Will McCain and Palin Be Happy if Someone Hurts Obama?

I don't know where to begin today. 

Last night's debate isn't really worth commenting on. I think the candidates' performances speak for themselves. 

I'm really incensed about something else: the McCain/Palin campaign's utterly reprehensible stirring up of racial antagonism, general hatred and even talk of murdering Barack Obama. 

In my post yesterday I pointed out how the McCain campaign is resorting to irresponsible smears of Obama as a desperate, last-ditch attempt to salvage its vanishing election-day prospects. What I didn't know then was just how despicable the behavior that McCain and his running mate are prompting — and indeed, tolerating — on the part of their supporters. 

Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank's coverage of Palin's Monday rally in Florida reveals that supporters in the crowd reacted to her media-bashing by "hurl(ing) obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."

Unfortunately, it gets worse. At another rally in Florida, Palin intimated that Obama thinks our troops in Afghanistan are nothing but baby killers — a blatant and irresponsible lie that elicited a cry of "treason!" from the audience. Here's the video:

Then there was McCain's refusal to correct a supporter who clearly answered the candidate's question — "Who is the real Barack Obama?" — by angrily shouting "A terrorist!" Here's that video:

And moving into chunks-welling-up-in-your-throat territory, Palin's wacko accusation that Obama's political career was launched by "domestic terrorist" Bill Ayres prompted one man in the audience to shout "Kill him!," according to the Washington Post. The Secret Service is now looking into that doozy. 

Is this how John McCain wants to inspire Americans and solve the litany of grave problems we face? Mudslinging is one thing, and to some extent an expected part of the dirty game that is politics. But tolerating such hateful, violent comments and behavior is beyond unacceptable. It's sad and shameful, but also dangerous. Every citizen with a brain and a heart should punish this conduct with extreme prejudice.  

Will John McCain and Sarah Palin be happy if someone hurts Obama? Is that their idea of patriotism? They should ask themselves those questions and think very hard about the answers, for their latest round of smears is clearly inciting that type of feeling in some supporters, and they are doing nothing to stop it from tragically spinning out of control.