That One

how dare he speak in a conversational manner during a town hall style debate! VOTE JOEY!

When I heard him say that, I was like, “Did he just say, ‘THAT one’?”

Glad someone else noticed.

It just came across as rude. “That one” is a U.S. Senator, just like you Old Man River.

It came across as rude to people who like obama…

…And to people who understand the idea of respect.

Fair point, though I do wonder if Obama supporters would be raising a stink about “respect” if Obama referred to McCain as “that one” (or “Old Man River,” for that matter).

I would concede that calling McCain Old Man River, Wrinkles, Father Time, or Mr. Depends-on-Depends is disrespectful. Even if Obama called him “That One”, it would have been disrespectful on Obama’s part.

However, I can call McCain these things because I’m not running for president and don’t have to observe the same levels of decorum that a candidate for president should.

I’m not too hung up on it, I was just surprised he said it. It really just shows how much McCain dislikes Obama more than anything else.

but wasn’t mccain implying that he was “this one” by saying that obama was “that one”? as in, not that politician, but this politician. If he had been all “the macaca did it!” i could understand — but all i keep reading about on liberal blogs is how he said “that one” like it was the most exciting/mockworthy thing to happen during the debate. if you want to pick on mccain, try something at least funny — like how he would aimlessly wander around the stage whenever he wasn’t speaking, or maybe something substantive, like how he said he was going to FEDERALIZE MORTGAGES. I don’t think the lipstick business was legit or newsworthy, and i think this “that one” business is an even lamer attempt to make an issue out of a blatant non-issue. there’s just a lot of real stuff that needs to be addressed like say… the credit crisis, or maybe the iraq war, the afghanistan war, and the human/animal war.

Speaking of the human animal war, has anyone noticed a lot of dogs on campus recently?

The more I think about this, the less I see how anyone can objectively call this “disrespectful.”

When I hear someone say “that one,” I’m tempted to ask “that WHAT?” before judging the propriety of the remark. In McCain’s case, I’m confident he would have answered “that Senator.” In which case, “one” simply becomes shorthand for “Senator,” and is no more offensive than using a pronoun to refer to someone instead of their full name.

It requires a severely bloated ego to take offense at this sort of thing, and it saps the moral energy of Obama’s supporters in dealing with the many more serious signs of disrespect for Obama that have come from the McCain campaign lately.

In response to Bill’s comment… I think you are assuming way too much about McCain’s intentions. The McCain campaign has been attempting from the start of this race to paint Obama as an outsider, and as someone who is bad for America (e.g. “Who IS Barack Obama?)… I firmly believe that the “that one” remark was yet another attempt to portray Obama as someone who is different, and thus not the right candidate for the job… otherwise, he would have said “this one” in referring to himself a moment later, which he did not do. I think it was a disrespectful thing to do, and while I still think both candidates are generally good people with generally good intentions, I think he should have said something else (perhaps Obama’s NAME, for instance).