You Wanna Know What's REALLY Frightening, Mr. McCain?

There is no doubt that there are feisty Obama supporters who have made and probably will continue to make offensive comments about Palin and McCain. Still, the responses of some of these Republicans to the question, "Is Obama a terrorist?" is actually quite saddening.




And where was McCain's leadership and respect for his opponent during this speech in New Mexico?



We even witnessed this type of acquiesence during the primaries when McCain was asked an unthinkable question about Sen. Clinton - and gave an even more unbelievable response (viewer discretion is advised)...



Did you catch that at the end there? "I respect Senator Clinton. I respect anyone who gets the nomination of the Democrat party." My jaw dropped when I saw this for the first time (and I don't like Clinton at all after the debacle that was the Democratic primary).

And then today one of the McCain camp co-chairs, Frank Keating (no relation...I think) made these comments on Dennis Miller's radio show (listen to the audio here):

Well, and that's what concerns me, Dennis, because when I was in the State Senate and statehouse of my state, if someone had voted against the entire state budget because it had too much money for corrections, all of us would have, you know, strained our necks to find out who is this because that would have been a very extreme position, basically saying to a law enforcement officer as I was or my son was a state trooper, "you know, you make an arrest, you risk your life, for nothing" because we're going to make sure that person doesn't go to prison even though the laws of the state require it. So, that puzzles me. Just he ought to admit, "you know, I've got to be honest with you. I was a guy of the street. I was way to the left. I used cocaine. I voted liberally, but I'm back at the center." I mean, I understand the big picture of America. But he hasn't done that...

I'm sorry... "I was a guy of the street"?!?!? What the hell is this guy implying?

Look, there are concerns that the newest line of attack that the McCain campaign is taking against Barack Obama is not only inappropriate and blind to the current economic crisis (the Dow closed under 9,000 points), but it may actually be very dangerous. There are some truly unstable people out there who feed off of this type of fiery, unsubstantiated rhetoric and who might not think twice about taking action against a "Muslim, terrorist sympathizer."

John McCain and his campaign have sunk to lows that no one would have expected of him, and I honestly don't think he believes much of what he's saying about Obama. I think he wants to win, and I think he's surrounded himself with people who want to win and are willing to do so at a high price. The extent to which they will go to win, however, is approaching a line that McCain should be very careful about crossing. He would do well to renounce and rebuke patently false assertions, calm his supporters down, and bring the focus back to the economy and the war and the other issues that most of America cares deeply about.