McCain, Palin Increasingly Lead Rallies … Of Hate?

Firing up his diversity-challenged political base and lighting some kind of spark under his fledgling campaign has been a tall task for Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate. But, with the polls clearly trending toward Sen. Barack Obama, the Democrat presidential candidate, Sen. McCain and his vice presidential running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, have thrown off the gloves and jumped in the mud to sling reckless and shameful personal attacks at Sen. Obama and his campaign. But, a recent rally held by Sen. McCain saw the hate cranked up several notches as some of the Republican candidate’s supporters clearly overstepped the bounds of decency. Here is a passage from a recent Huffington Post story. Sen. McCain asks, “Who is Barack Obama?” Immediately you hear someone yell “terrorist.” McCain pauses, the audience laughs, and McCain continues on, not acknowledging, not chastising, not correcting. Oh, but McCain does say in the next sentence that he’s upset about all the “angry barrage of insults.” Only at a Republican Party is it apparently acceptable and funny to accuse a man running for president of being a terrorist. But, perhaps the most disturbing of all, was Sen. McCain’s defacto endorsement of that call by not challenging the audience member to tone down this divisive and hateful rhetoric. By not confronting those words he is in essence condoning it. Now, clearly Sen. McCain did not say it, but he must confront such hateful speech. Words like that could potentially fire up some crazed anti-Obama person to violence. The Washington Post chronicled this, from a Gov. Palin rally, “Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers,’ Palin said. ‘Boooo!’ said the crowd. “And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, ‘launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,” she continued. “Boooo!” the crowd repeated. ‘Kill him!’ proposed one man in the audience.” These words MUST be condemned, and if Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin do not have the strength to confront hate at a campaign rally, how will they combat the hate of rogue nations with weapons and thouosands of people willing to commit acts of violence?

Huffington Post article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/06/mccain-does-nothing-as-cr_n_132366.html