I just watched John McCain’s interview on ABC News – here, if you missed it.
“This is a tough campaign”, he says. Tough indeed, when the crowds at his rallies are whipped into shouting “kill him!”, or “terrorist!” as a speaker makes a reference to Barack Obama. Does this make John McCain uncomfortable? Does it give him pause enough that he might ask his surrogates and his running mate to lower the rhetoric? Would he consider warning his supporters publicly that this sort of language and behavior is “unacceptable”, to use this season’s most overused word? Or does he actually think it’s part of what’s fair in the blood sport of politics?
We’ll never know, or at least we will not know tonight. Charles Gibson never asked.
The ABC newsman dutifully asked the questions one expected on a day when the Dow plunged again – on the economy, on McCain’s plan to buy 300 billion dollars worth of bad mortgages. Then the anchorman moved to the other topic of the day: Bill Ayers. Yes, once again, since after signaling they might drop the issue, the republican ticket actually embraced it with a new vengeance. Check the Internet ad – here.
John McCain asserts that Hillary Clinton said the relationship between Ayers and Obama “should be” brought up; she actually said it “would” – and her spokesperson proceeded to tear into McCain for manipulating a choice selection of Hillary’s words. – here.
But this is certainly not the end of the story – nor of the crowds frenzy.
