A View From The Ground

We all have seen some of those Palin rallies and gasped at how the atmosphere is so poisoned by racsim and hate. Georgia Representative John Lewis compared them to the old George Wallace campaigns of yesteryear. He since apologized and explained his comments saying that they did not view McCain and Palin as comparable only some of the speech and actions of participants at their rallies.

However it is my view that if someone tells an African-American cameraman from a major newsmedia outlet to "sit down boy!", and comments like "kill him" are shouted by the crowd about Obama, then Palin in not making any comment when they occurred is allowing them and giving de facto approval. But then what do we expect from a woman who struts her red neck ways in front of every available TV camera.

Here is a good read by Karen McNulty of Time magazine:

A View from the Ground
By Karen McNulty

If John McCain is as serious as he says about running a "respectful" campaign against an opponent he considers "a decent person," word hasn't yet trickled down to his newly opened storefront field office in Gainesville, Virginia.
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No Democratic presidential candidate has carried Virginia since 1964, and most election years both campaigns pretty much ignore the state. This time, however, McCain is running behind Barack Obama in statewide polls, thanks in large part to the head start he got on the ground there. "We haven't seen a race like this in Virginia — ever," said state GOP Chairman Jeffrey M. Frederick. "The last time was 40 years ago, and they didn't run races like this."
Indeed, Frederick, a 33-year-old state legislator, hadn't even been born yet. But earlier this year Frederick unseated a moderate 71-year-old former lieutenant governor (who also happens to be Jenna Bush's father-in-law) to become head of the Virginia GOP, promising "bold new leadership" for a state party recently on the decline.
The McCain campaign invited me to visit Frederick and the Gainesville operation on Saturday morning, to get a first-hand glimpse of its ground game in Prince William County, Virginia, a fast-growing area about 30 miles from Washington, D.C.
With so much at stake, and time running short, Frederick did not feel he had the luxury of subtlety. He climbed atop a folding chair to give 30 campaign volunteers who were about to go canvassing door to door their talking points — for instance, the connection between Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden: "Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon," he said. "That is scary." It is also not exactly true — though that distorted reference to Obama's controversial association with William Ayers, a former 60s radical, was enough to get the volunteers stoked. "And he won't salute the flag," one woman added, repeating another myth about Obama. She was quickly topped by a man who called out, "We don't even know where Senator Obama was really born." Actually, we do; it's Hawaii.