It’s good to see some other bloggers questioning the latest prevarications from the media about McCain campaign audiences being “mad” or “out of control” or “racist” – all based on the comments or statements of a few idiotic audience members out of the thousands attending. (See my post from Friday on this here.)
Ann Althouse on the latest liberal attack on GOP crowds:
The video shows that Ana Marie Cox did not transcribe the quote correctly. It’s not: “I’m scared of Barack Obama… he’s an Arab terrorist…” It’s: “I can’t trust Obama. I have read about him, and he’s not he’s not he’s a uh he’s an Arab.” “Terrorist” is simply not there. The McCain quote is a bit off too. He says: “He’s a decent family man citizen that I just happen to have some disagreements with on fundamental issues.” Don’t pin “terrorist” on the little old lady in the audience, and don’t pin “whom” on the presidential candidate.AND: Note that Time’s Cox (or whoever did the transcription) not only added “terrorist” but also substituted “scared” for “can’t trust.” What does that say about the mind of the transcriber? It suggests the press is looking for evidence of fear and fear mongering. I think we’re seeing a grasping for more evidence to justify blaming the campaign for deranging the minds of McCain’s supporters. But if this woman’s concern is that Obama is an Arab and that you can’t trust him because of that, then it has nothing much to do with the Ayers connection that the McCain campaign promoted this week. So spike the quote with “terrorism” and “scared.”
Josh Marshall continues his descent into madness with 360 words on why the woman in the crowd really did say “Arab terrorist” and not just “Arab.” His headline for this hilariously off kilter post is “Darker and Darker” – a perfect metaphor for Marshall’s own obsession with minutia as he desperately seeks to paint GOP crowds at McCain rallies as drooling, apelike, tobacco spitting, bible thumping, racist, ignorant red necks who must be stopped before they…well, Marshall’s limited imagination can’t quite conceive of the horrors these hillbillies would be capable of but he knows it would be no good!
When I wrote about this transparent attempt to dampen enthusiasm at GOP rallies not to mention drive moderates and Democratic conservatives away from McCain, I got the usual gentle ribbing from my liberal friends (no, it is not anatomically possible to do what they suggest I do with my head). They pointed out that McCain himself had become “concerned” about the tone at these rallies and tried to tamp down some of the more idiotic notions about Obama; that he is a Muslim, a “terrorist,” “an Arab,” or “terrorist lover” to name a few.
This, I blame on some conservative bloggers and a few unhinged conservative talk radio folks who will write or say any old hogwash about Obama – the worse sounding, the better. Lies and smears perpetrated against a candidate always backfire in the end because it turns off reasonable people to your cause while enabling the real nuts who exist on the fringes of both parties.
We have seen this the last 8 years with Bush Derangement Syndrome. Glenn Reynolds explains:
So we’ve had nearly 8 years of lefty assassination fantasies about George W. Bush, and Bill Ayers’ bombing campaign is explained away as a consequence of him having just felt so strongly about social justice, but a few people yell things at McCain rallies and suddenly it’s a sign that anger is out of control in American politics? It’s nice of McCain to try to tamp that down, and James Taranto sounds a proper cautionary note—but, please, can we also note the staggering level of hypocrisy here? (And that’s before we get to the Obama campaign’s thuggish tactics aimed at silencing critics.)The Angry Left has gotten away with all sorts of beyond-the-pale behavior throughout the Bush Administration. The double standards involved—particularly on the part of the press—are what are feeding this anger. (Indeed, as Ann Althouse and John Leo have noted, the reporting on this very issue is dubious). So while asking for McCain supporters to chill a bit, can we also ask the press to start doing its job rather than openly shilling for a Democratic victory? Self-control is for everybody, if it’s for anybody. . . .
I would disagree with Glenn that the crowds are even that angry. Yes, there are angry individuals and there seems to be some resentment directed solely at the press. But there is also a good deal of enthusiasm and patriotic fervor. If you watch the video of the fellow in Wisconsin saying that he was “mad – really mad,” you would be forced to note that after he had decried Obama’s “socialism,” and asked McCain to “fight for us,” the crowd did not call for lynching Obama but instead erupted into chants of “USA, USA.”
These are Republican crowds who want McCain to throw them red meat about Obama. They want to boo his name. They want to hiss at his radical associations. They want to shout “NO!” when McCain lists his more cockamamie plans for the economy.
Chanting “NOBAMA!” does not make these crowds “an angry mob” any more than Democrats chanting “McSame” at Obama rallies is proof that they want to kill John McCain.
McCain – who was obviously stung by press criticism that the few nincompoops at his rallies who mindlessly repeated slurs about Obama’s heritage or talked of being “scared” at the prospect of an Obama presidency – was evidently cowed enough to feel he had to make the point about Obama being a “decent” man and an honorable candidate. This is fine, except he is assisting the press in perpetrating the lie that his campaign events have degenerated into lynch mobs. And I was extremely disappointed to see that Representative John Lewis (a true patriot and courageous fighter for civil rights his entire life) had shamed himself (and the memory of Dr. King) by giving the most outrageous statement to the press, shamelessly playing the race card to the hilt:
Today, Lewis castigated McCain in the harshest of terms. “George Wallace never threw a bomb,” Lewis noted. “He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama.”
This may be the most vicious, unprincipled attack on a Republican candidate since Ted Kennedy said that Ronald Reagan wanted poor children to die and old people to be thrown out of their homes. It is astounding that Lewis – a man who bears the physical scars of the fight for racial justice – would so cavalierly invoke George Wallace and the victims of the Birmingham church bombing in a wildly inappropriate and logically flawed comparison between good and decent Americans exercising their first amendment rights at a political event and the flagrant, nauseating racism that led to the murder of innocents.
There is no connection whatsoever. It was Lewis throwing political sh*t against the wall to see if it would stick – something that is so below him that it makes me wonder if Obama put him up to it just so that he could appear reasonable in criticizing Lewis while allowing the false theme of “hateful” speech (read criticism of Obama for his relationship with at domestic terrorist) to continue.
For in truth, Obama – statesmanlike – refused to endorse the Wallace comparison of Lewis’ but embraced the rest of his message; GOP crowds are racist and getting out of control:
Senator Obama does not believe that John McCain or his policy criticism is in any way comparable to George Wallace or his segregationist policies,” said Obama spokesman Bill Burton. “But John Lewis was right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric that John McCain himself personally rebuked just last night, as well as the baseless and profoundly irresponsible charges from his own running mate that the Democratic nominee for President of the United States ‘pals around with terrorists.’“As Barack Obama has said himself, the last thing we need from either party is the kind of angry, divisive rhetoric that tears us apart at a time of crisis when we desperately need to come together. That is the kind of campaign Senator Obama will continue to run in the weeks ahead.”
Oh Jesus, spare me. This is the same campaign that has savaged McCain in the most personal terms imaginable while preaching this pious crap to his adoring masses. The dripping hypocrisy coming from these people is astonishing. Obama would have us believe that any personal attack on McCain – on his war wounds, his age, his wife’s wealth, – is the kind of rhetoric that will help us “come together” but McCain talking about all the radicals in Obama’s life is “angry” and divisive.”
The naive fools who have flocked to Obama believing that politics should be some kind of encounter session or New Age tribal gathering ought to be educated a bit. The “Can’t we all get along” crap being fed these ignoramuses is the kind of stuff totalitarians are very good at – where dissent and argument is seen as unhealthy or “not in the public interest.” We’ve had enough of that crap from the Bushies with their attitude toward war protestors.
But at least Bush wasn’t in charge of a party that is so eager to stifle the voices of their opponents that they would re-institute the Fairness Doctrine. Nor is McCain in charge of a campaign that openly uses thug tactics to silence points of view that criticize their messiah. Bush may have used patriotism as a shield against war protests but the Obama campaign makes him look like a piker by comparison. They want to stifle all dissent and criticism of Obama everywhere. And they are willing to use their mindless minions to shout down opposing views, intimidate those who would pay for ads that criticize the Democratic candidate, even using the old Nixonian threat of pulling broadcast licenses of those media outlets who dare run these ads.
And of course, as Lewis shows, they are willing to play the race card to the hilt in order to not just shame critics but smear them as well.
Nice operation you’ve got their, Mr. Obama.
McCain, to his credit, came out swinging against the Lewis smear:
“The notion that legitimate criticism of Sen. Obama’s record and positions could be compared to Gov. George Wallace, his segregationist policies and the violence he provoked is unacceptable and has no place in this campaign,” McCain said in the statement. “I am saddened that John Lewis, a man I’ve always admired, would make such a brazen and baseless attack on my character and the character of the thousands of hardworking Americans who come to our events to cheer for the kind of reform that will put America on the right track.McCain also put the onus on Obama to distance himself from the remarks: “I call on Sen. Obama to immediately and personally repudiate these outrageous and divisive comments that are so clearly designed to shut down debate 24 days before the election. Our country must return to the important debate about the path forward for America.”
Fat chance when it was probably Obama who asked Lewis to make the attack in the first place. And as we’ve seen, Obama did not distance himself very much at all from Lewis’ baseless smear.
I wish McCain had taken on the rest of the meme – that all of this “concern” over the GOP “mobs” is in fact, manufactured by the Democrats and the media; that one or two dummies shouting out some idiocy about Obama at a McCain rally does not make the crowds themselves “angry” – or at least any angrier than Democratic crowds (such as the mob that booed Palin and her six year old kid last night at a Philadelphia Flyers hockey game).
Barely three weeks to go and if Obama and his campaign had their way, there would only be one voice and one message going out over the airwaves between now and then. Welcome to Hope and Change. Here’s hoping that Obama’s changes won’t mean the death of free speech in America.
UPDATE
If I were the left, I’d give up on this transparent attempt to smear GOP partisans and look to their own house instead.
Michelle Malkin has at least 2 dozen examples of the kind of out of control rage that the left is weeping about with regards to Republicans at McCain rallies.
Out. Of. Control.
Not a peep from the media. Not a word from the Josh Marshalls of the leftysphere who are so intent on finding the mote in their opponent’s eye that they’ve missed the Redwood tree sticking out of their own.
It won’t deter them of course. Don’t try to stop them – they’re on a roll. While Josh Marshall examines the phone video of a woman at a McCain rally trying to determine if she was calling Obama an “Arab terrorist” or just an “Arab,” liberals are trying to incite violence and murder against both McCain and Palin in the most obvious and deliberate manner.
10:03 am
Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup…
Happy Sunday! Yet another fantastic day in America. Today’s pinup model, done by Gil Elvgren, entitled Keeping Posted, is wondering who all these people are who are getting letters in her mailbox from the Board of Elections
What is happening in …
10:29 am
Denial isn’t just a river in Egypt.
10:30 am
[...] This post from Right Wing Nut House is also excellent. Archived in: 2008 Election, ACORN, [...]
10:36 am
Thanks for a complete and thorough discussion on this subject. You said it all!! Real journalism.
11:09 am
Great moral equivalence there. You do know that someone getting booed at a sporting event, especially one where everyone is regularly booed, is different from a political rally where people are being encouraged to scream “TERRORIST” and “TRAITOR” and “KILL HIM!” about the rival candidate for the Presidency, don’t you?
If you don’t see the difference, you are either a lying hypocrite or stupid. Possibly both.
Who’s stupid? I’m not the one making the most outrageous smear by saying that people “are encouraged” to scream “Kill him” at these events. Where’s your evidence for that? Who is “encouraging” the crowd to do this?
No one, asshole. Either you’re too stupid to know that or you are deliberately lying. Which is it?
ed.
11:31 am
John Lewis has played the race card before, in the commercial linked below he says your life may be in danger if you vote Republican.
http://politicalvine.com/outrage/BroandSistaGrimm.mp3
11:43 am
I have been undecided until now.
But a man who I deeply respected named John Lewis played the same pre-South Carolina race card that Jesse Jackson Jr did, in the primary, against the Clintons.
It is truly , truly offensive.
I will be voting for John McCain, (lifetime Democrat here) because comments like Lewis made, diminish ALL of us.
“Violence in the streets” if Obama doesn’t win, like Brazille and Carville said on CNN?
So be it.
11:48 am
After the anger increases the right wing mobs may even resort to bombings like Bill Ayers and they will be embraces by Liberals. See how this unites us??
11:54 am
Thanks for this terrific post. I was astonished when I heard John Lewis’s statement. That was truly one of the most heinous plays of the race card I’ve ever heard. I once admired John Lewis, but I’ll never think of the man the same way again after this.
Obama08:
I won’t call you stupid but I will point out that you clearly did a poor job reading the post. Obama’s campaign and supporters have done far more than just boo Palin at a hockey game and you know it. As the writer notes, they’ve savaged McCain in the most personal and ugly way possible: Susan Rice and other Obama staffers have called him “clueless”,”befuddled” and “confused” in attempt to play the age card if you will. Moreover, ads from Obama supporters have used fear tactics with respect to McCain’s health. Don’t even get me started on the direct and unfettered attacks on McCain’s temperment (“he’s erratic”) made by the candidate himself. (Relatedly, Obama has also run his fair share of questionable if not outright libelous ads such as the Spanish language ad that asserted McCain and Limbaugh were racists that mock hispanics and were untrustworthy.)
I’m sure that’s all fair play in your book while everything the McCain camp does is pure sleaze. It’s sad that you cannot open up your eyes and see that your candidate and his supporters are NOT morally superior to McCain and Palin. Also, PLEASE take some time and actually watch the videos from McCain rallies were these supposed racial attacks supposedly occured. You’ll find that a few bad apples acted inappropriately and Senator McCain has MORE than rebuked them. And NONE of those bad apples have engaged in racial attacks. NONE. I dare someone to provide proof of that! There is NO lynchmob mentality. Only people that are either excited about the McCain/Palin ticket and/or angry at the biased press coverage. The anger, such as it exists, is not focused on Senator Obama. Frankly, the irresponsible journalism during this campaign is out of control. This is FAR worse than the “Gore invented the internet” bull that was used to discredit Gore as a liar in 2000.
11:58 am
The media has ignored and excused all myriad of Leftist anger and violent agitations for years.
I didn’t see any MODO columns condemning the constant parade of protesters interrupting McCain or Palin’s speeches even during the convention (and I didn’t see any angry mod on the right disrupt Obama’s or Biden’s).
I didn’t see a bunch of New York Times stories on the Huff Post rigging 2 Biden campaign staffers with press passes at a town Hall to ask McCain if he called his wife a bad name years ago (apparently doing this years ago is FAR worse than taking advice and breaking bread with a host of bad characters).
I didn’t see any big media stories worried that deranged nuts were throwing grenades on the stage during a Bush speech and that the anger was wrong.
11:58 am
See this post too. http://www.smartgirlpolitics.blogspot.com
12:02 pm
[...] more important things to do, like deliberately mis-transcribing Palin statements and lamenting the horror of racist, angry GOPers at McCain/Palin rallies (mobys? what mobys?). Posted by Darleen @ 11:02 [...]
12:03 pm
Here’s a pretty good run down of years of leftist rage, bigotry and violence against women
12:03 pm
Calling Bush mentally ill was acceptable, but this stuff is not?
Eat me, Lewis.
It must be working. Keep it up.
12:07 pm
“Obama08. Get used to it.”
I still think the guy who said “kill him” is an Assholeturfer planted by Axelrod.
12:16 pm
Which party is the party of rage?...
Don’t believe the “rage” narrative being set by the ObaMedia about conservatives who are angry about the state of the race. Michelle Malkin decimates the narrative here in a post titled: Crush the Obamedia narrative: Look who’s “...
12:17 pm
There are crazies on both sides and we all know that. I address it here on my Houston Chron blog:
http://blogs.chron.com/texassparkle/2008/10/both_sides_of_the_same_coin.html
But what about the tar and feathering of Palin that is clearly sexist coming from the other side?
http://rightwingsparkle.blogspot.com/2008/10/tar-and-feathering-of-sarah-palin.html
To me, that has been the far more disgraceful thing about this election.
12:18 pm
The Left and Right bases have always been a bit kooky. Yeah, it’s a bit unfair for the media to focus on the conservative kooks and ignore liberal kooks, but them’s the breaks. There’s no use crying about it. Geez, man up!
Anyway, I suspect at this point, McCain suspects his chances at winning aren’t very good and what he’ll be doing from this point on is protecting his legacy.
Also, conservatives shouldn’t despair too much; from what I’ve been reading the past few days, rumors are that if Obama wins, he plans on appointing some conservatives to his cabinet, particularly for Defense. I heard some guy on the radio bring up Powell’s name as Def. Sec.
That would not be a bad idea. At all.
It would be ironic for Republicans if a Left-of-center President ends up winning the War on Terror and crushing Al Qaeda.
One of the Sunday political news shows also brought up Obama maybe asking Robert Rubin or Lawrence Summers to return to head Treasury. Remember, Rubin is the one that handled the Asian financial meltdown with authority and aplomb in the late 1990’s.
12:24 pm
I saw somebody’s youtube video of a McCain rally the other day. Sadly, I haven’t been able to get to one myself. The rally began with singing America the Beautiful and the national anthem. There were Cub Scouts on stage at one point. Can you imagine any of this happening at a Democrat rally? They probably start with a scream session.
12:30 pm
Have you seen the picture on “Wake up America” posted on RCP? It shows a group of 4 wearing shirts calling Sarah a C*nt.
Where is the outrage?
12:39 pm
“Have you seen the picture on “Wake up America” posted on RCP? It shows a group of 4 wearing shirts calling Sarah a C*nt.”
Link, please!
1:00 pm
[...] Wing Nuthouse has the context. Posted by Dan Collins @ 11:59 am | Trackback SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Mixology [Dan [...]
1:02 pm
It is fear. Fear is either going to save us or kill us.
The Obama campaign took over control of the media in all forms except two areas. He has railed against the internet and talk radio. Those are two areas he has yet to fully control. Then came Palin and the large crowds, and while that is not a form of media, it was certainly something he could not control. We began to hear stories about how the McCain/Plain rallies were out drawing Obama’s rallies. Word was being spread via the crowds to the internet and talk radio. We were jazzed and hopeful that with the help of Governor Palin, Johnny Mac might just pull his butt over the finish line and save America.
The internal numbers were showing Obama either standing still or moving backwards. Even if he had some gains, it was well within the margin of error. And then these rallies began to take on a flavor of bizarrely reported radicalism. I thought the timing was rather odd. I thought this all by my little self, and with absolutely no influence from anyone. I knew there was something to this when the media latched on to the so called crazies in the audience. The question then became, why, what was the motivation for the plants? My conclusion was fear.
After studying Russia for many of my adult years, you begin to recognize engineered fear, or Marxist tactics when deployed. I am with the guy that said this is 100% Axelrod crowdturfing. Who wants to go to a gathering if nuts are there and the police might be involved, or someone might cause a riot? And what is going to be covered by the media, the message or the crazy in the crowd? This is a blatant political move by the Obama campaign, and no, there are not any black helicopters circling my house yet. No matter what McCain and Palin say, the message will not get out, and it also succeeded in shutting down the fire in McCain in going after Obama on legitimate issues such as Ayers and ACORN.
David Freddosso is right in his article in the New York Post, Conservatives are scared to death of an Obama Presidency. I wonder how many out of fear will rise to the occasion to vote in droves in order to save us? I wonder if we can be saved even if McCain is elected? I wonder how these types of tactics are going to play out across the fruited plain if Obama is POTUS? Are we going to be so afraid we will no longer gather in groups to express our views? Will this extend to the Church? How many others see this the way my family and I do? Is America this far gone down the Marxist path that there is no turning back, and there are no bread crumbs left to follow in order to find our way back home? Is fear going to take over every aspect of our lives? Obama has already caused such a racial divide in America that each race looks at one another very suspiciously while in lines at the checkout stands, at sporting events and just walking down the sidewalks. You can feel the fear and mistrust down to your very bones. Fear is either going to save us, or kill us as a nation.
1:04 pm
drjohn,
I tried to send the link, but noticed it didn’t go through. Go to Real Clear Politics, the article’s titled “Obama supporters call Sarah Palin the C-word where is the media.” The pic is part of a first person account of the incident.
1:06 pm
Let’s be honest here and lay the blame where it rightly belongs, it’s not John McCain’s fault, it’s Sarah Palin’s fault. She is obviously out of her league and does not add anything positive to the office of potential VP on the GOP ticket. Her shameful attack politics are not wanted and not welcome at any rally as far as I am concerned. I just wish he had not chosen her. She brings down the ticket and reduces the Republican Party to the sum total of these Far Right loons who have somehow decided over the last 8 years that they are our base or deserve to be. You can clearly hear the loon background yelling on the tapes while she is at the podium and she didn’t skip a beat, she said nothing to stop it.
I’ll go with Brooks, that lady is just a cancer John McCain does not need, the GOP doesn’t need any part of it. John McCain needs to stop listening to her, Schimdt and Rove and find his voice, his own voice, not theirs. Their way is the wrong way, it is not working. If he does that he will change this race.
John McCain is a descent man. Descent leaders stand on principle, if winning involves traveling a road you fell uncomfortable going down, so be it.
The problem with extremists loons on either side is that they very seldom are descent. They’l lie, cheat, steal do whatever to win.
That’s not who John McCain is or ever was.
1:35 pm
a political rally where people are being encouraged to scream “TERRORIST” and “TRAITOR” and “KILL HIM!”
The only place this happens is in the fevered imaginations of moonbats. The people who told you this happened lied to you. Ask yourself why they did that, and why YOU are so eager to let them use you like a tissue.
1:35 pm
Bee Said:
1:06 pm
Let’s be honest here and lay the blame where it rightly belongs, it’s not John McCain’s fault, it’s Sarah Palin’s fault. She is obviously out of her league and does not add anything positive to the office of potential VP on the GOP ticket. Her shameful attack politics are not wanted and not welcome at any rally as far as I am concerned. I just wish he had not chosen her. She brings down the ticket and reduces the Republican Party to the sum total of these Far Right loons who have somehow decided over the last 8 years that they are our base or deserve to be. You can clearly hear the loon background yelling on the tapes while she is at the podium and she didn’t skip a beat, she said nothing to stop it.
I’ll go with Brooks, that lady is just a cancer John McCain does not need, the GOP doesn’t need any part of it.
Bee gets it.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/10/10/polls/index.html
As the Right increasingly (a) demands to hear more about Bill Ayers and Obama The Communist/Muslim Terrorist and (b) proclaims Sarah Palin to be the darling of the Regular American and the new right-wing superstar — claims that are converging in the traveling lynch mob tour known as the “McCain/Palin campaign” — two new polls, one from Newsweek and one from Fox (.pdf), conclusively demonstrate how out-of-touch and fringe the Right has become. Both polls show that as the Right reveals its true Ayers-driven face to the nation, (a) Obama’s popularity holds steady while McCain and Palin’s plummets, and (b) Sarah Palin is a massive liability for the McCain campaign.
The Newsweek poll shows Obama/Biden with a lead of 11 points (up from 4 points a month ago) and Fox shows Obama/Biden with a 7-point lead (they had McCain winning by 3 a month ago), but in terms of seeing what the right-wing movement in this country has become, how fringe and disconnected from reality they are, the more revealing facts are buried inside the poll numbers. [...]
Even worse (for the Right), Obama the Terrorist now has the highest favorability rating of any of the four candidates (60%), while Palin the New Reagan Superstar has the lowest (47%). And even Biden’s favorability rating (57%) is higher than McCain’s (53). More revealingly, Palin has the highest unfavorability rating (42%), followed by McCain (40%), Obama (34%) and Biden (29%) (Fox 13-16).
And in the last month — as the McCain/Palin campaign began spewing their bile — Obama’s favorability rating has increased (57% to 60%) while his unfavorability rating has declined (36% to 34%). By contrast, McCain’s favorability/unfavorability ratings have plummeted during this same time (60/33 to 53/40), as has Palin’s (54/27 to 47/42). Standing next to Sarah Palin in that debate has turned Joe Biden — Joe Biden — into a wildly popular politician in America, with a 57/29 favorability rating.
In sum, the more Americans see of and hear from Sarah Palin and are exposed to her filthy smear politics, the worse she looks to them. And the more the McCain/Palin campaign attacks Obama with ugly, despicable smears, the worse McCain/Palin look, while Obama’s popularity with Americans continues to solidify and even gradually increase (Americans believe Obama is “trustworthy” by an overwhelming margin of 60-32%) (Fox 36).
1:35 pm
Who in Atlanta can forget the old screaming John Lewis fear-mongering radio ads:
“Dey comin’ fo’ de’ oh’ fowks! Dey comin’ fo’ de’ chirrn!”
Sad to see such men be such haters and race-pimps. I hope there is a special place in hell for such, who have nursed this infection in our society and profited by it.
1:36 pm
HeatherRadish Said:
1:35 pm
a political rally where people are being encouraged to scream “TERRORIST” and “TRAITOR” and “KILL HIM!”
The only place this happens is in the fevered imaginations of moonbats. The people who told you this happened lied to you. Ask yourself why they did that, and why YOU are so eager to let them use you like a tissue.
———————-
Uh, no. It happened. Check out the many videos of it available.
Answer the question, idiot. No one is denying one lone guy shouted “kill him” at a rally. It was YOU who said that he was “encouraged” to do it. The fact that you chose to raise an entirely different issue – a fact no one denies or has tried to deny – means that you have no answer for your ignorant postulation that the person who screamed “Kill Him” was “encouraged” to do so.
We’re waiting.
ed.
1:37 pm
These vile and hostile attacks toward political figures have overtaken any sense of propriety or respect for the people and the process. It is seated in the prolonged and repeated personal attacks (not necessarily true) on George Bush trying to make him out to be evil incarnate and responsible for every known problem to man. It is fostered on the internet and then picked up by the irresponsible main stream press who find it easier to sensationalize and now voice their own opinions as some form of valid truth than report unbiased investigated facts. Why has reporting facts and associations been allowed to be portrayed as “dirty politics” or “negative attacks” or “raciast”? If there is mischaracterization or untrue information, lets hear it. One candidate consistently changes the details of his life and associations and policies, one does not. One candidate readily talks about his past, career, and mistakes, one candidate will not.
1:40 pm
I agree that the angry Republican mobs threatening Obama are a manufactured story. The anger from the Right seems much more to be about an acknowledgement of losing power after several decades of holding power. John McCain has thrown in the towel and knows he cannot win. When he went against his own campaign theme of trying to frighten Americans about Obama by defending Obama as a good parent and a good citizen, with no reason to fear an Obama presidency, he was acknowledging the handwriting on the wall. McCain’s innate goodness came out and the Rove-type advisors were thrown under the Straight Talk Express.
The fear of an Obama presidency by conservatives, mentioned by Freeus (24)is real. This is exactly what liberals have lived through with the GW Bush presidency. And all of our fears proved to be well founded. Loss of fundamental rights, an unnecessary war, ballooning of the federal deficit, increased deregulation, war profiteering, and a trashing of the economy.
You fear what Obama may do. I look forward to a respite from the heavy, dysfunctional hand of conservatism.
1:54 pm
[...] The Media over the last few days has been decrying the so-called hatred and vitriolic comments coming from the right. While there are certainly some instances of this, it is few and far between, and doesn’t exist among the majority of Conservatives. In fact, the media is overblowing the comments of people at McCain / Palin rallies, and misquoting supporters, making the comments sound worse than they actually were. [...]
1:58 pm
Bee, you have the whiff of fresh astroturf about you.
I am not a super-Palin fan (though has grown on me), but her “attack politics”, as you refer to her calling out O on his affiliations and background (generally fair game in appraisals of candidates) are not properly characterized as “unwanted”. They are very much wanted, and on Obama’a part very much deserved.
If you are sincere, you seem to be rather ignorant of methods of shilling deliberately employed (and openly advocated) by Left-radical strategists.
The “Yellers” are there to provoke an instigate a reaction that feeds a narrative subtly inserted into talking points.
Moby. Look it up, Sweetie. Palin should not acknowlege these plants, but keep to her own message. And the crowds haven’t joined in with the plants, either. The crowds didn’t react in the hoped-for sympathetic unleashed mob-hate hoped for, but continued to have the proper disgust with O and his ugly friends and neatly-dressed but unwelcome plans for socialist utopia ( to undermine and replace what he and his radical friends describe as an evil form of government, and evil form of liberty.)
I’m going to a Pain rally tomorrow myself. I think if a Moby is next to me, I will certainly do my level best to make sure that person is identified and exposed.
2:06 pm
No “still liberal.” The anger, that which exists, at the McCain/Palin rallies isn’t just conservatives afraid of what Obama will do as president.
Sure, that’s part of it: Fear that Obama’s liberal fiscal policies will worsen our recession. Fear that Obama’s foreign policy ideas will lead to national humiliation that we haven’t seen since Jimmy Carter’s days. Fear that Obama will precipitously withdraw from Iraq leading the entire area into chaos and making the blood sacrifices of our soldiers worth ‘nil. All that IS worrisome to me. But the things that REALLY anger me about this election are the following: First, the media has refused to properly vet Obama, thus many people are going to be making an uninformed choice. Second (and relatedly), the way the Obama campaign and it’s supporters have used cries of racism to stifle dissent and criticism. THAT is dangerous.
Without those two factors I would merely be dissappointed if Obama won the presidency. Dissapointed that the American people have chosen him to lead our nation, but at least I wouldn’t feel like the cards were stacked against anyone that went against Obama. Mock it if you like. But just try and consider the opposite. The two closest parallels I can think of are the following: 1) Right after 9/11/01, people were cautioned to say nothing critical about Bush. It would be unpatriotic. 2) The lead up to the War in Iraq when the media refused to do their job and just took the Administration at it’s word.
We are witnessing the exact same phenomena occur, but to the advantage of liberal Democrats instead of conservative Republicans. The media won’t fully vet Obama and anyone that dares to criticize Obama is smeared as a racist and/or told they are inciting racial antagonism. Do you REALLY want to live in a country without a free, diligent press and where you can’t critique your leader?
Full disclosure: I’m a lifelong Democrat. But I left my party (or rather, it left me) when it chose to support an inexperienced, unaccomplished opportunist that is the product of the Chicago political machine and who is happy as a clam to hang out with racist preachers, unrepetant domestic terrorists, and leftists of all sorts in order to advance his political career. No, I’m not a PUMA. I was actually dissapointed that a more moderate Democrat couldn’t be found this year – i.e., someone that would govern like Bill Clinton: As a fiscal conservative and social liberal.
2:17 pm
“...I look forward to a respite from the heavy, dysfunctional hand of conservatism.”
What makes me bitter & clingy is that Bush governed far, far from the notion of conservatism. For that matter, so, too, did the GOP Congress.
The pay-off or pay-back is that we’re facing a prospective President in Obama with a plainly authoritarian streak, and a wink & nod for fraudulent voting & stormtrooper tactics.
All literature & films about fascism (7 Days in May/JFK, etc.) nowithstanding, if fascism gains here, it’ll creep in on little progressive feet. Always has.
Cordially…
2:22 pm
still liberal said:
“You fear what Obama may do. I look forward to a respite from the heavy, dysfunctional hand of conservatism.”
Does Obama’s relentless attack on his critics’ freedom of speech concern you? How about when coupled with the Pelosi/Reid promise to reinstate the “Fairness Doctrine”? Threats against media outlets that provide air time to his critics? Written threats to sic the IRS or DOJ on conservative campaign contributors? Hiring county prosecutors in MO to threaten criminal charges against anyone “misrepresenting” Obama or his views?
How do you feel about his use of revisionism in the press and on the web. Don’t want any more images of his fake birth certificate on the web? Overnight Google makes 700 links disappear. Evidence of his radical associations bothersome? Snap! Off they go as the offending web sites are sanitized.
His urging of his supporters to get more aggressive and get into the face of his critics and the undecideds? His plan to create a mandatory indoctrination of the youth of this country through his national service corps? What about his National Security Corps?
He conditions his acquiesence to the Supreme Court ruling about gun ownership by saying that he wouldn’t impose a gun ban because he just doesn’t have the votes in Congress. So, here is a self-proclaimed Constitutional law authority that says that the explicitly stated right granted by the 2nd Amendment is subject to garnering of a opposing majority in Congress. Guess what he’ll have under his Presidency? A liberal super-majority in both houses. Getting the drift of his vision of America?
Create new rights out of thin air? Stack the Supreme Court with liberals to assure that we’ll face 40 years of liberal rulings. Deny the rights explicitly guaranteed by the 1st and 2nd amenedments to the Constitution.
And the mainstream media is in lockstep complicency with this march toward socialist authoritarianism.
Yeah, I am really looking forward to my life in the Brave New World of Obama.
God save us all.
2:55 pm
Poor little Rick, grasping at straws to excuse the mob mentality.
What “mob mentality?” The only people saying or writing that are Democratic partisans. Or the media. But of course, I repeat myself.
ed.
2:59 pm
Sarah W:
We have no valid proof that these loons yelling and screaming at these ralies were plants.
Show me valid proof.
3:53 pm
“We’ve had enough of that crap from the Bushies with their attitude toward war protestors.”
What a deranged statement. The truth is Bush never pushed back against those who condemned the war. He said they had a right to protest.
3:55 pm
Bee,
“We”? Who do you speak for Bee. Why not try yourself.
You may get what you wish for, Bee.
Your lack of skepticism in light of the timing of insertion of memes and the isolated nature of the catcalls, and the openly advocated Left-radical strategy of shilling at rallies and other events means you are either overly credulous or very determined to paint things in the light most unfavorable to your enemy.
4:18 pm
This was all predictable, I’m afraid. The Clinton machine will stop at nothing, they’ve proven that in the past. If Obama were to be “knocked out” before November 4, WHO BENEFITS? Of course, the real masterminds behind such a crime would make damn sure to cover their tracks. There will never be actual proof of the culprits. But some nutcase can always be found to pull the trigger, and it will all be blamed on the Republicans.
For that scenario to work, the groundwork must be laid NOW by painting the Republicans, in advance, as the bad guys. I predicted months ago (when Hillary conceded the nomination) that there would be a propaganda effort to paint the Republicans as a bunch of racist idiots—so that the Clintons would have a fall guy.
4:27 pm
Sarah W:
Was this guy a plant, the guy on the news with the Curious George doll? In case you didn’t see it:
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/10/11/politics/fromtheroad/entry4515246.shtml
This behavior is not what the GOP stands for, Democrats use to act like this, not us. These Far Right fringe characters are soiling the Republican brand, Sarah Palin is not up to snuff for the Party.
William Ayers is never going to recitfy this kind of behavior to the undecided, Independents, etc.
You are p*ssing in the wind if you think Bill Ayers is your salvation when loons like this are out and about in front of the press representing our Party.
4:32 pm
Re: Obama08.Getusedtoit @ 27:
I don’t believe those polls for a minute. Check out some of the media-watch blogs to see why these polls border on worthless.
However, if Obama really is going up in the polls, it’s not that people are turning on Palin, or that they don’t care about Obama and Ayers being joined at the hip. The media are not getting the full truth out about Ayers or about what Palin is actually saying. Plus, what’s uppermost in most voters’ minds at the moment is the financial crisis—which voters mistakenly blame on the Republicans, since the media are making sure NOT to report that it’s mostly the fault of the Democrats (i.e., CRA, Fannie Mae, etc.)
4:41 pm
Rick, conservatives have created a lot of hypocritical stink about liberal hate web sites by magnifying the words of a few anonymous commenters (while ignoring hate comments on conservative blogs). How many editorials have you posted concentrating on this hypocrisy?
BTW, today CNN’s Reliable Sources (the so-called “Clinton News Network”) held a roundtable on the topic of people at McCain and Obama rallies shouting out angry statements. Nor is it the first time I’ve heard it discussed outside of conservative Fox News. So your “not a peep from the media” doesn’t really register with me.
It’s like the conservative meme the so-called liberal media doesn’t cover ACORN or Ayers. Yet, somehow I learned all about it beyond the RNC data-mined talking points obsessed over on Fox News, America’s election HQ for John McCain.
4:54 pm
She has to drop the religion and guns line already, it’s ridiculous.
Her remarks allude to this myth that the GOP is made up of small minded imbeciles with double rows of teeth and that’s our complete Party.
The GOP is made up of many different Americans in all shapes, sizes, colors and levels of education. We are and have always been a big tent. The loons at her rallies want to make that tent smaller and that is to our detriment.
Buzz words like Washington elite are the words of a simpleton not at all interested in bringing the country together during rough times.
Does she even know what she is actually saying?
4:55 pm
Let’s get one thing straight right now. I live in New York City and am in a creative profession which means I work and socialize with people whose politics and general value systems are very different from mine. I simply avoid politics, but I hear more unhinged comments about McCain, Palin, Bush and basically anyone who doesn’t live on the coasts on a daily basis than the sum total of every real or imagined comment at a McCain/Palin rally since the campaign began.
And I’m not even talking about deranged far-left mutants seeking revenge for their tormented childhoods but standard-issue poseur liberals who spout all the platitudinous left-wing vomit but only when they’re not busy trying to score reservations at restaurants like Per Se or trolling for mid-century modern furniture on their lunch hour like the fey, full of shit, materialistic maggots they are.
The idea that conservatives are the angry mob in the political realm is a joke.
5:10 pm
We all know the story that goes, “... and then they came for me!” Ignorance was ultimately no defense when Proof, solid Proof, came knocking down the door, and they carted you off to Lord knows where.
Proof came to my door one day in Germany in 1985. All I had ever seen of Hitler’s time was via books, movies, documentaries and discussions in schools. I was with a friend whose mother was German, and had died. We were there for her funeral. We stopped by my friend’s grandmothers apartment in Berlin, West Berlin. My friends grandmother reluctantly showed me the pictures her husband had taken during WWII. Her husband once ran a photography studio in Germany. He saw what was happening in Germany with the rise of Hitler, and he sent his wife and two small children to Switzerland because he was being forced to enroll into the German army. He had NO PROOF, that they were in danger but he still preferred for his family to leave all they knew, and to go into Switzerland. He was assigned to take pictures of different battles, and you can imagine the other things that I saw in those photo albums. She was concerned about my reaction upon seeing the pictures. I thought it was rather silly considering the time that had passed, and considering how young I was. It was not until later reflection on the day that I finally figured out through the exchange what she was trying to do was prove to me that Hitler was real; he was still very real to her and she was in her later 80’s early 90’s. It was as if she wanted me to know I should never not believe what took place during WWII, the capacity for evil, the unfortunate circumstances for some Germans pressed into military service, and to give me a bit of a piecer of her proof that young people must always be knowledgeable about history. When I hear Imadinnerjacket saying the Holocaust never happened, and others saying there is no PROOF, I think about my visit to Germany in 1985, and I wonder if these people were dropped on their heads when they were babies!
We at one time kept children during the summer months who were from Belarus. They had been exposed to radiation from Chernobyl. I have not been to Belarus, nor seen Chernobyl, but I clearly saw the damage radiation had done to these children. I saw it in they dental X-rays, their skinny, under nourished bodies, and inability to understand it was okay to drink all the orange juice they wanted. I never met their parents, but I knew they once lived in a Soviet block country, and still live in extreme poverty. They typically make about $40-$80 dollars per month. I knew we had to stitch money into the lining of their new coats we sent them back with, in order for their parents to receive the money and not have it stolen by the Russian and Belarussian border guards I never saw. I know that for every two weeks they were here their lives were extended because less and less of the children in this program were dying as compared to those who could not or chose not to come to the U.S.
Sometimes proof is not just in the pudding, but it is offered in results, or actions, or even as time passes proof emerges. Funny thing about proof is that many times to see proof you have to have just a tad bit of common sense. Sometimes proof is found in your gut feelings, impressions or based on historical evidence, and life experiences. I believe Rick because I have no cause not to, and because he offered factual evidence. I believe Rick because he does not have an agenda like say, David Axelrod, or one Barrack Hussein Obama. I believe it is possible to plant campaign operatives in strategic places because of one hilarious move by a one Rush Limbaugh. It was called Operation Chaos, and I believe it was wildly successful. LOL! I should know, I participated in it! LOL, again! I believe my understandings of this type of move by the Obama campaign because I have been to Europe, I have seen socialism, I have studied Russia and I have interacted with people from both Russia, Germany, Belarus and Italy. Yes, I believe it is entirely possible, and more than likely, there have been plants in the rallies to inject insanity and to justify the most outrageous bilge coming from the likes of Lewis, other lackeys, and Obama himself. But more importantly, I believe this was done to keep the message the GOP has coming out about Obama as far to the back burner as possible. Funny how all this came about as Ayers and ACORN was hitting the proverbial fan.
5:26 pm
I’m a former Democrat and frankly, the Democratic Party has completely disgraced itself in my view. The hypocrisy coming from people like Josh Marshall reeks, and I can’t even read them anymore. I have, over the past year, switched to reading sites on the right, finding myself more and more disgusted with blogs on the left. I’m amazed at the transformation, as are friends and family [some of them gratified that I came to my senses!] but I simply cannot stomach the race-baiting, the incredible lies and outrageous smears of McCain and Palin. Slate Magazine’s editor recently justified an article that depicts Sarah Palin in pornographic terms; the editor called it “witty” and “insightful,” and “provocative.” It was nothing but a rehash of adolescent male sexual fantasy of the “lusty virgin.” Pathetic. Intellectual masturbation. Not “witty.” Just puerile. But, also dangerous, when you consider that Sarah Bernhardt recently invited Palin to come to New York to be gang-raped by her black friends. And, that’s not incitement to violence? As a woman, I feel threatened by liberals now. I could never have imagined the ugliness I’ve seen and read from “liberals” over the past 18 months—first about Hillary Clinton, then about Sarah Palin. I’m voting McCain/Palin.
5:38 pm
bmc:
There is enough guilt to go around on both sides, but I will say this, some of these Clinton supporters were racially motivated moonbats pushing all kinds of conspiracy theories. But when you take a deeper look at their ideas and what they believe you realize they also support 9/11 conspiracies and are a bunch of crazy truthers believing the President attacked his own country.
There is just something about them, you can tell they are not Republicans by any means.
5:39 pm
Any Republican knows how laughable this all is, especially given the derangement on the left we’ve seen over the last eight years. But I think we should all understand that any anger emanating from the daddy party is going to send shivers up the spines of the mommy party. We represent authority figures. Cops, soldiers, jocks, hunters, manly men of all stripes and being the sensitive, weepy souls that they are that is scary to them. They “tolerate” Republicans just fine when they are eunuchs like David Brooks or David Gergen or estrogen overloads like Peggy Noonan but don’t dare exhibit a shred of testicular fortitude or someone on the left somewhere will crack open Photoshop and fight through their tears to put little Hitlery mustaches on pics of you.
5:54 pm
Chuck Bass:
The GOP was never just made up of Cops, soldiers, jocks, hunters, manly men of all stripes.
It was made up of Americans who wanted small government and low taxes.
6:42 pm
Bee:
You’re being a little silly in taking what I wrote so literally. It is pretty obvious how the left views the right. The party of darwinian competition, warmongers, oppressive policing, bambi killers and other gun nuts, cross burners, wife beaters, soccer haters, repressed homosexuals,judgemental bastards, CEO’s who have whistleblowers killed, crazy Cubans who lost their land in the revolution, Jews who only care about Israel, blacks who wish they were white, angry/paranoid dumb men and the stupid women who make all their babies.
6:58 pm
“You are p*ssing in the wind if you think Bill Ayers is your salvation when loons like this are out and about in front of the press representing our Party.”
And there, Bee’s mask slips. Astroturf. Why are you bringing Ayers into a conversation about shills at a rally?
Thank you, Ms. Concerned Conservative.
7:01 pm
I wonder if “Bee” left a sloppy trail or a neat one. It would be nice to catch out just the kind of business I’ve been talking about.
8:26 pm
Sarah W:
You are obviously one of those moonbat Hillary shills, you are no Republican
8:30 pm
Obama Cool Bullies & McCain’s Hot-headed Racists…
GETTING AWAY WITH HATEBarack Obama managed to destroy the Clintons when he resorted to calling them racists, which was an abject lie. Now, in order to “close the deal” – or keep his campaign motivated, he’s doing it again. He has also managed …
8:31 pm
The “terrorist” & “kill him” comments were about Ayers, not Obama.
8:34 pm
[...] MORE ON THOSE “ANGRY, RACIST GOP MOBS” [...]
9:16 pm
rick,
you are the cat’s meow. wonderful work, time, after time, after time. keep up the good fight, people are reading…
never stop
9:21 pm
for the record, burning signs? nice, now we will have to look for the burning poooo… idiots…
http://www.thebeenews.com/news/story.php?story_id=122376701181256200
issue here is, if drudge had not posted it, it would never have been known, i know, i know, it happens all the time, last election in raleigh, guy got pissed about his ‘bush’ signs gone a miss, set up a video camera and busted his neighbor…
9:55 pm
alas, i am back, can any of us imagine if mccain had used this caponeian line at a rally? bring a gun? wow… i am angry pales in comparision…
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/06/14/obama-if-they-bring-a-knife-to-the-fight-we-bring-a-gun/?mod=googlenews_wsj
11:16 pm
This whole “character” conversation has turned into a match to see who can yell louder. Charges of hypocrisy are simply “He hit me first, mom!” and it’s about as useful as trying to find the moral high ground in the Palestinian/Israel conflict today. For every undesirable in the Obama camp, I’ll give you one in McCain’s. For every one of Obama’s “I’m soooo precious” posturing, I’ll give you one of McCain’s “Bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran” moments. One thing however strikes me as bizarre: the anger of people at McCain rallies. Who are they angry at? Obama is simply a guy going through a job application process. He hasn’t actually done anything yet (spare me the obvious “Exactly” comment) People who voted for Bush TWICE are angry at Obama??? Are they insane??? They shouldn’t be allowed to vote! Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. How dare they? And one last thing, which will derange a lot of you, Bill Ayers was a member of an organization that I, and most of my friends back in the sixties, actually admired.
1:35 am
“... Or the media. But of course, I repeat myself.
Awesome. Another Republican/Democrat pissing and moaning about the “Main Stream Media.” You guys should see yourselves. Pathetic.
5:51 am
more on the liberal doublespeak, is this the future we are going to see?
http://thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=2375
or
http://thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=2375
9:38 pm
Bee, I don’t know who you think you’re fooling, but you’re not fooling me.
8:59 am
[...] NIGHT RIDERS TERRORIZING OUR POLITICS HOW TO STEAL OHIO IF ELECTED, OBAMA WILL BE MY PRESIDENT MORE ON THOSE “ANGRY, RACIST GOP MOBS” REZKO SINGING: OBAMA SWEATING? ARE CONSERVATIVES ANGRIER THAN LIBERALS? OBAMA IS NOT A SOCIALIST [...]
2:07 pm
How the hell do we stop the insanity?
Politicians are just people, and as is obvious from the endless supply of gaffes from every single one of them, not particularly brighter than the rest of us.
Stop the personal attacks and let’s concentrate on the politics (I said, knowing it will have no effect whatsoever).