I did not realize that David Gergen, who I knew had worked for both Republicans and Dems, had been a McCain adviser. He publicly condemned the behavior today (I'll post the video this evening from home) and called out the campaign in polite but firm language about inciting violence.
Also, just learned Wm. F. Buckley's son, Christopher Buckley, a very bright conservative in his own right who writes for I believe The National Review (may be editor-in-chief, need to check) said he's so disgusted with the GOP, he's pulling the lever for Obama and the Dems this year. The Repubs are going to reap the whirlwind...
Yitzhak Rabin and Barack Obama
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-lubetzky/yitzhak-rabin-a...
Daniel Lubetzky
Posted October 9, 2008 | 12:07 PM (EST)
Yitzhak Rabin and Barack Obama
Yesterday at a rally when John McCain asked, "Who is Barack Obama?", a supporter shouted back, "Terrorist."
And at a rally led by Sarah Palin, when she mischaracterized a New York Times story http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html?_r... as pointing to an alliance between Obama and Bill Ayers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Ayers , someone screamed "Kill him."
Neither McCain nor Palin have actually advocated such actions or said that Obama himself is a "terrorist," but they and their campaign have certainly engaged in smear campaigns creating enough innuendos to cause an atmosphere where such rants would not be totally unexpected.
This eerily reminds me of the atmosphere before Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in Israel. Far-right Israelis had been engaging in a campaign of vilification against Rabin for months. Right-wing politicians had done nothing to discourage extreme incitement or death threats against Rabin. Posters filled the walls across Israel with horrifying statements and dehumanizing captions against Rabin. Extremist Rabbis said Rabin was betraying Jews and was cursed to death.
Then came Yigal Amir, the assassin who shot Yitzhak Rabin at point blank. When asked, he said he was inspired to kill Rabin to avenge the Jewish people and prevent him undermining Israel.
Suddenly after Rabin's chilling assassination, everyone was against dehumanization and incitement. Everyone had condemned such vitriol all along. Everyone loved Rabin, the martyr and hero. It was unclear how all those posters got posted on the walls, or who had made all those calls into radio stations with threats against Rabin.
Before Rabin's fate presages Obama's, McCain and Palin -- and in particularly Sarah Palin, whose hateful accusations earlier today were only little short of the more fanatical ones out there -- have the responsibility to draw the line and demand from their followers a civil discourse based on the issues, recognizing the patriotism of their counterpart, instead of raising suspicions about Obama's commitment to America, as Palin explicitly did throughout her rally earlier today.
If something happens to Obama, not only the McCain campaign but also all the "swift" teams and fear-mongering groups that are crossing the line will share in the responsibility for creating the environment that caused some fanatical follower to avenge the American people.
Daniel Lubetzky
Posted October 9, 2008 | 12:07 PM (EST)
Yitzhak Rabin and Barack Obama
Yesterday at a rally when John McCain asked, "Who is Barack Obama?", a supporter shouted back, "Terrorist."
And at a rally led by Sarah Palin, when she mischaracterized a New York Times story http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html?_r... as pointing to an alliance between Obama and Bill Ayers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Ayers , someone screamed "Kill him."
Neither McCain nor Palin have actually advocated such actions or said that Obama himself is a "terrorist," but they and their campaign have certainly engaged in smear campaigns creating enough innuendos to cause an atmosphere where such rants would not be totally unexpected.
This eerily reminds me of the atmosphere before Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in Israel. Far-right Israelis had been engaging in a campaign of vilification against Rabin for months. Right-wing politicians had done nothing to discourage extreme incitement or death threats against Rabin. Posters filled the walls across Israel with horrifying statements and dehumanizing captions against Rabin. Extremist Rabbis said Rabin was betraying Jews and was cursed to death.
Then came Yigal Amir, the assassin who shot Yitzhak Rabin at point blank. When asked, he said he was inspired to kill Rabin to avenge the Jewish people and prevent him undermining Israel.
Suddenly after Rabin's chilling assassination, everyone was against dehumanization and incitement. Everyone had condemned such vitriol all along. Everyone loved Rabin, the martyr and hero. It was unclear how all those posters got posted on the walls, or who had made all those calls into radio stations with threats against Rabin.
Before Rabin's fate presages Obama's, McCain and Palin -- and in particularly Sarah Palin, whose hateful accusations earlier today were only little short of the more fanatical ones out there -- have the responsibility to draw the line and demand from their followers a civil discourse based on the issues, recognizing the patriotism of their counterpart, instead of raising suspicions about Obama's commitment to America, as Palin explicitly did throughout her rally earlier today.
If something happens to Obama, not only the McCain campaign but also all the "swift" teams and fear-mongering groups that are crossing the line will share in the responsibility for creating the environment that caused some fanatical follower to avenge the American people.
Comments
Sort By:
Raves
|
Date
-
raves +1 posted Oct 10, 2008 08:50PM GMT
-
raves +1 Oct 10, 2008 11:07PM GMT
-
raves +1 posted Oct 10, 2008 07:10AM GMT (edited)Did you know, or hear about, Rabins assassination being predicted by a journalist 2 weeks before it happened?
-
raves +1 Oct 10, 2008 08:18AM GMTNo, I hadn't heard that... I do remember the night (American time, MST) we heard it happened. Just weeks earlier, my family lost my father to cancer. And that night my husband, a big strapping goyim of Welsh/Irish/Pawnee/Dutch extraction came to the top of the short stairs above my parents' den where I was talking to my mom and brother, and announced with tears in his eyes and voice, "They've killed Yitzhak Rabin."
-
raves +1 Oct 10, 2008 08:21AM GMTThe subject of Rabin caught my eye and I just had to make a reference.
-
raves +1 Oct 10, 2008 08:27AM GMTHe and my father reminded me of one another, that made losing him in such a vicious and unnecessary way especially trying, right after Dad's death. I still remembered Rabin handling the hostage situation in Entebbe from when I was a girl, one of Israel's triumphant, kick-ass moments where there was no moral ambiguity.
Oh boy, boy-o, I need to sign off... You're gonna be a terror with the ladies as you get older; you kept this old bag up way later than I planned two nights running now. ;-) -
raves +1 Oct 10, 2008 08:32AM GMT (edited)Once again ,I thank you for kind your words. NITE!!!
-
raves +1 Oct 10, 2008 08:52PM GMTI'm worried that, among these panic-driven droolers, is a person who feels justified in taking matters into his or her own hands if Obama is elected president.
I pray we have enough secret service agents to prevent assassinations. Not only would it be a horrible tragedy, but I fear it would shake an already troubled country to pieces. There'd be riots in the streets! -
raves +1 Oct 10, 2008 09:57PM GMTObama accuses McCain of trying to divide Americans
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (AP) — Presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday accused Republican John McCain of trying to divide the country, but he let fellow Democrats handle harsher attacks while he kept his message mostly upbeat.
Speaking to an outdoor audience, Obama said "it's not hard to rile up a crowd by stoking anger and division." He said Americans want "someone who can lead this country" with a steady hand in a time of economic crisis, not divide it.
Echoing McCain's "country first" motto, Obama said, "Now more than ever it is time to put country ahead of politics."
Polls show Obama leading McCain in Ohio and several other battleground states, and he seems eager to keep his campaign on a steady, non-controversial course. As he has done for days, Obama criticized McCain's economic plans and urged Americans to stay calm and confident amid the dramatic drop in the stock market.
The Illinois senator again did not mention McCain's attacks for associating with a former 1960s radical, William Ayers. When asked on a radio talk show, however, Obama said he thought Ayers, now a college professor and neighbor in Chicago with whom he worked on community projects several years ago, was rehabilitated. -
raves Oct 10, 2008 11:11PM GMTYou are correct -- a Democratic campaign headquarters in Denver was vandalized today, bricks thrown through the windows. And so it starts... God I hope they protect him and Michelle and those little girls very, very carefully; there's people out there who are insane with hatred. And the country is a powder keg of emotion. I know how I would react to his being taken out by the right and I'm a middle-aged white woman with a professional degree, job, and kids -- but I've had it with stolen elections and the echoes of 1932, both echoes from the United States' own history but also frighteningly Nazi Germany's.
Categories
Archives
2. The "law" is not asleep at the wheel. It's up on stage, behind the microphone at the McCain/Palin events.
3. I'm sure the sign of Mike Scott in the Sheriff's uniform was meant to send Jim Crow-style shivers up the spines of anybody with a darker than egg shell complexion.
But, most importantly,
4. Since it's obvious that this stuff is only making the Republicans look VERY bad, it's obvious that they're also pretty desperate. These are the people they normally want to hide in the closet, except when it comes to donating money, and conducting PUSH POLLS outside the local Wallmart. The fact that they're now holding rallies to ENCOURAGE them is a sign that all they're concerned about at this point is hanging on to their wingnut base. They've given up all hope of winning the election, and given up MOST hope about swinging moderate voters.
At this point they're just trying to throw enough red meat at the nutcases to hang on to the deep red states. If they have to send Palin to NORTH CAROLINA to whip up the KKK, you know they're pretty desperate.