|
|
|
Last Updated: Oct 14, 2008 - 7:42:46 AM |
The report from inside the McCain campaign brings to light an alarming
fact: while McCain tells his supporters publicly to refrain from
violent rhetoric, he continues to teach his volunteers rhetoric
designed to elicit violent responses.
In the article, Time's Karen Tumulty recounts her visit to a campaign
training session in Gainesville, VA, a strategic center for the McCain
ground game in Prince William County. What Tumulty describes is a
training session hosted by by Virginia's state GOP Chairman Jeffrey M.
Frederick in which volunteers were being trained to see Barack Obama as
a terrorist. Tumulty writes:
The McCain campaign invited me to
visit Frederick and the Gainesville operation on Saturday morning, to
get a first-hand glimpse of its ground game in Prince William County,
Virginia, a fast-growing area about 30 miles from Washington, D.C.
With so much at stake, and time running short,
Frederick did not feel he had the luxury of subtlety. He climbed atop a
folding chair to give 30 campaign volunteers who were about to go
canvassing door to door their talking points -- for instance, the
connection between Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden: "Both have friends
that bombed the Pentagon," he said. "That is scary." It is also not
exactly true -- though that distorted reference to Obama's
controversial association with William Ayers, a former 60s radical, was
enough to get the volunteers stoked. "And he won't salute the flag,"
one woman added, repeating another myth about Obama. She was quickly
topped by a man who called out, "We don't even know where Senator Obama
was really born." Actually, we do; it's Hawaii.
The report from inside the McCain campaign is
disturbing on several levels. While McCain has begun chiding his
supporters at public rallies for using violent rhetoric, his campaign
has taken the opposite tack behind closed doors. Despite the public
image of a campaign not responsible for the violent outbursts of a few
followers, the Time report reveals a ground operation actually training
its volunteers to elicit violent responses in voters--specifically by
making false claims about Barack Obama's connection to terrorist
attacks on U.S. military buildings.
The report confirms that the McCain campaign has staked its chances of
winning the Presidency on convincing the public that Barack Obama is on
the wrong side of the 'War on Terror' and, therefore, his victory in
the Presidential election would put the power of the White House in the
hands of terrorists.
Tumulty's report raises serious questions about whether or not John
McCain is using campaign rhetoric that not only depart from recognized
moral boundaries, but risk igniting actual violence.
In particular, by teaching his volunteers to see Barack Obama as
similar to Osama Bin Laden--and by training his volunteers to convince
voters of the same--McCain is using his presidential campaign to tie
Sen. Obama to the mass murders of September 11, 2001. In this way,
McCain is effectively teaching his supporters to believe that Sen.
Obama is not only connected to terrorists, but that Sen. Obama deserves
the same punishment as terrorists.
In other words, by bringing to light the rhetoric being taught to his
campaign volunteers, Time Magazine has provided the explanation for why
attendees at McCain and Palin rallies have called for the death of Sen.
Obama rather than just his defeat, which would be the norm in such
events. When supporters of a Presidential candidate view the opposing
candidate as merely an election threat, they call for his defeat. But
when they view the opposing candidate as a national security threat--as
they are being taught by the McCain campaign--they call for that threat
to be eradicated.
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
Top of Page
|
|
|
|