McCain Calls Americans “Stupid”
August 16, 2008 – 2:03 pmTonight, Rev. Rick Warren held an interview with John McCain and Barack Obama, showing the senators in the same venue for the first time. McCain made clear his ideas between rich and poor, when he said that the line between rich and poor is $5 million a year. Yes, this was a joke, but the average voter understands that this type of thing maybe shouldn’t be joked about when you’re sitting on the microscope’s crucible.
This goes hand-in-hand with a statment McCain said last week at a private get-together. When joking about lopsided tax breaks at dinner, he purportedly justified it by saying, “People who make under $80,000 are too stupid to understand taxes anyway.”
This makes sense, as he’s somehow convinced the public that he’s the candidate for tax cuts. Meanwhile if we look at the breakdown, we see that McCain’s tax cuts do not help people who make $80,000, in order to give huge tax breaks to the top 1% of the population. How is it possible to get people to vote against their best interests? According to McCain it’s because you’re too stupid to understand.
UPDATE: This was not said last night (Sat, August 16 2008) as we previously thought but rather last Friday, August 8th.
UPDATE: The “stupid” comment was apparently an attempt at a joke, just like “5 million” statment was. But again, things like this probably shouldn’t be joked about with suffering that the current state of our economy has put Americans through
UPDATE: We have still not received the promised audio recording of McCain saying this, so it may not be as factual as we previously thought. We’ll update as soon as we get it, if we get it
Note: Last year, a bunch of conservatives got together and flagged this website as spam on Digg. Because of that, this article cannot be submitted to Digg.
39 Responses to “McCain Calls Americans “Stupid””
Wow.
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By screwzoo on Aug 17, 2008
oh mccain.
take a nap or something
bahaha
By ese on Aug 17, 2008
Well he’s telling the truth, I’m not one to get tax breaks so what is there for me to understand.
What I do understand is the people that keep voting people like McCain, Obama or the people that think they will get a tax break.
Stupid people like me abstain from voting for people that are smarter then me.
Why would I do that because I know smarter than me people just want to screw me so how so way, so I would be stupid to vote for either of these two dumb asses, because there is nothing they can or will do for me or you for that matter.
If you vote the blood in on your hands because you condone whatever the elected do, if they cut welfare, unemployment, mass layoffs, war, gun control, higher rent, food, fuel, more laws to prevent you from enjoying life and peruse your happiness, remember you VOTED for it.
By Johnny on Aug 17, 2008
I thought that Obama came through the “debate” last night with flying colors, but IMO we have a lot of work cut out for us to make sure he wins in this crucial election. I would never have believed that anyone could be a worse president than GW but now I see McCain as a strong contender should the worst happen. Maybe you would be interested in my posts on Georgia. My latest at ePluribusMedia is “Reality Check: Has George Bush Gone Too Far in Georgia?”
By carolwhite100 on Aug 17, 2008
You know what…..McCain is right….most Americans ARE stupid. But it’s not an American thing..people in general are stupid. Want proof? Somehow, John McCain, the corrupt crony that is merely a drop in the bucket of corporatist rule in your country, is actually running for president…AND WINNING! These simple facts speak VOLUMES about the American people. America needs to wake up to what’s going on because you all really are like a herd of cattle. You sit there and argue over who’s doing what, all the while never knowing that bipartisan politics is merely there to give you the illusion of choice. You want change? Get rid of your banking system, the FBI, the CIA, and almost all of your congress members. But most of you don’t even know the truth. Look how stupid you really are. Enjoy the FEMA camps……McCain is right. Dumb as a post.
By you are on Aug 17, 2008
That “debate” was actually an illegal campaign contribution by the mega-church to the two establishment party candidates. (The rules are quite clear about this matter despite the ruling of a federal judge not to use an injunction to stop the event from taking place.)
McCain should have told the church to abide by McCain-Feingold rules, but instead hypocritically accepted the donation by attending. Obama also had to know that it was a questionable “contribution”, but accepted it anyway.
Neither of these two candidates is fit for high office and particularly not for the presidency.
By rockhoward on Aug 17, 2008
“we see that McCain’s tax cuts do not help people who make $80,000″
Well, assuming that chart is accurate, it looks like people making $80,000 would get a 1.4% reduction under McCain, and a 1.8% reduction under Obama. That 0.4% difference means they aren’t getting help?
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By mgroves on Aug 17, 2008
McCain is right, that’s why we keep voting for the “two” party system. Politicians (in both parties) know that people in general are too stupid to vote their interests and can be easily manipulated. That’s why third parties are laughed at, not because they have no chance of winning (that point is based on a circular argument), but rather because they require too much intelligence to understand.
Democrats and Republicans are the MTV and Nickelodeon of political parties, third parties would be the PBS and C-SPAN of politics. Think of how stupid the average American is, and then realize half are stupider than that. This in sum explains why our political system is the way it is. We do live in a representative democracy after all.
By James in Colorado on Aug 17, 2008
McCain didn’t say $5 million a year, just $5 million. And Obama stuttered his way through everything, so anyone who thinks he came through with flying colors probably has the same physical position as Obama: Eyes closed, head leaning in one direction whilst looking down his nose.
By Don on Aug 17, 2008
I hope McCain gets Alzheimer’s disease. That stupid old wrinkled whitehaired dumbass!!
By Sam on Aug 17, 2008
This is for Johnny….The most stupid thing a citizen of this country can do when it comes to elections is not vote at all and then still bitch about it. You didn’t contribute any input by not voting and as far as I’m concerned that takes away any legitimate claim you have to crying about what these elected leaders do. At least vote for the lesser of 2 evils in your view.
By Kat on Aug 17, 2008
What most people don’t seem to understand is that tax cuts without spending cuts are not really tax cuts.
We will pay for every dollar we spend sooner or later. Tax cuts without spending cuts mean we’ll pay for them later, with interest.
Tax cuts without spending cuts are like telling yourself you’re saving money because you’re putting everything on your charge card.
I’m tired of politicians pretending to give me a tax cut that I’m going to have to pay for later anyway, when they’re no longer around.
By Alex Epstein on Aug 17, 2008
Johnny,
You are stupid.
Whether the states vote or NOT, you’re going to be stuck with one of the two because the electoral college picks majority vote.
Might as well TRY to get lesser of the two evils, you fool.
By Nikki on Aug 17, 2008
@Johnny
I hope those comments were a joke, because the entire comment you wrote is almost incomprehensible. Not only did you have poor grammar, but your spelling is atrocious. I find it funny that you were calling your self stupid and trying to be facetious, but you truly showed yourself to be stupid.
I don’t remember McCain saying that people that make under $80k are stupid, but if he did it won’t be reported anyway. Five million dollars is the cutoff for being rich? McCain is clearly out of touch.
By lvleph on Aug 17, 2008
Why is this censored from digg? I had no idea they could censor stuff, especially important stuff like this…
By thetruth on Aug 17, 2008
What’s Digg?
By Alien on Aug 17, 2008
At least the second time, the majority of Americans did vote for Bush. So is that sort of label that hard to live up to?
By Andrew Littler on Aug 17, 2008
I have to jump on the train about Johnny’s comments. Kat was dead on about the lesser of two evils. Can you imagine if Bush had never taken office. No Iraqi war, a jump on the global warming crisis, real AIDs relief, no astronomical deficiet, no Cheney, Rove, Gutanamo and on and on and on.
By Dan on Aug 17, 2008
I’m not a McCain supporter by any means, but he did mention that he was joking about the $5 million and even said that the soundbite would distorted. Just for the record. Still, it’s not really a joking matter…
By Riley on Aug 17, 2008
Umm, if McCain is helping the rich like Bush why has the High Income earners been paying MORE in taxes since the tax cuts went into effect?
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html
Table 6, Rich pay MORE in taxes than they did the last year of Clinton.
2000: Top 50% of income earners paid 96.09% of all income taxes.
2006: Top 50% of income earners paid 97.01% of all taxes.
This means the bottom 50% paid only 2.99% of taxes while earning 12.51% of the income(Table 5).
Facts don’t mean much to Obama supporters huh?
By DavidM on Aug 17, 2008
The majority of Americans ARE stupid. There’s nothing wrong with speaking truth.
By LOLLERCOPTER on Aug 17, 2008
“McCain made clear his ideas between rich and poor, when he said that the line between rich and poor is $5 million a year.”
As an ardent Obama support, I can unabashedly say that you liberal bloggers make me f-ing sick. You take a truly important issue — the inequitable effects of McCain’s fiscal policy — and you drag it down by stooping to new media soundbite gotchaism.
I encourage everyone to watch the original video (available at CNN.com, “Saddleback forum: Part 3″, starting around 25:40) to see that McCain’s $5 mil figure was unambiguously jocular and sarcastic. I also encourage Obama supporters to vigorously berate any blogger or pundit who resorts to taken-out-of-context soundbite gotchaism in support of either candidate.
McCain’s response was disingenuous, evasive, and, by my standards, offensive. But the $5 mil figure was clearly intended as a joke, and latching onto it as a political brickbat only weakens your own cause.
For completeness and posterity, here’s my own transcription of that part of the Q&A.
Rick Warren:
Okay, on taxes, define “rich”. Everybody talks about, you know, taxing the rich but not the poor and the middle class. At what point — give me a number, give me a specific number — where do you move from middle class to rich. Is it $100,000, is it $50,000, is it $200,000? How does anybody know if we don’t know what the standards are?
John McCain:
Some of the richest people I’ve ever known in my life are the most unhappy. I think that rich should be defined by a home, a good job, an education, and the ability to hand to our children a more prosperous and safer world than the one that we inherited. I don’t want to take any money from the rich. I want everybody to get rich. I don’t believe in class warfare or redistribution of the wealth.
But I can tell you, for example, there are small businessmen and women who are working 16 hours a day, seven days a week that some people would classify as quote “rich”, my friends, and want to raise their taxes and want to raise their payroll taxes. Keep taxes low. Let’s give every family in America a $7,000 tax credit for every child they have. Let’s give ‘em a $5,000 refundable tax credit to go out and get the health insurance of their choice. Let’s not have the government take over the healthcare system in America.
So, I think if you’re just talking about income, how ’bout $5 million. [McCain, interviewer, and audience laugh.] No, but seriously, I don’t think you can, I don’t think, seriously, the point is that I’m trying to make here, seriously — and I’m sure that comment will be distorted [audience and interviewer laugh] — but the point is that we want to keep people’s taxes low and increase revenues. And my friend, it was not taxes that mattered in America the last several years. It was spending.
By Joe on Aug 17, 2008
I watched the so called interview, it appeared to me that McCain had been given all of the questions prior to last night, and then coached.He was answering the questions before they were finished coming out of the serpents mouth.
By FRED kazee on Aug 17, 2008
That is a fantastic info-graphic.
By Nick on Aug 17, 2008
I’d have to say this is broadly true. I’ve lost count of the number of coversations I’ve had with people that in one breath exort the government to build new schools or roads, and in the next breath complain about taxes.
Americans are stupid.
By Dan on Aug 17, 2008
cant blame the elitists…the masses are inherently stupid by design, anyone who believes in government is stupid. governments govern people but who governs the government… solve that and youll have world peace utopia but if you cant for the love of gawd stfu, te world will never change just take it bending over quietly, your not fighting a revolution anyways. the left and the right are on the same team stupids.
By common sense on Aug 17, 2008
Hey DavidM-
Speaking of facts: Perhaps the rich are paying more taxes than 6 years ago because they have stolen more of our money?
Lies, damned lies, and statistics…
By Oham on Aug 18, 2008
The question Rick Warren asked was not where do you draw the line between rich and poor but “how do you define rich” in this country. McCain joked about $5 million but if that is the level that defines being rich in the U.S., then anyone making less is either middle class or poor. Only a very tiny fraction (far less than 1%) of the U.S. population earn that kind of income. Obama wants to increase the tax rate on the “rich” but start at $250,000. Is someone making $250,000 by definition rich? McCain said he wants everyone to be rich, and the table shows him lowering the tax burden for everyone. McCain, was right when he said that some would misrepresent his statement. The top 1% already proportionately pay the same amount of national income taxes as the bottom 95%. Some American’s really are too stupid to understand this. I think we call them liberals or perhaps today we better call them marxists.
By BrianC on Aug 18, 2008
I saw this on TV. The Reverend asked both candidates what specific dollar amount would be considered middle-class. Obama said $150,000/yr. would be BORDERLINE POOR and McCain joked with his 5 million dollars statement. – Makes me sick that these people really think that way. If I made 150k a year I’d think I was rich. – Try living off of like 7 grand. ——- FUCKERS!
By Nate on Aug 19, 2008
Yeah, I’m really thinking that, in terms of stupidity and ignorance, George W. Bush may pale in comparison to McCain. I swear that if that senile guy is voted into office, I’ll lose whatever faith I had left in the American public.
Johnny makes me facepalm. I really don’t know what to do with Americans like him. -_- Seriously, that was one of the most stupid statements I’ve ever seen. Ever, by any human being.
And wow… I’m going to boycott Digg for censoring this. That’s just stupid.
By Shawn on Aug 20, 2008
I could actually afford to live on 150K. I have a family and we barely make 19K. Try asking either of the two candidates how they could feed their kids on nineteen thousand a year.
By Josh on Aug 20, 2008
Where was McCain and to whom was he speaking when he said this? I don’t doubt he believes it, but I can’t find another source for the quote. Any help?
By ProstheticConscience on Aug 20, 2008
personally, I’m coming to look forward to passing the end of my days in nearly abject poverty. Perhaps I’ll see 60, perhaps a little further down the road than that, but then perhaps not.
Once I was a registered Republican, but I tripped across a few scantily reported details during Ronny Ray-gun’s second term … the kind of thing that nearly drove me to renounce my citizenship. These are the Days of the Ray-Gun Babies, raised to believe that the trickle-down approach to economics actually works. It DOESN’T … unless you’re way up in the upper percentiles.
The next phase will be something along the line of Corporate Feudalism, but given a different name.
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By Steve K on Aug 23, 2008
Funny thing is I look to the graph on the right and all I see is communist wealth distribution. There’s only one way to give a tax break to the bottom 20% that don’t pay taxes, give them more than they paid in. For the record I am not in the top brackets and I’m not voting for either of these clowns. Pick a third party and vote none of the above.
By David on Aug 26, 2008
I hope American presidential candidates and the whole administration will someday search the web to see that a lot of (not all!!!) Americans are stupid indeed, but even worse, boast-about it, e.g., on impudent and stupid web sites. Most recent and most impudent example is daffydonkey.com urging Americans to blow as much money as possible in order to become famous. And probably millions will join someday. This is what I hate so much, mass media is combining stupidity with fame, and this is why young persons are mad about being stupid by purpose. They say: “Its cool to be a fool!”, or “I´m a fool. I´m cool. I rule.” Stuff like that is appropriate to make teenagers voluntarily stupid. And McCain etc. could forbid such media strategies, but they certainly will not. It doesn´t matter if Bush is current president, or if Obama or McCain wins the current race. Main issue is that America wins and stays world´s No. 1 country, and this is only possible with smart American men and women. From my point of view, it was wise to make America´s system of education as well as the mass media´s power, program (Internet porn, sitcoms, talk shows, etc.), and propaganda to dumb down the American people, kids especially, the main topic of race for presidency. If the top dogs of US politics don´t, and if the coming president doesn´t change anything, all the world will laugh at America´s voluntarily proved stupidity.
By Andy N. on Sep 15, 2008
I agree with your post. Which is not something I will usually do!
I enjoy reading a post that will make one think. Also, thanks for allowing me to comment!
By Political Humor on Sep 20, 2008