I first started really following politics my senior year of high school, the Obama/McCain race. I saw that rally where he told the people who were asking questions about Obama being a terrorist that they were wrong, that he was a good family man, and I always respected him from that moment. It takes some balls to not even dance around the question, but to straight up tell a bigoted supporter that they are wrong, even when the crowd boos (which they did).
I remember his speech election night when he won and he still commented on Obama being a good guy and basically told the crowd to shut the fuck up when they booed
Class act all the way to the end
There's a reason his crowds were full of people who thought Obama was some sort of anti-American terrorist, though. His campaign - and especially his choice of VP - stoked those sorts of views: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/10/mccain.crowd/
Recently, McCain's campaign launched a string of ads that question Obama's judgment and character.
The McCain campaign calls Obama "too risky for America" in a new Web ad that focuses on his political relationship with Bill Ayers, a founding member of the radical Weather Underground.
"Barack Obama and domestic terrorist Bill Ayers. Friends. They've worked together for years. But Obama tries to hide it," the announcer said in the 90-second ad.
The now-defunct Weather Underground was involved in bombings in the early 1970s, including attacks on the Pentagon and the Capitol. Obama was a young child at the time of the bombings.
Obama and Ayers, now a university professor, met in 1995, when both worked with a nonprofit group trying to raise funds for a school improvement project and a charitable foundation. CNN's review of project records found nothing to suggest anything inappropriate in the volunteer projects in which the two men were involved. CNN Fact Check: Is Obama 'palling around with terrorists'?
Obama, in an April debate during the primaries, called Ayers "somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8."
At a rally Tuesday in Clearwater, Florida, Sarah Palin said Obama was being "less than truthful" about his ties to Ayers. "His own top adviser said they were 'certainly friendly.' ... I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way that you and I see America -- as the greatest source for good in this world," she said.
Palin told the crowd that she sees "a pattern in how our opponent has talked about one of his most troubling associations."
You can draw a straight line from Sarah Palin as VP nominee to the Tea Party and then Trump ---