Too little, too late? John McCain tries to calm his crowds
The Republican rallies have taken a very ugly (yes, even uglier than usual) turn recently - and it seems that John McCain is finally listening to the cries of people on both the left and right to address the hate being shown by his supporters towards Barack Obama.
Which is just as well, seeing as it’s been him and Sarah Palin - especially Sarah Palin - who have been stoking it in the first place: painting Obama as ‘different’, a man who “palls around with terrorists”, a man who can’t be trusted, a man we should be fearful of. Who can blame The Angry Mob for picking up the baton and running with it (after putting down their pitchforks)? They don’t know any better. They’re The Angry Mob.
Leading Republican author Frank Schaeffer has been one of the voices of reason on the right, saying in the Baltimore Sun yesterday:
“John McCain: If your campaign does not stop equating Sen. Barack Obama with terrorism, questioning his patriotism and portraying Mr. Obama as “not one of us,” I accuse you of deliberately feeding the most unhinged elements of our society the red meat of hate, and therefore of potentially instigating violence… Your rallies are beginning to look, sound, feel and smell like lynch mobs…
John McCain and Sarah Palin, you are playing with fire, and you know it. You are unleashing the monster of American hatred and prejudice, to the peril of all of us. You are doing this in wartime. You are doing this as our economy collapses. You are doing this in a country with a history of assassinations.”
Yes, he said the ‘a’ word.
So: as I say, finally, thankfully, McCain seems to be getting the message - although his crowds aren’t, responding with audible boos and groans yesterday when he told them to show respect, saying that Obama was “a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared to be president of the United States”. Booooo!
Rachel Maddow covered this news in depth yesterday, and this segment from her show last night includes footage of those rallies, as well as an illuminating interview with journalist Honor Marie Cox, who’s been traveling with the McCain campaign:
*Update* Tom over at Your Morning Cup of Coffee has written an interesting post on the possible motivations for McCain’s latest move. I have to say that I’m very cynical about it all, and think that his acting on this recent criticism, especially from within his own party, is still about his personal ambition as opposed to his decency. McCain knows - has known all along - that all of these attacks have been immoral, but he’s carried on regardless. And his speaking up now is still part of that ‘carrying on regardless’ - because he knows that he *has* to save face in order to be thought of even remotely credibly at the end of all this. ie. This is still about McCain’s reputation, how he will go down in history - and therefore this is still about his personal ambition. And if you’ve got any doubt about McCain’s personal ambition, I suggest you read this.
Tags: barack obama, hate, honor marie cox, John McCain, msnbc, race, rachel maddow, racism, republican rallies, Sarah Palin
November 14th, 2008 at 9:49 am
[...] about huntin’ back in her kitchen’ at home in’ Alaska. She and that campaign tried to instill hatred and fear about Barack Obama - and, not suprisingly, The Angry Mob took up that baton and ran with it… to its logical [...]