McCain was in Memphis yesterday on the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King. When he gave his speech he apologized because he had been vociferously against the MLK holiday in Arizona. Arizona, as it turns out, was one of the last states in the union to honor MLK day. Who knew?
Anyway, some of the liberal pundits were making hay about this but I was about to give him the pass. Why? Well, I figured it was like 1972 or something. So way back that one could conceivably be forgiven for being an idiot. But then I found out when McCain made his anti-MLK protests. 1987! Nineteen eighty freakin' seven! Are you kidding me?
I was 19 in 1987. MLK was a legend for me at that point. He was an icon! A legend! Even the bigots I knew gave him props for being a great orator. What the hell was McCain thinking? 1987! In '77 MLK was posthumously given the medal of freedom. Live Aid was in 1985! In 1989 both parties in Congress took a stand against apartheid in South Africa! Who was against MLK in 1987? Nobody. Except McCain!
1987! Wow. That just blows my mind. I'm sure McCain would argue that he was a young man at the time. Yeah, no. John, 50 is not young. When McCain was 50 he voted against the MLK holiday. That's not young impetuousness. That's just old racism.
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