McCain and Palin have been inciting crowds to angry hatred for over a week now. Today here in Minnesota it seems that McCain is waking up to just how far over the line he has stepped. Ana Marie Cox writes from the Lakeville rally:
“I want EVERYONE to be respectful, and lets make sure we are.”
The very next questioner tried to push back on this request, noting that he needed to “tell the American the TRUTH about Barack Obama” — a not very subtle way, I think, to ask John McCain to NOT tell the truth about Barack Obama. McCain told her there’s a “difference between record and rhetoric, and I plan to talk about his record, respectfully… I don’t mean that has to reduce your ferocity, I just mean it has to be respectful.”
And then later, again, someone dangled a great big piece of low-hanging fruit in front of McCain: “I’m scared to bring up my child in a world where Barack Obama is president.”
McCain replies, “Well, I don’t want him to be president, either. I wouldn’t be running if I did. But,” and he pauses for emphasis, “you don’t have to be scared to have him be President of the United States.” A round of boos.
It’s about time and I sincerely hope McCain keeps damping down the flames. I’m just not sure its in his control any more. Playing with fire is a dangerous sport. Here’s a message I got from an email correspondent today:
The Weatherman that he worked with in Chicago is unrepentant for bombing banks and government offices and rapping [sic] a girl and his wife likewise, not to mention bombing a judges house, but he will end all nastiness in our prisons. So I want to turn my country over to that sociopathic, Acorn lawyer, marxist?
Cheney/Rove/Bush have tried to make us afraid of the other. Now we have real reason to fear for our future and we are becoming afraid of our own shadow. I tremble.