Frank Rich column -- an important one to read!

NY Times columnist Frank Rich tells the ugly truth of what has happened in the McCain campaign and how their rhetoric against Obama has gotten out of hand. You can read it at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/opinion/12rich.html?_r=2&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

McCain is in deep trouble and he knows it. If anyone assassinates or attempts to harm Obama in any way, all fingers will RIGHTFULLY be pointed at McCain and Palin. He is trying now to undo that huge mistake of inciting violence against Obama--but it appears the bigots and other ignorant right wingers are out of hand and won't be controlled. They actually believe Obama is a Muslim and a terrorist and think a good solution would be to kill him. From some of the "literature" that has been sent to me by right wing friends and relatives, I have to wonder how many racists are among them, which saddens me greatly. Today I received in my e-mail from a cousin an essay by Monica Crowley, a right-wing columnist/pundit, in which she actually incites the Republican base more by saying:

There’s a fine line between “maverick” and “ass.” On Friday, John McCain crossed that line right into ass-dom. .
At a campaign rally, McCain stood in front of his own supporters and told them Barack Obama isn’t so bad. We need not fear an Obama presidency, he said. After all, Obama is a “decent” man. McCain went on to say he still believes he’d be the better president.

Thanks, Mac. How about a cocktail with that grenade you just blew up in our faces?

McCain understandably–and justifiably–got booed by those at his rally. They were there to support him. To cheer him on. To buoy him at a time of sinking poll numbers. To give him the energy to fight on.

What they got in return was a suggestion from their guy that it was OK to vote for the other guy.

Well, Senator McCain: you may not be angry, but we are. You may not be upset that Obama is about to walk away with this election, but we are. You may not be concerned that ACORN is making off with stuffed ballot boxes, but we are. You may not be teed off about the economic mess, but we are. You may not be upset about America’s enemies–from Russia to Iran to North Korea–reasserting themselves, but we are. You may think an Obama presidency won’t be “scary,” but we do.

You may be willing to toss in the towel, but we aren’t.

Senator: you’ve got 3 weeks to turn this sucker around. Three weeks to remind us how “scary” an Obama presidency will be: from appeasing our enemies to filling 3 Supreme Court vacancies to taxing us to death and killing whatever’s left of the economy.

Maybe that doesn’t scare you, but it scares us to pieces.

We are fighting for you. We expect you to do the bare minimum in your own fight. And right now, you’re not even doing that.

Many of the McCain voters seem not to recognize the alarm in their candidate's eyes as he tries to distance himself from the nut cases among his supporters who ask him questions filled with ignorance/hatred against Obama. He and Palin have set loose a very ugly element in our society who think they are being encouraged by their candidates to do violence to the opposition candidates. This is a VERY SERIOUS ERROR on the McCain/Palin part. When your base is composed of people who have been brought up on fear and hatred, and have been controlled by Bush/Cheney propaganda for the last eight years, and you fire up that fear and hatred with your rhetoric, you are responsible for what those ignorant people may do. McCain has belatedly come to realize that -- Monica Crowley and the Republican base have not.

McCain's "base" is a boiling volcano getting ready to erupt. I doubt that he will be able to contain the racists among that base who will apparently do ANYthing to prevent an African-American (in their eyes, an "Arab terrorist"--God help them for their ignorance) from being voted in as President. They were perfectly willing to vote in an idiot who has torn our country to pieces in the eight years he has reigned. And they will be perfectly happy to vote into office an angry, temperamental man who graduated at the bottom of his naval academy class and made many pilot errors that resulted in the loss of his planes, and who cheated on his wife when she became crippled and married a young heiress whom he now abuses, actually calling her a "c--t" in front of witnesses. And they are perfectly happy to vote in another total idiot from Alaska who thinks she has foreign policy experience because she can see Russia from her home through her binoculars and can't relate the names of any papers or magazines she reads.

BUT THEY WILL NOT VOTE for a man who graduated at the top of his Harvard law class, who was the president of the Harvard Law Review, who is obviously a good family man in love with and faithful to his wife, who demonstrates his intelligence every time he gives a speech or answers a question, and who has used his life to help others to lift themselves from poverty. They will not vote for him because he is half black. And that is the very sad truth of it. We are a nation divided between those who are fearful of anything different and can be ruled by fear propaganda -- and those who are tired of hearing fear tactics from our leaders and want intelligence and tolerance to be criteria for electing suitable people to high office. Like it or not, we are a polarized nation. The Crowley article that labels McCain as throwing a grenade at the base is proof that Republicans and Democrats see through far different lenses. I see McCain trying to rein in the stupidity that prevails in his base. He will not be able to do so, and I fear for what will erupt because of the dangerous firestorm of vitriolic hatred he and Palin have set in motion by their inciting, lying rhetoric against Obama.