The unmistakable momentum behind Barack Obama's campaign, combined with worry that John McCain is not doing enough to stop it, is ratcheting up fears and frustrations among conservatives.It's getting ugly out there, my friends.
And nowhere is this emotion on plainer display than at Republican rallies, where voters this week have shouted out insults at the mention of Obama, pleaded with McCain to get more aggressive with the Democrat and generally demonstrated the sort of visceral anger and unease that reflects a party on the precipice of panic
Maria's already posted some of what goes on outside McCain/Palin rallies.
Politico goes on:
And Thursday, at a campaign town hall in Wisconsin, one Republican brought the crowd to their feet when he used his turn at the microphone to offer a soliloquy so impassioned it made the network news and earned extended play on Rush Limbaugh’s program.Watch it:
“I’m mad, I’m really mad!” the voter bellowed. “And what’s going to surprise ya, is it’s not the economy – it’s the socialists taking over our country.”
After the crowd settled down he was back at it. “When you have an Obama, Pelosi and the rest of the hooligans up there gonna run this country, we gotta have our head examined!”
After all that, McCain says the guy is "right."
Talkingpointsmemo notes:
Look, it's easy to dismiss the guy at this rally as a crank. But the larger context here is important. The McCain campaign -- with public statements and ads suggesting Obama is linked to terrorists and many other tactics -- is very deliberately trying to whip up mass fear and loathing about the prospect of an Obama presidency.Because, of course, they have nothing else to say. There's no message, no "vision thing" coming out of the GOP these days other than fear. Fear and loathing. Fear and loathing and a middle name.
Elsewhere they ask:
How Long Till The N-Word?That's right.
John K: Uh Dayvoe I am part of the GOP. Do you see me going into a panic mode. In fact, I would suggest the opposite. If the left wing kooks were so sure of a victory then two things would have happened. Hussein Obama would have resigned his Senate seat. After all Bob Dole did. And you would not be using acorn to register all those fraudlent voters. Why would you need fraudlent voters if you have the public convinced of your position? Hmmmmmm LMAO LMAO Panic no, attack mode. Oh yah!
ReplyDeleteJohn K: Now why would the left be registering fraudlent voters if they were so sure of a victory? Why would both Onorato and Rendell change election rules if they were so sure of a victory? Hmmmmmm?
ReplyDeleteSo John k is calm. And when someone takes a shot at Obama, or people start vandalizing his campaign offices, John K or Heir to the throne or Braden will claim ACORN did it (because they are thugs, not kids or single moms or people looking for a second - or first - chance).
ReplyDeleteI think for ordinary people, the majority of Americans who do not have a college degree or only have a two year degree or a couple of years of college, Obama is the “other” (hell, even for me). And when the ordinary people have been Reagan Democrats, when they have been listening to Rush Limbaugh and watching Fox News because they feel Fox and Rush don’t talk down to them, then all they have heard about Obama is that he is a terrorist and teaches sex ed to six year olds.
(And by the way, a little tangent, liberals should really get some famous Democrats like, well, Paul Newman would have been a good choice, people who are smart but don’t talk down, aren’t always snarky about Republicans (like Al Franken or Bill Maher) and get them on radio to talk to Reagan Democrats, give them an alternative)
Now people are frightened because baffling things are happening on Wall Street, and they hear they won’t be able to get loans if they need them and they might lose their jobs. They are more scared about Obama. They hear McCain say the Democrats are already in charge, but don’t want to do anything. They don’t understand when liberals talk about votes for cloture or personal holds on legislation, the people just know they didn’t seem to get anything for their votes two years ago.
But that’s how the Republicans won in 2004. Most people were already a little disillusioned about the war in Iraq. We weren’t out in six months, no WMD’s had turned up, the Middle East seemed more pissed off at us and Bin Laden hadn’t been captured. So the Republicans played on fear, on not changing horses in mid-stream, on keeping the guy who was keeping the terrorists at bay. That and the Swift Boating of Kerry, emphasizing Kerry’s natural effete weenie-ness.
But this line with Obama, linking a guy whose middle name is Hussein to a domestic terrorist, it’s like a guy named Adolph complaining about a synagogue being built in his neighborhood. It’s purely inflammatory and there’s certainly a good chance that someone will get so frustrated that things aren’t going McCain’s way that they will try to take matters into their own hands. Of course, conservative commenters on this blog and elsewhere will say that whatever happens is not McCain’s or Palin’s fault, but they are more than willing to link, and thus blame, Obama for whatever stupid things some people at ACORN do.
Let’s hope I am making a mountain out of a molehill.
The more Republicans rant and pout and whine and attack, the closer they get to profound political irrelevance. About one more week of their childishness will establish conditions for political domination this country has not experienced in roughly three-quarters of a century. A Democratic President, a Democratic House and a filibuster-proof Democratic Senate. In most circumstances, I would dislike that arrangement -- but if anyone deserves once-in-a-generation banishment, it is the Republican Party of George W. Bush and Sarah Palin.
ReplyDeleteSo . . . keep talking, wingnuts.
John K: Who is going to take a shot at Hussein Obama there Ed Heath? Do you know who it is? Or you just convicting people without evidence. This is part of the left modus operandi. So who is going to do that ED? Hmmmm? And Ed, can you name the last time Republicans rioted?
ReplyDeleteJohn K: So if the left is so sure of themselves and their message, why would they register fraudulent voters? Why would a lefty expose themselves to possible prison terms for fraudulent voter registration? Especially if, as this blog purports, they are sure of winning? Hmmm? LMAO LMAO Because they aren't. Hussein Obama is still a Senator drawing a paycheck from the govt. After all, have to make sure not to quit the day job just yet. LMAO
ReplyDeleteObviously (John K) I don't know the name of anyone specifically threatening to kill Obama, because I don't go to McCain/Palin rallies (and if I did know a name, I would be on the phone to the Secret Service, not commenting on a blog).
ReplyDeleteI am agreeing that what I see in these videos, calling Obama a terrorist, saying socialists and hooligans are taking over the country, people cheering and clapping when a guy says he's "mad, really mad". Of course, that's part of the true conservative's modus operandi, to call people names, to promote and further scurrilous charges (laughing while they do), and in this case, to incite to violence.
Apart from the Republican organized protest in Florida that Maria cited, I don’t know of any republican riots. Do you know of any politicians/political figures assassinated in sixties? Actually, do you know of any riots organized by and/or condoned by the Democratic party?
Let's all enjoy the final week of jousting with wingnuts. Because in about a week, they will become irrelevant, and the rest of the country should begin to address the problems the new Democratic administration, Congress, and state officials must tackle. After eight years of Bush, neocons and Regent grads, there will be plenty of work to do to rehabilitate our government and our nation, so scrapping with the right-wingers will be a luxury most Americans will be unable to afford.
ReplyDeleteLast time Republicans rioted?
ReplyDelete2000, when that gang of conservative thugs invaded the Broward County recount.
If you disagree with the notion that Republicans are panicking(hard not to notice considering the tenor of their campaigns these days), take it up with Politico, who wrote the article.
And, John, when you've ridiculed people for raising concerns about disenfranchisement, you really have no credibility on the subject.
But, follow with me for a second, if you can -
So, we here that the starting line-up of the Dallas Cowboys have all been registered to vote in Nevada.
Ok. Except there's one ENORMOUS problem, John.
Let's say you registered to vote 10 times - um, you realize those forms are processed by the State? And that if they get duplicate forms, it doesn't mean that a person is suddenly registered to vote 10 times - their duplicates; that person can still only vote once.
As for the Cowboys, well, if none of them lived in Nevada, when their forms are processed by the state, they wouldn't be registered because the state would have no record of them as being citizens of the state. The registration forms would be void.
It would be the same for anyone who registered under a false name, address, etc.
It would be nice if you had a basic understanding of how government works in the United States, particularly with regards to voter registration.
Now, ACORN does hire people to register voters. And it's probably a mistake to give them incentives for registering as many voters as they can, as that has probably led to them submitting some bogus registration forms.
But, again, John, if the state can't verify that a person listed on a registration form isn't a citizen of the state or the precinct their registering in, there's no fraud. The form is invalid.
Get a grasp of some basic facts about your country, John.
And you are desperate and frightened, because you don't come on here to argue the superiority of Republican but to engage in the same kind of nasty, violent rhetoric that we are hearing at McCain's rallies.
You think the way to win is to use Obama's middle name. Not with the superiority of Republican ideas, because your party as decided to cast out all of the intellectual conservatives. You've embraced Sarah Palin and her know-nothing-ism; and it is just one of the many reasons you and other conservatives will witness an electoral rout on Nov. 4, wherein the Democratic majority in the House expands to about 100 over the Republicans, where the Democratic Senate majority will hit 57-60 seats and where Barack Obama wins the White House with between 350-400 electoral votes.
And I'll turn your little comment back on you - if you and John McCain and other Republicans are so confident, why hasn't John McCain resigned his Senate seat? Why hasn't Sarah Palin resigned as governor of Alaska?
I mean, if Republicans are so confident, why were they trying to disenfrancishe voters in Michigan?
Why did they disenfranchise voters in OH in 2004?
I'm as cynical as they come, so I'm wondering if this "random guy" really is what he appears to be? I have not read enough about this to know, but, when someone stands up and recites such an impassioned bit of pro-McCain hype at this point in a campaign, I have to wonder.
ReplyDeleteFor years, campaigns have been full of "astroturf marketing," where crappy hand-painted signs are put in the hands of selected supporters at rallies, so that it looks like a groundswell of "grass roots" support when the TV cameras capture the event.
My guess, and it's just that, is that this is exactly what we saw here....
Clyde