McCain Anti-American? His Volunteers Taught to Smear Obama with Terrorism

McCain is no "uniter" and when it comes to incitement to violence, he's not an innocent bystander - he's fanning the flames. Maybe this is already out there. But to no surprise to many, it's official: Huffpo's Jeffrey Feldman reports:

According to Time, McCain campaign staffers in Virginia are teaching volunteers to see Barack Obama as having terrorist 'friends,' and then providing these volunteers with arguments for persuading voters that Sen. Obama, like Osama Bin Laden, shares responsibility for bombings of the Pentagon.

The report from inside the McCain campaign brings to light an alarming fact: while McCain tells his supporters publicly to refrain from violent rhetoric, he continues to teach his volunteers rhetoric designed to elicit violent responses.

Is that the sort of responsible leadership we need in these critical times? Or does it actually break up the "union"?

Karen Tumulty of Time, reports from inside McCain's campaign training center in Virginia that Virginia's state GOP Chairman Jeffrey M. Frederick is leading training sessions designed to create a view of Obama as a terrorist. No, no, it's true:

With so much at stake, and time running short, Frederick did not feel he had the luxury of subtlety. He climbed atop a folding chair to give 30 campaign volunteers who were about to go canvassing door to door their talking points -- for instance, the connection between Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden: "Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon," he said. "That is scary."

Which view of the world was augmented by more ignorance:

"And he won't salute the flag," one woman added, repeating another myth about Obama. She was quickly topped by a man who called out, "We don't even know where Senator Obama was really born."

By actually training volunteers to lie in the most vicious and outrageous way - doesn't this merit cries of "smear campaign" or a suit for libel? - McCain and his campaign are proving themselves wildly unfit for public office, let along the Office of the Presidency.

It is precisely this kind of fear-mongering and name-calling and wild and callous preference for violent opposition that made Bush-Cheney the complete disaster that their administration is, and brought our country to the virtual standstill it is currently in, where the rich are richer, the poor are poorer, and most of those mindlessly repeating the Big Brother-loved rhetoric are actually among the victims of the very mentality they enthusiastically embrace.

The report from inside the McCain campaign is disturbing on several levels. While McCain has begun chiding his supporters at public rallies for using violent rhetoric, his campaign has taken the opposite tack behind closed doors. Despite the public image of a campaign not responsible for the violent outbursts of a few followers, the Time report reveals a ground operation actually training its volunteers to elicit violent responses in voters--specifically by making false claims about Barack Obama's connection to terrorist attacks on U.S. military buildings.

By connecting Obama to the 9/11 terrorists in the worst, most stupid and conniving, lying way, McCain and his campaign are directly responsible for calls for violence against Obama, and in turn, violence against those who support him, and in turn, against other Americans. McCain is not a Presidential candidate in such a case. In this desperate turn for his campaign, he becomes a leader inciting civil war and in the spirit of secessionist-leaning Sarah Palin, inciting the very destruction of the dream and reality we call one nation, America. Far from patriotic, his desperation has certainly put "Country Last".