Who You Callin' a Maverick? Why the NY Times Should Apologize
Monday October 6, 2008
There's that word again: maverick. Used in Thursday's Vice-Presidential debate, by Gov. Sarah Palin six times to describe herself and her running mate, Senator John McCain, who she described as "the consummate maverick." But where does the term come from...
Filed Under: bridging gaps, casting stones, john mccain, john schwartz, maverick, new york times, sarah palin, terralitta maverick, vice presidential debate, what's a maverick
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About Windows & Doors
Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of You Don’t Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism. Listed as one of the nation’s 50 most influential rabbis in Newsweek, and a regular commentator on Court TV, he is the creator of the popular series, Building Bridges, airing on Bridges TV, and the co-host of the weekly radio show, Hirschfield and Kula. More About Brad
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Wow, do you go through such contortions in all your columns!?
She never actually said she was a maverick. It's her name because she was born into that family, not because she's adopted it as a label.
Brad, you are either completely missing the point or are intentionally distorting the NYT article.
Ms. Maverick stated, "He's a Republican; He's branded." To which you reply, "And she is not?"
One has nothing to do with the other. The article is about how McCain is misusing the term. You then go on to say "we are all branded in some way." That supports further the notion that McCain is a fraud, attempting to claim he is anything other than a 90%+ Bush-supporting Republican.
Perhaps you should rethink this one and then maybe you should apologize.
What are you saying? What is your label or does your label not matter as you call everyone else on their own? You're such a Maverick!
i agree this race has turned into nothing but race hate and it is making me sick i do not like any of the candidates i hope jesus comes soon and takes control instead of the devil walking this earth thank you for listening.
This whole conversation is just silly - We all know it's a political usage of a word that in American culture has come to mean - one who does not go with the crowd or one who is lawless like in the old west, and the meaning then was not complimentary. For me the usage of this word in a political content does not mean diddly-squat. Like, who even uses this word anymore anyway? LOL If my last name was Maverick, I would be tempted to change it!
Forget about the term "maverick". John McCain is a "talent scout". He has found the greatest performer, actress, protagonist to be discovered in years. She must be the envy of every Hollywood glamour girl. Sarah Palin.......a real performer......nobody does it better. Why hasn't she appeared on "Saturday Night Live". Their ratings would go right through the roof. She has been giving one Oscar worthy performance after another. However, I believe that Hillary and Condoleeza should take this "soccer mom" aside and teach her a little bit about class.
John McCain has the Repubicans bamboozled and anyone with half a brain who has watched him over the years knows it!
Yes he IS a Republican. Except when he got mad during the debates and ads against our present comander in chief when they were both trying to get the nomination and Johnny boy was actually looking at jumping ship to go to the Democrats. He felt he could because HE HAS BEEN CALLING HIMSELF A MAVERICK WITH PRIDE FOR YEARS.
So naturally the Repubs nominate him this time and think he will go along with things. I am sure they were overjoyed(snicker) when he did not pick a woman who was a long standing, smart, Republican, experienced person but someone hardly anyone had ever heard of-they still do not seem to get it. When and if he gets in the mainliners are going to have as much say as those who are on the other side of the aisle.
As for the Times was just repeating what McCain has been saying over and over and over and over. Musta been a slow news day! John LOVES the brand. I would bet he has it on a plaque on his desk somewhere!
hugs
Laura
The whole press use of the term "maverick" to apply to John McCain makes me nuts. It's supposed to come off like some romanticized notion of a man who's his own man and not beholden to special interests, or to those who helped him come to power, which is just bogus.
I'm more of a maverick than John McCain, and at least as qualified to be VP as is Sarah Palin, IMHO... (snicker, wink, wink). Maybe I should run.
Okay. sarcasm here.
But the "maverick" thing really does smell bad.
And Rabbi, I have to admit, this article disappoints me on so many levels.
I can see the White House from my office window. Think maybe I'll run for President.
How can you be for McCain? He is a lieing egomaniaical nut case, who is nearly senile and can't even spell economic crisis caused by de regulated trickle down BS
LOL - the comments here are such fun to read - hehe.
Watching Sarah P. with her lady groupies after the debate last week I thought I was seeing another chapter of the "Stepford Wifes".
At least Hillary Clinton looks real - so she is not a sharp dresser - I do think the Reps are out of touch with main stream America - must be nice to be a part of the "upper crust" with only these things on one's
mind: When can I get my nails done? Do I fire the housekeeper? Is my BFF going to be at the Country Club this weekend? Oh, one of ours is going to be VP - lets watch her fashion I.Q. and make sure she's "in" and in-tune with the latest Beauty Shop policy. She is so cute the way she winks! She will do us proud when she represents America. And gossip - did you hear the latest she said about Obama? Woman after my own heart!
"Who is the tall, dark stranger there, Maverick is his name. Riding the trails to who-knows-where, luck is his companion, gambling is his game..."
Everyone who ever watched old Westerns on TV knows the best Maverick was Bret, played by James Garner. (Jack Kelly, as Bart wasn't so bad either and then there was English cousin Beau, played by Roger Moore.)
Seriously, these politicians are actors, and they all want to be seen as "different," especially now, when everyone is looking for "change."
Oh, well, we all know what Sarah Palin would do if she saw a maverick...she'd shoot it! :-)
Lucy G.
Obama would be a national disaster . raising taxes .Increasing the cap gains tax .On and On No one knows anything about this man other than he blurts that he will bring change . He has way to many ties to known un repentant terrorists , crooked chicago real estate deals Resco , Yet the media will not ask him any questions ?????????? He is not the democrat party of JFK He is a dangerous radical that we dont know anything about
Rabbi Hirschfield, who tells us he supports McCain, wants to remind us that all of us are in some way branded...I suppose that includes the cattle who were the original "mavericks" because they weren't branded. (Paradoxical, huh?) And he takes the Times to task for not doing the right kind of investigative reporting because they let Ms. Maverick, whose name happens to be at least one of her particular brands, argue that she was more than a little uncomfortable with the fact that McCain and Palin have used that name in a particular way that she happens to believe is fraudulent. From where I'm sitting, the problem is not that the McCain campaign is using the word, but rather, that they are EXPLOITING it for purposes that are ultimately dishonest, far more dishonest than anything that the lady from Texas has done. They don't deserve the label.But the lady from Texas does: it's her name!
Rabbi Hirschfield, you should apologize to Ms. Maverick.
Maybe McCain was a maverick (tm)? once but no longer. He has simply adopted the Republican hard line ideology hook line and sinker. As for Palin... don't get me started-hard line right to the core. There were qualified republican women to run for vice-president- E Dole, K. Hutchinson, etc-people with more experience in washington or at least srronger resumes. She is simply proof of the right's great dislike for government
Right on. Obama scares me and I don't see how anyone Jewish can vote for this weather-vaner.
The only Mavericks I ever knew were the ones from th t.v. western.This complainning is a lot about nothing. Who cares.
Obama's supposed ties to Ayers were invented by the Republican propaganda machine. It's a non-issue, and it would stay that way if McCain had something to run on. But he doesn't. So he needs to lie. And have his pit bull lie also.
You know why Jews will vote for Obama? Because he's a Democrat and McCain is a Republican. The Republican Party is the Christian Party and evangelical Christians are no friends to Jews.
All of this down home country talk is sickening. We need leaders who know how to speak something that sounds like English. The good old boy mess is over and done. I am an Alaskan who is ashamed of Sarah Palin and her camera grabbing husband.
Martin Miller has a very good point. John McCain has been exploiting the name Maverick from the very beginning. Lets think of what most people think of when they hear the word maverick. Images of gun slinging cowboys and bad boy fighter jet pilots pop up in the ones imagination. John McCain is trying to tie name into those images. It is just a tactic to get votes.
As Terralitta Mavericks grandson I have a pretty good idea of what the meaning of maverick actually is. I do not believe there has been a maverick in the political world in a very long and i am not just talking about my ancestors. For John McCain to label himself a "maverick" is laughable at best. I don't what to tell you who to vote for and I know that this talk of if he is a maverick or not well not change this election. I just hope that people watch and listen close to what the candidates talk about and believe in the next mouth because it will change what happens in America and the world for a very very long time.
My cousin has hit the nail on the head. But I will add that to us as a family it does stretch beyond that.
I think from our standpoint the meaning of the word changed from a cattle branding reference, to that of a rebel, due to the anti-status quo politics of the politicians in our family. Politics that were nothing if not left of center. This applied to Samuel Maverick (Senator/Mayor Of San Antonio), his son
Maury Maverick (Mayor of San Antonio), and his son Maury Maverick JR (Texas Legislature, prominent A.C.L.U./ civil rights attorney). People championed such civil rights blacks,communists, consciousness objectors to the Vietnam War. Samuel Augustus Maverick stood for the cause of the Native Americans at the begining of the century just as his grandson stood for the rights of Palestinians towards the end. These are not the issues that anyone liberal or conservative would generally associate with the Republican party or the McCain/Palin ticket. So if my family's legacy in liberal politics helped shaped t in the vernacular of our culture then I think we have every right to take it back from these right wing zealots that have highjacked a once proud term. Its our family namesake.
Maury Maverick Harms
The Mavericks were and are a great American and Texas family. They stood for freedom and individual rights and all the things embodied in the Constitution, especially in the Bill of Rights. They deserve the utmost consideration and respect.
In a way, the word "Maverick" has a second root in addition to the the one from the unbranded calves. Sort of. In the 1940 Democratic convention -- back in the days when conventions were not mere coronations but lively struggles between various factions in a party -- Maury Maverick Sr led a group of delegates in a walkout because they did not agree with several planks in the platform. They were, of course, called Maverick Democrats.
I knew Marury Jr well, through common work interests and a correspondence afterwards. So when I hear Senator McCain and Governor Palin refer to themselves over and over again as Mavericks, I'm sure poor Maury Jr is rolling over in his grave. Were he still with us I would ask him what he thought. He would probably answer in his deep Texas drawl, "Well, Ford once called one of their cars a Maverick but it pretty much did exactly what all the other Fords did."
Thanks Mike for representing my great uncle and hero so well!!
Brad, are you going to apologize?
I happened to drive a FORD Maverick for a couple of years. I didn't hear Terralita or her family protesting that FORD is using this term to sell a car. This family does not own the term Maverick which has nothing to do anymore with their family name. They should have protested at the time when this term got used by directly relating to their ancestor.
Uhm, and why are we even discussing this? Seems silly to me.
It is now Wednesday, October 15. Brad, are you going to apologize?
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