perhaps the MSM should ask McCain, if elected, how his prejudice will effect this part of populace as well as meetings with Vietnamese and other Asian country leaders!
August 18, 2008 11:06 PM | Reply | Permalink