Its All Good seemed to be salivating for Sean Hannity’s program the other night, but he must not have enjoyed it much after all — at least he hasn’t mentioned it since. This silence speaks well for him, for only loony, Holocaust-praising Jew-haters can have been taken with Hannity’s guest Andy Martin.
Apparently McCain-Palin and its media arm, Fox “News,” don’t mind a bit when the nutters who love them greet mentions of Barack Obama’s name with “Terrorist!” and “Kill him!” As hilzoy reflects,
When I read the histories of great powers in decline, sometimes they manage it well. But much more often, they do not. And one of the common threads is this: that at a moment that seems self-evidently to be a real crisis for the nation, people who should know better continue to tear one another apart, fighting for some tiny scrap of advantage rather than thinking of their country. They cannot summon up the common decency, let alone the greatness, to respond to a crisis with the seriousness it requires.
We are in a crisis. People who want to divert our attention to questions like “just how close do you have to be to serve on the same board with someone”, or describe candidates they oppose as “A Terrorist’s Best Friend”, rather than facing up to the challenges we actually face, reveal whether they actually put country first, or just say they do.
So do voters who allow themselves to be distracted by this sort of idiocy.
As it happens, this fall such voters are becoming fewer by the day. The more mob-incitement the Republican candidates spew, the more sane people reject them. TPMElectionCentral lists the October 6 polls:
CBS/NYT Obama (D) 48%, McCain (R) 45%
NBC/WSJ Obama (D) 49%, McCain (R) 43%
CNN Obama (D) 53%, McCain (R) 45%
Gallup Obama (D) 50%, McCain (R) 42%
GWU Obama (D) 50%, McCain (R) 43%
Hotline/Diageo Obama (D) 47%, McCain (R) 41%
Rasmussen Obama (D) 52%, McCain (R) 44%
Res. 2000 Obama (D) 52%, McCain (R) 40%
Nate Silver, taking a look at the national and swing-state numbers, says,
Are John McCain’s negative attacks succeeding in eating into some of Barack Obama’s support? They certainly aren’t yet. In fact, Barack Obama has had perhaps his strongest individual polling day of the year … You can read these numbers as well as I can. Obama leads by 6 in North Carolina? 12 in Virginia? 7 in Florida? 3 in Missouri? Obviously, I am cherrypicking some of the more pro-Obama results here … but the point is, there are a lot of favorable results these days for Barack Obama.
Why? Because the American people hear from John McCain and Sarah Palin maxed-out irresponsibility, silliness, and hate-mongering. They hear from Barack Obama and Joe Biden sense-making, insight, and unifying leadership. They know which is more likely to improve our lot.
I believe we’re headed for landslide country — 55-45 or better for Obama-Biden — and the more McCain-Palin appeal to the baseness of their base, the more plausible they make make this prediction. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney killed the Republican Party, now John McCain and Sarah Palin are burying it. Fox News will gradually wither atop its stenching grave, too.
So yeah, IAG . . . it is all good. (But it’ll be better when the Dems can benefit from credible opposition again. Maybe we’ll live to see that.)
