McCain Promises to Keep It Civil

Conservative radio host Bill Cunningham scored points with the audience while speaking before John McCain at a rally by repeatedly referring to “Barack Hussein Obama.” McCain apparently had no idea what Cunningham had said, but soon after the event addressed the matter in no uncertain terms: “Whatever suggestion that was made that was any way disparaging to the integrity, character, honesty of either Senator Obama or Senator Clinton was wrong. … I condemn it, and if I have any responsibility, I will take the responsibility, and I apologize for it.”

That’s all well and good, but if John McCain is successful in rallying the conservative base and the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter behind him, then he will have much more to apologize for.

New York Times:

He called Mr. Obama a “man of integrity” and said he was someone he had come to know “pretty well and I admire.”

He also said that it was not appropriate to invoke Mr. Obama’s middle name in the course of the campaign.

“I absolutely repudiate such comments,” he said. “It will never happen again.”

Mr. Obama’s middle name, which is Muslim in origin, comes from his late father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a Kenyan.

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