"This one and that one" McCain prefers indefinite pronouns to proper names

Is Senator John McCain angry? We respond "Yes," and will use his semantics
(semantics: n. study of the meaning and use of words and phrases) to prove the point. In the penultimate debate

(penultimate: adj. next to last, second to last) McCain referred to his opponent, Senator Barak Obama as "that one." No title, no proper name. And yet, the two debate opponents stood a few feet apart from one another.


"One" is an indefinite pronoun. Indefinite pronouns are used to refer generally and indeterminately to objects and living things" (Harper's English Grammar, John B. Opdycke). A "general," "indeterminate" reference to someone you know quite well and who is standing adjacent indicates a deliberate attempt to marginalize that individual, to minimize his stature, to indicate that he is something less than. Worse, the deliberate placing of the demonstrative pronoun "that" before "one" serves to emphasize the indeterminacy of the person standing beside you.

Political television host Chris Matthews, to his credit, pointed out McCain's odd semantic choice of words:

Said Matthews in analyzing the debate: "That one, it's not even a personal pronoun." That's right, Chris, nothing personal about it, very impersonal, very angry.

McCain followed up in the ultimate debate with another curious bit of semantics as he compared himself and his wife to Obama and his wife.

He said: "Cindy and I and you and your wife" McCain might as well have said: Cindy and I and you and "that one."

For many other reasons, we suggest that John McCain is perhaps not the one.

From Babylon online dictionary: one: pron. any person; any person or thing in a particular group

adj. being 1 in number; single; same, unified; only; happening at a particular unspecified time in the past (or future)

n. number 1; particular person or thing

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