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Tone Deaf Santorum Supporter At Shooting Range Yells ‘Pretend It’s Obama’
Today while GOP Presidential candidate Rick Santorum was at a campaign stop in West Monroe, Louisiana target shooting, one of his female supporters yelled out, “Pretend it’s Obama!”
Talk about tone deaf.
NBC video:
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This kind of rhetoric coming on the heels of the Trayvon Martin shooting and the conviction of a teenager in Mississippi for murdering a black male by driving over him with his truck after beating him up for sport is more than out of touch.
The Secret Service is going to investigate, but the point is larger than whether this particular person poses a threat to the President. The focus should be on the obvious fact that Republicans feel this sort of thing is appropriate for public dialogue, during a campaign stop no less.
Santorum didn’t hear the remark, but he later commented to the National Journal, “It’s absurd. No we’re not pretending it’s anybody but shooting pistols. It’s a very terrible and horrible remark and I’m glad I didn’t hear it.”
More Republican leaders need to make their voices heard on this matter. They need to forcefully denounce calls for violence and assassination of this President.
We need only look to the events of this past week to realize that this is no laughing matter, and it impacts average citizens as well as the President.
Republicans need to stop vilifying this President and race baiting. They need to respect the office of the Presidency and respect Obama as a human being. When they stir up hatred and fear of the President, it permeates the culture and gives us, “Pretend it’s Obama!”
Ironically, this happened today, on the same day that the President urged Americans to do some soul searching about the Trayvon Martin case.
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20 Responses to Tone Deaf Santorum Supporter At Shooting Range Yells ‘Pretend It’s Obama’
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galactus6x
Mar. 23rd, 2012 at 3:25 pm
Where is this elephants tail?
galactus6x
Mar. 23rd, 2012 at 3:30 pm
These idiots think that because they are NRA supporters that they are the ONLY ones that own guns and can shoot. When the shit hits the fan they will get a big surprise.
Tap Duncan
Mar. 23rd, 2012 at 3:39 pm
Right on Galactus, I make no secret that I’m a gun totin’ liberal. I’ll never forget back when I reached the rank of Eagle Scout in the BSA, one of the first congratulatory letters I received was from the NRA, it also contained an application! I threw it away because my family didn’t own any guns so it made no sense. I guess they think if yer in the BSA yer a right wing nut. My troop wasn’t, never was, and still isn’t. Of course now I have a few guns, so yeah, they’ll get a big surprise, my guess is they’ll try to take the guns from the liberals like me…
coachjdc
Mar. 23rd, 2012 at 4:41 pm
the Secret Service should have drew down on him on the spot.
majii
Mar. 23rd, 2012 at 4:54 pm
If Santorum thinks I’m believing he would have said something to this woman had he have heard her when the incident occurred, I’d say he lying through his teeth. This coward wouldn’t have opened his mouth, just like he didn’t speak out against someone at another one of his events who questioned whether the president is a Christian.
Dustin
Mar. 23rd, 2012 at 5:01 pm
@majii, I agree. I guess the difference is that them thar’ gun-totin’ conservatives have no issue saying that when a legitimate presidential candidate is right in front of them, whereas the rest of us sane folks would say it around friends only.
Nah, who am I kidding… I wouldn’t say that about anybody, even Perry or Bachman. But I wouldn’t mind hitting them with a paintball.
Darlene Fields
Mar. 23rd, 2012 at 5:11 pm
Yes, I watched the news clip and although he did say the words reported, they were very quietly said, so as not to draw too much attention. I really have to stop reading so much of this stuff-gets my blood pressure up. Isn’t a verbal threat like that still illegal, I mean can’t the lady be charged with something. I didn’t think you could even threaten a candidate anymore after the Bobby Kennedy assaination. This is the POTUS for God’s sake.
C.L.
Mar. 23rd, 2012 at 5:31 pm
This careless, violent rhetoric is a direct result of the McCain/Palin campaign strategy to publicly demonize candidate Obama back in ’08. The tone at their rallies became so violent that the Secret Service had to step in and advise the McCain campaign to cool it down.
By the way, Mrs. Palin was the perfect political instrument to foment racial divisions and hate—the attractive white woman screeching in plaintive tones that she is “fearful that this man does not see America the way you and I see America.”
The narrative of protecting fearful white women, especially from black men, goes a long way back into our troubled history as a nation.
Damn John McCain and his advisors…..and double-damn Palin for her obvious RELISH in playing the role she was given at the campaign rallies.
Reynardine
Mar. 23rd, 2012 at 7:18 pm
Yeah, Miss Gang Shag on the Tailgate is such threatened Pure White Womanhood, isn’t she?
Anthony
Mar. 24th, 2012 at 3:36 pm
At one of McCain’s rallies in 2008, he said that he thought Obama was a nice guy. A woman in the audience shouted, “Kill him! Kill him1!” Whether she was referring to the ballot box or not, most people would hear the obvious by the hatred n her voice. This is typical of the GOP supporters who are the ones using the vitriolic speech of fear, hate, and name calling while telling everyone that the liberals and the Democrats are the one saying all the vile things they say. Just highlights the amount of stupidity among that crowd to use vitrolic speech to counterdict the accusation that they are using vitriolic speech. It would be funny if it were not so sad.
Shiva (Moderator)
Mar. 23rd, 2012 at 6:22 pm
At least Sanitary had a decent retort for it. Gingrich would have took a few extra shots
I expect so little from gop supporters.
Deborah Montesano
Mar. 23rd, 2012 at 6:25 pm
While the whole country seems awash in hatred, I spent a summer in the 60′s very near Monroe, La., and I doubt that the deep racial animosity I witnessed then has gone anywhere. The ugliness that has been brought out by having a black President is shocking by any measure. The ugliness in the South is the most deeply disturbing because, obviously, black men are still being targeted for death. We all have a lot of soul-searching to do to become part of a solution.
molly malone
Mar. 23rd, 2012 at 6:32 pm
Beats me why guns have come to represent machismo for those on the Right side of the political aisle. There is nothing manly or studly, patriotic, courageous or even necessarily sporting about owning and firing off guns–point and pull is so simple even a little child can do it.
I am a liberal, and yes, I own guns–some inherited, others are relics from a childhood spent growing up on a working ranch where guns were considered tools, same as ropes and branding irons.
When I see Republican candidates making the obligatory photo-ops at shooting ranges, plinking off a few rounds to prove their creds, I can’t help but snicker and sometimes flat-out sneer at the inane posturing.
Anthony
Mar. 24th, 2012 at 3:40 pm
And notice that their targets are the outline of a human – NOT a bulls eye.
Reynardine
Mar. 23rd, 2012 at 7:22 pm
I didn’t make any comment on this before, because I’d about commented myself out. But I think the priming for a stochastic assassination attempt is about to reach critical level, and I hope to Hell the right people are watching the right people.
Judy
Mar. 23rd, 2012 at 8:44 pm
My fears exactly. And, remember the ugly comments at the Republican “debates” that drew such applause—speaks volumes about the authoritarian mindset and we all need to be very alert and very, very concerned. What bullies the Right have become!
SinghX
Mar. 24th, 2012 at 4:01 am
Why is it that the standard “mantra” we hear from Little Ricky when his lips are moving is, “It’s absurd”? Why is everyone and everything “absurd” his only defense before the back peddling commences?
It should come as no surprise to anyone that this homophobic cutie has been escorted to a firing range like a good little christian and told to shoot like Sara or Sharon or any of the other girls that ran in 08′. Remember all those hateful pictures shown by the media of right-wing nut jobs ‘shooting’ and how so many of them were turned into commercials?
SPL Center has a great big map of all the hate groups by state and category; the numbers have tripled since the President took office. Make sure and take a look at it and pay close attention to the folks who claim being part of the “sovereign person” movement….
www.splcenter.org/get-inf...
Too bad that every time a human goes into one of these “hate” modes, the body doesn’t start to give off a stench with strange hair that grows out of every pour…at least then we’d know what animal to capture and not release…
KarenJ
Mar. 24th, 2012 at 10:49 am
Sarah J., this is exactly what occurred to me when I first heard of the shooting range story:
first, I was appalled at what the #%^&* woman shouted; then, I was disgusted that Rick Santorum would have a campaign event at a SHOOTING RANGE of all places in the midst of a week of countrywide outrage over the circumstances of Trayvon Martin’s death.
Doesn’t Rick Santorum have Secret Service agents with him now, who were probably nearby at the shooting range, who also probably heard the woman shout? Talk about the uttermost in stupidity.
(I thought I read that Ron Paul was the only one of the 4 GOP candidates that didn’t have SS protection)
Last week the right-wing outrage was over Malia Obama’s school trip with classmates to Oaxaca Mexico (in the far south, one of the most safe and pleasant parts of Mexico) because “hadn’t Obama heard about the drug war in Mexico?” and “why 24 SS agents to guard one girl? And we taxpayers are paying for her trip!!!”
With blatant death threats like that from the woman at the shooting range, I can see why 24 agents went on that trip, and why they surround President Obama 3 deep on all 4 sides.
(I’m sure the 24 agents in Mexico were guarding the entire group of a dozen girls and their chaperones, not just Malia ;-) )
KarenJ
Mar. 24th, 2012 at 11:03 am
galactus6x and Tap Duncan, your comments bring back memories:
When I was a young girl I spent a few weeks at summer camp where I learned how to use a bow — only shooting at haybale targets, however. I was pretty good “for a girl”. Even as nearsighted as I was, I hit the bullseye or very close most of the time.
And the next year, once a week, our neighbor used to take his son and my brother and I off Vashon Island (Puget Sound, Washington) via ferry to the mainland and to a police indoor rifle range so that we could learn to handle a .22 rifle.
If we’d stuck with it for years, we might have graduated up to larger caliber rifles, but we were just kids. Nevertheless, I was good enough to earn a “sharpshooter” award for completing the course with better-than-average results.
Even so, the few times I’ve been to a gun range or shot a pistol in a gravel pit, I’ve surprised my brothers with my accuracy. I guess it’s like a bicycle, some things you never forget.
Word of warning to RWNJs, Oregon is a “Stand Your Ground” state and my family is armed.
Anne
Mar. 24th, 2012 at 2:27 pm
What it boils down to is that there are plenty of responsible gun owners who would have the good sense not to say something so stupid and incendiary. But it’s a manifestation of the racism that’s always been under the surface and has come to a boil since Barack Obama’s election. Santorum doesn’t help matters any when he dismisses the remark as merely “absurd,” the way he did about Rush Limbaugh’s slanderous remarks concerning Sandra Fluke. It proves he is a big coward who doesn’t want to say anything to alienate the base he’s appealing to. The mark of a true leader is to have the moral courage to call people out when they say something inflammatory and irresponsible, even when he or she ideologically agrees with them.