They aren’t so much John McCain supporters as they are Barack Obama detractors. But the are hurting McCain much more than they are Obama.
Unintended collateral damage to the candidate they reluctantly support.
The constant barrage of accusations and innuendos tossed Obama’s way is causing voter fatigue and straining the sensibilities of fair-minded Americans. So much so that legitimate discourse about Obama’s ability to be president of the United States are being obscured.
To be sure, there are questionable acts taking place on the Democratic side of the ticket. And as McCain pointed out during last night’s third and final presidential debate, he has been quick to repudiate overreaching and unfair statements by his supporters directed at Obama. He wishes Obama would be as quick to demand fairness from his out-of-line faithful.
But the attacks on McCain pale in comparison with those on Obama. Which have become so vitriolic that the Secret Service is investigating whoever shouted “kill him” at a GOP rally The “him” presumably being Obama.
Last night as I moderated the post-debate conversation in the Obama McCain Debate Room on Paltalk.com, I struggled with untold numbers of incorrect assertions being made by Obama in text and on the microphone. So much so that I felt a bit like an apologist for Obama.
For the record, it’s not about Obama. It’s about fairness.
One caller, for example, proclaimed that Obama “supports terrorist groups.” When I asked him to name one group he “supports” the closest he could come up with is Obama’s relationship with Weatherman founder Bill Ayers. The organization conducted its bombing campaign against the Vietnam War when Obama was 8. While his association with Ayers, who has been described as both a “former terrorist” (never convicted) and Chicago’s citizen of the year is a fair issue to raise, it’s a bit of a stretch to say that Obama supports a terrorist group,since the organization the caller cites is no longer in existence.
Then there were those who repeatedly proclaimed in text in the virtual auditorium on Paltalk that Obama is a Muslim. Of course, he also was a member of a Christian Church that was headed by a controversial minister and his judgment in maintaining that relationship has also been questioned. But significant number of voters believe that Obama is, indeed, a Muslim (time precludes a close examination of the implications of that phobic belief) .
Then there was the caller who asked, in an alarmist tone, what the Obama campaign is hiding by not producing his birth certificate, She’s certain that the Democratic candidate for president is constitutionally unqualified to be on the ballot because he was born in Kenya, not Hawaii as claimed.
I read to that caller the results of the investigation of this claim by Factcheck.org, an arm of the University of Pennsylvania. Factcheck actually saw the original document. And reports that it does, indeed, have a raised seal (the allegation is that the campaign has failed to produce the original certificate with the prerequisite embossed seal).
Two responses from the doubtful on that one. The credibility of Factcheck and the assertion, promulgated by those who have never seen the document, that it is a copy.
All this static obscures potentially real concerns that could be raised about Obama. So for that reason alone, it’s not a good tactic.
More importantly, the character assassinations (and there have been those against Sarah , Palin and McCain as well) are not only unhealthy for this campaign. They are bad for the nation in the long run.
Each of us have made decisions that we’d like to take back in our lives. Presumably, well qualified fellow Americans who might otherwise aspire to public service to their nation will look at this campaign and conclude that the potential damage to their reputation and to their families and personal and business relationships outweighs the desire to answer that call.
Remember this during the next presidential campaign when we might be asking ourselves why the best potential candidates aren’t running.
The Baumgarten Report 