veiled4allah: kind of scary

During the past week, people at McCain-Palin campaign events have shouted things like terrorist, "Kill him" (again, investigated by the Secret Servce!), treason, "Off with his head", socialist hooligan, and terrorist-lover and killer about Obama. They've shouted racial epithets at African American media personnel and people have shouted "Bomb Obama" at other Republican events. See also these people talking to a blogger journalist and here; another report features McCain field staff and volunteers.

On Friday, McCain briefly tried to tone things down but on Saturday when civil rights hero John Lewis warned McCain that he was playing with fire, McCain went back on the defensive (the people who attend his events are just "hardworking Americans").

Frank Rich explains it very well:

What makes them different, and what has pumped up the Weimar-like rage at McCain-Palin rallies, is the violent escalation in rhetoric, especially (though not exclusively) by Palin. Obama "launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist." He is "palling around with terrorists" (note the plural noun). Obama is "not a man who sees America the way you and I see America." Wielding a wildly out-of-context Obama quote, Palin slurs him as an enemy of American troops. By the time McCain asks the crowd "Who is the real Barack Obama?" it's no surprise that someone cries out "Terrorist!" The rhetorical conflation of Obama with terrorism is complete. It is stoked further by the repeated invocation of Obama's middle name by surrogates introducing McCain and Palin at these rallies. This sleight of hand at once synchronizes with the poisonous Obama-is-a-Muslim e-mail blasts and shifts the brand of terrorism from Ayers's Vietnam-era variety to the radical Islamic threats of today.

Blogger Greg Sargent has similar thoughts. I do believe that the constant association of Obama (stressing his Muslim-sounding name) with words like "terrorist" and insinuations that he hates America leads inevitably to what we are seeing. The claim about Ayers is thin, but it allows this linkage and I can only believe that this is why McCain and Palin are using it.

I am scared for Obama's safety, I would be scared as someone who is visibly Muslim by my dress to go near a McCain rally, and I am scared that nutcases may also attack Obama offices or Obama supporters because they are stoked up by this rhetoric.

Senator McCain and Governor Palin, I call on you to take down your Ayers ads and stop the rhetoric that claims Senator Obama does not love America. People are scared right now because of the financial and economic crisis and many may be looking for someone to blame. Do not stand by when they take African Americans, Muslims, Arab Americans, or other racial and religious minorities as scapegoats. Stand up against it. All people of conscience should do so.