John McCain’s Missed Opportunity

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A post excerpt (reprinted by permission) from our managing editor at THE ENVIRONMENTALIST:

John McCain missed the single greatest opportunity to address his most dangerous supporters directly and to repudiate their threats of violence after Senator Obama brought up the threats in the debate. McCain chose not to do so, calling them “fringe” while lauding ALL his supporters as “patriotic.”

This came after Senator John McCain made a point during the debate that Barack Obama should repudiate John Lewis’ Wallace comparison, which Senator Obama had done already, while pointing out that Lewis’ concern about violence, given the congressman’s first hand experience, was a valid consideration.

Senator McCain was not impressed. Nor was he impressed when Senator Obama directly brought up the vitriol from McCain and Palin’s rallies, citing words like “terrorist” and “kill him,” which John McCain dismissed as coming from fringe supporters, after which the Republican senator went on to laud all his supporters as “patriotic Americans.”

More below the fold…

This exchange has haunted me since I saw it. Not only because of McCain’s hypocrisy (demanding repudiation for something for which Senator Obama was not responsible while refusing to repudiate his own supporters’ threats of violence against Obama), but because I felt connected to Barack Obama at that moment, the shared concern for both his safety and for our republic, should these “fringe” supporters that McCain/Palin have purposely fired up act on their threats.

I felt haunted, as well, because Obama’s words, to me, had the ring of Martin Luther King’s “I may not get to the mountaintop with you” coupled with: “here’s your opportunity, John, to do the right thing.”

The rest of her post is here.  Please read and share.