...twice this week, local officials have warmed up the crowd by railing against "Barack Hussein Obama."Both times, McCain's campaign has issued statements disavowing the use of the Democrat's full name.
A McCain aide said they tell individuals speaking before every event not to do so. "Sometimes people just do what they want," explained the aide.
The raw emotions worry some in the party who believe the broader swath of swing voters are far more focused on their dwindling retirement accounts than on Obama's background and associations and will be turned off by footage of the McCain events.
John Weaver, McCain's former top strategist, said top Republicans have a responsibility to temper this behavior.
"People need to understand, for moral reasons and the protection of our civil society, the differences with Sen. Obama are ideological, based on clear differences on policy and a lack of experience compared to Sen. McCain," Weaver said. "And from a purely practical political vantage point, please find me a swing voter, an undecided independent, or a torn female voter that finds an angry mob mentality attractive."
Three quick points: 1) John Weaver is 100% correct, McCain and Palin have a responsibility to rein in their hate-spewing, out-of-control supporters; 2) on the Diane Rehm show, the consensus is that McCain and Palin are playing with fire by allowing this hate to get out of control, including lunatics screaming "kill him!" and "traitor!", and that ultimately it result in violence; and 3) aside from being immoral, it's just plain stupid on the part of the McCain-Palin campaign to allow this crap, as it's turning off a lot more people than it's turning on. Normally, I'd say "fine, keep being stupid," but in this case I believe the poison is so strong that it's dangerous and must be dealth with immediately. If not, I'd say that McCain and Palin will be legally responsible for any violence that flows from their wild fear-mongering and irresponsibility.
UPDATE: Is McCain completely unhinged? Sadly, it appears so:
The McCain campaign is defending crowd members at its recent rallies who have called Obama a terrorist, accused him of treason and even screamed "kill him" when his association with former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers has been broached.
Un. Hinged.
These are the true believers. I knew that Hannity and Limbaugh and the rest of the right wing noise machine were going on about ACORN when my dad mentioned it (he's very conservative, but would never be caught at one of these rallies) AND I saw a quote about it mentioned in this article.
These are the people angry that their fictional viewpoints and beliefs aren't being properly validated by the establishment media -- the cognitive dissonance is too much to bear. They KNOW who these dirty liberals (and other sundry insults and smearwords) are, and are stunned that no one can see it but them.
It's a dangerous and frustrating mindset, the Nixonland crowd. The combination of anger and ignorance and often rank stupidity is very hard to combat, and is combustible and dangerous. I hope we can get through the first week of November without any real bad incidents.
Not only does he owe it to all of us, it's the only way to save his standing from the trash heap of history. I would hope people like Lieberman will be giving him a serious come-to-Jesus talk on this.
How's that gonna work?
Hmmm. The Wizard seems to have handed out ONE brain.
My parents, both WW II veterans, passed along the stories of the "hate rallies" and the political fervor that fueled Nazism in the 30's and 40's. I hope that McCain and Palin openly condemn the hateful and threatening language their crowds are shouting out.
Not that I was ever a fan of the USA Patriot Act..but believe that a section addresses the sort of "whipping up" they have been endorsing by their silence. Quick wiki reference
It redefined the term "domestic terrorism" to broadly include mass destruction as well as assassination or kidnapping as a terrorist activity. The definition also encompasses activities that are "dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State" and are intended to "intimidate or coerce a civilian population," "influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion," or are undertaken "to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping" while in the jurisdiction of the United States.
Whatever happened to being a leader for positive change Mr. McCain? He has lost all credibility in that regard. Very sad.
Yet despite the increasing schism in America, McCain's idea of "putting country first" is to throw gasoline onto this fire he has created by coming out with another ad focusing on Bill Ayers.
No Way, No How, NO McCAIN