The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama (Frank Rich NYT)

[struggle4progress]

By FRANK RICH
Published: October 11, 2008

... At McCain-Palin rallies, the raucous and insistent cries of “Treason!” and “Terrorist!” and “Kill him!” and “Off with his head!” as well as the uninhibited slinging of racial epithets, are actually something new in a campaign that has seen almost every conceivable twist. They are alarms. Doing nothing is not an option.

All’s fair in politics. John McCain and Sarah Palin have every right to bring up William Ayers, even if his connection to Obama is minor, even if Ayers’s Weather Underground history dates back to Obama’s childhood, even if establishment Republicans and Democrats alike have collaborated with the present-day Ayers in educational reform. But it’s not just the old Joe McCarthyesque guilt-by-association game, however spurious, that’s going on here. Don’t for an instant believe the many mindlessly “even-handed” journalists who keep saying that the McCain campaign’s use of Ayers is the moral or political equivalent of the Obama campaign’s hammering on Charles Keating.

What makes them different, and what has pumped up the Weimar-like rage at McCain-Palin rallies, is the violent escalation in rhetoric, especially (though not exclusively) by Palin. Obama “launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist.” He is “palling around with terrorists” (note the plural noun). Obama is “not a man who sees America the way you and I see America.” Wielding a wildly out-of-context Obama quote, Palin slurs him as an enemy of American troops ...

The McCain campaign has crossed the line between tough negative campaigning and inciting vigilantism, and each day the mob howls louder. The onus is on the man who says he puts his country first to call off the dogs, pit bulls and otherwise.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/opinion/12rich.html

[democracy1st]

1. thanks for the heads up struggle4progress

[struggle4progress]

5. I'm sure most Duers knew about it: but we need to track press coverage

[SidDithers]

2. Man, Frank Rich has been really good lately...

thanks for posting.

Sid

[Faygo Kid]

3. He is the best. K&R,

[Frustratedlady]

4. Excellent article, but the title made me a little apprehensive.

I think the Repugs will switch to using "code words" to get their point across. We may not recognize them, but they certainly do.

[Uzybone]

8. No code words about race

will get past us liberals. Especially those of color; we recognize them all, even if the MSM fails to cal McCain on it.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Excellent article. It says everything I would want said about McSame and the barracuda.

and he is putting the blame squarely where it belongs...

But we’re not at Election Day yet, and if voters are to have their final say, both America and Obama have to get there safely. The McCain campaign has crossed the line between tough negative campaigning and inciting vigilantism, and each day the mob howls louder. The onus is on the man who says he puts his country first to call off the dogs, pit bulls and otherwise.

[leeeeenz]

7. thanks for the article. it's important people realize the tricks people are using in this campaign.

[Kaleko]

9. K & R

[Democrats_win]

10. Reminds us that Palin quoted racist, anti-semetic Westbrook Pegler at RNC.

"We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity," she said, drawing from a once-powerful, now forgotten mid-century conservative columnist named Westbrook Pegler.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/Palins_source.html

Frank Rich's article tells us more about this nut-case Westbrook Pegler.