Anger and Shame

McCain is now spending pretty much 100% of his advertising money on attack ads, going so far as to falsely accuse Obama of wanting to teach kindergartners how to have sexual intercourse. His wife is out on the campaign trail, arguing that a potential President Obama would be a threat to her son's life and safety ("The day that Senator Obama decided to cast a vote to not fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body"). His soul mate is also out on the campaign trail, arguing that Obama is so anti-American that he has decided to team up with terrorists ("Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.... This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America"). The people who introduce McCain at rallies are increasingly calling him "Hussein."

It's worth pointing out that drug-thief and adulterer Cindy McCain is being dishonest on this one. By her own metric, her own husband John McCain "cast a vote not to fund" her son, since he voted against a budget that included timetables for withdrawal (which are supported by the Iraqi Prime Minister himself and a majority of Americans). McCain has also received abysmal ratings from veterans groups. Did this also put a "cold chill" through her body?

It's also worth pointing out that Sarah Palin was also being dishonest in her incendiary claims. Obama did not "pal around" with terrorists. I recommend reading this article from Annenberg Political Fact Check, and this article from Politifact. Flautist Palin is wildly exaggerating here.

The result of this untrue, misleading and inflammatory rhetoric was obvious. Now, McCain is seeing the results as his supporters get angrier and angrier in their own rhetoric.

From Steve Benen:

The McCain campaign has deliberately been whipping the angry, far-right Republican base into a frenzy. That includes increasing frequency of "Hussein" references, but it also includes looking the other way while campaign supporters exclaim "treason!," "terrorist!," and "kill him!" during official rallies.

On Wednesday, during a McCain harangue against Obama, one man could be heard yelling, "Off with his head!" On Thursday, Republicans erupted when an unhinged McCain supporter ranted about "socialists taking over our country." Instead of calming them down, McCain said the lunatic was "right."....Slate's John Dickerson described the participants' "bloodthirsty" tone.

This video from outside a McCain-Palin rally shows a sample of the anger.


Thankfully, McCain has apparently become ashamed of this circus. At a recent town hall, McCain had to literally grab the mic from a woman who started her question by expressing her fear over Obama because he was "an Arab" (which is actually untrue, despite the fact that prescription drug addict and college fail-out Rush Limbaugh has said the same thing on his nationally broadcast radio program).


McCain is not the only one who gets embarrassed when this anger gets exposed to the public at large. CBS recently filmed a crowd at another McCain-Palin rally, and they focused on an older man holding a toy monkey with an Obama sticker on its forehead. When the man realized that he was on film portraying an African American politician as a monkey, he slowly crumpled up the Obama sticker and handed the toy monkey off to some random child in shame.


Watch CBS Videos Online

UPDATE: I guess he wasn't so ashamed of his monkey before he went inside.


UPDATE II: More here.


UPDATE III: More here.


UPDATE IV: This is what happened to CNN's Ed Henry when he went to cover a McCain-Palin rally.

"CNN sucks!," yelled one voter at Henry. "Communists go home," shouted another"

At one point, Henry was hit with a flying pack of chewing gum.

Toward the end of McCain's speech -- which a handful of especially passionate activists ignored to hurl insults at Henry and other reporters -- a chant went up: "We want Fox, we want Fox."

UPDATE V: Not only are they throwing objects at reporters, they're also throwing racial epithets and assaulting reporters. This is getting ridiculous.

UPDATE VI: McCain isn't ashamed enough to stop. He's now making a big robo-call push - a tactic he himself condemned as recently as 2007 - in which he tells voters, "You need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with [a] domestic terrorist." He also tell them that Obama and the Democrats "aren't who you think they are." According to the McCain campaign, Obama and Biden "want to give civil rights to terrorists," ally themselves with those who "killed Americans," and deny babies medical care. He's also calling Obama's payroll tax cut for those unable to pay income taxes a "welfare" policy that amounts to "socialism," and that the Obama campaign is complicit in "one of the greatest frauds in voter history ... maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."

McCain knows exactly what he's doing, and he knows exactly what the consequences are. In a word, McCain is an asshole.

UPDATE VII: It continues.

Someone slashed the tires of at least 30 vehicles parked outside the Crown Coliseum on Sunday during a rally for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, authorities said.

Sheriff's deputies are investigating. The tires were cut while people were inside the Crown Coliseum listening to speeches, said Maj. E. Wright of the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office...

Sarah Revis, who lives on Wilkes Road, said the slashed tires left several women, including a single mother and a toddler, stranded and upset. At least four tow trucks were sent to move the vehicles from the Crown, Revis said.

"This is an embarrassment to this city and to me as a citizen," Revis said. "I've seen women out here crying and men cussing. This is a crying shame."

UPDATE VIII: Another example.

UPDATE IX:Yet another example.