Hear that? It’s the sound of Republicans getting their panties in a bunch.
According to CNN, several attendees of the more recent John McCain rallies have been expressing not only their disgust at the probable election of Barack Obama, but also their disappointment with the man at the top of their own ticket.
With recent polls showing Sen. Barack Obama’s lead increasing nationwide and in several GOP-leaning states, some Republicans attending McCain-Palin campaign rallies have taken on a new emotion: Rage.
“When you have an Obama, [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and the rest of the hooligans up there going to run this country, we have got to have our head examined. It’s time that you two are representing us, and we are mad. So, go get them,” one man told Sen. John McCain at a town hall meeting in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
It’s almost a cry for help, with the GOP party faithful amazed McCain could possibly be losing.
“And we’re all wondering why that Obama is where he’s at, how he got here. I mean, everybody in this room is stunned that we’re in this position,” another man said at a rally.
“I’m mad. I’m really mad. And what’s going to surprise you, it’s not the economy. It’s the socialists taking over our country,” another man said.
One CNN contributor, who referred to the rallies as “incendiary,” believes they could potentially lead to violence.
One member of the Palin audience in Jacksonville, Florida, Tuesday shouted out “treason.” And at another rally in the state Monday, Palin’s mention of the Obama-Ayers tie caused one member to yell out: “kill him” — though it was unclear if it was targeted at Obama or Ayers.
At several recent rallies, Palin has stirred up crowds by mentioning the “liberal media.” Routinely, there are boos at every mention of The New York Times and the “mainstream media,” both of which are staples of Palin’s stump speech.
Some audience members are openly hostile to members of the traveling press covering Palin; one crowd member hurled a racial epithet at an African-American member of the press in Clearwater, Florida, on Monday.
And at a McCain rally in New Mexico on Monday, one supporter yelled out “terrorist” when McCain asked, “Who is the real Barack Obama?” McCain didn’t respond.
Some of the anger at recent McCain-Palin rallies is also being directed at Senator McCain. Several supporters have pleaded with him to be more forceful in his attacks on Obama, and McCain’s announcement during the last debate that he would buy out bad mortgage loans has sparked resentment among some of the party’s most prominent and vocal commentators.
John McCain is facing a fresh round of anger from members of his own party deeply opposed to the Arizona senator’s proposal for the federal government to purchase troubled mortgage loans.
The pointed backlash from several economic conservatives — many of whom already distrust McCain’s commitment to free-market principles — couldn’t come at a worse time for the Republican presidential nominee less than four weeks before Election Day as he stares at a significant deficit in national and state polls.
In a sharply worded editorial on its Web site Thursday, the editors of The National Review — an influential bastion of conservative thought — derided the plan as “creating a level of moral hazard that is unacceptable” and called it a “gift to lenders who abandoned any sense of prudence during the boom years.”
Prominent conservative blogger Michelle Malkin went one step further, calling the plan “rotten” and declaring on her blog, “We’re Screwed ‘08.”
I understand why Republicans are upset. I’ve gotten familiar with that hopeless feeling that comes from realizing the candidate you support probably doesn’t have a chance at winning. I remember how it felt to get out of bed on November 3, 2004, to the news that George Bush had been elected for a second term. It’s gut-wrenching to invest time, energy, and emotion into a candidate and then have all your hopes and dreams dashed with the announcement of a projected winner.
What I don’t understand is their visceral hatred for Barack Obama, a man they seem to know very little about. I also don’t understand why any of them are surprised that the general population would vote for the opposite party after seeing just how bad things have gotten in the last eight years.
Less than four weeks to go, people.
15 Comments
It’s because Obama represents the actual death of America. If his sort is elected at this time there won’t be an America left by the end of his regime. There will be a population group here, but it won’t be a nation and it won’t be America.
Would you mind clarifying what you are referring to as “his sort”? Liberals? Blacks? Black Liberals? I am amazed at the ugliness and ignorance that this election has exposed. It also amazes me that there are so many people who still buy into the fear mongering. Things will definitely get worse before they get better, but it isn’t Barack Obama’s fault. If elected, he may or may not go down in the history books as a great president. But, it would take a lot for him to do a worse job than we have seen over the last eight years- even with the mess he will be handed.
The Republicans are mad because they are LOSING. They are behind in the polls. Big Losers!! Boo hoo - now, they are going to be even meaner and nastier because they can’t win with intelligence and good ideas. They are SCARED of Obama because they are scared of losing!
You people make me sick! you rather be broke and at war and homeless then rather vote for someone who has a team to rebuilt AMERICA. Remember Bill Clinton, the contry was in the surplus and guess what he was a DEMOCRATE so get over it.
jonolan
i’m glad you are letting the rest of the world know how uninformed you are. have you even taken the time to compare what McCain and Obama plan to do if they become president? obviously you have not. and judging from your comments even if you read their plans, i believe your unintelligence as well as your fear of a black man potentially leading this country will not allow you to see whose plans make more sense. (i even doubt you’ll understand this message)
wow–it got intense fast over here, didn’t it?
Personally, I think it is a very bad idea for the “liberal media” to go around saying that Obama has basically already won the election (I heard Rachel Maddow and someone else talking about it after the last debate). They said, barring any catastrophes, Obama seems the inevitable winner of the election. That scares me. I think that the perceived underdog frequently has an advantage in the political arena. Declaring Obama the de facto winner will likely only embolden more conservatives (and yes, I hate to say it, racist Obama-haters) to kick things up a notch. I am not nearly as certain as much of the country seems to be (although it could be because I live in such a red state….). I don’t know what we will learn on November 5th (although I’ll be up all night watching the projections…).
And another thing! There is a part of me that is worried that Obama WILL win. Let me explain….things in America are MESSED UP right now. We are heading for some seriously hard times, and no matter who becomes the next president, they aren’t going to be fixed any time soon. I have a feeling that if he is elected, things may be so much worse 4 years from now that Americans will become reactionary and elect a Republican president because they (let’s face it) aren’t quite bright enough to understand that it’s not President Obama’s fault. It will certainly take time to fix things, and I do NOT envy the 44th President of the United States.
(ok, I realize that this comment doesn’t have a lot to do with your original post, but I felt like saying it…)
And you think John McCain is the man to pull us out of this mess? He is an angry old man whose ideas are antiquated and have no place in the 21st century. It is absolutely astonishing that this country, (even Republicans) after enduring 8 years of arguably the worst president in American history would risk going down that road again. You know what that says to me? A startling number of Americans are just plain stupid. Is Obama the man to turn us around? We’ll see…But, one thing’s for sure, I would rather take my chances on some new blood than someone who has been festering in Washington for over 25 years.
Also, it would take a catastrophic meltdown for Obama to lose this election. You’re deluding yourself if you think otherwise. With the Palin fiasco surfacing and McCain being chastised by his own party now, please explain how this bodes well for a man that is current 7-9% behind in the polls? If things go as planned, Obama will only need to win 1 of the 7 swings states to win. Hmmmmm…
I am very concerned that Palin is inciting her supporters to violence and encouraging people to take action - she is basically inviting an assassination attempt - her rally attendees are even yelling “kill him” and “traitor” in response to her speeches (and McCain’s as well). I lived through the assassinations of President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. I think people need to be alarmed and call on the GOP and the media to come down hard on Palin and McCain for their initiation of this angry hysteria and for their ads incorrectly linking Obama to domestic terrorism. (And why aren’t these same hysterics asking Palin about her own attendance and supportive speeches to the Alaskan Independence Party, a anti-United States group?)
I am surprised no one is addressing the anger at these rallies. I am fearful for Sen. Obama. The ignorance I have seen this week scares me. Gov. Palin is causing these ignorant people with little minds to become upset all of these lies she is telling. That woman has been lying since she was chosen as VP.
I see both prominent parties swinging between smugness and rage.
Thursday night of the DNC Obama gave an incredible speech: smugness of the part of Dems until Friday morning when McCain stole the headlines with his VP pick. Then there was smugness on the part of Repubs and rage on the part of Dems–which lasted until the Dems had trashed Palin (and she trashed herself) over the next few weeks. Now we’re back to Dem smugness and Repub rage. If there were some kind of unexpected turn and McCain were up in the polls and Obama trailing with the clock ticking, you’d see the rage on the part of the Democrats. This is a very divided and angry nation–it’s all bubbling just beneath the surface.
JimT
@ jimthomp87: You’re right, but I wonder if you’d actually hear democrats making death threats towards JM at BO rallies? I seriously doubt it. All in all, democrats seem to be a little more pacifist than the opposing party.
Any hope we had of becoming less partisan went down the tubes 8 years ago it seems.
John L.: It seems your comment was directed towards me, so let me clarify! I went back and read my own comment and realized that it wasn’t as clear as I had thought it was. If you don’t know me and know that I am a dedicated Obama supporter, it could seem that I was supporting McCain. That is not the case at all. I was simply saying that all this rage coming from the Republican party seems to be stemming from Obama’s recent lead in the polls, and the pundits’ naming him basically the inevitable pick. McCain is now the underdog in the race, and I’m sure he’s loving every minute of it. There is nothing better than a dip in the polls to get his supporters fired up and ready to do even more to get him elected. And on the other hand, with Obama leading, it can cause Democrats to feel complacent. That is a terrible idea! Regardless of what the polls say, I am not as convinced as everyone else seems to be that Obama is the inevitable pick–but I do hope I’m wrong. (You can feel free to disagree with me, but this is just my own opinion based on what I see all around me–but I do live in Tennessee, and it is very red around here, so I could be wrong)–No matter what happens between now and election day, Democrats are going to have to be just as fired up and committed as ever to get Obama elected.
And as for my comment about being worried that Obama will win–I don’t see how this country is going to get better without getting worse first. I think we are headed down a long, hard road. We haven’t hit the bottom of this crisis yet. You said it yourself, lots of Americans are just plain stupid. They don’t take the time to learn the facts, and what’s worse, they just plain don’t care. I worry that when things do get worse, they will just blame Obama for it, without taking into consideration that he inherited the problem; he didn’t cause it. That being said, I hope, for the country’s sake, that McCain doesn’t get elected, because I can’t imagine how much worse we’ll be in 4 more years of the same. But I do worry that because of this, if Obama is elected it will likely only be for 1 term because of the crisis–4 years isn’t enough time to fix things, but I guess that is something to worry about later. Again, on this I hope I am wrong, but I see this potentially happening.
I hope this clears things up!
@ ashley: I agree with your sentiments. I’ve also been thinking about how dismal the next four years will look - no matter who is in the White House. If Obama proves himself to be a good president but is unable to rescue us from this downturn, people will most certainly hold him accountable in four years. Throw in the fact that the $700 billion bailout will prevent the winner from enacting many of the policies that they’ve based their campaigns on and I don’t envy the position that either Obama or McCain is in.
I’m surrounded by rabid Republicans. I just had one screaming in face “OBAMA IS A SOCIALIST!!” Screaming in my face! Their party is so filled with hated, yet they have no idea why they lost except for “We lost our base.” Um, okay, and why is that? They think Geo W. is a genius (just soft spoken). WTF?
They hate everyone who doesn’t look or think the way they do. It’s terrifying to me. They have no respect for anyone but other republicans.
@ Jane:
I know how you feel. I am neither rabid nor Republican, but have had my share of screamers from people of both parties over the past few weeks. You say, “Their party is so filled with hatred”… I have seen that from people on “both sides of the aisle”, and imagine there would be a lot of raging Democrats had Obama lost. My experience over the past few months was that there was plenty of disrepect from supporters of both parties toward people who disagreed with them.
“They hate everyone who doesn’t look or think the way they do” is a charge that can be made against Republicans and Democrats alike. This has been an ugly election cycle and, unfortunately, I don’t expect people to be any more respectful of others just because the votes have been counted.
JimT
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