McCain's 50-dollar-an-hour lettuce picking job offer--get that out NOW!

[bunkerbuster1]

Come on. It's only the most offensive thing McCain's ever hurled at every working American.

Mind you it was two years ago, but I believe it's at least on tape, and really needs to be heard.

In case you've forgotten:

https://www.mifire.org/news/Union%20Leaders%20Boo%20McCain.pdf

But he took more questions, including a pointed one on his immigration plan.

McCain responded by saying immigrants were taking jobs nobody else wanted. He offered anybody in the
crowd $50 an hour to pick lettuce in Arizona.

Shouts of protest rose from the crowd, with some accepting McCain's job offer.
"I'll take it!" one man shouted.

McCain insisted none of them would do such menial labor for a complete season. "You can't do it, my
friends."

Some in the crowd said they didn't appreciate McCain questioning their work ethic.

If you're too lazy to do the math, it works out to a hundred grand per year. McCain thinks Americans won't pick lettuce for that kind of money.

I can't even fathom how boneheaded and out of touch you'd have to be to think that, but McCain does.

[SurfingAtWork]

1. I live in AZ, so I remember this very well. This is the reason freepers call him McLettuce.

[bunkerbuster1]

3. I'll take any help we can get.

Freepers, come along for this ride. You can't stand the guy, neither can we. You can go work for Barr, or somethin', later, 'k?

[specterderrida]

26. OMG--old Lettucegate.

[bushisanidiot]

76. McLettuce! I love it.

hard to believe freepers are so quick to eat their words and start adoring him. just more evidence that they can't think for themselves. they must be told by Rush Limbaugh and Fox News who they are supposed to agree with. they can't think, speak, or type without their talking points memo.

[WeDidIt]

2. I'd pick lettuce for $50/hour!

I'd be willing to work 60 hour weeks doing it, too!

[bunkerbuster1]

4. of course you would. Not all, but most able-bodied Americans aren't too proud to do it.

McCain very strongly implied that most weren't.

[TwilightGardener]

19. That was McElite's own attitude toward manual labor being projected

onto the rest of us.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

54. Pride has nothing to do with it.

The working conditions on corporate farms are horrific, and getting worse. The only people willing to toil on them are so desperate and impoverished that they have no other choice. 20 years ago only a small percentage of farm workers were undocumented immigrants, today it's the majority. This is how "global free trade" really works, by deliberately creating a portable underclass of politically neutered and easily exploitable slave labor.

Edit to add: Here's a lengthy, but good, description of the situation of migrant farm workers. It points out that there's no "shortage" of labor at all, in fact there's a glut of it which is why they can get away with paying so little.

http://www.ncccusa.org/publicwitness/mtolive/conditions.html

[bunkerbuster1]

56. Granted. Poor word choice.

You've got it nailed.

[ClayZ]

5. K and R

[my2sense]

6. Wow - this dude is

really out of touch. If only we had a voice on the M$M. Quick we should all send this to Rachel & KO.

[bunkerbuster1]

29. see, even YOU hadn't heard abou it!

It's outrageous that this slur against America's workforce has gone down the memory hole.

[Chloroplast]

7. $50/hour for lettuce pickers? He has no clue about reality.

We can't all chase millionaire heirs and heiresses to increase our lots in life.

[bunkerbuster1]

45. He has no clue about American workers.

He believes the immigrant workforce is needed--let's dust of that hoary old line--because "they do the work Americans won't do."

Of course the line ought to include "...for crap-ass wages."

But McCain's taking that stupid line and making it even more obnoxious, by claiming that Americans, even if offered 50 bucks an hour, couldn't trouble themselves. It it, to me, nastier and more offensive than anything even Ronald Reagan said about "welfare queens."

[Bread and Circus]

8. I'll take the lettuce job!

[Alter Ego]

11. Me too--and I have a 62K/year desk job.

I'd be tan and it would get me some exercise and fresh air--and at 50 bucks an hour? You kiddin' me?

[Alter Ego]

9. I think somewhere David Plouffe and David Axelrod are sitting in an office

typing furiously on laptops and laughing like hyenas as they send quotes down to their advertising wing.

[MadrasT]

37. Snort

:rofl: funny image, thx.

[NewJeffCT]

10. Working full-time for a year

$50/hour working 40 hour work-weeks for 50 weeks a year (assuming 2 weeks for vacation/sick time) comes out to $100,000 per year.

Of course, in McCain's view where you need to make $5,000,000/year to be considered rich, making $100,000 per year is probably a weekend shopping trip for Cindy.

[Enrique]

12. the Obama campaign will use this at some point

no doubt about it.

[tblue37]

22. McCain has said so many dumb things that the Obama campaign might have

trouble remembering them all. I think we should still send this one to them en masse to remind them, in case it has been crowded off center stage by all of McCain's other ridiculous or scary statements.

[creeksneakers2]

13. Great idea!

Not only shows how out of touch he is, it reminds the righties of McCain's immigration positions.

[bunkerbuster1]

34. Hence the Freepers calling him "mcLettuce." It's too good for the Freepers to keep!

[jwirr]

14. I'm a 67 year old woman who picked weeds out of the bean fields

in Iowa when I was young. For $50.00 an hour I want to know where the first bus to Arizona is leaving. I will be bringing some of my family with since none of us make that kind of money in our present jobs.

[redqueen]

15. Well he thinks multi-millionnaires are middle class... so yeah, he's WAY out of touch.

[TwilightGardener]

16. I got $20 an hour for wiping shit off someone's ass. Fuck yeah, I'll pick

some lettuce for $50/hr.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

17. So now he's offering to pay people w/ Cindy's money to then take th offer back.

What a fucking cock.

[DemocracyInaction]

18. Killed Papa Bush when he didn't know the price of bread, etc.

These are EXACTLY the stuff that needs to get out and fast. It's the only thing the Limbaugh listening masses even remotely understand. No wonder Snarkey needed to check his notecards in order to talk to the woman in the grocery store about eggs.

[tblue37]

24. And when he was surprised at that "new" scanner

technology in grocery stores. The financial and social "elite" label belongs to McCain, not to a young African-American couple who worked their way up by their own intelligence and talent and who just recently finished paying off their student loans.

Barack and Michelle are "elite" only in the sense that they are unusually intelligent and talented.

[tblue37]

20. I would pick up dust motes by hand for that kind of money. n/t

[ladywnch]

21. you know he'll deny he said it. or say he was misquoted....or say

his comments were taken out of context.....or he was having a 'senior' moment.....or............

[bunkerbuster1]

64. It's pretty hard to explain this one away.

Which is why I don't get why Obama isn't piling on the "I don't know how many houses I have" story with this one. Guy is out of touch. Has been for years.

[senseandsensibility]

23. Does anyone have link to the tape?

I'd love to hear the crowd, and this would make a great commercial.

[bunkerbuster1]

31. I've been trying to hunt it down...

I know there's audio, because I heard a bit of it in a very funny (and loving) parody of an Obama "Yes we can" ad, only aimed at McCain.

I'll see what I can find.

[bunkerbuster1]

32. Here is a CNN transcript (alas, from Loud Obbs...)

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/05/ldt.01.html

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DOBBS: A room full of construction workers gave Senator John McCain a little straight talk of their own yesterday. And it was almost more than he could bear. The AFL-CIO's construction and building trades booed Senator McCain when he said illegal aliens fill jobs that Americans won't do.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Now, my friends, I'll offer anybody here $50 an hour if you'll go pick lettuce in Yuma this season and pick for the whole season. So -- OK? Sign up. OK.

You sign up. You sign up, and you'll be there for the whole season, the whole season. OK? Not just one day. Because you can't do it, my friend.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

So it looks like there's video out there.

[senseandsensibility]

46. Great

Let's do everything we can to get it into the hands of Keith or Rachel.

[bunkerbuster1]

36. Here is the PARODY video, that includes just the "you can't do it" clip...

http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/28810-obama-parody-video-targeting-mccain

[Lost River Ledger]

25. Better yet.....

I would sign a contract to provide 100 workers at $50/hr, hire them at $25/hr with no shortage of takers and pocket the rest. G-d I love America!

[progressoid]

27. "my friends"

:rofl:

[medicswife]

28. omg he really said that? The guy is nuts. Certifiable. n/t

[bunkerbuster1]

30. omg you hadn't heard?

not picking on you. Actually I'm shocked at how many people replying weren't aware of it.

There's no upside on this for McCain if Obama pushes it, from what I can see. I always thought it was the Mother Of All Gaffes. I always thought they were saving it for a time when they wanted to portray McCain as an out of touch, literally "kept" man.

this is the time.

[medicswife]

39. No, I totally hadn't heard this. And I pay pretty close attention to

what the shithead is up to! Maybe it was when I was in the hospital or something.

[bunkerbuster1]

40. Nah, it's our so-called liberal media covering for McCain.

Lou Dobbs (ew, feh!) ran it on his show. Don't know if anyone else even bothered.

[medicswife]

42. Was it recently? If Obama said this, it would be all over

the news. This is the kind of thing that makes me worry we'll lose another election. Screw the polls, it's the crap the MSM lets the Repubs get away with every damn time there is an election.

[bunkerbuster1]

47. It was April 2006.

transcript link here:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/05/ldt.01.html

[medicswife]

48. awww, I have a good excuse!

We were just coming back from an overseas tour in Germany. I was traveling with four little kids and my husband and staying in tiny hotel rooms. No wonder I didn't know about this!

[bunkerbuster1]

53. Ok, go and sin no more!

har har.

[medicswife]

59. LOL I like you better than the priest I grew up with.

[MidwestTransplant]

33. 100G per year is poverty if $5M is middle class.

[tekisui]

35. I have done manual labor for nearly 10 years, for a fraction of that, asshole.

Goddamn, he needs to get smacked down hard and fast.

Fuck You, silver spoon sucker.:mad:

[TwilightGardener]

41. How many of us here have cleaned toilets, wiped butts, mopped floors, waited

on people, and yes, picked fruit or worked in agriculture for FAR LESS? I have, for YEARS.

[tekisui]

43. Until I started my own business two years ago, I planted trees, mowed

lawns and pulled weeds for 40+ hours a week, for over 5 years, for 12.50/hour.

[TwilightGardener]

50. What does he think average Americans earn, that they would turn up

their noses at 50/hr? It boggles the mind--he has no grasp of reality.

[tekisui]

51. Well, he thinks middle America make $3 million+ a year.

[bunkerbuster1]

55. be fair. it's 2.5 million.

Half way to 5 million/year being rich. Let's be precise!

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

38. I remember that. There was a website or an email address

you could respond to and "aply" for the job. I applied !

[ErinBerin84]

44. good call. That was so fucking weird.

And what was with the hot bottled water for dehydrated babies thing? That was so incoherent. What did he even mean?

[mrreowwr_kittty]

49. A perfect illustration of why the "jobs Americans won't do" canard is racist elitist b.s.

Every time someone hands me that cheap labor lobby propaganda I call them on it. Whatever one's views on immigration, that statement is flat out offensive.

[bunkerbuster1]

52. Thanks, you nailed something implicit in my rant

"Whatever one's views on immigration." It's an emotional issue, and I can see different sides having validity, but this "Americans won't work at these jobs, they think it's beneath them" argument is deeply offensive to a whole lot of people.

And that is exactly the argument McCain was making. Squared. Cubed, maybe.

[endthewar]

57. $50 per hour = $100,000 per year

Assuming a 40-hour work week and 2 weeks of vacation. Yeah, like nobody would take that deal. :rofl:

[Lucky 13]

58. What an arrogant prick!

I'd pick lettuce for $50/hour! And so would many many many other "real" Americans...

I encourage him to visit any one of the many tent cities sprouting up across this country and give the same speech there.

"You can't do it, my friends"

I've done much worse for much less.

My GOD what a stupid, condescending, out of touch, elitist, repugnant thing to say.

[Joanne98]

60. Hey! I applied for that job, but he never emailed me back..

I guess that's because he doesn't know how to use a computer.

:evilgrin:

[Cha]

61. Just because mccain doesn't need to get off

his a$$ and pick lettuce for $50 an hour ..he thinks no one would.

Thanks for reminding of the typical mentality of john mccain.

[bushisanidiot]

62. McCain is an out of touch elitist SNOB! He has no idea what it's like to do actual WORK!

I don't blame the crowd for being pissed off

[bunkerbuster1]

63. I think he deserved a lot worse than just boos, frankly.

[ms liberty]

65. I keep telling people, this story would resonate...

particularly here in the rural south, where people garden 8-9 months of the year even if they're not farming for a living. When you put that statement with the $$ per year total on fifty bucks an hour...well, on top of the $5 mil is middle class, and the not knowing how many houses he owns, and his best friend who thinks we're all whiners...it just paints him so completely out of touch with real America that it's almost not funny, and it's totally unavoidably obvious.

[quantass]

66. Very interesting

[Blondiegrrl]

67. 50 bucks? Shit, I'd do it for $20. n/t

[K8-EEE]

68. ATTN "JOURNALISTS!"

WOULD SOMEBODY ASK HIM ABOUT THIS?

[BlooInBloo]

69. It's one of my favorite things to listen to over and over.... Here's a funny youtube of it....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6pu5nf8dAU

[TheDonkey]

70. um' $50 an hour? Where do I sign?????

[MrSlayer]

71. Many people would take the job in a second.

It is a ludicrous propostition he's presenting and it should be exploited.

[bunkerbuster1]

72. Worthy of a mornin' kick

so I'll shamelessly kick it back up.

[Vinca]

73. If there were $50 an hour lettuce picking jobs, there wouldn't

be a head of iceberg left in the fields.

[bushisanidiot]

74. I'll take it!! That would be a substantial raise for me!

yet another example of how OUT OF TOUCH McOld is with the rest of america.

he lives in a bubble

[bushisanidiot]

75. Lettuce-gate KICK

.

[ieoeja]

77. I made that quote (with a link) my signature back in the primaries.

If the Democrats don't run with this, we really don't deserve to win. In fact, I think I'll post a new thread with an idea....

[bushisanidiot]

78. looking forward to seeing what your idea is on McLettuce

. ;)