2008 U.S. Presidential Campaign Discussion Thread-Part 10.

[Diemen]

Originally Posted by yolland

It could happen...it could always happen. But at the same time you'd have to have a pretty short memory to think these kinds of hysterical accusations about a Presidential candidate in the thick of election season are unprecedented.

Indeed. McCain of all people should remember, seeing as he was the victim of this a short 8 years ago, and now he's on the opposite end and seemingly has no qualms about it.

[Irvine511]

Originally Posted by Utoo

But there's real, physical danger in this.

i absolutely agree.

it is terrifying.

[Irvine511]

Originally Posted by yolland

It could happen...it could always happen. But at the same time you'd have to have a pretty short memory to think these kinds of hysterical accusations about a Presidential candidate in the thick of election season are unprecedented.

but having a black presidential candidate is unprecedented.

[anitram]

Another Republican Congressman who doesn't like what he sees...

LaHood supports the McCain ticket, but doesn't like what he sees at some of the McCain-Palin rallies: When Barack Obama's name has been mentioned by Sarah Palin, there are shouts of "terrorist," and LaHood says Palin should put a stop to it.

"Look it," LaHood said. "This doesn't befit the office that she's running for. And frankly, people don't like it."

LaHood says it could backfire on the Republican ticket.

He says the names that Obama is being called, "Certainly don't reflect the character of the man."

[yolland]

Originally Posted by Irvine511

but having a black presidential candidate is unprecedented.

Meaning therefore the hysterics are more likely to get violent? Maybe. But in the end it only takes one, and said ones tend to be unhinged to begin with. Are Obama's campaign offices being firebombed? His campaign workers attacked and beaten? Look, this is a morbid thing to fixate on.

[Irvine511]

Originally Posted by yolland

Meaning therefore the hysterics are more likely to get violent? Maybe. But in the end it only takes one, and said ones tend to be unhinged to begin with. Are Obama's campaign offices being firebombed? His campaign workers attacked and beaten? Look, this is a morbid thing to fixate on.

yes, it is morbid. but i do think the hysterics are more likely to get violent, and given the fact that we don't see too many 72 year old white veterans dragged from the back of a pickup truck, i'd say that murderous violence directed towards blacks is far more likely. yes, the crazies went after the Kennedy brothers, so it's not so much that being white doesn't protect you from an assassination, but i think being black -- and, more importantly for today, having a Muslim-sounding name -- is far more likely to incite the crazies.

the tone of the rallies is very concerning.

[Utoo]

At last, McCain shows some real balls and takes a step toward earning the title of "honorable hero" that he claims to have:

YouTube - McCain Tries to Tame Flames He Earlier Fanned

different clip:

YouTube - McCain: "You Do Not Have To Be Scared" of Obama as President

MCCAIN IMPLORES SUPPORTERS TO BE 'RESPECTFUL'

McCain implores supporters to be 'respectful'
Posted: Friday, October 10, 2008 5:52 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under: 2008, McCain

From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy
McCain just called on his supporters to be respectful at his town hall.

"We want to fight, and I want to fight, but we will be respectful," McCain said to boos at first. "I want everyone to be respectful," he then said and people began to clap.

In response to a later question he added, "You can be respectful and point out facts," as he called on his supporters to point out facts to their neighbors but be respectful.

*** UPDATE *** McCain just added, "He is a decent person and a person who you do not have to be scared as president of the United States."

Now here's the thing: The crowd booed when McCain said this.

Is it too late? Has he planted a demon seed?

Better yet----Will he pull down his 'terrorist' commercials? Will he stop asking, "Who is Barack Obama?" Will Sarah Palin stop saying shit like "Barack Obama doesn't love our country"?

[Moser]

If John McCain is still the John McCain I believe in, then he would fire his campaign staff and ask Palin to step down. They are spreading an underlying tone of hate and bigotry, and it's getting desperately ugly. These dirty politics and lies the McCain campaign is spreading is effecting my respect for McCain and his honor.

We are one as a nation, but this election is making the fences between our neighbors taller.

[Utoo]

I would be so thrilled if, at the next debate, Obama directly asks McCain:

"Senator, do you believe that I am Muslim?

Do you believe that I am a terrorist?"


When McCain is obliged to say "No," it's game over.

[Diemen]

I wonder if Palin will back off her "palling around with terrorists" talk. I wonder if the outlandish negative ads will stop now that McCain has rediscovered the desire to run a respectful campaign.

I get the sneaking suspicion he's going to allow the negativity to continue through his campaign, but he will maintain the veneer of respect so that he can say "but it's not me saying these things - I'm being respectful!"

[diamond]

this election is feeling like Dole/Clinton 1996 redux.

<>

[Moser]

Originally Posted by Utoo

I would be so thrilled if, at the next debate, Obama directly asks McCain:

"Senator, do you believe that I am Muslim?

Do you believe that I am a terrorist?"


When McCain is obliged to say "No," it's game over.

McCain defended Obama today when a woman said she couldn't trust Obama because "he is an Arab". McCain took the microphone back and shaking his head said America should not be scared of Obama.

The crowd then booed McCain. What a fucked up world. to McCain for showing some kind of integrity.

AP Story: The Associated Press: McCain booed after trying to calm anti-Obama crowd

[U2Fanatic4ever]

you know what scares me, the loonies that are showing up at McCain's rallys lately. Why are these people being drawn out? Is it because he is leaning so far to the right that it's drawing out or attracting the extreme right wing media? I mean who knows what these people will do next..

[Moser]

Originally Posted by U2Fanatic4ever

you know what scares me, the loonies that are showing up at McCain's rallys lately. Why are these people being drawn out? Is it because he is leaning so far to the right that it's drawing out or attracting the extreme right wing media? I mean who knows what these people will do next..

Because a lot of these people are uneducated hillj-acks that live in the boonies. They are close-knit communities that are afraid of their values and interests becoming irrelevant in a changing world.

I don't want to point fingers, but they are attracting the attention: mainly (but not all) white, rural, Christian Americans.

[U2Fanatic4ever]

i know that... but what is drawing the hillbillies out the hills. Something is being said that is drawing their attention. Like I said it must be the far right media (christian too) that must be spewing some major crap. Can't be just the he's a muslim crap.

[Moser]

Originally Posted by U2Fanatic4ever

i know that... but what is drawing the hillbillies out the hills. Something is being said that is drawing their attention. Like I said it must be the far right media (christian too) that must be spewing some major crap. Can't be just the he's a muslim crap.

These McCain rallies aren't just political rallies to some of these people. To some of them its a "white true christian get-together". These people only believe what they want to believe. They can take facts, but they'd rather believe what they hear on a talk radio show or church and what not.

[sue4u2]

Originally Posted by U2Fanatic4ever

you know what scares me, the loonies that are showing up at McCain's rallys lately. Why are these people being drawn out? Is it because he is leaning so far to the right that it's drawing out or attracting the extreme right wing media? I mean who knows what these people will do next..

I've lived through a lifetime of what can happen next. A President shot and killed. A Presidential candidate shot and killed. (The Kennedys)
The leader of equal rights movenment - shot and killed (Martin Luther King, Jr.) Presidents Reagan & Ford were shot at. Even George Wallace was shot at and lived. And so many other's lives that have been destroyed fighting for the rights of all American's.

This is what someone will do next if McCain and Palin don't stop what they are doing. What McCain is doing now by saying "Obama is no one to fear" is too little too late. He and Palin have lit the fuse, cocked the gun and it's just a matter of time too see if anyone can get a shot off or blow them away.
They (McCain/Palin) need to be begging for forgiveness. It will be on their heads if something happens to Obama or his family.

[phillyfan26]

God, those clips are sickeningly disgusting. Good on McCain for saying they shouldn't be scared of Obama.

[yolland]

There are people like that everywhere, not just "in the hills." I think people with the wrong idea about what the Palin pick was meant to signal might be part of it.

I remember traveling back to my hometown in late summer '92 by bus, standing at a Greyhound station in Nashville and listening to a group of redneck types--who aren't usually very religious at all, by the way--swapping rumors about Bill and Hillary Clinton. I hear they shoot up then have mass orgies! Uh huh, I've met people who slept with BOTH of them! I heard they fuck animals too! She's a Communist and a lez-bee-yun and she got a black woman lover! I hear they gonna shut down all the media once they get in power! I was repulsed, but at the same time I was smirking in nauseous recognition, because I grew up with types like this around (which I guarantee most all of you did; it's just that your communities were too large for you to encounter them much), and I knew most of them wouldn't wind up voting anyway, and I also knew that many if not most of them didn't really believe most of what they were saying; it's that they're just primed enough to suspect deeply sinister and sordid things of 'libruls' that it titillates them to swap tall tales and whoop it up, kind of the same way some people absolutely have to buy the latest National Enquirer to read about Brad Catches Angie In Threesome, Walks Out With Kids!!! or Laura To Divorce W After Catching Him With Condi!!! even though they know it's almost certainly 100% false...but the idea that maybe it's 15% true is just too good to pass up.

That's not to say a small portion of them don't believe everything they're saying, and that you don't need to worry about that portion. When people whose grasp of the breadth of contemporary society is that poor are also very frightened or angry about their present circumstances, that can get toxic. But for better and for worse, most of them couldn't organize a damn thing to save their lives, like a sophisticated antigovernment militant cell, for example.

[sue4u2]

Originally Posted by Moser

Because a lot of these people are uneducated hillj-acks that live in the boonies. They are close-knit communities that are afraid of their values and interests becoming irrelevant in a changing world.

I don't want to point fingers, but they are attracting the attention: mainly (but not all) white, rural, Christian Americans.

Don't kid yourself... I know too many well educated and not particularly rural people who live in my city and others. Income ranges doesn't seem to matter one way or the other. They have so many deep down prejudices that I can't even associate with them.
But white Christian American voters are more time's than not, going to vote republican.
Especially if that's the way their husbands or ministers vote..

I had someone tell me just yesterday why they were voting for McCain.
It was because they didn't want an all black cabinet.
"You must have had a really hard time with Bush's choice of Condolesa Rice and Colin Powell huh? She then told me she really didn't like talking politics because she has a mind of her own.
I told her a mind is a terrible thing to waste