Political groups that track candidates has been common for some time now on the campaign trail, but Rand Paul's New Hampshire political director took umbrage with an American Bridge staffer in a very creepy way.
In a bizarre moment during a town hall meeting on Monday in Londonderry, New Hampshire, a man identified as the New Hampshire political director for Sen. Rand Paul's (R-KY) presidential campaign stuck his tongue out and licked a camera being operated by a tracker for a liberal group.
The man in the video was David Chesley, according to Preston Maddock, a spokesperson for the liberal group American Bridge.
The group also released a second video in which Chesley appeared to argue with American Bridge staffers shortly before the event got underway, identifying himself as political director and saying that he would prefer they did not attend the event.
Paul named Chesley as his New Hampshire director in March.
Doesn't that camera look yummy?
This incident reminded me of the famous George Allen racist "macaca" moment incident in 2006, that was filmed by a tracker named S.R. Sidarth and may very well have cost him a chance at the presidency.
S.R. Sidarth, a senior at the University of Virginia, had been trailing Allen with a video camera to document his travels and speeches for the Webb campaign. During a campaign speech Friday in Breaks, Virginia, near the Kentucky border, Allen singled out Sidarth and called him a word that sounded like "Macaca."
"Lets give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia," said Allen, who then began talking about the "war on terror." In an interview, Sidarth said he suspects Allen singled him out because he was the only non-white face in the audience, which he estimated included about 100 Republican supporters.
He could have at least asked him his name since he's been around his campaign. And yes, what does he mean by Macaca?
If spelled M-a-c-a-c-a, the term refers to a species of monkeys in the Eastern Hemisphere. "Is he saying Sidarth is a monkey?" [Webb spokesperson Kristian Denny] Todd asked. The word M-a-k-a-k-a refers to a town in South Africa. Todd accused Wadhams of "reaching" for an explanation for Allen's comments. "The kid has a name. This is trying to demean him, to minimize him as a person," Todd said.
