Why McCain's correction isn't enough

After John McCain calmed an anxious supporter that Barack Obama was not "an Arab," you'd think everyone would be cool with his quick reaction to a potentially explosive town hall moment.

You'd be wrong. McCain continued to praise Obama for being "a decent family man", but left it at that. No comment on Arabs in general. As a result, he left the door wide open for more anti-Arab rhetoric from misinformed, ignorant Americans.

Salameh Nematt, writing in The Daily Beast, explains how this moment made him "personally insulted, for the first time":

"For about four million Arab-Americans, and 300 million Arabs—and I happen to be one—McCain’s response to a voter 'accusing' Obama of being an Arab must have come as a complete shock. Instead of rejecting the notion that being an Arab is a pejorative term, the Arizona senator, by denying that Obama is an Arab, succeeded in insulting millions of Arabs and Arab-Americans."