The McCain  rule of holes:  when you're in one, keep digging.

Dan

Just win, baby. I don't think they care whether they tear the country apart, as long as they win. And tearing the country apart is the only place that you will end up when you win by dividing people and pandering to hate and fear.

The worst thing about this is that there are still four weeks to go. Given how low they have stooped so far, how low will they go before the end? I do not expect them to mail it in at the end, like Dole did, when they realize they cannot win. I expect explicit race-baiting. I expect them to emphatically say that we will be attacked by terrorists if Obama is elected.

Hey, if you left the big city for a little while, you'd know this isn't a product of McCain's strategy. This is his base.

Fear not Mr. Orr, they are assuredly worse.  Always have been.  Constantly uttering the word 'values' all the while becoming splashingly awed at the [said] sexual exploits of those they purportedly deplore.  Still further these GOP 'Christians' cannot help but deviate from the very pride (re self-righteousness) the biblical Philistines displayed with an unmistakably Republican aura.

Tonight’s town-hall style debate between Barack Obama and John McCain offers the public an opportunity to explore a basic question: Have these and similar influences on Sen. Obama’s life in fact been influential - and, if so, will they translate into personnel, policies and practices that are inimical to our country, its people and security if he is elected? We have a need to know. Characters count.Couple that with Obama’s proclivity to associate with those who loathe America — and then to lie about those associations — and you have to wonder what the argument really is that we should ignore  all of this

www.commentarymagazine.com/.../35771

The McCain/Palin ticket is moving closer and closer to authoritarian. Whipping up the base to a frenetic, verging on psychotic fervor and lettling these dangerous comments to stand. Who are these people Brown Shirts? I mean seriously, are they so desperate that they are willing to start riots to gain an upper hand?

JEFF: "I expect explicit race-baiting."

I have been expecting it, and saying it would come, for a month now.  Clockwork: it begins with Ayers and Wright and ends in "hard working Americans, white Americans."  We've seen how this movie progresses; I suspect we can guess how it will end, though it's not clear yet to me.

"Who is Barack Obama?""Terrorist; Muslim; Uppity Nigger."

"Where does he come from?""Hawaii; Africa; Elitist; Uppity Nigger."

"He does not have American values like you and me.""Foreigner; Muslim; Uppity Nigger."

And so it goes.

I never thought I would say this, and I can't believe what I am about to write.  Please God, forgive this moment of weakness on my part, but I am human and cannot take this any more.  But ... I am, increasingly and deep down, relieved that it was W and not McCain who won the Repug nomination.  W is incompetent and stupid; McCain is dangerous - and, to quote Johnson, there's an end on't.

As I mentioned on an earlier post, I am almost finished with Rick Perlstein's Nixonland and it is startling to see how this desperate Palin/McCain pivot to character assassination so closely parallels the toxic combination of resentment and piety that characterized the Nixon/Agnew approach from 68-72.

It will be interesting to see if voters, addled almost daily by more economic catastrophy, will prioritize Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright over their bleeding economic condition. I am not as certain as tnr's The Flack but I do sense that a relentless onslaught of character villification will narrow the margin for Obama. That said, I still predict an Obama victory with at least 300 electoral votes and a margin of 4-6 point in the popular vote.

As for tonight, I hope that Obama mentions something about the dimunition of McCain's reputation and alleged "honor" in light of his gutter campaign. The end result of this campaign will most likely be a McCain defeat but even more telling will be the ruination of McCain reputation for honesty and integrity. To lose a campaign is difficult but to lose and wreck your life's reputation and legacy is tragic. And he only has himself to blame.

These three comments are definitely disgusting.  I agree that they're not surprising though.  Reading the comment boards on any political internet page demonstrates that bigoted comments are commonplace and political passions cause many to become unhinged.

I'm not so sure that it's limited to the Republican supporters though.  Sadly, many Obama supporters have said disgusting things as well.  

Hey, look: jacobt made it home safely from the rally and is posting again.

Until the last couple of days I just thought this whole Sarah Palin thing was kind of funny.  "Oh, look at the goofy running-mate McCain picked.  Ha ha!"  I regret that I forgot how dangerous it is when you give a microphone to a person filled with hate and ambition and stand them up in front of a profoundly ignorant audience.  Sarah Klansman is a disgrace.  

It shouldn't be McCain, or even McSame - seeing as he's showing his Neo-Nazi side, why not call him McShame.

The problem is not that John McCain is willing to betray his own values or that he has enlisted as his second a woman fueled only by narcissistic hatred. The problem is not the media that selectively under- over- and mis-report national issues. The problem is the nature of the American populace that holds the reins of power and a large portion of which has swung so far out of balance that it has made excellence in education, community service, open-mindedness and wisdom into pejoratives.

Do you want to see a parallel to the narcissistic ramblings of Sarah Palin? There is one, but I warn you it is less politically correct than Palin's Ayer remarks, though it is also more accurate. If you want to see that kind of self-assured rightness, that extent of willingness to dismiss any countervailing opinion, that shallowness of thought and depth of contempt for any idea that might threaten the fragile ego underneath the facade, just skim through a few pages of "Mein Kampf."

I saw a Randy Travis concert over the weekend and was struck by the lyrics of the song "The Hole" and how they relate to McCain's quandry right now.  The chorus goes "It's hell on the bottom/And you can't dig out of a hole."  That's where he's at right now and I think his desperation (especially if it's driven by Palin, who is now seen an sneeringly derisive) is actually going to hurt him.

Campaigns are about timing and McCain may be hitting with this stuff too late in the game.  It's despicable to use race at any time, but I don't think anyone who follows politics closely wasn't expecting some attempts to attack Obama's "otherness" (read: race).

What do you expect from the "Bride of Talk Radio"? Eloquence?

The coarsening of our political discourse is directly attributable to Newt Gingrich. He started us down this road, and Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin, Savage, Jason Lewis, and others have made a fortune exploiting this kind of white trash populism.

Now it has arrived on a national ticket. Is she just the beginning, or is there going to be a backlash?

If she succeeds, I suspect some of bigger names in Talk Radio will venture out into the sunlight and run for office.

I've noticed in the last few days a number of these nutjobs have suggested they can/should be hosting a debate (i.e., O'Reilly, Kristol, etc.). Palin needs to be stopped now. Imagine a VP who is a regular on shows with these bizarre nativist agendas. Cheney was a regular call-in to Limbaugh, as is Lieberman, but I think Palin would take it further, talking with Savage, Levin, and so on.

Holy crap. I'm beyond making fun of her stupidity right now.  This is really serious.  Brown shirts, indeed.

bigm:  "Sadly, many Obama supporters have said disgusting things as well."  

For example?

Actually it just occurred to me that if the phrase "kill him!" is called out at a McCain or Palin rally, and the speaker clearly hears it but does not challenge it, then it would be legitimate to say that McCain and/or Palin are negligently encouraging ideas of assassinating Obama - something that, incidentally, is talked about quite openly abroad and even among African-Americans here in the U.S.

Some of it is just pure sensationalism, of course, and some of it is paranoia, but the paranoia will become increasingly well-founded if the Republican candidates hear this evil crap and just let it pass at rallies.  I think the media should begin to hold McCain-Palin's feet to the fire on this -- are they willing to openly counter the murder fantasies that, it appears, increasing numbers of their supporters are invoking, or not?

I've said it before and I'll say it again and again and again.  Everyone who is at all concerned by the tenor of American politics, especially from the Right, needs to read Eric Hoffer's "The True Believer" and Bob Altemeyer's "The Authoritarians."

I recommend that everyone take the time to read the Rolling Stone article "Make-Believe Maverick" by Tim Dickenson.  It identifies some of the unpleasant characteristics McCain has displayed in this Presidential campaign and shows how they have been present over his entire career from his days at the Naval Academy.  It is really chilling.  

Many people concluded after the elections of 2000 and 2004 that the American electorate was hopelessly obtuse, but I thought that the inept campaigns of Gore and Kerry might have provided us with an excuse.  This time there is no excuse and, I'm afraid, no redemption.  If we as a nation are dumb enough to put John McCain (never mind Sarah Palin) in the White House, we will deserve what we get, and, as Dickenson lays it out, it will not be pretty.

Here's the thing. There's really no reason for any Obama supporter to consider this as anything more than icing on a cake we are about to  about to eat. There's sociology at work here and depressing as it its right now, it's not working in the republicans favor. No really, just take two things we know and put them side by side.

First, this culture war nonsense is meaningless and off putting to 66% of us under the age of 30. Second, people under 30 don't tend to vote but once they start voting it takes three election cycles to solidify party affiliation. Now its obvious that Obama looks set to draw that age group into politics a full decade early on his own account - but spike wouldn't really become a lasting democratic majority on its own - as some portion of that youth bulge would tend to waver between the parties - unless the republicans found a way to completely alienate them  [see tactics above] for at least the next six to eight years. What I'm saying is that if McCain had taken the long view, then we'd have to be worried.

As it stands, these attacks are aimed at voters who are essentially dinosaurs watching birds fly by.

Ironyroad, I got that impression that person wanted to see Obama assassinated as well.   I'm no lawyer, but I would guess that he or one of his cohorts did in fact kill Obama, la Palin couldn't be sued for negligence for failing to rebut him.

Obama isn't a celebrity in the way McCain states it, however, he does share the same star power and charisma the Kennedy brothers had.  That magnetism whether in Hollywood actors or other public figures attracts kooks.

Once upon a time…

I believed I had the world’s greatest examples of intellectually engaged, politically curious and liberally open-minded parents any girl could hope for.  Well into my adulthood I continued to believe this, until Sarah Palin.  My glass ceiling came crashing down when her fantastical lipsticked succubus descended, the ravages of knee-jerk logic and small minded argument brutally exposed on my parents’ faces in the aftermath’s glare.  I felt curiously betrayed, and devastated by the realization that I could no longer indulge my fantasy about who my parents really were, and who I am.  “How can they,” I asked in plaintive disbelief, “be intelligent, well-educated and reasonable minds and LIKE her” that atrocity of ignorant mediocrity, that caricature of all things wrong with mainstream America?

I found myself willing myself to like her.  I found myself deliberately ignoring all that I knew was wrong with her.  I found myself feeling sorry for her unfair treatment in the press, sympathizing with her hokey, “hockey-mom” homilies and admiring her brash aptitude for aspirational challenge in the face of inadequate preparation.  I found myself liking her, at least when I pretended to be someone else.

But when I came to, awoke from my reverie of surrender to the psychological bullying of censorious self-righteousness, I simply could not.  The more I learned, the less I liked.  Her blustery, heavy handed tromp through the final frontier of conspiratorial bad taste, centered around the never-was friendship of Barack Obama and William Ayers, finally crushed my sprouting resolve to swallow hard and throw in with the family, for good.

Alas.  No, I will not love Sarah Palin.  I will lie to my family about my vote, celebrating alone while they suffer through the election returns on November 4.  What else can I do?  How can I refuse to compensate for my loved ones’ tendencies to be placated by the saccharine pap of banality, their willingness to be duped by the jester of a tired campaign?  Forgive them, Lord, they know not the folly of their belief in the lowest common denominator, manifested in the looming figure of inaugurated incompetence, let us pray, averted.

I just happened to go from this post to Cass Sunstein's article in the current print issue, and it's very apropos. Money quote: "We may draw two conclusions from these studies. First, judgments about appropriate punishment, and the right response to bad acts, are rooted in moral outrage. Second, social interactions greatly increase outrage and people's desire to punish in response to it. If like-minded people share a degree of outrage and get together with one another, they are likely to move in extreme directions." Sunstein applies this observation to terrorist groups, but it seems that it could apply equally to the resentment machine in overdrive that the McPalin campaign has become.

If this election goes the right way, and especially if an Obama administration manages to hold its head above water and govern somewhat effectively, the most important long term result won't necessarily be a diminution in racism, but rather an end to bigotry and hatred aimed at "liberals".  This bigotry is the glue that binds social conservatives to the GOP. Social conservatives are not mad at liberals for anything they've actually done the last 40 years - in no small part due to the fact that liberals, whether you're talking about the liberal bogeyman of Kristol's and Lowry's fevered dreams or actual liberals, haven't been in a position to actually do anything. Instead they're mad at the bogeyman - incarnate in William Ayers - and at the (mostly ineffectual)  liberal figures constantly derided and misrepresented in the conservative hate-press.

The only way to maintain this illusion is to discredit the objective press (there's no difference between the NYT and the Zimbabwe Daily Echo) and to tell people that the evidence right in front of their eyes does not exist - what's important isn't the actual evidence but what's allegedly hidden. In the case of Obama and his associations, we have more evidence of his personality, his politics and his vision for the country than we've had about any other candidate for president.  They paint a fairly consistent picture of a cautious, methodical bridge-builder with a liberal's heart and mind. Now, you can vote against him because you think socialized medicine would be the last step on the Road to Serfdom, but to vote against him because he's a closet radical requires a monumental suspension of disbelief in things that are seen, and an unquestioning belief in things that cannot be seen.

Another outburst , again left standing without correction, at a Palin rally today in Jacksonville : The