Frank Schaeffer, the author of Crazy for God writes in today’s Baltimore Sun that the John McCain/Sarah Palin political rallies “are beginning to look, sound, feel and smell like lynch mobs.”
Jonathan Martin of Yahoo! News writes that among Republicans there is “belief that taking out Obama is the only way to win.”
The Wall Street Journal, no bastion for liberalism there, has this: “Someone yelled ‘Off with his head’ at a rally Wednesday for Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin in Pennsylvania.”
Joe Klein, political commentator and author of Primary Colors, writes “I’m beginning to worry about the level of craziness on the Republican side, the over-the-top, stampede-the-crowd statements by everyone from McCain on down, the vehemence of the crowds that McCain and Palin are drawing with people shouting ‘Kill him’ and ‘He’s a terrorist’ and ‘Off with his head.'”
Who are these people, the ones shouting “Kill him” and other threats against a presidential candidate at campaign rallies? Look here for part one of a video of attendees at a rally in Ohio earlier this week, and the second part of the video may be more chilling.
Andrew Sullivan sees where this incitement toward “lynch mobs” may lead: “McCain is playing with fire. If he really wants to put country first, he will attack Obama on his policies – not on these inflammatory, personal, creepy grounds. This is getting close to the atmosphere stoked by the Israeli far right before the assassination of Rabin.”
For the good of the country, McCain needs to dial back the rhetoric and the incindiary atmosphere.
For the good of his own reputation, McCain needs to calm down his mob.
These are dangerous times.