McCain Palin Campaign Rallies: Calls To “Kill” That “Terrorist” Obama
Independent voters and many thoughtful Republicans and Democrats have over the past 8 years decried the deterioration of American national election rhetoric. Now the campaign of Republican Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin seems to be sparking ominous reactions from some supporters.
The two incidents have gotten some press and blog play. What’s troubling is if it reflects an unleashing of passions that might be the kind better left leashed and unprovoked by rhetoric taken by some partisans to mean Obama is dangerous to the United States.
Despite stories and posts characterizing the political scene, the national political context of these incidents remains murky and often contradictory — despite the up or down poll-influenced perspectives of partisans and pundits.
On one hand, there are signs that independent voters are moving towards Obama in greater numbers than before due to the economic crisis and the debates. On the other, a new CBS News poll, taking into account the impact of the Vice Presidential debate, shows Obama’s lead has shrunk from 9 points Wednesday to 3 points.
Yet, Gallup still has Obama ahead by 8 points in its daily tracking poll and CNN finds Obama is widening his lead overall. The bottom line: a lot can still change.
One shift: there are signs the campaign has now moved into truly ugly — and potentially dangerous – territory.
At a campaign rally, McCain asked who “is the real Barack Obama” and a follower shouted out “terrorist” — which elicits a facial response from McCain but no comment from McCain about how Obama is not a terrorist. Here’s the You Tube:
And at Florida Palin rally, a supporter shouts out a suggestion about what to do to Obama: kill him. No apparent response from Palin:
It was time to revive the allegation, made over the weekend, that Obama “pals around” with terrorists, in this case Bill Ayers, late of the Weather Underground. Many independent observers say Palin’s allegations are a stretch; Obama served on a Chicago charitable board with Ayers, now an education professor, and has condemned his past activities.
“Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers,” Palin 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.
Palin went on to say that “Obama held one of the first meetings of his political career in Bill Ayers’s living room, and they’ve worked together on various projects in Chicago.” Here, Palin began to connect the dots. “These are the same guys who think that patriotism is paying higher taxes — remember that’s what Joe Biden had said. “And” — she paused and sighed — “I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America, as the greatest force for good in the world. I’m afraid this is someone who sees America as ‘imperfect enough’ to work with a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country.”
No one seriously believes McCain really thinks Obama is a terrorist. And no one would seriously believe Palin really wants Obama physically harmed. But in both instances if they heard such rhetoric they could have stopped and tried to push it back a bit.
It’s not illegal. It’s not ethical. But it will likely be a reason why some people who might agree with them on policies will vote against them — particularly if these voters had hoped that in January the U.S. might move into a new era where opponents were no longer labeled dangerous to the Republic. And that the new era would be prefaced by a spirited campaign debate based on critical national issues.
Meanwhile, a new poll finds independent voters are now shifting towards Obama. Will these new attacks on Obama and press coverage of not just the attacks but the apparent strategy behind them — McCain officials quoted as saying they wanted to turn a page on the economy and get the discussion back to Obama — spur on a shift even more? Or will independents be persuaded by the attacks? Will polls tighten even more because negative campaigning works? The poll:
Independent voters are starting to swing behind Barack Obama and Joe Biden, who continue to benefit from economic turmoil and the public response to their debate performances, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.
The survey, conducted over the weekend, was full of good news for the Democratic presidential ticket. Sen. Obama increased his advantage over Republican rival John McCain when voters were asked which candidate they prefer to handle economic issues at a time when a growing percentage of voters said that was their top concern heading into the election. More voters said they are “more reassured” by how Sen. Obama was responding to the financial crisis than by Sen. McCain.
Sens. Obama and Biden have a six-point lead, with 49% of registered voters saying they would vote for them, compared with 43% for Sen. McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. That is up from a two-point advantage in the previous Journal poll, two weeks ago, and parallels other recent national polls. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
“McCain has absorbed a very tough one-two punch — the financial crisis, then the debates,” said Neil Newhouse, a Republican pollster who conducts the survey with Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart. “These two things have clearly led to a momentum shift in this campaign where Obama has started to slowly stretch his lead.”
Independent voters are among the most important voting blocs because many of them would consider voting for either candidate. In the Journal/NBC poll two weeks ago, independents favored Sen. McCain by 13 points. The new survey finds Sen. Obama leading by four points.
But, the Journal notes, the campaign is hardly over: Obama could still make a major mistake and the polls — polls that have shifted so much this campaign season — could shift once again. For instance, the mainstream media is now finding some bogus Obama campaign donors.
23 Responses to “McCain Palin Campaign Rallies: Calls To “Kill” That “Terrorist” Obama”
Who cares what two people who have zero chance of winning and represent a political party that is near the end of its death spiral are saying.
Maybe Joe should have a rule that for every post about Sarah Palin it has to matched about what the upcoming Obama Adminstration can actually hope to accomplish or what should the priorities be for an Obama Adminsitraion
Why is anyone continuing to think about candidates who will be the answer to trivia quesitons in 30 days when world markets are collapsing and no one in Congress seems to have a clue about what they are doing.
disgusting.
If they go unchallenged by McCain and Palin, the calls to violence will only increase as the election draws nearer.
Everything in that speech was choreographed; that, incidentally is why press was not allowed to interview the spectators. They were hired and coached beforehand. They want voters to think Obama will be assasinated so that he presidency will be a liability. However, if Obama comes up dead, we should check the GOP over carefully for conspirators, now that we have advanced warning about their passive-endorsement of those intentions.
If Obama heard a spectator shout “Kill McCain” or “Kill Palin”….I know for a fact he would've stopped the speech, admonished the unruly patron and had them escorted quickly out….probably for a cavity search just to be sure.
I never thought the McCain campaign would sink to this level of desperation. It really is like watching a fish flop on a deck gasping it's last breaths.
I agree with Sil. I don't think Obama or Biden would go this low.
Desperate and disgusting.
Yet it works– a relative of mine told me he plans on not voting for Obama because of his dangerous associations.
What a stretch! McCain and Palin had no control and probably never heard the comment from the crowd. If they did, I'm sure they would have discouraged it.
However, this doesn't change the fact that the NY Times and the Lib. media has been trying for some time now to get Obama, the most dangerous man to run for the highest office of the US of A elected. Now the Times of UK have also joined in.
Obama's past associations are a reflection of his future and God forbid this man taking office.
If nothing else, he is the US version of Neville Chamberlain and we know what a mess this most left-leaning of British PM's left behind for Churchill and Truman to sort out!
Finally, Obama enjoys the backing of 93% of blacks, which is a level of support even Sadam Hussein would have been impressed with. The trouble is this makes it the most racial of all elections in US history. Come Nov.4th, the backlash in the ballot boxes would shock even the most rabid right-wing pollsters!
Hey Frankinlaw–
Palin could certainly discourage this kind of comment after it was actually shouted at one of her rallies.
Maybe her handlers ought to write an answer to that on one of those notecards they give her, so she'll know how to act next time.
PS– Apparently the way to become most dangerous man in history to run for President is to run against a Republican opponent!! Ask John Kerry. Or Al Gore. Or Bill Clinton.
Has anyone actually heard that shout in a clip of Palin's stump appearance? I can barely make out the 'terrorist' shout in the clip of McCain, but although I've seen clips of Palin yesterday I didn't hear anyone calling for 'killing' or violence of any sort.
This claim by Dana Milbank remains suspect IMO until someone produces an audible clip or at least some corroboration.
For those who are disgusted by negative campaigning by McCain, at least please acknowledge that Obama has taken a hard turn toward negativity too and there's a direct correlation between that and his recent bump in the polls- esp in swing states. He may not be doing as much on character issues*, but he's running all kinds of deceptive ads on McCain's record and he's saturating the airwaves in the swing states. Of course he is able to do this because he broke his campaign promise on public funding and he's gotten a lot of potentially illegal campaign contributions, so he's able to vastly outspend McCain.
Can we at least admit that there's no such thing in this race as a postive campaign, and that Obama's initial claims of being above this stuff were bogus?
*Even on this though it's untrue to say that Obama isn't attacking McCain on character and associations because he's begun hitting him on Keating 5, even though earlier in the campaign Obama himself said that isn't relevant since it was long ago, McCain was mainly cleared of wrongdoing, and he's made amends for his poor judgment.
Yes, CS–both have run negative advertising- but this is a new low. Character attacks- are worse than deceptive ads about a candidate's record. And the McCain camp is using fear tactics- exaggerating Obama's stand on raising taxes- to scare the middle class into chosing to vote Republican.
Kim, Obama has matched McCain tit for tat on the fearmongering. Consider the “100 years in Iraq” as well as the scaring of senior citizens about SS (http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/more_so…). And even to counter your point about the middle class, it's Obama and Biden who are harping on the fact that McCain is so out of touch that he didn't mention the words 'middle class' at the debate.
And no, there's nothing unprecedented in the negativity of this election. If anything, the only thing that's unprecedented is the degree to which the MSM is refusing to investigate and report accurately on Obama's radical associations. At least CNN's Anderson Cooper finally ran a story admitting this.
CS – This isn't the first time that a McCain support mouthed something disgusting. Remember the “Hillary is a bitch” comment during the primary. And I thought the Kossacks were the deranged crowd out in the blogosphere. Seems that is the opinion of former TMVer's over at your new site.
Yeah, Rudi, and I'm absolutely certain that no one ever has a disparaging word about McCain, Palin, Bush, Cheney, etc at any Obama campaign rallies, eh?
“accusing McCain of failing to protect U.S. jobs, favoring oil companies and turning a blind eye to the economic suffering of working-class Americans. Many of the television ads also prominently feature photos of McCain with President Bush”
These aren't ancient non-associations like the Ayers BS. They are true today and represent McCain's past and proposed policies. CStanley, Obama has not descended into the fear and smear swamp that McCain, a formerly honorable man, has. Not that I expect you to care, but I am losing respect for you as a serious debater here.
And my respect for you also takes a nosedive when you claim that Obama's association with Ayers is ancient and unimportant. How are we supposed to evaluate Obama's principles if not by his formative political experiences? When Obama's been criticized for lacking executive experience, did it ever occur to anyone to wonder why he never talked about these major educational projects he worked on for years in Chicago?
I'm not sure what that quote represents, anyway, GD- is that from the Factcheck link? Obviously what I was pointing people to wasn't necessarily the relatively benign issues you quoted, but the factual distortions that Obama and Biden have made regarding McCain's record and proposals.
I see by some of the comments that the propaganda that McCain and Palin have been spewing is working. Some people now see Obama as a terrorists with is total bull. Unfortunately that kind of bull could put Obama's life in jeopardy. The reference to the number of blacks that back Obama and the reference to Sadam Hussein is total lunacy. Obama is not a terrorists and is no way linked with Sadam Hussein. McCain and Palin should be ashamed of themselves for even hinted at that. Or maybe they just think that the only way to win in November is to eliminate the competition all together.
A lot of you buy into the media hype you so denounce McCain for. I'm not any better either. Just a thought. McCain supporters the same. Anybody who is on either side of a presidential race ought to ask themselves questions, because this is not a cut & dry election. Both camps ought to stop being so EGOCENTRIC. Take your damn blinders off, because both candidates are equal.
From the UK.
Neville Chamberlaine was far from “left wing leaning” in fact he refused early ministerial office in a liberal government because of his right wing leanings!
Whilst misguided, his attempted “appeasement” of Hitler was to avoid war. Who apart from the insane would not wish to do so?
Churchill rated him highly enough to ask him to occupy a prominent position in his war cabinet. Truman sorted nothing out in this context; Neville Chamberlaine died in 1940, Truman became president in 1945. I think you will find that it was Roosevelt who was president at the time. But then, what do I know I am a foreigner!
It is very sad that at a time when the vast majority of the United States has done so much to distance itself from Little Rock and other such such instances, you should suggest that the support of black voters for a particular candidate should be viewed as a demerit.
Also unlike Sadam, Mr Obama has achieved his support voluntarily, perhaps that should tell you something
Why the press is not talking about Todd Palin connection to the Alaska Independent party?
what about pstor John Haggy?
Well, Palin ignored the people shouting bad things about Obama? The Secret Service just investigated this and found no proof.
On the other hand, I HAVE SEEN FIRST HAND – at a McCain/Palin Rally, liberal protestors physically charged at and attempted to attack John McCain. The Secret Service dropped the wusses quickly and arrested them – and they deserved it.
So the left wants to complain about words?
That's funny…
Barack Obama has been attacked as well. He was hit with a bat at one of his rallies. John McCain is just like George Bush and will run this country further into the ground. I heard both clips from both of these events and you can hear them loud and clear when the say that crap about Obama. I believe that McCain/Palin should just let it go. People are so DUMB now days. Race should not be an issue the issure should be that John McCain and his ” Running Mate” should not be in the white house. They will run this country into the ground and we will never find away out.