Robert Parry: Why Are McCain Backers So Angry?

The McCain campaign’s strategy of repeatedly invoking Senator Obama’s connection to former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers seems to have had one indubitable effect. It has riled up crowds of McCain and Palin supporters to a point that Senator McCain was booed at his own rally Friday when he attempted to defend his rival against character attacks.

The Republican Presidential nominee was speaking to a crowd near Minneapolis on Friday and his attempt to defend Senator Obama was meet with jeers.

At a Palin rally earlier in the week, Governor Palin referred to Senator Obama as a man connected to “a former domestic terrorist.” She said she was “fearful” of his vision of America.

While Palin was speaking about Obama, an audience member yelled out “kill him.” It"s unclear if Palin heard the remark, but she did not respond.

Obama was eight years old when, 40 years ago, Ayers was a member of the militant anti-war group, The Weather Underground. Today Ayers is a tenured professor and leading expert on education reform.

Frank Schaeffer, bestselling author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back. He is the son of the late evangelist Francis Schaeffer and considered himself a lifelong Republican. He voted for John McCain in 2000, and McCain even endorsed one of Schaeffer’s earlier books on military service. On Friday, Schaeffer published ‘An Open Letter to John McCain’ in the Baltimore Sun.