Obama Disagrees With Nevadan Assailing McCain's Vietnam Service - Contrast with Chimpy in 2004

[jefferson_dem]

I was watching the town hall when this exchange happened. Obama handled it masterfully.

Obama Disagrees With Nevadan Assailing McCain's Vietnam Service

August 17, 2008 2:10 PM

RENO, NEV. - At a town hall meeting at Wooster High School just now, a questioner whom Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, had called on assailed the Vietnam service of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

"He was the fattest prisoner that got off the plane!" said the man. "He doesn't want to talk about how he turned in all those names."

With some impatience in his voice, Sen. Obama interrupted the man to ask if he had a question, and after the man offered a couple queries, Obama said, "respectfully, I'm going to disagree with you when it comes to McCain and his service. I think his policies are horrible, I think his service was honorable."

The crowd applauded.

The moment stood in stark contrast with a moment in the 2004 election, when a town hall questioner told President George W. Bush about his then-opponent, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., "‘We got a candidate for president out here with two self-inflicted scratches, and I take that as an insult."

"Well, I appreciate that, thank you," said President Bush, who himself did not serve in Vietnam.

- jpt

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/08/obama-disagrees.html

[gateley]

1. Agree - he handled it masterfully and with class. nt

[cutlassmama]

2. The man has integrity. Always has.

[Diamonique]

3. Thanks to a DUer posting a heads up,...

.. I was able to watch this. That guy was going on and on and on. He's pissed off with what the Rethugs have done, and especially at McCain's so-called heroism, and he just needed to vent. Obama had to cut him off because he was taking up too much time.

And I agree that Obama handled the slap at McCain wonderfully.