26 Comments

1. Amit Green:

RE: “Both men walked solemnly to a temporary memorial set up away from the site due to construction and each laid a single rose at the base.”

Actually Barak Obama threw a single rose at the base, while John McCain laid a single rose at the base.

The video is quite clear.

Sep 12, 2008 - 3:59 am 2. Marc:

I watched the footage from 9/11 that the history channel was airing. It filled me with contempt, and resolve. This is not an important election, it will be the most important election of my life. We cannot stop our progress against these blood-thirsty religious fascists. It wasn’t just two buildings falling, it was massive destruction to the entire island of Manhattan. It was an attempt to take out the headquarters of our defensive brain-trust. McCain really is right in saying, “I’d rather lose an election, than lose a war.” We simply can’t let Obama win. Scenes from 9/11 should be shown as a reminder of what a democratic presidency can do. This is a war, or at least what Bush said, “a new kind of war with no borders or massive armies.”

Sep 12, 2008 - 4:57 am 3. Sissy Willis:

Rather than your assertion that “It is nothing less than losing trust in the intentions and motivations of the other side,” I’d the old saw still applies:

Conservatives think liberals have bad ideas. Liberals think conservatives are bad people.

Sep 12, 2008 - 6:38 am 4. Sissy Willis:

I’d say, that is . . .

Sep 12, 2008 - 6:38 am 5. LaLa:

Amit- You are correct. Obama tosses the rose…that shows me that he has no concept of how to act Presidential. What a contrast between him and McCain, who gently and reverently laid the rose down. I can see it now Pres. Obama tosses the wealth at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Memorial Day. I hope Obama never becomes President.

Sep 12, 2008 - 8:35 am 6. TroopLover:

Amit Green said:
“Actually Barak Obama threw a single rose at the base, while John McCain laid a single rose at the base…”

Obama also chose to have a political luncheon with Clinton, while McCain chose to vistit the memorials & families of 9-11…One has the country’s best interest at heart, while the other has his OWN best interest at heart…<

Sep 12, 2008 - 9:42 am 7. jbb:

Marc
SPOT ON. I saw that program too and it needs to be shown more. McCain is the real deal “Country first”

TroopLover,
Amen

Sep 12, 2008 - 10:20 am 8. David Thomson:

“What role is 9/11 playing in the campaign of 2008?”

Very little. Did I say that we live in a fair and logical world? No, I did not—so don’t blame the messenger. A majority of American voters could essentially care less about 9/11. Drilling for more oil is the issue deemed of greater importance. This is a sure winner for the Republican Party.

Sep 12, 2008 - 10:50 am 9. Marc:

Listen, and I know people here get this. This election is fast becoming a clear distinction regarding who has the best interests of the country at heart. Barry wants a career, he moves up fast, he’ll say anything to get elected. Not hard to sell the idea that the war is bad. Duh, all war is bad, ideologically speaking. We shouldn’t allow these liberals to treat us as stupid malcontents. McCain gets it. He served. He knows what is at stake. There are factions of people who want to destroy our way of life. This ambiguous thing that people lay their lives down for. And Barry would rather trade it away to look good. Screw that.

Barry doesn’t get it. The fact that he cannot see why Palin resonates with a huge swath of America tells me all I need to know about him. One thing I learned in this election, is never trust anyone with an Ivy league education.

Sep 12, 2008 - 11:30 am 10. Tood:

“Liberals think conservatives are bad people.”

I am a moderate who thinks leftists are bad people. Conservatives may not be great thinkers, but they are the people who will let you stay at their house if yours burns down. Leftists will not do that.

Sep 12, 2008 - 11:56 am 11. tim maguire:

Rick, great article. I’m not convinced there is a right way and a wrong way to put a rose on a memorial. Others disagree. But I take exception to the part about how the right and the left don’t talk to each other. I think that’s exaggerated by the blogs and the media. In our everyday lives, I think it goes a little better than portrayed.

Also some minor quibbles: Actual defenses of torture are few and far between. What most on the right want is some careful thinking about what constitutes torture. Others want their own definition accepted uncritically before the discussion even begins.

I also am quite comfortable questioning liberals’ patriotism. For a long time, on the left patriotism was a joke, something only rubes anbd fascists embraced, while sophisticated people are citizens of the world, above putting country first. This was business as usual right up until the moment the right pointed out that the left was not patriotic, and then suddenly the lefts’ as patriotic as anybody and this is a scurrilous charge only a fascist rightwingnut would make.

Sep 12, 2008 - 11:58 am 12. ZEITGEIST:

[...] RICK MORAN looks at the politics of 9/11. [...]

Sep 12, 2008 - 12:19 pm 13. JorgXMcKie:

Also, Michelle was not there. I believe that someone (in the Obama campaign?) first said she was home taking care of the kids. Later I heard she was campaigning in Indiana.

If true, another example of a tin ear for politics.

Sep 12, 2008 - 12:24 pm 14. AlanC:

Also note that McCain stopped and talked to all the representative people there, Fireman, Construction Worker, Policeman and a woman who was the first in the line (not sure what function she represented, possibly someone who worked in the WTC)

Obama stopped and spoke with the woman, first in the line, and then blew off all the rest as he walked away behind Bloomburg who also spoke with each.

The man is despicable.

Sep 12, 2008 - 12:25 pm 15. PD Quig:

A year ago, while talking with a dear old friend that I see unfortunately now see rarely, he observed, “9/11 changed you. I had always seen you as apolitical before then, but something really happened to you that day, didn’t it?”

I have been reflecting on this long and hard for a year, and it is true. 9/11 did change me. How?

1) I am no longer content to slough off the sloppy thinking and cultural rot that I saw seeping into my kids from politically biased teachers.

2) I am no longer content to shrug my shoulders and sigh at a news media that either gets it wrong or doesn’t get it at all.

3) I am no longer content to turn the other cheek when fine religious people of all stripes are denigrated by mocking, elitist unbelievers simply for having a higher calling.

4) I am no longer tolerant of the vast collection of corruption and waste that defines our government. It squanders our hard-earned money and wrests away more and more of our freedoms.

5) Finally, I am no longer able to tolerate the massive propanganda machine that attempts to de-legitimize any point of view to the right of secular progressive in our ‘entertainment’ industry.

I have changed and I have lost some erstwhile friends who cannot understand why I care so deeply about these things. 9/11 awoke me from my sleepwalk: we COULD lose this country–and in fact, are well on our way to doing so.

I have no political party that represent me. The GOP is better than the alternative, but not by enough to give me hope that they get it either. Half of the political class is so frantic to regain power that they have essentially thrown in with the enemy for the past seven years. And the GOP? They achieved a level of corruption in eight years that took the Dems forty years to accomplish. They want us to continue to vote for them because they’re not as bad as the other guys. Well, that’s not good enough for my kinds and my granddaughter, I’m afraid.

9/11 sharpened the elbows of the culture war because for the first time many of us saw that this country’s survival is not a foregone conclusion. I’m glad we’re having this struggle. It will not end until (unless) the cultural rot is cut away.

I’m wide awake now.

Sep 12, 2008 - 12:45 pm 16. Jim,MtnViewCA,USA:

Wasn’t Michelle Obama on Ellen Degeneres program that day, showing off her dance moves?

Sep 12, 2008 - 12:57 pm 17. Ben:

Sorry, but I just can’t buy the “pox on both their houses” argument. As another commenter pointed out, precious few on the right are defending torture. The debate is over what constitutes torture, and what the proper interrogation limits should be in particular situations.

The two ideological sides are not equal. The right — whether it is always correct or not — advocates positions and ideals that would be instantly recognizable to most Americans in the past, whether they were from 1940 or 1840. The left, on the other hand, morally rejects America’s traditions and has instead embraced a post-nationalist relativism that is a creation of the last fifty years.

This is a rift that, frankly, can not be healed… unless, perhaps, through unthinkable calamity. When a significant portion of a society has rejected its traditions and ideals, there is little that can be done to save the entire enterprise.

Sep 12, 2008 - 1:08 pm 18. jbb:

AlanC, I didn’t see the ceremony but if that did happen (and I have no reason to doubt you) then he is despicable. As a matter of fact after reading these posts I’m going to have to go to youtube and see this for myself. Thanks, this speaks volumes about the type of persons Obama and McCain are and the differences between them.

Sep 12, 2008 - 1:17 pm 19. DonK:

I was a Democrat growing up — my first vote was for McGovern because I considered (still do) Nixon to be a crook.

Since then, I’ve voted for Reagan, Perot, Clinton and Bush because I thought they were the best choices for the nation at the time.

I don’t love John McCain. But I will vote for him because Barack Obama is terrifying. His lack of experience is horrifying — while he did a great job taking advantage of Hillary Clinton’s ineptitide in the caucuses and some early primaries, his economic plans are redistribution by another name and his foreign policy is scary. He’s coming apart because of some jabs from a VICE presidential candidate who dared to challenge him, and basically has shown that he lacks the composure and experience to be commander-in-chief. Geraldine Ferraro was right — if he were a white male, he wouldn’t have been seriously considered because of his thin resume.

Sep 12, 2008 - 1:39 pm 20. cedarford:

LaLa:
Amit- You are correct. Obama tosses the rose…that shows me that he has no concept of how to act Presidential. What a contrast between him and McCain, who gently and reverently laid the rose down.

Oh, my Gooooodd!! One guy is used to tossing flowers as the coffin is lowered at funerals and the other one is a POW-professional memorial attendee who “reverently” lays down the posies, habituated as he is to public ceremonies….

Obama also chose to have a political luncheon with Clinton, while McCain chose to vistit the memorials & families of 9-11…One has the country’s best interest at heart, while the other has his OWN best interest at heart…

Right …because after 7 years with 16 million more Americans dying, many tragically, and more attention and money than any similarly sized group of politicians ever got from politicians in our nations history? What more important thing can there possibly be for our nation than to have each politician pay homage to the Greatest Victim Families Ever?

Credit to Obama for paying tribute to 9/11 then going on to real business in NYC relevant to his campaign and the nation. Normally it is the Democrats who are the worst panderers to the Cult of Victimhood.
McCain went where he thought the cameras would be. To also nod sagely to the aristocracy of American Victims likely complain to him that they need more Fed money for the billion-dollar Greatest Memorial Ever at the WTC Pit, because the State and City won’t pay for the huge cost overruns.

Very little. Did I say that we live in a fair and logical world? No, I did not—so don’t blame the messenger. A majority of American voters could essentially care less about 9/11.

I think it is Pity Fatigue.

7 years have passed and people did all they could emotionally and financially for the Victim Families and NYC – and in 7 years have faced their own relatives or family members dying or encountering tragic setbacks and they have dealt with those things and moved on. But NYC and the various 9/11 “heroes” and victims still demand the spotlight, more money, more attention…

That the Nation reached 9/11 Pity Fatigue a long time ago, maybe as far back as 2004 as “The Greatest Victim Families Ever!” lined up for partisan attacks on Kerry or Bush, is common knowledge outside delusional NYC folks and fans of “9/11 Changed Everything!!!” Neocons.

It was also on display by 2004, in WOT, when Bush learned just chanting “9/11!!” Heroes! Evildoers!” was not enough to get the rest of the world to approve of his military adventurism, and incompetent leadership…then Americans themselves slowly rejected his 9/11 opportunism. The same year, a level of disgust came about the endless lawsuits by “Heroes working the Hallowed Ground” claiming they needed a million buck check and lifetime disability.
The recent best confirmation was when 9/11 Hero Gov Pataki dropped his idea of running for President when polls had him starting at under 1%. And “MR 9/11″, Rudy Giuliani, once the feared and formidable Greatest Hero, became a mocked and ridiculed Presidential candidate – with a college warning against students playing the Rudy Drinking Game – swallowing a lot of, or chugging a full beer can down everytime Rudy mentioned 9/11 in any debate on any subject not related to terrorism.

“Well, my belief is that the question of religion in schools is something that reminds me of 9/11 and how important religion was to all the heroes that day.”

“We need ethanol. Given 9/11, the subsidies are a good idea, because the money stays in America, with American farmers, and doesn’t fund the terrorists”….(leaving aside most of our oil – 95% of it – does not come from the ME)

Sep 12, 2008 - 1:40 pm 21. rearadmir0l:

Re: “For if 9/11 did nothing else to our politics, it deepened the divisions between the parties and made relations between the two sides’ partisans even more bitter.”

I have to say that the 2000 election, more than anything, created the gulf between Red & Blue. Even by Nov 01, liberals were berating Bush about the “quagmire” of Afghanistan.
Bush giving in to Powell and going to the UN for authorization didn’t help, especially when WMDs weren’t found,
When Bush didn’t fight back against the Plame smears, it was basically all over for him politically.
I’m still a 20%-er that supports him. Someone needed their sh17 kicked, and Saddam was good enough for me.

Sep 12, 2008 - 2:24 pm 22. EvilDave:

Democrats are vile bigoted people.

I used to think that Democrats were just stupid. But 10 years in the NorthWest has taught me differently. They are not stupid; they are bad people.

Sep 12, 2008 - 2:40 pm 23. RAS49:

I don’t think this has anything to do with 9/11. The culture wars, and our politics, would be just as toxic if 9/11 had never happened.

Exhibit A, the 2000 presidential election. When Bush won the meme was he *stole* the election with a U.S. Supreme Court decision. I know perfectly intelligent and decent liberals who actually believe this BS. (Really? He stole it? The Florida Supreme court didn’t invent a law out of whole cloth in an attempt to give the result to the Democrats? (“Larceny in plain sight,” I think George Will wrote of it.) Here’s a quiz for the stolen election conspiracy theorists: Of the *top six* counties in Florida with “spoiled” votes, and therefore worthy of having their vote counts contested, how many, based on pre-election party registration, were predominantly Democratic and how many were Republican? Give up? Five Republican, one Democratic. Al Gore contested the vote counts in those five Republican counties, right? No, only the Democratic? Golly, why do you suppose he did that?)

The long and the short of it is that our elites in the law, the academy, the arts, and the traditional news media are overwhelmingly on the left side of the political spectrum. Their instincts are basically facistic –government by expert, the Nanny State socialism that holds sway in Canada and Western Europe — with the U.S not far behind. America, in their view, is a fatally flawed nation that should apologize for its very existence, and one that should be feared far more than gangster states with thousands of nuclear weapons (Prince Vlad’s Russia) or fanatically Islamist ones trying mightily to *get* nuclear weapons (the mullahs’ Iran). That’s the ethos of the tribe of the Left.

The tribe of the Right buys none of that. (Why should it?) It sees a nation that in the last century and this new one has sacrificed the lives of hundreds of thousands of its own sons (and lately, daughters) to preserve the freedom of people in other nations. (Right, I know, the Daily Kos and Moveon folks are are saying, “It was all for GM and Exxon.”) And it sees a federal work force composed of millions of its well-meaning fellow citizens who, on too many days, have trouble pouring piss out of a boot with the instructions stenciled on the heel, because the rules they have to follow are based on laws that are written by Congressional aides who have never worked in the private sector in their lives and haven’t the barest clue about how life outside of government works. They think, at a minimum, when an issue arises, the first impulse should *not* be to say, “There ought to be a law!” Or: “We need a government program.”

In its modern form this culture war has been going on at least since 1933, and it promises to get worse before it gets better. A house divided against itself cannot stand, a wise man said 150 years or so ago. He said it will become all one thing or all the other.

We’ll see.

Sep 12, 2008 - 6:46 pm 24. Rob:

“Conservatives think liberals have bad ideas. Liberals think conservatives are bad people.”

hmmm…

John Stewart – “Democarts have to go out and prove they love this country. Everyone already knows Republicans love this country, they just hate half the people living in it.”

Sep 12, 2008 - 8:03 pm 25. Rob:

And the Obama not shaking hands thing at the beginning. Totally correct. He shook hands with the first person, and that was it. What was that?!!? There is more to the video. It turns out that Obama was last in line, and had to go with the rest of the group up to the memorial? He could have stopped, and shook people’s hands, and held up the ceremony? But he didn’t? He shook peopls’s hands after the ceremony? Oh my goodness, what a horrid man!

Sep 12, 2008 - 8:06 pm 26. sdsds:

go obama go

Oct 8, 2008 - 1:31 pm