McCain tussles with Palin over whipping up a mob mentality

[maddezmom]

McCain tussles with Palin over whipping up a mob mentalitySarah Baxter
WITH his electoral prospects fading by the day, Senator John McCain has fallen out with his vice-presidential running mate about the direction of his White House campaign.

McCain has become alarmed about the fury unleashed by Sarah Palin, the moose-hunting “pitbull in lipstick”, against Senator Barack Obama. Cries of “terrorist” and “kill him” have accompanied the tirades by the governor of Alaska against the Democratic nominee at Republican rallies.

Mark Salter, McCain’s long-serving chief of staff, is understood to have told campaign insiders that he would prefer his boss, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, to suffer an “honourable defeat” rather than conduct a campaign that would be out of character – and likely to lose him the election.

Palin, 44, has led the character attacks on Obama in the belief that McCain may be throwing away the election and her chance of becoming vice-president. Her supporters think that if the Republican ticket loses on November 4, she should run for president in 2012.

more:http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4926283.ece

[grannie4peace]

1. i hope they can stop her!

[EFerrari]

2. Do you believe this? I don't, not for a minute.

Everything these bastards do is scripted. This isn't the first time McSlime has played this game.

He's a disgrace to the Senate.

[cui bono]

11. I don't. He was doing the same shit, he approved those foul ads.

This is his campaign trying to save his rep and possibly his chance at the WH, but I think that ship has sailed.

[last1standing]

3. You reap what you sow, mcRacist.

So your little piece of Alaskan fluff decided to stab you in the back, huh, Johnny? If you had bothered to vet her you would have found out like the rest of us did that this is what she's known for. If you hadn't given the OK to start using this racial hatred in stump speeches it would never have started. If you hadn't sold your soul to the rovian devil you might even be looking at a lead in the polls.

But you did, mcRacist, and you will be forever known as the guy who opened the Pandora's Box of hatred during the 2008 election. History will judge you a fool and a racist. There is nothing you can do to change that.

[AFSCME girl]

8. .....

Excellent! Thank you! :hi:

[DJ13]

4. McCain isnt IN CHARGE

He has no influence over his own campaign.

If his former Rove disciple campaign manager doesnt want to stop Palin, McCain is powerless to do it.

[quiet.american]

5. Palin had better look to not being impeached as governor before she looks to 2012.nt

[neomonkey]

6. There is no way I want to see her face again in 2012

The thought of that beast ever becoming President sends shivers down my spine.

[dkf]

7. Wow. The Pitbull is outta control.

McCain stuck himself with an arrogant know-nothing who wants to rule the world.

[tavalon]

29. Oops, it's almost as hard to rain in a borderline personality as it is

a sociopathic narcissist.

[mr1956]

9. "Country First" my ass

My, my she is proving herself to be quite ambitious and opportunistic yet again. No matter this stunt could leave lasting divisions as the country deals with a possible worldwide depression.

My only hope is she will be thoroughly vetted in the next four years and inevitably go down in flames.

[tavalon]

30. Evita Moosilini

Too bad for her, she made so many missteps first time out.

[Believing Is Art]

10. Has McCain lost control of his campaign?

Did he ever have it? I pity him. After he lost the primary in 2000, he sacrificed whatever integrity he had as a politician to tow the Bush line and appeal to the extreme RWers. Now he's is coming face to face with that rabid, ignorant, and hateful Republican base and he doesn't like what he sees. When John McCain had a chance to reshape the Republican party nomination despite lacking support from that base. He could have been a "maverick" and taken the party in a more moderate direction, discouraged the fear and stupidity encouraged by the Bush admin. He might have lost the base and thus the election. But you don't have to win to make a difference.

Instead he courted that base and helped this vile faction of the American public fester. He put personal ambition ahead of the best interests of the nation and is now reaping what he sowed. He has less than a month to come to terms with his likely defeat and use his remaining time as the Republican nominee to try to choose a direction for the Republican party, whether it is popular or not. Unfortunately is credibility is zilch at this point and there is little he can do even if he were to choose to do so.

[Olney Blue]

24. Excellent summary of McCain's situation.

[monmouth]

12. She has become an albatross around his neck. Also, looking

at 2012, what litigation could arise from her abuse of power? If this is a felony (I know not what degree), she would not be eligible to run for Prez, right?

[AnnieBW]

13. This has been there all along

Hiding in the shadows of Freeperland and other Internet sites. In a way, having this come out into the open is a good thing. Now the world can see just how batshit crazy the wingnuts really are.

I'm still scared for Obama, Biden, their families, and their campaign staff, though.

[ailsagirl]

14. Are they trying to say Failin' is doing this unilaterally???

Without clearing it with Mcpain's people??? I don't believe it. And if it IS true, how stupid is that to let her go off on her own and encourage hatred and rascism??

I don't get it

:spank:

[northernlights]

22. She's known for this

her reputation is to trample on the people who give her a leg up.

Thing is, now she's trampling on the rethug party itself. Criminies, even David Brooks has called her a cancer on the rethug party.

What she doesn't get, though, is this isn't the local branch and she hasn't got what it takes to take on the national party. She was their tool and now that she's failed, the financial side won't have anything to do with the likes of her. She'll end up doing in the rethugs, or ending up leading a 3rd party band of KKK/neonazi wingnuts, a la David Duke.

[ailsagirl]

23. Or posing in Playboy (I read "Hef" is interested)

:puke:

[Waiting For Everyman]

15. She's dreaming - with 4 years to compile the dirt on her, she'd never get elected.

Probably not even nominated. I'll bet these whackos will split off from the Repub party (or be thrown out) by 2012.

[spindrifter]

16. Palin's competition with McLame has always been

present. She has the cult personality. He does not. I'm hoping that she crashes and burns.

[wtmusic]

17. Palin running for president in 2012 would be our dream ticket.

She would never be nominated by the Republican party, of course, but as an independent she would be a better vote-siphon than Nader in 2000.

[NeoTheo]

18. Well when you select a clueless nut job for your running mate

what do you expect. But we still don't know if her rants have put them beyond the margin or spread of which Diebold can fix. I betting they haven't so John's still not out.

[2Design]

19. I was hoping he would ask her to leave after yesterday - and

either claim defeat or let it ride to election day or go get Joe Momentum and finish it out

[Tutonic]

20. Come on! She's lipstick!!! This lady ain't no tougher or smarter than

a bag of plastic nails. Mark Salter and Rick Davis can spin this for the next three weeks but this strategy was not dreamt up by Sarah Palin. She's reading 90% of what she says from written text at the rallies. McCain needs to stop being a COWARD--yes a COWARD. Ask the wizard for a heart John and get your ass out there and admit like a man that you screwed up. Otherwise you still look like a COWARD.

[struggle4progress]

21. Asinino needed a campaign strategy simple enough to explain to Dementia

[Celebration]

25. Uh, he just wants it both ways

Let her attack and then the plausible deniability.................

[leeeeenz]

26. on purpose?

what do you all think of the pundits on TV who say that McCain doesn't like the campaign running like this, but that there is a disconnect between him and perhaps others running the campaign?

[Celebration]

28. that is ridiculous, I think

He has control. He has actually stopped them from bringing up Wright. So, it could be even worse. I don't doubt that the fallout of all this has gone farther than he might have wanted, but he helped get the ball rolling. And he is not stopping it--only leaving himself an out for plausible deniability.

[struggle4progress]

27. Sarah Baxter is a rightwing propagandist for The Times: she was a prominent

member of "Democrats for Bush" at one point, and it is always worthwhile being a bit suspicious about the actual content of her stories, which are not always factually correct

Here, I would be suspicious of the notion that "McCain has become alarmed about the fury unleashed by Sarah Palin" -- it is, after all, McCain's campaign, not hers, and Mc's got some nasty ad out now pushing the same sort of crap that (according to Baxter) Mc's concerned about Palin spouting. I'd bet this is just a campaign trial balloon launched via the Republican's reliable mouthpiece, Baxter