McCain-Palin campaign's attacks on Obama: a whiff of fascism

Virulent denunciations of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama delivered by Palin at campaign rallies in Florida this week were met with shouts from the crowd of treason and, in one case, kill him.

At an event in New Mexico, McCain delivered a stock rhetorical line aimed at invoking fears of the Democratic candidate: Who is Barack Obama? Without missing a beat, a shout came back from the audience: terrorist.

The Washington Posts Dana Milbank reported from a campaign rally in Clearwater, Florida in which the crowd, inspired by Palins attacks on the media, turned on reporters shouting abuse and waving sticks. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew, Milbank recounted. One supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African-American sound man ... and told him, Sit down boy.

Last February, McCain felt compelled to disassociate himself from a right-wing talk radio announcer who, in introducing the Republican candidate, referred to his Democratic rival as Barack Hussein Obama, with the accent on the middle name. Now the reference has become routine at Republican rallies, feeding into a general theme of the campaign that the Democratic senator from Illinois not only cannot be trusted, but is a potential terrorist, and making a barely concealed appeal to racism.