Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Concession Speech
On election night I was watching McCain's concession speech and I thought it was very well done. One thing I noticed though was the booing coming from the crowd, and I found I was proud of these people. Though I agree that at some point in the very near future they need to accept Obama as their president, I felt that it would have been pointless for all of McCain's supporters to not show their displeasure at his loss of the election. Many of them have been campaigning for him and supporting him for two years and I thought it very appropriate that they stayed with him right up to the very end. Being an Obama supporter I asked myself what I would have done had he lost, and I realized that on election night I would not have been able to change my loyalty immediately. So the question is, should this behavior be considered anti-patriotic or being a bad-sport??
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8 comments:
i feel like the booing during the mccain speech was an act of loyalty, that does make sense to me, yet i feel like it was also rude. the fact that politics can become such a heated topic and one that has so many different ideas on it makes no one person right. there is an extent that people have to be respectful. respect is one of those things that really is important to me. i believe this not only because it has been a moral that i have grown up with, but also because of the ib program. all throughout the ib program, we have learned how to discuss things repsectuflly. we listen to the opposition, we look at the whole picture (or atleast try to) and then we make our opinions which i feel is a very important part of life. closed mindedness is a thing that should not happen because of all these different ideas and beliefs in this world. most of these ideas are because of how i was raised and education as i stated before, but also from expirence. its no fun to have your opinions ripped apart without a chance to defend yourself.
Its understandable. I would say that were those people perhaps a little bit better of sports they wouldn't have likely done that, but understand that that is by no means a criticism. After serious campaigning and serious support, to have the object of one's favor discarded so suddenly is going to leave tempers frayed, and I certainly wouldn't be able to reliquish my opinion so readily. It's not super or great, they could have acted better, but I cannot find any serious fault in it, and I can identify with it.
When I was watching the McCain consession speech (as an Obama supporter), my first reaction was disapointment in the croud. My first though was that it was unpatriotic, a disgrace to the United States, and a disgrace to the Republican Party, which currently has enough to worry about outside of disrespectful fans. However, after thinking about it more, I have realized that had McCain won the election, I wouldn't of been able to be happy for him, because I would have been preoccupied with Obamas loss. I am no longer disapointed in the crowd at McCains speech, and I understand why they booed. However, I still find it unpatriotic, although understandably so. Being patriotic means putting country first (as McCain said) and those fans at the speech were not putting the unity and wellbeing of the United States first, they were putting their disapointment and anger first. So although I can understand why they did, I still find their behaviour unpatriotic.
I felt that the booing at the McCain speech was just being a bad sport. I agree with cypresstree when she says that they were putting their angry and disappointment first. McCain tried to dispell the booings, but I understand why the crowd booed. During the until campagin, they felt that Obama was not going to be the next president. They felt highly dissapointment and sometimes people make their dissapointment felt by booing or criticizing the opposition. If it was the other way around, if McCain won, I think Obama supporters would have also booed, I think it is just a reaction that some people have to dissapointment and anger.
The really big problem with all this booing is why it should matter. Booing is simply the opposite of applauding. One is to celebrate an event and the other is to show ones displeasure with the same event. Why are we disappointed with booing and not clapping?
i think, like many of you have said the booing was just disappointment for the loss of McCain to Obama. It makes sense after working so hard and then to loose has got to be fusterating no matter who lost. McCain's speech was very good, and I'm proud of the little guy for saying what he did. His message of unity and coming behind Obama shows that he wasn't a whinner when he was a kid.
Booing is an interesting subject. There is def. a lot more of it and sometimes it can get out of hand, esp. at sports games. Is all booing just part of the event or is some of it disrespectful?
Personally I believe that the McCain supporters were being bad sports and bad losers. It's true that alll sporting events there is always booing from the crowd. this is generally accepted from society but is still disrespectful towards the other team. I can understand the booing from the McCain people because of all their passion but after what McCain said about supporting Obama it seemed out of hand.
The act of being disrespectful is the whole point. If your booing, you are obviously not happy with an outcome, and if you were a supporter of the losing candidate in a hard fought campaign, all the more reason.
Did the McCain supporters boo after he asked for their support? I can't quite remember. If they did afterwards then that is undoubtedly counterproductive and childish
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