"All that is old and already formed can continue to live only if it allows within itself the conditions of a new beginning."
That's Much Better, Senator McCain
Posted 8:13 p.m., Oct. 10, 2008
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In a campaign rally in Lakeville, Minn., less than 15 miles from where I sit, Republican presidential candidate John McCain finally called off the dogs.
As I wrote here Tuesday, the Palin-McCain ticket, reeling from plummeting poll numbers that have followed the global financial collapse, have unleashed a coordinated attack on Democrat Barack Obama's character.
Nothing new there. Such attacks, which Richard Nixon pioneered and Lee Atwater perfected, have become standard-issue GOP politics in the Rovian age. But unlike previous Republican character-assassination ploys, this one centers on charges much worse than the usual "liberal tax-and-spender" tag.
Instead, the McCain campaign has been strongly hinting that Obama, a black man with a Muslim-sounding middle name and, according to Palin, domestic-terrorist pals, might just constitute a one-man Islamist sleeper cell. It's the kind of charge that could result in the assassination of more than just Obama's character, if you catch my drift.
The attacks reached into the stratopsheres of absurdity today when a right-wing blogger suggested that former Weather Underground schmuck Bill Ayers--and not Obama--wrote "Dreams From My Father," the brilliant memoir of Obama's early life that first garnered him recognition. In this fantasy, Ayers has guided Obama's entire political life.
Out on the campaign stump, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made repeated references to Obama "palling around" with "a domestic terrorist," when the record shows nothing of the sort. Today, McCain surrogates used a conference call to suggest that Obama's wife, Michelle, is part of the same fictitious sleeper cell that supposedly pulls her husband's puppet strings.
Mrs. Obama and Ayers' wife, you see, both worked for the same gigantic law firm in the early 1980s. They might even have seen each other there! (Or not.)
The end result of all this buffoonery has been that McCain-Palin rallies in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania this week have become noxious ox-bow incidents--with only the nooses and torches missing.
"Treason!" one man yelled. "Off with his head," screamed another. "Terrorist," blurted yet another. "Bomb Obama," one woman hollered out. One man was deadly specific. "Kill him," he screamed. That last incident, reported in the Washington Post Tuesday, is under investigation by the Secret Service.
Watch this video to get a view of the kinds of reactions that a typical rally, this one held Wednesday in Bethlehem, Pa., is prone to stoking up. Note that, "I believe he supports terrorism," is one of the more measured anti-Obama remarks.
All of which is preferable, the McCain campaign indicates, to obsessing about, say, the financial market's collapse. After defending the right of his rabid rally attendees to call Obama a terrorist, a McCain surrogate showed the campaign's hand.
"I don't know if you really want to turn a campaign into a CNBC news show on the stock market," McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said today during a conference call with reporters.
Change of Tone
Tonight in Lakeville, however, John McCain squared his shoulders, stood his ground, and did the right thing.
According to Time magazine's "Swampland" blog, McCain acknowledged the "energy" people have shown at recent rallies, but then urged them to tone down a notch. "I respect Sen. Obama and his accomplishments," McCain said, eliciting a round of boos.
McCain then got frustrated with the crowd and stopped them short: "I want everyone to be respectful," he said, "and let's make sure we are, because that's the way politics should be conducted in America."
Later, when a burly man in a baseball cap asked McCain whether he should fear for America's future if Obama--"who cohorts with domestic terrorists"--is elected president, McCain firmly set the man straight.
"First of all," McCain said, "I want to be President of the United States and obviously I do not want Sen. Obama to be. But I have to tell you, he is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as President of the United States."
If McCain were not campaigning in Bizarro World, you might expect such words would be greeted with warm applause. But no. The crowd turned on him. "No!" a chorus of women are heard to shout, while the men booed. "Come on!" shouts another forlorn voice.
He refused to back down. "If I didn't think I'd make one heck of a lot better president, I wouldn't be running, OK? That's the point."
Yes, sir, that is the point.
But the crowd still wasn't satisfied. Twenty minutes later, an elderly woman rose to express her distrust of Obama. "I have read about him," she said. "He's an Arab."
This time, McCain didn't even countenance whatever else she had to say. He took the microphone away from her, shaking his head.
"No, ma'am," he said. "He's a decent family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. And that's what this campaign is all about."
This time, McCain was actually greeted with a smattering of applause. Minnesota Nice lives, even in exurbia!
Watch the exchange:
Of course, the pundits of MSNBC are looking at all this smugly, saying that McCain was forced to retreat after setting up the straw man of Obama's supposed disloyalty, and there is some truth to that accusation.
But the fact is that McCain did not have to set these people straight at all. He could have let this string play out, as he has all week long. It raises the question of whether McCain himself has begun to realize the dark forces his campaign has unleashed, a violent energy for which he may not want to be responsible.
Certainly he has had no shortage of reminders that such is the case. "This is getting close to the atmosphere stoked by the Israeli far right before the assassination of [Prime Minsiter Yitzhak] Rabin," an alarmed Andrew Sullivan wrote earlier today.
It may be, too, that McCain, despite the electrical charge that the Ayers accusations have unleashed at his rallies, realizes the strategy is not working. Certainly, with an 10-point deficit in the most recent Gallup tracking poll, that too seems self-evident.
Whatever. McCain, finally tonight, has done the right thing.
Now, let's see how long he can hold out and keep on doing it. Perhaps he can show a bit of good faith by yanking the negative TV ads that advance the fiction of Obama's terrorism ties.
But for now, let's give credit where it is due. McCain loves to call himself a "maverick." Tonight, by pushing back against his own base, he has given a nice little demonstration that maybe he actually is one.
-- Kevin Featherly
