McCain admits error on King holiday
John McCain honored the sacrifice and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and said today that he was wrong to oppose a federal holiday for King.
"I was wrong. I was wrong," he said in front of the Lorraine Motel after an impromptu tour of where King was assassinated 40 years ago. "We can all be a little late sometimes in doing the right thing, and Dr. King understood this about his fellow Americans."
Some in the crowd heckled him, but others shouted, "We forgive you. We forgive you."
The presumptive Republican nominee also told the crowd, gathered in the rain, about when he learned of King's assassination, from the guards at the "Hanoi Hilton," where he was being held as a prisoner of war after being shot down over North Vietnam.
"I remember first learning what had happened here on the fourth of April 1968, feeling just as everyone else did back home, only perhaps even more uncertain and alarmed for my country in the darkness that was then enclosed around me and my fellow captives," he said. "In our circumstances at the time, good news from America was hard to come by. But the bad news was a different matter, and each new report of violence, rioting, and other tribulations in America was delivered without delay. The enemy had correctly calculated that the news from Memphis would deeply wound morale, and leave us worried and afraid for our country. Doubtless it boosted our captors' morale, confirming their belief that America was a lost cause, and that the future belonged to them.
"Yet how differently it all turned out," McCain said in remarks that he also plans to make later today to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the civil rights group that King led. "And if they had been the more reflective kind, our enemies would have understood that the cause of Dr. King was bigger than any one man, and could not be stopped by force of violence. Struggle is rewarded, in God's own time. Wrongs are set right and evil is overcome. We know this to be true because it is the story of the man we honor today, and because it is the story of our country."
UPDATE: The Democratic National Committee, however, was not sold by McCain's apology.
"It's frankly disingenuous for John McCain to try and reinvent himself for the general election by distorting his record of opposing a holiday honoring Dr. King. John McCain should be honest about his full record of opposing the federal holiday, opposing a state holiday four years later, using divisive language to defend himself, and voting to cut off funding for the commission working to promote the King holiday as recently as 1994," spokeswoman Karen Finney said in a statement.
ah yes, "how differently it all turned out."
things were going reasonably well in this country until the bushes, cheneys, and mccains of the world drove us into the ground, nearly negating 40 years of progress. to paraphrase mcpathetic's words, evil will only be overcome when every last bush republican (and yes, johnny boy, that includes you) is relegated to the ash heap of history.
a retirement home is the best place for mcsame - not the white house.
I don't agree with John McCain on a lot of issues, but he does have a certain humility about him when it comes time to admit he might have been wwrrrrrrronng.
From a style prespective, I would argue that McCain and Obama are more alike than Clinton and Obama.
Clinton is a Democratic Bush who seems to thirst for Power and will tell any lie to get what they want.
I am really hoping for an Obama vs. McCain battle that might actually be fought on the issues that separate them. I think they are both fundamentally decent and honest candidates, regardless of where they fall on the issues. I can vote for the person in either case, although not for a McCain Supreme Court.
"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." MLK, Jr.
Maybe McCain should apologize for his continual efforts to hasten the spiritual death of America. McCain cannot pretend to be a supporter now of King or the movement when he still opposes almost everything that King stood for - racial reconciliation, social uplift, workers' rights, corporate responsibility, and the defeat of militarism.
Stop fighting each other ,,,, peace love and understanding as Dr, King (God richly bless his soul) stood for ,,, I'm a 1st generation Italian / Jewish American and my parents never taught rasism. Color is a mathematical formula comprised of red,green and Blue...... ie. RGB and nothing more. We need another couragious Spirit led man like him .God Bless America,,,,
Hate and divisiveness is alive and well, on the left. As shown by litmus.
forty years of progress is negated and our country is driven into the ground?
Why, because a democrat is not in the white house?
Obama will fix everything and we'll be in the land of milk and honey again. Get real. We are a real country with some real problems, your hyper partisan B.S. helps no one. Your pathetic self loathing victimhood rap is so old.
> Hate and divisiveness is alive and well, on the left.
Left, right. It's alive everywhere in America. People hate each other merely because they think they were hated first, unjustly. Heck, they'd probably still hate back if they believed they were hated justly.
Each of us ought to look into ourselves first to erase the hate. That's what I'm doing, and so I apologize to anyone I've taken or given offense from.
LeftOut -- you are stunning in your disgraceful and ignorant commentary. Sen. Obama has lied and lied again. He lied to our faces when he said he wasn't in church when Rev. Wright made controversial comments, and then he was, and then again Sen. Obama said he wasn't. Sen. Obama lied to our faces when he said that there never was a meeting between his campaign and the Canadian consulate, and then it was a tour, and then it was something else again. Sen. Obama lied to our faces when he said that Hillary Clinton injected race into the campaign, when he has a 12 page memo outlining his strategy for naming everything said by her or her supporters as racist. Sen. Obama is a pathalogical liar who is trying to swiftboat Sen. Clinton by making his weakness hers. Disgraceful.
Wel
Eight years and a confederate flag issue too late, too insincere to be believed. How did all those journalists get fed at that barbecue when there was so little beef to McCain?
Hi LeftOut, how can you equate McCain and Obama as the same? Obama is fundamentally decent? At least McCain had the decency to say he was wrong, but Obama had to use a speech to defend Wright, and never spoke out against him in 20 years. Staying in that church for 20 years and not doing anything about his pastor's racist rants, how can that be called decent and honest?
Screw the parties, elect the man or the woman for who they are and what they represent, not some stupid 2 party archaic idea that is in it's death throes. The two party system was doomed from the begining as seperating our country into groups like demis and repugs is a recipe for disaster. For a nation divided surely will fall. I'm tired of douchebags with attitudes and no brains, like both sides have, saying "your party is corrupt, no yours is", as it gets us nowhere and shows the world how friggin stupid some of you are. Heck most of you don't deserve to breathe any air at all as you do is take up space and follow leaders blindly like sheep. Grow up stop calling each other names and fix the problems, dem or rep, doesn't matter. But either side does what Busco did again and they'll have a civil war on their hands, it's inevitable if this behavior continues.
Flip, Flop, Flip, Flop. So, are you a little late, Mr. McCain? Late as in, the Iraq war? How long will it take you to know that the Iraq war is a mistake? Do you think the Viet Nam war was a mistake? Robert McNamara eventually came to know that it, too, was a mistake, but only after the damage was done. How long will it take you to realize, that you are too old to be running for President, or any other office? Duh! Why don't you retire to one of the EIGHT homes that you own? The Bible talks about the "deceitfulness of riches". How does it feel?
P.S. Will you be a compassionate President like "W" said he was going to be?
"W" vetoed health care for children. And, why did you vote AGAINST the NEW G.I.
BILL OF RIGHTS? Just more compassion, I guess.
"W" vetoed health care for children. Will you be able to out-do that?
Wow! It only took McCain 40 years to recognize the contributions of Martin Luther King. Hopefully he will do better with other issues. I doubt that the old geezer has another 40 left in him to make excuses for.
Also, I am sick and tired of him bringing up his POW experience every time he talks about something. It just serves to remind me that he is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and doesn't need to be President.
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