News stories like this one are regularly noting that McCain campaign speeches are playing to crowds that are, for want of a better term, turning ugly.
"McCain's remarks about Obama were interrupted with shouts of "socialist," "terrorist," and "liar."
At least part of this is on the McCain camp, for abandoning any pretense of running a civil campaign. And this talk of Obama "palling around" with terrorists is really irresponsible--and in my personal opinion, it's just sad to see McCain stoop to such depths, even if he is using his VP candidate to do the actually smearing.
But whatever. McCain doesn't care what I think. He's in a very bad situation. He's behind in the polls. The debates are doing nothing for him. His Hail Mary pass of picking Sarah Palin has not swayed the vast majority of voters, and she is actually a liability, since she can't handle the media and can't speak to anyone but deeply conservative crowds. And he's carrying around this huge anchor called the Bush Presidency. I'd be grumpy too.
I remember seeing Michael Dukakis speak in Milwaukee in 1988, just a couple weeks before he was thoroughly trounced by George H.W. Bush. Everyone knew he was way behind in the polls. But he came into Milwaukee and gave a red-meat, take-no-prisoners speech to a cheering crowd of Democrats.
So I guess it's no surprise that McCain/Palin are going to stoke up their crowds as best they can, and that the crowds are going to be particularly rabid. The last hurrah, I guess.
The difference, of course, is that the partisanship of 1988 seems mild compared to today. And there's the racial factor as well. I can't contemplate the next four weeks without feeling a twinge of fear. All I can think is, if something horribly tragic does happen, what legacy will John McCain have left his party and his country?
I hate to think about it. But when people are screaming "terrorist," you really can't ignore it.
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