October 28, 2008

John McCain said he'd hate to live in Milwaukee?!



When did McCain say that? Back in 2004. Here, I found the old WaPo article. It's long, but eventually we get to the part where he's at a Diamondbacks-Padres game with the journalist (Mark Leibovich):
McCain spent 51/2 years as a POW and is now sitting at a ballgame, spooning Heath bar ice cream into his mouth and belly-laughing at his joke. If any demons linger, they are perfectly hidden.

The Diamondbacks score four runs in the third inning. Outfielder Luis Gonzalez waves to McCain from the on-deck circle. "You see that, Luis-Luis waved to me," McCain says.

Between pitches, the following tidbits of McCainiana are gleaned:

• He would hate to live in Milwaukee.

• He has been unimpressed with Kerry's recent performances: "Kerry's gotta stop nuancing everything."

• John Edwards would have been a tougher nominee to beat.

"This is your pitch, Richie, c'mon, c'mon," McCain yells at Diamondbacks slugger Richie Sexson. Sexson is facing San Diego's Jason Szuminski, a rookie pitcher who attended MIT.

"NASA, here we come," McCain says after Sexson hits a towering home run. Szuminski leaves the mound after giving up five runs.

"That's why we don't have more pitchers from MIT," McCain says, speaking loudly enough for fans nearby to hear. He is showing a version of himself unseen to this point, but one which suits him: senator as heckler.

Hey, let's get another video, with MIT folk grousing about how McCain insulted them.

59 comments:

Trooper York said...

"John McCain said he'd hate to live in Milwaukee?!"

And your point is?

Ruth Douthitt said...

Wow, and to think I was going to vote for him but not anymore!!

Sheesh, give me a break. How many things has Barak Obama said that he wishes he didn't?

If you don't like McCain, just say so. Don't try this petty stuff to try and sway votes.

McCain/Palin '08!!!

Trooper York said...

I mean even Lenny and Squiggy moved to California.

bleeper said...

Just another indication of his superior intellect. Who in their right mind would chose to live in such a godforsaken place? It's freakin' Wisconsin, fer crissakes!

Anonymous said...

Sexson is facing San Diego's Jason Szuminski, a rookie pitcher who attended MIT.

"NASA, here we come," McCain says after Sexson hits a towering home run. Szuminski leaves the mound after giving up five runs.

"That's why we don't have more pitchers from MIT," McCain says


That's funny stuff. And nobody who goes to MIT would want to live in Milwaukee either. Same goes for Madison residents.

Grames said...

I'd hate to live in Milwaukee too.

Trying to balance out the Obama/McCain post ratio? This is the best you can do?

MadisonMan said...

LOL about Lenny and Squiggy.

Even RIchie Sexson moved to Milwaukee, but the Brewers traded him to Seattle (Boy did Seattle get shafted on that deal!).

I think this is a hilarious article. How you react to it definitely will depend on where you live in the country. MIdwesterners are very much used to people saying they'd never live here. Until they move here and love it.

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't mind living in Molwaukee at all. If I ever did it, chances are I'd be buying the place from someone who's moving to Arizona.

Palladian said...

I think it makes him seem likable. Hard to imagine Obama being similarly comfortable.

Revenant said...

This is a minor (and fairly obvious) point, but the opening text of the ad contains a lie. It says

John McCain said: "He would never live in Milwaukee."

But McCain didn't say that. That's a WaPo summary of whatever McCain actually did say, not -- as the quote marks indicate -- a McCain quote. The honest opener would have been "according to the Washington Post, John McCain said he would never live in Milwaukee".

We don't know what McCain actually said, because the Post didn't print it. My guess, given the context of the article, is that this was some kind of reference to a good San Diego performance hurting the Brewers' chances in the pennant race or something. Otherwise it seems like an odd thing to blurt out during a ballgame. Although if he was in San Diego when he said it, I can see saying you wouldn't want to live in the midwest. That sort of thought crosses the mind of most people who have lived in other parts of the country and then come here.

I, for one, would sure as hell never live there -- and yes, I've been to the midwest, and to pretty much everywhere else in America besides the Rockies. I'll pass!

Simon said...

I liked Milwaukee when I visited a couple of years ago. I wouldn't like to live there, though, because I don't like living in large cities or lengthy cold winters. Hard pushed to see how it's any slight to the city or its denizens to say so.

Ron said...

Many morons thought they blow the gas by Sexton, 6'8" moose that he is, and some gink-a-tron from MIT thought he could increase the delta on his fastball through sheer will! But to get him out you need that big, fat curve ball that you could only get from a Harvard man, like Obammer!

We're all sitting, waiting off-speed for Nov 4! Don't sit there like the house by the side of the road, swing that lumber!

Chip Ahoy said...

Ha ha ha ha. I see you like to play les petits jeux. It is the little girl in you, no?

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Wayne Campbell: So, do you come to Milwaukee often?

Alice Cooper: Well, I'm a regular visitor here, but Milwaukee has certainly had its share of visitors. The French missionaries and explorers began visiting here in the late 16th century.

Pete: Hey, isn't "Milwaukee" an Indian name?

Alice Cooper: Yes, Pete, it is. In fact, it's pronounced "mill-e-wah-que" which is Algonquin for "the good land."

Wayne Campbell: I was not aware of that.

Waynes World, 1992

Ron said...

oops..."Sexson" M'bad!

Mr. Forward said...

It's a beer thing.

Donna B. said...

I'm getting old and I think I'm required to go to either Florida or Arizona and I hate humidity.

I don't think I've ever of anybody moving to Wisconsin for retirement.

TitusIsItReallySoStrange? said...

Milwaukee is pretty gross.

I have been there many many times.

The restaurants sucks, the gays are nasty, overall I find it depressing.

It reminds me of Cleveland. A large city that was once great and bustling with a strong economy but now is bordered up and lifeless.

I always say the best way to rate a great city is to walk around on the weekends or nights. If there is a lively street scene on weekends and nights the city has it going on. If the city is barron it is bad.

The streets are dead on the weekends in Milwaukee..and Cleveland..and Detroit. Sad, when you see American cities like that.

The best cities in the country for street scenes on the weekends and nights are NYC, San Francisco, Chicago and Boston.

TitusIsItReallySoStrange? said...

I did a guy in Milwaukee once that had a black bedspread. When he turned off the lights the bed spread was "aglow" in sperm shootings all over the thing.

It looked like a painting by that one painter-I can't remember his name.

I ended up leaving.

Unknown said...

I'll see you a reporter saying McCain would hate to live in Milwaukee and raise you a real Obama quote: "I'm Not Interested In The Suburbs. The Suburbs Bore Me...".

McCain is funny, Obama is a tightass snob.

And no Titus, I don't know that from experience.

TitusIsItReallySoStrange? said...

Jackson Pollack-he had a Jackson Pollack sperm strewn bedspread.

thank you

Meade said...

McCain is giving Milwaukeeans fair warning, doing them a favor: If elected, I'll be dropping the atom bomb on your city. I'd hate to be living there when the big one drops. If I were you, I'd get out now while there is still time.

McCain has had an irrational hate for Milwaukee ever since he learned about Jeffrey Dahmer's Jackson Pollack phase.

George M. Spencer said...

Excellent research.

"Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it’ll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”

Nicholas Kristof, NYT, March 6, 07

Church bells, Chevrolets, and baseball games sound far prettier than any muezzin, and I've heard plenty of them in Riyadh, Cairo, and elsewhere.

Odd thing for a Christian to say, if you ask me.

We're getting weird here in the last week, aren't we.....

blake said...

Seriously, we're digging the hearsay, aren't we?

We're watching a Dodgers game where the Dodgers flub it, and someone says, "I'd hate to live in L.A.".

Did he call Milwaukee a "cunt" first?

john said...

"That was the beer that made Milt Famey walk us".

Ah, Schlitz. '56 World Series? I forget.

Daryl said...

One reason I can't be president is that I would refuse to blow smoke up the ass of every American telling them how much I love their stupid state.

Iowa? Ethanol subsidies are cornholing the rest of the country. We don't need them.

New Hampshire? I've got nothing against them, but there's no reason they should always get to be 2nd.

Georgia? Your penal system is downright medieval.

Wisconsin? HELL ON EARTH. Nothing but phony, passive-aggressive backstabbers. It's like Minnesota, squared.

I'm glad Sen. McCain has the balls to tell the truth about your stupid, horrible, inhospitable state.

john said...

Daryl - you forgot that New Hampshire has all those lifelong Republicans that announced (to NPR) that they again are voting for the Democrat candidate this year (as they did in the previous 4-5 elections).

TitusIsItReallySoStrange? said...

New Hampshire has a great motto though, "Live Free or Die" and they have some beautiful old hotels. And Dartmouth natch.

New Hampshire has some good skiing also.

Maine is nice too.

Vermont is great.

New England is really fabulous. Damn commies.

TitusIsItReallySoStrange? said...

I did a guy in Manchester NH. I did a guy in Lebanon NH too. And another guy in Concord NH.

I also did a guy in Portland Maine and Bathe,Maine and Naples, Maine and Freeport, Maine and Freyburg Maine.

I also did a guy on Oqunguit Maine.

I have never done a guy in Vermont though.

How many states have you done it in?

thank you.

Roberto said...

"senator as heckler"

You mean: senator as an asshole.

Maxine Weiss said...

Reverse Speech Analysis,

For example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN4QLpODQ1Q&feature=related


___________________

Roberto said...

TitusIsItReallySoStrange? - You suck.

chuck b. said...

A bunch of states only came in to existence because different religions couldn't get along (ah, religion...), and then later to keep the slave state balance. It seems ridiculous now. Probably half of the eastern states should be combined into bigger states going forward.

I could never live in another state, except Hawaii (and even Hawaii only part-time). I don't even care to leave my neighborhood.

To answer Titus, I've been to about 20 states and I've only had sex in California, Hawaii, and New York--unless you count solo sex, in which case you can tack on Alaska. I lived in Georgia for two years and couldn't get laid the whole time I was there.

Patrick said...

What? No Bissage love-fest quote?

Wince said...

What a cheap piece if garbage for Biden to indulge himself in.

Shout-out to revenant who notes that it wasn't even purported to be a quote of McCain.

Too bad the L.A. Times doesn't have a video tape we can check to see what McCain said, otherwise I'm sure they'd release it.


Titus,

Sounds to me like that black bedspread you've got may be a possible substitute for that $3 million earmark Obama wants for a planetarium "overhead projector" that McCain criticizes.

You should give the "O" a call.

chuck b. said...

(oh, solo sex in Georgia too.)

Maxine Weiss said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMOpw3GY0Rk


By the way, Reverse Speech Analysis will stand up in court. It's been used in lieu of confessions and for crime-solving.

Roberto said...

Palladian said..."I think it makes him seem likable. Hard to imagine Obama being similarly comfortable."

What a suckass you are.

I bet you've never even been to Chicago or Milwaukee.

And we all know you're fat.

John Thacker said...

You know, it's a good thing that we don't all want to live in the same place. If we did, then there would be one super-expensive place that we'd all want to live, and most of us would be disappointed. Diversity is a strength in that way.

I don't want to live in Milwaukee because it's too cold for me. There are things that I like about it, but for me, that outweighs other factors. I'm sure plenty of other people don't like it as warm as I do. That's a good thing.

TJ said...

Ha ha. C'mon, people, it's a joke. Funny, you know? Like you're always saying liberals don't have a sense of? Is someone who lives in Milwaukee really going to base their vote off a psuedo-quote like this? Lighten up.

I like Milwaukee. Nice zoo. I also saw a production of Born Yesterday there a couple years ago. It's all about this dim-witted moll who needs a crash course in smarts.

Chip Ahoy said...

Isn't one of those states up there divided in two parts?

Vero said...

Wisconsin sucks in my opinion so does Ohio where we reside - Moving to TN, no State income tax and moutains to go hiking and camping.

Sofa King said...

Obama has been running a radio ad on this exact subject in Milwaukee on the AM stations. It's a total cheap shot.

Joan said...

Well, I went to MIT, and I'm sure that pitcher made a boatload of money for however long he lasted in the majors (I've never heard of him), and I hope he was smart enough to do something awesome with it.

I think McCain's point about pitchers from MIT is valid -- people don't go to MIT to play baseball. We don't even have a team. That guy must've been something else to make the majors, though. I've said way worse to lots of other players at games I've attended. Heckling is a longstanding American tradition, and McCain's not too shabby at it. I can't imagine Obama doing the same. "Trash talk" on the court isn't the same thing at all, IMO.

Revenant said...

unless you count solo sex, in which case you can tack on Alaska. I lived in Georgia for two years and couldn't get laid the whole time I was there.

The disturbing implication of this quote being that you couldn't even score with YOURSELF in Georgia.

BJM said...

Either you're mocking us or you're morphing into Sully.

LoafingOaf said...

Why are people still discussing the McCain campaign.

It's over!

Obama won!!

chickelit said...

The town just hasn't been the same since the Braves left and Slit Brewery closed down.

Dewb said...

I doubt many MIT folks would get too upset about the slight. For all the non-athletes at MIT -- and even some of the athletes -- the crappiness of the teams the Beavers field in the traditional college sports is a point of pride. Nobody will be quicker to insult MIT athletics than a student.

joan said:
I think McCain's point about pitchers from MIT is valid -- people don't go to MIT to play baseball. We don't even have a team.


Case in point. MIT does, in fact, have a baseball team.

TitusIsItReallySoStrange? said...

How Soon Is Now?


Please, Let Me Get What I wanted.

I have never had sex in Nebraska or South Dakota or North Dakota or Oklahoma.

I have had sex in Minnesota though.

I celebrate diversity, at least I try.

TitusIsItReallySoStrange? said...

I have had sex in Texas, California, Florida, Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Florida, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania.

I have never had sex in Mississippi, Alabamaa, North Caroline, Georgia, South Carolina,
Arkansas, New Mexico or Arizona.

Thank you.

AllenS said...

I love Wisconsin. Milwaukee? Not so much. If the Brewers left, I would never go back.

Bissage said...

Nobody, and I mean nobody, got around this country scoring action like this well-shod gentleman, seen in this video at age twenty-seven, when the fresh potency of his wanderlust was just beginning to crest.

It would seem that such vigorous exploits can age a man's face, and yet the oral skills remain.

Go figure.

Modern Otter said...

Oh man--he so just lost my vote.

MadisonMan said...

Hard to imagine Obama being similarly comfortable.

This says more about your stifled imagination than anything else.

TMink said...

I would hate to live in Milawukee too. It is nothing about the people of Wisconsin whom I have found to be affable and fun loving as a rule.

It is too damn cold up there.

Trey

TosaGuy said...

I wonder what Obama would say about Milwaukee if he was attending a Cubs-Brewers game or an interleague White Sox-Brewers game and he was sitting back being a regular guy sports fan?

The Obama ad about this in Milwaukee uses the most over-the-top stereotype of a Milwaukee southsider....it is quite ridiculous.

Lots of people hate to live in Milwaukee....more move out every year.

Unknown said...

MIT can't be insulted enough.

Matthew Morin said...

Oh the outrage! I can just hear Shorewood and Tosa now: "Tsk, Tsk. John McCain is so out of touch with the working class! Wait, did he mean Milwaukee County or the city of Milwaukee?"

If the city is so great then move out of your pathetic enclaves and into the neighborhoods.

knowitall said...

Obama called PA bitter, and they're still voting for him. Why does the GOP take all the grief, but the left-wing illuminati take nothing.