Let us look at the McCain-Palin Phenomena of late:
Huff Post:
"[Obama] said, too, that our troops in Afghanistan are 'air raiding villages and killing civilians,'" Palin said, mischaracterizing a 2007 remark by Obama. "I hope Americans know that is not what our brave men and women in uniform are doing in Afghanistan. The U.S. military is fighting terrorism and protecting us and protecting our freedom."
Shortly afterward, a male member of the crowd in Jacksonville, Florida, yelled "treason!" loudly enough to be picked up by television microphones.
At a Palin rally on Monday, television stations picked up audio of a crowd member calling Obama a "terrorist," while Dana Milbank reported that "[o]ne Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, 'Sit down, boy.'" Also on Monday, at a McCain rally, one member of the audience yelled, "Kill him!"
Steve Benen then comments:
She's blatantly lying to her supporters, leading them to think Obama really is condemning U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The charge was debunked 15 months ago when Republicans first used it, and it hasn't improved with age. If Palin is capable of shame -- an unlikely scenario, to be sure -- now would be a good time for it.
That said, McCain/Palin have reached a point where they have to decide whether whipping right-wing activists into a frenzy, based solely on lies, is the responsible way to seek national office. The Republican candidates are not literally calling for violence against their political rivals, but they're nevertheless standing by, saying nothing, while their supporters are shouting words like "kill," "terrorist," and "treason" at their rallies.
And given that this rage-filled hatred is in direct response to the McCain/Palin campaign lying to their supporters, now would be the ideal time for these candidates to take a look in the mirror and consider the consequences of a relentlessly negative, breathtakingly dishonest, anger-driven campaign.
What this horrible McCain/Palin campaign is doing is reminiscent of the worst of the 1930’s. Whipping uneducated, mindless acolytes into a violent – perhaps literally – frenzy, stirring fear and playing our citizens against themselves and each other. We’ve seen ‘journalism’ in Sean Hannity broadcast a disgusting and totally false propaganda hit piece in furtherance of this movement. We’ve even recently seen a quasi-nationalization of our main business – credit – much like what happened 70+ years ago.
I’ve never been an alarmist nor someone to lean towards the melodramatic, but am I wrong in feeling as though our governmental system and very freedom could be at stake in the coming weeks? This terrifies me, and has prompted me to act.
Political Animal
the Republican Party of Pennsylvania announced its belief that Obama is "a terrorist's best friend."
Ambinder
a member of McCain's audience went there today. You can hear it clearly on this video clip taken from MSNBC-- after McCain asks "Who is the real Barack Obama?" the first, loudest voice can be heard answering "Terrorist!"
Constantly under the watchful eyes of security, the media wasn't permitted to wander around inside Coachman Park to talk to Sarah Palin supporters. When reporters tried to leave the designated press area and head toward the bleachers where the crowd was seated, an escort would dart out of nowhere and confront him or her and say, "Can I help you?'' and turn the person around. When one
reporter asked an escort, who would not give her name, why the press wasn't allowed to mingle, she said that in the past, negative things had been written. The
campaign wanted to avoid that possibility Monday.
Dick Morris on Fox
You're talking about the equivalent of having an association with Osama bin Laden. I mean this guy bombed the Capitol. He bombed the Pentagon. He bombed police headquarters.
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