Dana Milbank: Are Obama supporters 'real' Americans? Nick Cargo and David Edwards

Published: Sunday October 26, 2008





Print This Email This The Washington Post's Dana Milbank, in a tongue-in-cheek Thursday editorial with accompanying video, chronicled his travels to Virginia, specifically Richmond, to confirm a notion aired by the McCain campaign that "real Americans," ie. McCain supporters, preferred the southern part of the state to the northern, said to be culturally tainted by its Democratic-leaning tendencies and proximity to Washington, DC.



One recent example was a remark by McCain advisor Nancy Pfotenhauer during an October 18 MSNBC appearance. "I certainly agree that Northern Virginia has gone more Democratic...But the rest of the state--real Virginia if you will--I think will be very responsive to Senator McCain's message." Other such line-drawing includes a recent call by Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann for the revelation of "anti-America" members of Congress, along with a statement Rep. Robin Hayes made to a crowd at a McCain rally that "liberals hate real Americans."



On Wednesday, Milbank, to his "surprise," found an estimated 12,000 people lined up to participate in a rally at the Richmond Coliseum for Senator Obama, "the leader of anti-America America."



"You guys are at an Obama rally," he told four young adult attendees, "so you're probably anti-America."



"We're probably communists," responds one. "I'm a terrorist," his counterpart asserts. A third concurs, and the three share a celebratory "fist bump."



"Sarah Palin says the pro-America Americans are hard-working, patriotic, kind, good and courageous," Milbank asks two others in a multiple-choice question. "Which of the following best describes you? Lazy; unpatriotic; misanthropic; bad; cowardly; or all of the above?"



"There are no real parts of the country and fake parts of the country," Obama said at the rally. "There are no pro-America parts of the country and anti-America parts of the country. We all love this country, no matter where we live or where we come from. Black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, young, old, rich, poor, gay, straight, city dweller, farm dwellers, it doesn't matter. We're all together."



"It was, in the end, an alternative to the Sarah Palin view," Milbank concluded. "In the real pro-America America, just like in the phony anti-America America, people pretty much sound like Americans. In fact, if it wasn't for the fist bump, you'd have trouble telling the two Americas apart."



The following video is from the Washington Post, posted October 23, 2008. The editorial can be read at this link.









Download video via RawReplay.com







