Really. John McCain needs to immediately say something about this. Imagine if it were reversed and people were, in an Obama rally, calling McCain a terrorist and saying that he needed to be killed. I'm going to post about this every single day until John McCain says something and tells Sarah Palin to do the same.

It's beyond shame. It's unamerican. And it's sick.

P.S. From Juan Cole.

Sarah Palin's jab at Barack Obama on Sunday attempting to tie him to terrorism (!) is another in a long line of gaffes that will hurt her ticket tremendously.

You always suspected that McCain, if he got in trouble with the electorate, really would stoop to calling his rival a terrorist.

Saturday Night Live writers don't even have to create parodies any more. They've just been quoting Palin verbatim.

The comedy writers have another wild statement from Palin/McCain to work with now.

Except that, at least for me, and apparently a lot of people who aren't fringe Republicans, this type of behavior isn't funny.I thought it was appalling when Hillary Clinton alluded to Bobby Kennedy's assassination. Is it now permissible because it's John McCain and Sarah Palin?

P.P.S Apparently this hate-filled attitude, which seems to be how McCain et al wants to be known, now, is being encouraged and is whipping up crowds into hate.

McCain had said that racially explosive attacks related to Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, are off limits. But Palin told New York Times columnist Bill Kristol in an interview published Monday: "I don't know why that association isn't discussed more."

So, what's the deal here? Is she an out of control VP who cares nothing about the way McCain *said* he wanted to run his campaign? Or is he the one that is hate-filled and his original honorable statements meant nothing? Or maybe it's a huge lack of respect on her part for him because she thinks she's going to be president, anyway?

Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy."

Yup. Palin is not like me. I was raised with Christian values that would not allow me to whip up a crowd into this type of ugliness. As another author said,it's like her own version of brownshirts.

And can I say, it's finally exposing the Republican party completely and utterly to be the Party of Racists and Fear Mongerers.

P.P.P.S. from Huffpo

Since the start of the election campaign well over a year ago, voters have been subject to ongoing smear campaigns in emails and push polls accusing Sen. Obama of ties to and sympathies with domestic and foreign terrorist groups.  No matter how many times these smear campaigns have been exposed, they continued.  Now that John McCain and Sarah Palin have echoed these accusations--the idea that Sen. Obama is secretly a terrorist has the stamp of approval of a presidential campaign, but of a multi-term U.S. senator and a U.S. governor.

One wonders at this point how the various agencies charged with the responsibility of protecting the Presidential candidates from violence will respond to this latest tactic from the McCain campaign.  If, for example, a McCain supporter threatens the life of Sen. Obama by shouting 'Kill him!' at a Palin rally, should Sen. Obama's Secret Service contingent launch an investigation?  Having been accused of terrorist ties by the McCain campaign, will Sen. Obama's name be put on the 'No Fly' list, effectively making it impossible for him to engage in normal airline travel?  

An even more basic question, perhaps: Is Gov. Palin trying to incite violence against Sen. Obama as part of an ill-conceived campaign strategy to change the topic from the economy at any cost?

Time will tell how law enforcement will respond, but one thing is already certain:  the more Palin and McCain incite calls for violence against Sen. Obama, the more their chances of achieving a victory in November disappear.