San Francisco Chronicle: McCain guilty of McCarthyism

An Edward R Murrow moment by the Chronicle:
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/10/EDVS13EDIF.DTL


McCain and Palin appeal to the ugly side
Friday, October 10, 2008

With just 3 1/2 weeks before the election, John McCain and Sarah Palin have decided against trying to swing votes through policy arguments or even character arguments. Instead, their idea of how to win an election that's not going their way is to incite the mob.

How else can they explain the scenes at their recent rallies, where they stood silent and smiling while supporters shouted "Terrorist!" and "Kill him!" about Barack Obama? How else can they excuse their refusal to shut down rally speakers who thunder about "Barack Hussein Obama"; how else can they explain why their campaign rhetoric, which has been nasty enough over the last several months, has now sunk into McCarthyism?

"This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America," said Sarah Palin at a rally this week, before she went on to (incorrectly) accuse Obama of "palling around with terrorists."

McCain and Palin are wrong to use this playbook for two extremely important reasons. The first one is that it will not help them win. As desperate as McCain is to distract voters from the economic disaster that's unfolding, voters understand what's at stake: their jobs, 401(k) plans, and standards of living. And they're terrified. The polls are showing us that their fright at losing those things far outweighs their fright at electing an African American guy with an unusual name. It has helped that Obama has calmly, steadily assured voters that he's ready to move forward while McCain has wasted time with attacks that seem more irrelevant by the day. The second reason is that this is still America, and our fraught and violent past is never that far from our uncertain present. Inciting the mob is always reckless for everyone involved. At the very least, it will poison McCain's legacy and add to the divisions that have plagued our country during the Bush presidency.
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Here is an updated version of an earlier post I made:
The best response to Ayers:

McCain is using the tactics of the disgraced Joe McCarthy by false accusations and distraction. Ronald Reagan's very good friend Walter Annenberg funded Ayers charitable work and it was his foundation that provided much of the little interaction that Obama and Ayers had. And then mention that it is an obvious distraction from most important issue of the day: the economy.

Very good post.

I think we should write the news outlets and accuse them of complicity in this McCarthyism-- using the SF Chronicle's editorial as an example of a courageous news organization trying to end the disgraceful reporting. In other words, use the editorial as an Edward R Murrow-like response to the dangerous, dishonorable tactics of the McCain campaign.