The final presidential debate changed nothing. Yeah, good old Johhny POW McCain did his best to sock it to That One last night, but it seems no one was much impressed, not even his base:
Obama was repeatedly forced Wednesday night to explain himself. But he did not lose his cool under his opponent’s persistent criticism, parrying time and again with measured explanations designed to take the sting out of McCain’s charges with voters who may still be making up their minds.
This debate may have been McCain’s strongest performance of the three, but it was also an example of how Obama has used the encounters to try to show that he has not only the knowledge of the issues but also the temperament and the judgment that voters are looking for in a successor to President Bush.
Shorter WaPo: No game changer last night. McCain, like a losing fighter in the last rounds threw mad hay makers like crazy but didn’t rally land any. Obama was his 3C self: cool, calm and collected. McCain was just a simmering jerk. His phony bonhomie and exaggerated gestures were a thin veil for his rage at losing this race (to which he believes himself entitled) to a younger, better organized, more intelligent and more qualified African American opponent.
Which means that the ugliness of this campaign will get worse, and I don’t think McCain himself has any control over much of it. Sarah Palin has as much as indicated she’s not taking her marching orders from Commander Crash, and the rest of the right wing wurlitzer isn’t either. So, expect to hear a siren song of ACORN! ACORN! ACORN! and TERRORIST! TERRORIST! TERRORIST! TERRORIST! and much, much worse. To get a preview of how low into the sewer of racist fear mongering the right will go, one needs only listen to this foaming at the mouth, “Let’s burn some crosses boys” diatribe by the King of the Dittoheads:
Got it? Blacks are ANGRY. They are UNPATRIOTIC and UNAMERICAN. They’re LAZY. They’re WHINERS. They think they are SLAVES. And the liberals caused this (well, except for the angry, lazy part). A movement for THREE DECADES! A CONSPIRACY of White Lefty Hippy Terrorists, ACORN, Jeremiah Wright, Black Liberation Theology, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Democrats in general, but especially OBAMA, to ruin the economy and makes blacks angry, mad as hell and out to steal white people’s money, burn down their homes and rape their purity ball daughters, led by that evil Magic Negro, Barack HUSSEIN! Obama.
Okay, Limbaugh didn’t specifically say that last part, but does anyone doubt that’s the message which he wanted his listeners to take away from his little putrid missive of hate and racism? The backed up sewers of the whacked out, Right Wing Hate Machine just overflowed, people. McCain can’t control the filth that’s gushing out, nor do I expect him to do anything about it. McCain was all over Obama about Congressman John Lewis’ legitimate concerns that McCain and Palin have been fostering a climate of hate and bigotry which portends frightening incidents of violence in our immediate future. Meanwhile, his right wing supporters like Limbaugh and Fox News, are pulling out all the stops to fan the flames of that racial hatred, division and fear. And all McCain could do last night was criticize Obama for not throwing John Lewis under the bus? Obama rightly pointed out that the McCain and Palin rallies are inspiring hate speech against him personally, such as shouts of “Terrorist!” and “Kill him!” and McCain had no real answer to those remarks. However, he sure didn’t condemn the people at those rallies. And he won’t condemn the Limbaughs and Sean Hannitys of the world either when they peddle this venomous message of Fear the Negro!.
No, John McCain has no honor left. He’s a small, mean spirited little man who can’t control himself, much less his followers. His angry temperament, which has made him one of the least liked members of the Senate, is now the sole basis of his campaign. He’s like Michael Douglas in the movie Falling Down the angry white guy whose life hasn’t turned out like he planned, so he goes into a rage, and in the end, ends up hurting not only himself, but everyone who comes into contact with him. By blaming everyone but himself for his failings he’s setting the stage for a very nasty election campaign over the next few weeks, and a return to the type of extreme right wing domestic violence and terrorism that erupted during the Clinton years.
Only this time it will be much worse, my friends. Clinton was a white, Southern, centrist President during a time of economic prosperity. If he wins, Obama will assume that high office on his Inauguration Day during a period of the most destructive, uncertain economic hard times since the Great Depression, all while we are conducting three costly and disastrous foreign wars (i.e., Afghanistan, Iraq and the eponymous “War on Terror”). FDR barely survived both an assassination attempt and a fascist plot to depose him. What do you think, Obama, our first African American President will face from all those angry, riled up right wing haters?
You think they will just peacefully go away? You think their anger and bile will not seek an outlet? You think that they will take the “react with violence” option off the table? You think there aren’t more Timothy McVeighs and Eric Rudolphs and abortion provider murderers out there ready, willing and able to wreak havoc? You think angry, racist white people don’t riot? Or kill racial minorities for the hell of it? Hell, a professor at a Christian college is practically predicting a white backlash if Obama wins.
I think we are in for a very, very dangerous time for our republic. And John McCain and Sarah Palin and all the vile, contemptuous religious, political and media creatures on the right are to blame for whatever evil befalls us in the days ahead.
