McCain's Chilling Dance With the Dark Side

So the McCain camp is trying to raise doubts about Barack Obama -- even though the Illinois senator has been on the national stage for four years and has been under the presidential campaign microscope for the last 20 months. They seem to have no qualms appealing to the cultural fears of their agitated, and now energized, base by practically branding Obama as un-American or anti-American. And this is eliciting an ugliness at McCain-Palin events that is justifiably raising alarms that some nut job is going to act on the Republican ticket's cynical campaigning.

For two days now, there have been stories about boisterous McCain-Palin supporters screaming inflammatory words at the very mention of Obama's name. Words like "terrorist" and "Kill him!" and "treason." And at no point has McCain or Palin called on those folks and others who would imitate them to stop. It reminds me of McCain's laughing response, during the primaries, when a South Carolina supporter asked, in reference to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, "How do we beat the bitch?"

Judging by this picture* -- taken on Oct. 5 on Mickle Hill Road in Warren County, Pa., by Maryland resident Kurt Kolaja, who was attending a wedding in the area -- the McCain campaign is tapping into an even more unsavory strain of anger within the electorate.

Or how about this one, taken just down the road by Kolaja's daughter?

We've seen the destructive power of words. Remember when right-wing elements of the Grand Old Party stoked anti-government paranoia with talk of black helicopters enforcing Washington regulations? The party's blind-eye assent to this ended on April 19, 1995, when Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols blew up Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring more than 800 others. According to a New York Times article that year: "Three specific events confirmed Mr. McVeigh's view of a runaway government out to take his guns: the Ruby Ridge raid (Aug. 22, 1992); Waco (April 19, 1993), and the passage of the Brady Bill in November 1993, mandating a five-day waiting period for the purchase of guns."

Now, I'm not saying that it's wrong to ask questions about Obama's relationship, such as it was, with Bill Ayers. Or with Tony Rezko or with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Just as it wouldn't be inappropriate to raise questions about McCain's association with G. Gordon Liddy, the convicted Watergate burglar whose colorful history includes telling listeners to his radio show in 1994 to shoot federal agents in the head. When McCain went on Liddy's radio show in November 2007, he told Liddy, "I'm proud of you, I'm proud of your family... It's always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great."

The candidates' associations with these people, and their responses to questions about them, give you a view into their judgment. But at a time of great economic uncertainty -- so uncertain that the smartest people in the world are scratching their heads about what to do -- whipping up anger rather than reaching for solutions is not what's needed.

In his column today, my colleague Charles Krauthammer writes that Obama's character "remains highly suspect." And he ends by saying, "There is a difference between temperament and character." This past week, by ginning up an anger and resentment on the campaign trail that should leave all with a cold chill running through their bodies, McCain has shown neither presidential temperament nor character.

The New York Daily News reported this week that a "top McCain strategist" said, "It's a dangerous road, but we have no choice. If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we're going to lose."

If they keep doing what they're doing, they'll deserve to lose.

* (UPDATE 10.20.08) An alert reader from Bozeman, Mont., flagged the possibility that the first homemade sign could be touting the candidacy of Mary Jo White, a Republican in the Pennsylvania State Senate who represents part of Warren County and is running for reelection. That may be. But, as the other sign shows, there is very real anger and racism being expressed out of the media glare.