Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Inciting racial hatred? At a Sarah Palin rally? It’s more likely than you think! *UPDATED*

From Dana Milbank at the Washington Post comes a disturbing, if not unsurprising, report:

The reception had been better in Clearwater, where Palin, speaking to a sea of “Palin Power” and “Sarahcuda” T-shirts, tried to link Obama to the 1960s Weather Underground. “One of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers,” she 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.

Oh ho, and it gets even better!

Worse, Palin’s routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric’s questions for her “less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media.” At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, “Sit down, boy.”

Wow. I mean, just, wow. What more can I say than that?

I’m seeing headlines in the mainstream media that say both campaigns are getting nasty. Palin is calling Obama a terrorist, or worse here. Her rallies are looking more and more like the KKK – something McCain needs to speak out against now. His campaign’s trashy rhetoric is creating a very, very toxic environment. The ironic part, of course, is that speaking out against this hateful response would probably garner some votes for McCain. But he is so deluded by the Rovian tactics that have worked in the past, he is too blinded to see it.

On the other hand, Obama is questioning McCain’s judgment on the economy and gasp used the word “erratic.” the Keating 5 scandal is for real, and is fair game. It is a scandal that happened when McCain was supposed to be acting for the American people, and it is something that McCain himself has said was one of his greatest shames. I don’t know how Obama will be able to share a stage with McCain tonight.

Sometimes the media tries to be too balanced, methinks. But if this doesn’t show people what absolute scumbags the modern Republican party is inhabited by, nothing will. If it weren’t able to play on people’s fears and racism they would have nothing to talk about.

And to think….I once respected John McCain.

UPDATE: Just in from Talking Points Memo, Palin says blames the New York Times for bringing up Ayers et all- it certainly wasn’t her fault! It’s not like the Republicans have a history of support for “personal responsibility”, right?


25 comments

  1. fogiv

    …when the environment that they’re creating (with all it’s threatening innuendo) crosses the line into reckless endangerment.

    I wonder what the head of Obama’s Secret Service detail has to say about Palin’s “rally”, or a random FBI profiler for that matter.  Isn’t stirring up crazies generally considered a BAD idea?  That’s some fuckin’ honor you got there, Mr. McCain.

  2. NavyBlueWife

    the repugs are bringing out the “racist values”

    anyone else wondering what mcshame is going to say in his debate tonight?  i, like many, want obama to come out swinging, but i think it is the wrong move at this time…mcshame exploding in anger just makes him look like an idiot…he can’t hide it very well either…even with all that yellowy green makeup

  3. “Barack Hussein Obama” (emphasis his) and then nods and mugs for the audience?

    To NavyBlueWife’s comment – could you imagine if the situation were reversed?!?!?!?  

  4. NavyBlueWife

    i heard the rumblings yesterday, but CBS News (!!!!!) picked it up today.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories

    GOP presidential nominee John McCain has past connections to a private group that supplied aid to guerrillas seeking to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua in the Iran-Contra affair.

  5. alyssa chaos

    has been the party of hate for awhile now. McCain should denounce this shit, but he wont because lets face it, these people are all he’s got left.

    When you cant win on the issues, when you cant lift people up, all thats left in your arsenal is to promote hate and tear people down.

  6. NavyBlueWife

    I wasn’t alive when Kennedy was assassinated (and I barely remember Reagan), but it seems to me that this kind of hate-filled campaigning would drive more would be assassins into the spotlight…

    am i overreaching?  if so, talk me down…

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