Legal Commentary

McCain Campaign Attacks Obama For Speaking Out Against Anger and Division

By TChris

Referring to the angry McCain-Palin supporters who yell "traitor" and "treason" and "terrorist" when John McCain or Sarah Palin mention his name, Barack Obama said:

“Nothing’s easier than riling up a crowd by stoking anger and division. But that’s not what we need right now in the United States."

One might hope that cautionary statement would be uncontroversial, an invitation to civility that the McCain campaign would readily accept. Instead, the comment provoked an attack.

“Barack Obama’s assault on our supporters is insulting and unsurprising,” McCain senior adviser Nicolle Wallace said in a statement, “These are the same people Obama called ‘bitter’ and attacked for ‘clinging to guns’ and faith."

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"Bitter" seems an appropriate description for voters who resort to threats and angry lies when confronted with the likelihood that the White House will be occupied by a candidate who doesn't look or sound like their kind of president.

A McCain spokesman also attacked Obama. “Barack Obama’s attacks on Americans who support John McCain reveal far more about him than they do about John McCain. It is clear that Barack Obama just doesn’t understand regular people and the issues they care about,” said Brian Rogers.

So "regular people" believe that Democrats, or at least Democrats who look like Barack Obama, are treasonous terrorists. If so, the nation desperately needs to be saved from regular people.

But it isn't so. Regular people don't hate others for being different. Regular people don't question the patriotism of mainstream political candidates with whom they happen to disagree. Regular people don't shout out "kill him" or "off with his head" during a candidate's speech.

Nor do all McCain supporters. They are all politically misguided, but many do not advocate violence or believe that Barack Obama is a traitor or terrorist. Unfortunately, McCain and Palin have been playing to the basest of the base, have encouraged their anger and sense of isolation. Obama did not "assault" McCain supporters as a whole; he legitimately criticized the McCain campaign for stoking division and hate.

McCain is wrong. Obama understands exactly what regular people care about. They care about the economy. All the anger the McCain campaign can muster won't be enough to convince reasonable voters that John McCain will do anything to improve their lives. The politics of distraction will affect only those minds that have already been thoroughly polluted by right wing dogma. Some of those minds are dangerous. Does McCain really want to embrace them as his supporters?

Full post as published by TalkLeft on October 11, 2008 (boomark / email).