UPDATED  Ana Marie Cox heard “Arab terrorist.” Josh Marshall is reserving judgment now hears only “Arab.” And The Uptake offers a post-game interview with the speaker herself. But one way to judge whether the woman at the Oct. 10 rally in Lakeville, Minn., told Sen. John McCain that Sen. Barack Obama is (merely) “an Arab” or (alternatively) “an Arab terrorist” is to watch video clips from the event for the reactions of people in the crowd who could see her speaking.

See for yourself in videos after the jump, including The Uptake’s subtitled interview with McCain’s interlocutor (campaign volunteer Gayle Quinnell of Shakopee, Minn.) in which she cites the source of her Obama information: an inflammatory flyer circulating at McCain’s local HQ.

Zapruder-like analysis of videos shot from a couple angles reveals a short span of time after the word “Arab” is uttered in which no more is audible but no one yet reacts — a moment long enough for the word “terrorist” to have been mouthed, even if it wasn’t picked up on-mic. The world seems to wait a beat … and then at least two women in the audience visibly react to what they just heard (or saw) being said — whatever it was. (Then McCain offers his “No, he’s a decent man” non-sequiter, but that’s another story.)

The Uptake’s video clip from event and later interview:

The Uptake video, with subtitles (transcript here):

TPM’s clip montage:

 

TPM’s new clip showing speaker’s face:

Ana Marie Cox has updated her original post to say that after seeing the video (that shows the speaker from behind), she has concluded it doesn’t bear out what she thought she heard the speaker say at the scene: “Arab terrorist.” She notes, however, that the interview video suggests that “terrorist” is indeed on the lips of this McCain backer.