McCain: Western Pa. "most God-loving, most patriotic part of America"

Palin apologized for similar remarks, but the GOP ticket now has a long record of denigrating areas of the country that don't support it.

Published October 22, 2008 3:15PM (EDT)

In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Sarah Palin apologized for saying that there are "pro-America" parts of the country -- which had implied, of course, that some areas of the country are anti-American. "I certainly don't want that interpreted as one area being more patriotic or more American than another. If that's the way it has come across, I apologize," Palin said.

Apparently, someone forgot to give that message to John McCain.

In a rally in western Pennsylvania Tuesday night, McCain referenced recent comments made by Democratic Rep. John Murtha, whose district is located there but who said recently that it's "a racist area." McCain flubbed his response to that, saying, "I think you may have noticed that Sen. Obama's supporters are saying some pretty nasty things about western Pennsylvania lately. And you know, I couldn't agree with them more. I couldn't disagree with you."

That was bad enough, but what he went on to say was worse:

"I couldn't agree with you more than the fact that western Pennsylvania is the most patriotic, most God-loving, most patriotic part of America ... this is a great part of the country."


By Alex Koppelman

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon.

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2008 Elections John Mccain R-ariz.