Burying the 'Gook:' The McCain Slur that Evaded the Mainstream Media and the New Book that is Digging it Up

October 24, 2008

When rumor spread back in June that Michelle
Obama had once uttered "whitey" in a rant captured on tape, the
mainstream media and blogosphere alike went wild with speculation.
Assured that this would be a blow to Sen. Barack Obama's presidential
campaign, many waited with bated breath for evidence of the racial slur
to surface. Today, with less than two weeks to Election Day, the
incriminating tape has yet to surface, though whispers of the unfounded
gossip still manage to make the rounds on cable news cycles.

Yet Sen. Obama's opponent, Sen. John McCain, who in 2000 once said, "I hate the gooks.
I will hate them as long as I live" (to a reporter on his campaign bus,
no less), hasn't received half the scrutiny for an out-and-out racial
slur that he uttered on the record. Though he eventually apologized for the anti-Asian remark, it appears to have had little negative effect on his campaign and is all but forgotten now.

But as Huffington Post writer Raymond Leon Roker notes
in his Oct. 20 column, the next president of the United States would
have to engage in dialogue with a dozen Asian countries. Under a McCain
presidency, open-minded interaction may prove difficult if, as the
original San Francisco Chronicle story quotes McCain as saying, "gook
is the kindest appellation [he] can give." So why hasn't the slur been
better documented by the press? Read the full story here.
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I wrote an analysis of this statement McCain made. It actually took him three times to make a full apology regarding the use of this word. At one point he actually said he would continue to use this word even if people found it offensive!http://mccainhatesasians.com/