The Palin legacy of hate

The Huffington Post has an article noting that the current issue of Newsweek which arrives on the stands today, includes its Special Election Project "which allowed reporters to gather behind-the-scenes information on the presidential campaign with an agreement that none of their reporting would be published until after Election Day."

The section offers a number of fascinating tidbits, such as the fact that over the summer the Obama and the McCain campaigns were hit by a cyber attack "by an unknown 'foreign entity" in order, the experts believe, to obtain information that could be used "in negotiations with a future administration."

Then there is the brouhaha about Palin's costly wardrobe and a note that McCain was kept in the dark as his aides knew her extravangance would upset him.

And much more...

But, the most troubling item has to do with the fact that "the Secret Service [showed] a sharp and very disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October, at the same time that the crowds at Palin rallies become more frenzied."

Much has been written about these "frenzied" crowds [mobs?] who called out racial epithets along with comments mimicking Palin's rhetoric, such as "terrorist!" and "socialist."

None of this fazed her majesty from Alaska in the least. She continued to spew out lies such as Obama is "palling around with terrorists," and Obama does not want to win the war, and Obama will raise your taxes, and Obama is not one of us, etc.

We have also learned that Palin wanted to use Obama's association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright as a means of attacking his character also, but was turned down by the McCain campaign.


It is incredible that in spite of the fact her words created a milieu in which racism and hatred thrived and led to a number of threats to Obama, which could conceivably have resulted in violence against him or even his death, she continued to attack him personally and directly on a daily basis, inciting the mobs even more.

That is the Palin legacy: Not spreading the wealth, but spreading the hate, and not caring where that might lead.

Poignantly, Michelle Obama, feeling the weight of the Palin attack, asked one of her aides, "Why would they try to make people hate us?"