McCain's Chilling Dance With the Dark Side; McCain strategist admits taking "dangerous road"

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: McCain's Chilling Dance With the Dark Side
Jonathan Capehart

So the McCain camp is trying to raise doubts about Barack Obama -- even though the Illinois senator has been on the national stage for four years and has been under the presidential campaign microscope for the last 20 months. They seem to have no qualms appealing to the cultural fears of their agitated, and now energized, base by practically branding Obama as un-American or anti-American. And this is eliciting an ugliness at McCain-Palin events that is justifiably raising alarms that some nut job is going to act on the Republican ticket's cynical campaigning.

For two days now, there have been stories about boisterous McCain-Palin supporters screaming inflammatory words at the very mention of Obama's name. Words like "terrorist" and "Kill him!" and "treason." And at no point has McCain or Palin called on those folks and others who would imitate them to stop. It reminds me of McCain's laughing response, during the primaries, when a South Carolina supporter asked, in reference to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, "How do we beat the bitch?"...

We've seen the destructive power of words. Remember when right-wing elements of the Grand Old Party stoked anti-government paranoia with talk of black helicopters enforcing Washington regulations? The party's blind-eye assent to this ended on April 19, 1995, when Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols blew up Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring more than 800 others. According to a New York Times article that year: "Three specific events confirmed Mr. McVeigh's view of a runaway government out to take his guns: the Ruby Ridge raid (Aug. 22, 1992); Waco (April 19, 1993), and the passage of the Brady Bill in November 1993, mandating a five-day waiting period for the purchase of guns."

Now, I'm not saying that it's wrong to ask questions about Obama's relationship, such as it was, with Bill Ayers. Or with Tony Rezko or with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Just as it wouldn't be inappropriate to raise questions about McCain's association with G. Gordon Liddy....The candidates' associations with these people, and their responses to questions about them, give you a view into their judgment. But at a time of great economic uncertainty -- so uncertain that the smartest people in the world are scratching their heads about what to do -- whipping up anger rather than reaching for solutions is not what's needed.

In his column today, my colleague Charles Krauthammer writes that Obama's character "remains highly suspect." And he ends by saying, "There is a difference between temperament and character." This past week, by ginning up an anger and resentment on the campaign trail that should leave all with a cold chill running through their bodies, McCain has shown neither presidential temperament nor character.

The New York Daily News reported this week that a "top McCain strategist" said, "It's a dangerous road, but we have no choice. If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we're going to lose."

If they keep doing what they're doing, they'll deserve to lose.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2008/10/mccains_chilling_dance_with_th.html#more

[LaPera]

1. Get real republicans don't give a fuck about anything but greed, hate & winning-The end justifies

the means for republican...no matter who they destroy....lie, smear, distort, cheat, steal and crush these are racist republican corporate fascist...who will do anything to hold on to their fascist power.

[Higher Standard]

2. By taking the lowest road, they've already lost

Even if they were to win the election, McCain has completely tarnished his former heroic image and has established himself as the worst kind of politician. He's lost his soul.

[rucky]

3. Imagine if McCain actually wins with this strategy

He won't, but imagine what he'd face as a president - from Congress and from us. He'd totally be beholden to racists and fundies.

[Blasphemer]

4. No, Mr. Strategist, you do have choice

McCain could have run this campaign on principles and tried to show the American people that he had a vision for the country. Instead, he has used his campaign to incite hatred and fracture a country that is in dire need of a spirit of cooperation to face the challenges ahead. So, when faced with the choice of losing with dignity versus losing in a way that disgraces both himself and his country, he chose the latter. We need a president with far better judgment and a much stronger moral compass. Thankfully, when President Obama is sworn in (despite McCain's sleazy bag of tricks), we will finally have just that.

[DeepModem Mom]

8. Very well said. nt

[jberryhill]

10. Amen

McCain's campaign has left no choice for decent Americans but to not vote for him.

[Overseas]

5. Media please put your money where your hearts are -- NO TV COVERAGE

for McShame / Failin hate rallies.

Enough already. Sincere editorials are nice, but if the media really are concerned about this violence being stirred up by the desperate cynical Republicans, then either

DO NOT GIVE TV COVERAGE to those hate rallies. Freeze them out. Enough is enough. Incitement to violence is dangerous and will not be honored with coverage.

or at least

TELL THE TRUTH PLEASE -- Desperate about their falling poll numbers, Republicans McCain and Palin continued to lie about Obama's associations. They continued the long ago disproven claim that he associated with a terrorist, when they know that man is also an associate of many prominent Republicans. It is sad to see McCain, who once condemned smear ads, using such dishonest tactics himself.

[Overseas]

6. K&R to stack up the sincere essays condemning the tactics.

Hoping they will lead to stronger action, especially from TV reporters who still try hard to make the Republican McLiar look better than he is.

[rocktivity]

7. I read Krauthammer's column--not one peep about McCrazed's possible "asssociation" problems

only regrets about his "bad timing" in not bringing up Obama's "problems" earlier.

:headbang:
rocknation

[Raffi Ella]

9. K&R

McCain Palin have crossed a line; Barack Obama is not safe in this environment.

[starroute]

11. Radicals like "Black Helicopter" Steve Stoll

From the OP: "We've seen the destructive power of words. Remember when right-wing elements of the Grand Old Party stoked anti-government paranoia with talk of black helicopters enforcing Washington regulations? The party's blind-eye assent to this ended on April 19, 1995, when Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols blew up Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring more than 800 others."

From the current Salon article on how Sarah Palin's supporters in the Alaska Independence Party helped her be elected as mayor of Wasilla in 1996:

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/10/10/palin_chryson/

During the 1990s, when Chryson directed the AIP, he and another radical right-winger, Steve Stoll, played a quiet but pivotal role in electing Palin as mayor of Wasilla and shaping her political agenda afterward. Both Stoll and Chryson not only contributed to Palin’s campaign financially, they played major behind-the-scenes roles in the Palin camp before, during and after her victory. ...

She joined in their vendetta against several local officials they disliked, and listened to their advice about hiring. She attempted to name Stoll, a John Birch Society activist known in the Mat-Su Valley as “Black Helicopter Steve,” to an empty Wasilla City Council seat. ...

By 1992, Chryson and Stoll had begun convening regular protests outside City Council. Their demonstrations invariably involved grievances against any and all forms of “socialist government,” from city planning to public education. Stoll shared Chryson’s conspiratorial views: “The rumor was that he had wrapped his guns in plastic and buried them in his yard so he could get them after the New World Order took over,” Stein told a reporter.