{"id":3080,"date":"2008-04-10T10:10:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-10T16:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/04\/pearce-claps-for-controversial-tiger-woods-comment\/"},"modified":"2008-04-10T10:10:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-10T16:10:00","slug":"pearce-claps-for-controversial-tiger-woods-comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/04\/pearce-claps-for-controversial-tiger-woods-comment\/","title":{"rendered":"Pearce claps for controversial ‘Tiger Woods’ comment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>At a veterans\u2019 event in Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> on Wednesday, David Bellavia<\/a>, a co-founder of the group Vets for Freedom<\/a>, introduced GOP presidential nominee John McCain<\/a> with a quote that is being discussed on television and the Internet. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can have your Tiger Woods<\/a>. We\u2019ve got Sen. McCain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

After applause, to leave no doubt that he was referring to Barack Obama<\/a>, Bellavia said, as he gestured to McCain, \u201cMy friends, this is the real audacity of hope.\u201d The Audacity of Hope is the title of one of Obama\u2019s books.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The situation is interesting in New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> because of who was standing next to Bellavia when he made the comments: U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce<\/a>, who is running for Senate this year. After Bellavia made the Tiger Woods comment, Pearce clapped along with others who were present.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the video:<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It\u2019s controversial because ethnicity has become such a touchy subject in the Democratic presidential nominee battle between Obama and Hillary Clinton<\/a>. McCain was dragged into the situation when he was booed at a recent Martin Luther King Jr. speech<\/a> because of his past opposition to a national holiday honoring King.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Now this. There\u2019s been discussion of it on TV and the Internet, with some offended that Bellavia brought race into the situation and others saying his comments weren\u2019t a big deal. McCain didn\u2019t react to the comments during the speech he gave at the event.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t sure what to think until I watched this discussion of the clip:<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

After pondering this overnight, I tend to think the comments by Bellavia were sort of foolish. He should have been conscientious enough to avoid risking offending the black community and others. At the same time, he was comparing Obama to the most popular golfer in the world \u2013 and the man many consider to be the best.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no accident that both are part black \u2013 Obama is half black and Woods is a quarter \u2013 so you could interpret this as some sort of statement that Vets for Freedom doesn\u2019t want anything to do with black people. You could also take it as a compliment for Obama from a group that backs McCain \u2013 Hey, you\u2019re a shining star, but we still like this guy better.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Pearce spokesman Brian Phillips said the event \u201cwasn\u2019t a political event\u201d so he wouldn\u2019t comment on what was said there. He noted, in response to a question from me, that Pearce has not endorsed McCain.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were there to support vets, and that\u2019s the only reason we were there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At a veterans\u2019 event in Washington on Wednesday, David Bellavia, a co-founder of the group Vets for Freedom, introduced GOP presidential nominee John McCain with a quote that is being discussed on television and the Internet. \u201cYou can have your Tiger Woods. We\u2019ve got Sen. McCain,\u201d he said. After applause, to leave no doubt that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}