Oct. 19, 2008

Rank And File Anger Out Of GOP Hands

The Nation: After Inspiring The Worst In Its Base, Republican Party Cannot Control Irrational Fear And Resentment

  • Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., right, takes back the microphone from Gayle Quinnell who said she read about Sen. Barack Obama and Photo

    Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., right, takes back the microphone from Gayle Quinnell who said she read about Sen. Barack Obama and "that he was an Arab," during a question and answer time at a town hall meeting at Lakeville South High School Friday, Oct. 10, 2008 in Lakeville, Minn.  (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

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(The Nation)  This column was written by Richard Kim.

In case you haven't heard, there's a guy running for president named Barack Hussein Osama Nobama. This Nobama was born outside America and secretly schooled in Islamic terrorism at a Wahhabi madrassa. He then moved to the United States to take up the radical '60s teachings of the Weather Underground's Bill Ayers, while also organizing for ACORN, a subprime-lending, voter fraud-committing collective of affirmative-action welfare queens. All this happened before he became an elitist celebrity advocate of socialism, infanticide, the sexual abuse of children and treason.

Suffice it to say, this caricature stretches even the limits of comic imagination. The real Obama's Christianity, his patriotism, moderation and commitment to capitalism, law and order, and national security are matters of abundant public record--some of which displeases the left wing of his party. But this is of little import to the Republican rank and file. For them, the fallaciousness of the whole counts for less than the suggestive appeal of the parts. All John McCain, Sarah Palin and their surrogates need to do is raise the insidious question--"Who is the real Barack Obama?"--and the zealots conjure the rest, along with cries of "Treason!" "Kill him!" and "Off with his head!" The virulence of such rhetoric makes even Palin seem thoughtful; she at least inserts whole verb phrases like "palling around with" in between nouns like "Barack Obama" and "terrorists."

Such scenes are alarming not only because of the McCain campaign's willingness to stoke such murderous mania but also because of its apparent inability to control the madness once it has been unleashed. At more than one rally, McCain has been booed by the audience for attempting to interrupt panicked rants about the impending socialist or terrorist takeover of America. The crowd's immediate anger is directed not at Obama and the Democrats but at their own party's standard-bearers, who should be "representing us" but have so far refused to "take the gloves off" and "take it to Obama" and "hit him" in "a soft spot." If the GOP leaders don't give these folks what they want, they had best watch their own soft spots, for there is no shortage of backbenchers ready to seize the helm. Take Jeffrey Frederick, the 33-year-old chair of the Virginia Republican Party, who said that Obama and Osama bin Laden "both have friends that bombed the Pentagon." Denounced by the McCain campaign, Frederick has defiantly refused to apologize for his remark.

Perhaps he knows which way the wind blows: the Republican Party's electoral strategy of sowing resentment and fear--sprung from Nixon and nurtured by admen like Lee Atwater, Floyd Brown and the Swiftboaters--has finally taken on a life of its own. It thrives as a postmodern pastiche of conservative hate speech that no longer requires a master--a Frankenstein monster freed from his creator. What holds this beast together is not the fear and loathing of any particular despised identity so much as the idea that America is under siege, disordered, on the cusp of imminent and total collapse, threatened by terrorists abroad and undermined by enemies at home.

Of course, certain pariahs are useful in certain times. In the old lexicon it was Communists, feminists and gays who peopled the right wing's paranoid imagination, and if the sheer breadth of the slander by association against Obama is any indication, these bugaboos are still of value. But this time around the terror has been most sharply drawn along the lines of xenophobia and racism, a potent combination of hostile drives of which trolls like Andy Martin, the anti-Semite behind the "Obama is a Muslim" e-mails, are but minor instigators. The real enablers are demagogues like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin and Glenn Beck, who have made careers out of inciting frenzied aggression at anyone to the left of Joe McCarthy. Only now it seems that even these right-wing pundits have been outdone by their formerly loyal listeners. Coulter, whose contempt for Muslims ("invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity") is surpassed only by her scorn for liberals ("even Islamic terrorists don't hate America like liberals do"), has yet to call for the assassination of Barack Obama. But if she genuinely believes that liberals are more dangerous than Islamic terrorists, she should follow the courage of her convictions and do so.

To pre-empt such embarrassing displays of weakness, softer propagandists like Andrew Sullivan and Christopher Hitchens--who once brayed on and on about the left's "hatred of the United States" and its role as a "fifth column" "in favor of surrender and defeat"--have declared their support for Obama. But as Hitchens's recent endorsement in Slate amply demonstrates, he is not quite ready to give up the poisoned sword. Obama, he writes, is not a "capitulationist," even if he does "accept the support of the surrender faction."

If the polls are any indication, Obama will endure this smear campaign just fine, with or without the backhanded compliments of apologetic neocons. And if his election is not quite the ringing victory for civil rights and liberties, diplomacy and cosmopolitanism that we might like, it will at least beat back for a while the idea that defaming these values as traitorous constitutes sound electoral strategy. If Obama wins, and the barbarians do not show up to rattle the gates, what will the conservatives do next? For them, the barbarians were a solution, of sorts.

By Richard Kim
Reprinted with permission from The Nation.



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Add a Comment See all 68 Comments
by rational_1 October 19, 2008 9:11 PM PDT
Obama most certainly is an American by birth and definitely is not a Muslim. I''m sure he is at least as patriotic as most Americans and has a commitment to law and order. That he is not a socialist is, however, debatable. His past associations with groups like ACORN make questioning his leftist leanings quite appropriate. Is he the populist he now portrays himself to be, the more left-leaning Senator his voting record exemplifies, or a true lefty like those from his community organizing past? Frankly I haven''t the faintest idea.
Reply to this comment
by interobserv October 19, 2008 9:25 PM PDT
In today''s climate it is difficult to pigeon hole someone as politically adept as Senator Obama. While we all know he has liberal tendencies, we also know he is a pragmatic politician, willing to seek consensus to get the most done.
After eight years of "my way or the highway" governing, Obama will be a breath of fresh air. I only hope he doesn''t blow it between now and November 4!!!
Reply to this comment
by neonink October 19, 2008 9:26 PM PDT
the "kill him" has now been disputed and disproved.

of course CBS would never want to tell the truth.
Reply to this comment
by paris1969 October 19, 2008 9:32 PM PDT
"The real Obama''s Christianity, his patriotism, moderation and commitment to capitalism, law and order, and national security are matters of abundant public record.."
.......... this is not true, it is based on assumptions!
Reply to this comment
by wombat681 October 19, 2008 10:16 PM PDT
What great reporting. Of course you never commented on the attacks on Palin at Obama rallies. Of course can you tell me what hospital was Obama born? Or did his Indonesia father really adopt him? Of course if Obama really believed in %u201CLaw and Order%u201D he would produce the documents request in Berg-v-Obama instead of hiding. Here is an idea, why don%u2019t you do some real reporting and put the rumors to rest instead of ignoring them.
Reply to this comment
by docadams3 October 19, 2008 10:28 PM PDT
"The real Obama''''s Christianity, his patriotism, moderation and commitment to capitalism, law and order, and national security are matters of abundant public record.."
.......... this is not true, it is based on assumptions!

---------
Dear Paris1969: Where do facts come from? Rush Limbaugh''s imagination? Was he taking drugs at the time? You sound like a good candidate to be an Iranian leader. The current one thinks the same way you do.
Reply to this comment
by incog-nito October 19, 2008 10:34 PM PDT
rational_1: Label him a socialist if that is what you want. According to some people, especially those on the right, every country outside the U.S. is socialist anyway, just because they have universal health care alongside private enterprise. It''s nonsense, of course, but a convenient label for some nonetheless.
Reply to this comment
by roger3815 October 19, 2008 11:24 PM PDT
The GOP isn''t getting the ridicule it deserves that''s for sure. While they were busy screaming that g a y s wanted to destroy America and we must ban them from marriage, their masters in the banking industry were busy doing just that.

The cons have got to go and this time I think voters are going to hold their feet to the fire. Cons are going to get a dose of the one thing they fear most: Accountability.
Reply to this comment
by ausus-2009 October 19, 2008 11:24 PM PDT
Of course Obama''s supporters never use the words Nazi, collaborator and Fascist to describe McCain nor did any of them advocate that he be jailed. They didn''t attack his war record, his wife, his intelligence or his age.

Otherwise the author of this article would have mentioned it.
Reply to this comment
by incog-nito October 20, 2008 12:07 AM PDT
Just watch the Fox News commentators and you''ll see the very definition of anger.
Reply to this comment
by skysoldier75 October 20, 2008 12:25 AM PDT

The GOP truly does seem to have reverted back to the way they were during the bad old days of Sen. Joe McCarthy.

It''s gotten so bad that even many life-long Republicans are sickened by what they are now seeing, and are turning away from their party in shame.

Who can blame them? Their whole party has become a national embarrassment.
Reply to this comment
by ausus-2009 October 20, 2008 12:50 AM PDT
johnbrown888,

It was Democrat segregationists that held the solid south for nearly 100 years. Some of them are still alive. Integration was forced on the south by a Republican president (Eisenhower) after Supreme Court decisions led by a Republican-appointed Chief Justice (Earl Warren). Just in case you forgot, Abraham Lincoln was a Republican.
Reply to this comment
by gingersnap19 October 20, 2008 12:53 AM PDT
My concern is that Obama wins, and the barbarians DO show up at the gate. The same people who believe the nonsense that a United States Senator is an "Arab Muslim Terrorist" have guns and join "militias" to protect "their" country from any and all ethnic groups they consider "un-American." John McCain and Sarah Palin both need to address this problem BEFORE the election and, if Obama wins, they need to stand up and admit that they spread lies about the next president of the United States, beg forgiveness, and exhort their right-wing base to put away the rage and fear. If they do not, when the barbarians show up -- and I am firmly convinced that they will -- McCain and Palin should be arrested for instigating hate crimes. Yes, we have freedom of speech in this country and, yes, politicians sling mud. But the McCain-Palin campaign crossed a very dangerous line, and their half-hearted (and false) attempts to pretend that this is a problem of a small "fringe" is equally dangerous. So much for "Country First."
Reply to this comment
by lmnop13 October 20, 2008 1:05 AM PDT
Actually, neonink, you are right on one account. At a Palin rally held in Scranton, PA, the Secret Service stated that they could not substantiate that anyone yelled "kill him" at the rally.
On the other hand, the original incident that caused all of the stir occurred at at a Plain rally in Clearwater, FL. This footage is easily found on the web, and very audible. When talking about Ayers/Obama, someone from the audience yelled "kill him". As a matter of fact, I heard it on a major news outlet right after it happened. The GOP stated that they were SURE that the person MUST have been talking about Ayers, not Obama.
Reply to this comment
by lmnop13 October 20, 2008 1:08 AM PDT
Oh, and added to that, of course they were, because everyone knows the GOP always plays nice.
Reply to this comment
by andor3 October 20, 2008 1:25 AM PDT
"Here is an idea, why don%u2019t you do some real reporting and put the rumors to rest..."

there ARE no rumors, that is the point! Just some lies and distortions so absurd that they are past even laughing at. It says even more about McCain that there are still radical elements of McCains base who continue to spout these bizarre ideas.
Reply to this comment
by gingersnap19 October 20, 2008 1:27 AM PDT
Dear johnbrown888, thanks for the history lesson. However, you forgot to mention that Chief Justice Warren received many, many death threats for his actions, and many in his own Republican party tried to impeach him. More importantly, Lincoln, Eisenhower, and Warren would have condemned the xenophobic discord being pushed by the McCain-Palin campaign. President Eisenhower''s grand-daughter, a staunch Republican, has endorsed Obama for President because as Susan Eisenhower stated, "Without his (Obama''s) leadership, our children and grandchildren are at risk of growing older in a marginalized country that is left to its anger and divisions." You can still be proud of the best in your Republican party, and stand up for what Lincoln, Eisenhower, and Warren accomplished -- a nation united in hope, not divided by unfounded fear and hate based on religion and race.
Reply to this comment
by ausus-2009 October 20, 2008 1:28 AM PDT
gingersnap19,

Despite the fact that you are from the far left, I would classify you as a Fascist. There is a political theory that politics is a circle and the extreme left and extreme right meet at the back end in the middle. To even contemplate jailing someone for the political remarks that were not inflammatory in themselves said in the height of an election campaign shows you are a totalitarian of worst kind.
Reply to this comment
by andor3 October 20, 2008 1:29 AM PDT
"They did not attack [Sen. McCains] war record, his wife, his intelligence or his age."

of course we did. those are legitimate campaign issues because they are relevant to his character, judgment, and his qualifications for the office of President. That is not like death threats or lies about "palling with terrorists."
Reply to this comment
by ausus-2009 October 20, 2008 1:43 AM PDT
andor3,

One person''s legitimate campaign issues could be another''s irrelevancies. Perhaps you don''t think it is fair comment to look at the church Obama attended for 20 years, what he actually did as an organizer, how he bought the land adjoining his property, and of course a voting record peppered with "present" rather any "yes" and "no".
Reply to this comment
by gingersnap19 October 20, 2008 1:49 AM PDT
Ausus. I am hardly far left, although I do believe in the rule of law. When anyone -- politician or your neighbor down the street -- uses inflammatory rhetoric to incite distrust and fear and aims those emotions directly at an individual or a specific ethnic group, and it leads to violence, then they have incited a hate crime. Re-read what I wrote. If the barbarians DO show up at the gate, i.e. become violent, then the McCain-Palin campaign should be held responsible if they have NOT denounced that rhetoric in advance. Senator McCain was booed four times during a town hall meeting in Lakeville, MN because he tried to rein in some of that fear and distrust. Unfortunately, after using that effort to claim in the debate that he "always" stops supporters when they get out of hand, the very next day a wave of robocalls again attacked Senator Obama, claiming that he "worked closely" with "terrorists" who "kill Americans." Again, if this leads to violence, call me names, but arrest the people who see the danger and refuse to stop the insanity.
Reply to this comment
by ausus-2009 October 20, 2008 2:00 AM PDT
gingersnap19,

Your rule of law seems to want to make politically correct language compulsory. I hope the world doesn''t come to this. Many of the contributors to CBS blogs use much more inflammatory language than that exhibited by the Republican candidates. I would not want to see them jailed either.

If anybody converts words to actions, that is another matter. Those who commit the actions should be jailed for the physical damage they do. Many times left-wingers have run through towns destroying property and injuring police. Few are arrested and even fewer are jailed.

I can''t remember any candidate using words like "kill" and "burn" like some black power and other left-wing advocates of the 60s did.

Obama''s former preacher uses much more inflammatory language than either McCain or Palin. Should he be jailed too, or are you just being selective?
Reply to this comment
by gingersnap19 October 20, 2008 2:14 AM PDT
Ausus. My "rule of law" includes both federal and state laws, by which all American citizens are expected to abide. Anyone who commits violence, regardless of the name or cause invoked, should be held responsible and, if found guilty, punished in accordance with that law. If Rev. Wright''s speeches are linked directly to a specific act of violence, then he should be held responsible for inciting that violence. This is the exact same principle that I believe should be applied to the McCain-Palin campaign, or to any other politician or individual, who forgets that freedom of speech is not only protected but carries, under the law, certain responsibilities. Our laws are not "selective," or at least they should not be, and that is precisely why not even political campaigns should be allowed to cross a certain line.
Reply to this comment
by ausus-2009 October 20, 2008 2:21 AM PDT
gingersnap19,

Perhaps you would like to give me a quotation from McCain or Palin (not a paraphrase) that you think deserves jail time.

I think a guy named Chavez in Venezuela has views similar to yours.
Reply to this comment
by brianbwb-2009 October 20, 2008 3:38 AM PDT
"Rank And File Anger Out Of GOP Hands The Nation: After Inspiring The Worst In Its Base, Republican Party Cannot Control Irrational Fear And Resentment"

This is what Mr. Lewis meant when he said McSame is "playing with fire". The GOP knows full well that Mr. Lewis is 100% correct, but they are too cowardly to admit that they are doing it intentionally, instead they demand that Mr. Lewis retract a true statement.

And all of it is because the GOP realizes that their well established anti humanist platform is about to be thoroughly repudiated by the American voter, so they focus on old racist instincts of their central core, which is all they have left.

Instead of unnecessary explanation and useless clarification, Mr. Lewis should challenge the GOP to show how his statement is not correct.
Reply to this comment
by lmsandmann October 20, 2008 3:48 AM PDT
Go to: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html

Central Intelligence Agency.... The World Factbook

Look for the heading marked ECONOMY.

Read the section on economy. Republicans will find their fodder in the first half of this paragraph, Democrats will find theirs in the last. The world is full of shades of gray.... vote your conscience.... vote with pride.




Reply to this comment
by dburfears October 20, 2008 3:49 AM PDT
MERCHANTS of HATE and FEAR ARE HAVING THEIR EFFECT

It''s clear that Steve Schmidt, Hannity, Rush, Coulter, Malkin, Kristol, Liddy, and FOX NEWS are finally having their desired effect. The hate filled mobs attending these McCain and Palin rallies are the harvest from years of seeding hate and fear, while spreading the slander of the far right.

I suppose these MERCHANTS of HATE AND FEAR make a lot of money trying to keep their party in power and spreading their filth. However, the COST TO THE COUNTRY and our political health is incalculable.

These people who spend their radio and TV time ginning up hate and fear should be ashamed. They are the most UN-American public figures we have seen in quite a while.

What is worse is that the once proud GOP has become dependent on these MERCHANTS of HATE AND FEAR. The GOP is becoming the party of the unruly mob. They cater to the fears of many good Americans who are looking for an answer to their anxieties about the direction of the country.

The GOP''s MERCHANTS of HATE AND FEAR tell these Americans that is is OTHER AMERICANS (!) who are the ENEMY. They divide. They overtly state that people who disagree with them are NOT AMERICANS- that those who do not follow the MERCHANTS of HATE AND FEAR are "not like us".

Shame on these MERCHANTS of HATE AND FEAR and their disdain for their fellow Americans.


Reply to this comment
by brianbwb-2009 October 20, 2008 3:57 AM PDT
"Perhaps you would like to give me a quotation from McCain or Palin (not a paraphrase) that you think deserves jail time." Posted by ausus

"a crowd member asked McCain about a Bush statement that troops could stay in Iraq for 50 years. "Maybe 100," McCain replied."

The placement of US troops into harm for no real reason, as Bush indisputably has done is an act of treason, and a violation of international treaties to which we are signatory, this part is on Bush.

But to support the continuation of genocide of Iraqis, and continued harm to US troops for the same non-reasons as McSame indisputably has done, is not only aiding and abetting treason and genocide, but continuing it. This part is on McSame.

"Bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran"

Since subsequent events have shown that at the time McSame was advocating this violation of international sovereignty rights, the facts were that Iran had ceased its weapons program four years previously, advocacy of hostilities without demonstrating a clear and present danger is a violation of the powers of the president, and advocacy of hostilities that will certainly result in severe harm, if not the collapse altogether, of the US economy is also treason.
Reply to this comment
by gingersnap19 October 20, 2008 4:01 AM PDT
Ausus, sorry for not seeing your request earlier. I will probably have to split my answer into two posts.

In this one, let''s look at the robocall of the moment. "Hello. I''m calling for John McCain and the RNC [Republican National Committee] because you need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge''s home and killed Americans. And Democrats will enact an extreme leftist agenda if they take control of Washington. Barack Obama and his Democratic allies lack the judgment to lead our country."

The Weather Underground liked to take credit for their horrible work but they did not claim responsibility for and were not convicted of the bombing of the judge''s house. Their crimes were many and indefensible, but the robocall does not stick with the facts, it adds an unproven allegation.

The second problem is that this statement does not identify how Obama and Ayers "worked closely together," thereby implying that Obama somehow participated in the same organization that "killed Americans." It also does not clarify that Obama was 8 years old when Ayers was making bombs. As a result, this robocall contains both an unproven allegation and attempts to mislead. It reinforces this attempt to mislead by referencing an %u201Cextreme leftist agenda%u201D in the second sentence.
Reply to this comment
by gingersnap19 October 20, 2008 4:02 AM PDT
Ausus, here is part two.

Now, let%u2019s look at other McCain-Palin ads, many of which ask %u201CWho is Barack Obama?%u201D and then flash across the screen: How Dishonorable, How Dangerous, and Too Risky for America.

Now, let%u2019s look at Sarah Palin who told supporters that Obama %u201Cpals around with terrorists,%u201D and that she is %u201Cjust so fearful%u201D that Obama is %u201Cnot a person who sees America like you and I see America.%u201D

Now, let%u2019s look at YouTube videos of supporters waiting to enter McCain-Palin events at Strongville, Ohio and Bethlehem, PA. These normal, regular Joe Americans know they are being filmed and have no problem stating that Senator Obama is a Muslim and a terrorist.

Now, let%u2019s look at the fact that President Bush declared a War on Terror after 3,000 Americans lost their lives on 9/11, and that %u201Cterrorists%u201D are either locked up in Guantanamo Bay or killed.

When your country is at war, it is no small thing to state that your political opponent works closely with your country%u2019s enemy.

Should the barbarians ever turn violent, the above is just a sampling of how a prosecutor could lay incitement of a hate crime at the feet of the McCain-Palin campaign.
Reply to this comment
by ramos937 October 20, 2008 4:04 AM PDT
One cure - reinstate the Fairness Doctrine by Executive Order. This would put Rush, Fox, etc out of business by requiring a host that champions one political point of view to also present the opposite side at the same time.
Reply to this comment
by brianbwb-2009 October 20, 2008 4:10 AM PDT
Posted by gingersnap19

While the "robo-calls" you quote may not constitute criminal offenses, they do constitute an attempt to slander, actionable in a civil court.

It would be a proper response to file a civil suit for damages, and not unreasonable to ask for the total campaign budget for the Democratic presidential candidate, plus punitive damages, I would say a total of about $350 million.

To use a strategy common to neocons, the suit should be filed in a heavily democrat state, with jurors select from a pool of people from all ethnicities, religions, and representatine of the general population''s economic status, 20% wealthy 30% middleclass, and 50% lower class.

Hit the GOP in the pockets, the only place they can actually feel pain, and they will be more careful in the future.
Reply to this comment
by gingersnap19 October 20, 2008 4:23 AM PDT
Actually, a Kansas attorney, whose father worked on behalf of both Bobby Kennedy and JFK before they were assassinated, has already filed a lawsuit citing the potential for violence and asking that the RNC and the McCain-Palin campaign tone down the rhetoric.
Reply to this comment
by brianbwb-2009 October 20, 2008 8:08 AM PDT
"If Obama wins, and the barbarians do not show up to rattle the gates, what will the conservatives do next? For them, the barbarians were a solution, of sorts."

They conservatives are the barbarians, they will rattle the gates themselves. We can expect acts of domestic terrorism, blamed on the "them" of the day, but actually committed by neocon agents.

But they always are too stupid to pull it off without leaving obvious connections back to themselves, so the game won''t work even then.
Reply to this comment
by bnuckols October 20, 2008 8:17 AM PDT
Will you cover the .22 shots that knocked out a window on the McCain/Palin Straight Talk Express?
http://www.sacunion.com/mark/
Reply to this comment
by danielle_mom October 20, 2008 8:25 AM PDT
This is simple economics. Red states, low unemployment, lower taxes and conservative control.

Blue states, higher unemployment, higher taxes, liberal control.

Reply to this comment
by irmcvet97 October 20, 2008 9:04 AM PDT
This is simple economics. Red states, low unemployment, lower taxes and conservative control.

Blue states, higher unemployment, higher taxes, liberal control.


Posted by danielle_mom at 08:25 AM : Oct 20, 2008

I''ve traveled extensively throughout the entire South and YOU are about as WRONG as WRONG can get!!
Reply to this comment
by jsl45 October 20, 2008 9:19 AM PDT
I consider myself a conservative, but I plan to vote for Obama...it will be difficult. I can''t support McCain who voted with Bush 90% of the time and supported the worst President in our history. What makes it worse is that McBush is now using the same negative tactics that Bush used on him in the election in 2000....his decision to use these tactics will cause me to vote for Obama. I firmly believe the Republicans need to have their "head" handed to them in this election so they will get their principles back. They have no one to blame for the coming landslide but themselves.
Reply to this comment
by wombat681 October 20, 2008 9:21 AM PDT
Hey gingersnap19, I like your idea. I think Palin should sue Obama and the DBC for not stopping their supporters from waliking around with their vile and obscene t-shirts about her. Wake up, both sides are preaching hate!
Reply to this comment
by blazercoach1 October 20, 2008 9:22 AM PDT
daniellemom is RIGHT ON!

What do Ohio, Penn, Mich have in common? Devestated economies, plunging housing market, and Democrat Governors. What do Texas, Florida, Louisianna (after they dumped Gov. Blanco), and the south have in common? Booming economies, low unemployment, and Republican Governors.

Basically the Republican controlled states give tax breaks to big businesses and corporations...which then locate there and HIRE THE CITIZENS OF THE STATE!!

My friend in Texas sold his 200sq.ft. house this summer for $160K...and turned a PROFIT! I lived there for 25 years as a teacher. I have 3 kids. I owned a house. My wife was a stay-at-home mom. Now I live in the north and can barely survive. That same home up here would cost $300K and wind up as a second home for some rich NYCity slicker.

Anyone who can''t see these statements as FACTS can''t smell the Sh*t their sittin in....
Reply to this comment
by blazercoach1 October 20, 2008 9:23 AM PDT
make that a 2000sq ft house..
Reply to this comment
by aaabee-2009 October 20, 2008 10:15 AM PDT
Wake up, both sides are preaching hate!
Posted by wombat681 at 09:21 AM : Oct 20, 2008

Sure. If anyone at an Obama rally called for Killing McCain, I think we''d have heard about it ad nauseum.

A t-shirt isn''t a death threat.
Reply to this comment
by dredigga October 20, 2008 10:31 AM PDT
If the republicans love this country as mush as they claim, they would not resort to smear tactics like this which is highly combustible. This shows that the McCain motto, "Country First" means nothing. He is trying to win an election in the most unhonorable way which is number one, dangerous, and number 2, divisive as the democratic party will not take this laying down. Then we would have partisan politics again and ultimately, nothing would get done to benefit the people because the tone of Washington would remain the same.
Reply to this comment
by usclimey October 20, 2008 10:39 AM PDT
What do Texas, Florida, Louisianna (after they dumped Gov. Blanco), and the south have in common?

Posted by blazercoach1

Lotsa Mexicans who work cheap.
Reply to this comment
by usclimey October 20, 2008 10:42 AM PDT
How did conservative states become red and liberal states become blue. Traditionally red has been the color of the left e.g. Red China, Communist Russia and the UK labor party; while blue is traditionally conservative e.g. the British conservative party etc.
Reply to this comment
by bm6005 October 20, 2008 10:54 AM PDT
wombat681

More like DINGBAT if you ask me!
Reply to this comment
by bm6005 October 20, 2008 10:59 AM PDT
ausus

More like a.nus!!
Reply to this comment
by jon_mccain October 20, 2008 11:02 AM PDT
This is simple economics. Red states, low unemployment, lower taxes and conservative control.

Blue states, higher unemployment, higher taxes, liberal control.


Posted by danielle_mom at 08:25 AM : Oct 20, 2008


1) Most (if not all) red states benefit from welfare. Tax dollars are taken from the more successful economies of the blue states and funneled to the red in the form of federal spending.

2) Generally, the blue states have been more populace so it would stand to reason they would have more people unemployed.

3) the majority of large business is centered in Blue states, and when those businesses suffer or offshore it is going to impact the blue state to a greater extent.
Reply to this comment
by mswolfestock October 20, 2008 11:04 AM PDT
"The Nation: After Inspiring The Worst In Its Base, Republican Party Cannot Control Irrational Fear And Resentment"

But this is what they''ve been doing since the Sixties. They didn''t think they had to be careful about what they wished for, and that is just too freaking bad. Irrational fear and resentment is what Rush Limbaugh incites every day.
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by upto1947 October 20, 2008 12:10 PM PDT
In case you haven''t heard, there''s a guy running for president named Barack Hussein Osama Nobama. This Nobama was born outside America and secretly schooled in Islamic terrorism at a Wahhabi madrassa. He then moved to the United States to take up the radical ''60s teachings of the Weather Underground''s Bill Ayers, while also organizing for ACORN, a subprime-lending, voter fraud-committing collective of affirmative-action welfare queens. All this happened before he became an elitist celebrity advocate of socialism, infanticide, the sexual abuse of children and treason.
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This is the onl true thing on here. And to think, some of you nuts are going to voute for this no good ***** B((**&*&((()())**()*())*(B )*(. You fill it in.
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