McCain Volunteers Taught to Accuse Obama of Terrorism

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.

In the article, Time's Karen Tumulty recounts her visit to a campaign training session in Gainesville, VA, a strategic center for the McCain ground game in Prince William County.   What Tumulty describes is a training session hosted by Virginia's state GOP Chairman Jeffrey M. Frederick in which volunteers were being trained to see Barack Obama as a terrorist.  Tumulty writes:

The McCain campaign invited me to visit Frederick and the Gainesville operation on Saturday morning, to get a first-hand glimpse of its ground game in Prince William County, Virginia, a fast-growing area about 30 miles from Washington, D.C.

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." It is also not exactly true -- though that distorted reference to Obama's controversial association with William Ayers, a former 60s radical, was enough to get the volunteers stoked. "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." Actually, we do; it's Hawaii. (link)

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.

The report confirms that the McCain campaign has staked its chances of winning the Presidency on convincing the public that Barack Obama is on the wrong side of the 'War on Terror' and, therefore, his victory in the Presidential election would put the power of the White House in the hands of terrorists.

Tumulty's report raises serious questions about whether or not John McCain is using campaign rhetoric that not only depart from recognized moral boundaries, but risk igniting actual violence.

In particular, by teaching his volunteers to see Barack Obama as similar to Osama Bin Laden--and by training his volunteers to convince voters of the same--McCain is using his presidential campaign to tie Sen. Obama to the mass murders of September 11, 2001.  In this way, McCain is effectively teaching his supporters to believe that Sen. Obama is not only connected to terrorists, but that Sen. Obama deserves the same punishment as terrorists.  

In other words, by bringing to light the rhetoric being taught to his campaign volunteers, Time Magazine has provided the explanation for why attendees at McCain and Palin rallies have called for the death of Sen. Obama rather than just his defeat, which would be the norm in such events.  When supporters of a Presidential candidate view the opposing candidate as merely an election threat, they call for his defeat. But when they view the opposing candidate as a national security threat--as they are being taught by the McCain campaign--they call for that threat to be eradicated. 

(cross posted from Frameshop)

Follow Jeffrey Feldman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JeffreyFeldman

Comments

[pjburns11]

People see what is going on at these hate rallies and it repulses them.

http://thetruthburns.wordpress.com/2008/10/11/we%e2%80%99ve-gone-from-silly-season-to-hate-week-what%e2%80%99s-next-kristallnacht/

[sandrarita]

Some time ago, I learned that there were camps to train con artists how to go about the pigeon drop game. This is a con where two people work together to bilk vulnerable people out of their money by going through an elaborate ponzi type scheme.

That is what this reminds me of. Camps to teach people how to be criminals. Swift-boating, race-baiting - call it what you will. This is propaganda of the worst sort and if these facist pigs think they are going to turn our country into a Nazi training ground, they are sorely mistaken.

[windyYooper]

this willnot stand, ....man
this violence will not stand

[Guylephat]

you go lebowski !!!!! this is utterly sick ..as a long time dem i used to respect the man mccain was.....bu­t politics creates strangebed­fellows...­.mostly for the weak willed and unprincipled but i digress...­...this story should be on every news outlet including the bought and paid for MSM.....it baffles me how someone can utter the phrase "country first" at every opportunity but act in ways that are self serving and anything but "country first"...a­nd as for his supporters I wonder exactly which bucket of kool aid y'all were drinking out of ? Especially after all the "kool aid" drinking cooments lobbed at obama supporters­......just look at who has been calm and collected over the past 20 months of campaignin­g.......ce­rtainly not team unhinged and the hate patrol of the GOP.......­..........­OBAMA BIDEN 08 .... THE DUDE ABIDES !!!!!!

[SansS]

Sarah, ... a Patsy? Stay with me here, these guys are good at creating scenarios, telling stories and lies, so you have to ask: what have these guys cooked up with their baiting and hate seedings?

A question to start with is: how the powder keg gets lit and what happens after-wards. It's not improbable to think that some right-wing operative, actively heats up a wacko to go after the patsy, Sarah, (call it a Rove-ian twist) and succeeds.

It puts security & fear on the priority AND urgency list. And the reason it's Sarah is that it looks like a left-wing act (they can turn lies into perceptions) and moves votes. AND more importantly it provides an opportunity for McCain's real choice: (foreign-agent) Joe (six-pack) Lieberman to slip on the runner-up crown and into the VP role. (Isn't that interesting, another candidate with that crooked Cheney smile?)

There just doesn't seem to be any other reasonable logic to the McCain campaign behavior than to create chaos, fear and a set up a scenario that drives lemmings to his abyss where power is corrupting the corruptible. He did break in prison, his prison mates didn't.

[doughboynyc]

At this point, if the GOP had any decency or fortitude, they would censure their candidates and forbid anymore of this slanderous smear campaigning. John McCain and Sarah Palin are an embarrassment to their party and to this nation. That there are people who can be swayed by their overt lies and manipulations is simply disturbing.

[sleek]

The McCain/Palin ticket is the first in American history in which both candidates were found to have violated ethics standards before a national election.
--from Washington Monthly

[Kaleban]

I'm curious, but why isn't this being reported on? Or taken before the Senate Ethics Committee? Or some sort of legal body?

I mean, what would be the reaction if there was some activist using the same tactics against an elected president? Oh that's right, an ATF raid and incarceration.

This kind of slander should be the top story in regards to election coverage.

[SpoxLogic]

They won't or can't do that, Kaleban. If you listen to the pundits on the MSM, it is perfectly OK to link Obama to bin Laden. Something about his weak connection to Ayers who is a one-time terrorist which leads to Osama bin Laden who IS a terrorist which leads to the "obvious" conclusion that Obama is in bed with Osama bin Laden.
You're an idiot if you can't make that leap - as per the GOP of course.
Problem is that rationally thinking people would have a brain aneurism if we tried to make that sort of mental leap. But, the GOP knows that there are enough people out there who are already so biased in their way of thinking that this scenario is quite plausible to them.

[KHAAANNN]

Secret Service raid, buddy, not ATF.
I don't think the "Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms" administration is involved in protecting Presidents (just the money that has their faces on it.)

[brief candle]

The jello turned into green slimy walking blobs that turn up at the McSame rallies.

[evgolightly]

The Obama campaign should sue the McCain campaign. But they can't.

Why the f**k isn't the MSM going NUTS over this?

Instead we have to suffer through endless discussions of the possible "Bradley Effect" on CNN and "The Race Factor" .... ?

ENOUGH! I'm so sick of discussing race when there's so much more to report on. Not a damned word about Troopergate today. Nada. Unless you count a passing reference that a VP NOMINEE WAS ACCUSED OF VIOLATING THE PUBLIC TRUST AND FOUND UNETHICAL!

It's going to be a LONG 23 days. Good night, my friends.

[JonRaymond]

Why don't you do some research and put an article together on it?

[Icantbelieveher]

The MSM has one thing right! This race is about color! They just have the color wrong. The color of this race is green! People don't even have enough money to pay their mortgage and he's out there dividing the country, because he wants to be president! Nothing presidential about his behavior.

Make sure you vote, people! He has to be over! He needs to go home to Arizona (I know 3 people from Arizona and they can't stand McCain)! There is nothing honorable about John McCain!

[Glenn1441]

It was Palin's RNC speech, with its Westbrook Pegler reference to 'small town values,' that first pricked up my ears, and let me know with no uncertainty of where things were headed. Beyond Pegler's infamy as an anti-Semite and racist, he is also remembered for his declared wish that some 'white southerner' would spill Bobby Kennedy's brains on the pavement. With that quote, delivered by a hatchet-mom from Alaska, the hateful call to arms was sounded.

As author of his own campaign, McCain now can be seen clearly in the light of history's ghosts -- phantoms of racial violence and assassinations. I stand by that statement as one only need consider the object of the Republican ticket's murderous strategy: Our first African-American presidential candidate, Barack Obama.

And so, I genuinely wonder if McCain has provided for the ostracism to come. Whether as senator or as president, he will be shunned -- an aberration of unbridled ambition wedded to the worst of humanity.

In the meantime, I plan to put pressure on my state Senators, Clinton and Schumer, to push for an investigation. I think there is enough circumstantial evidence to warrant an ethics inquiry.

[evgolightly]

Well said. I'm in NY too, and will do the same, but I wouldn't count on them.

[rucognizant]

I'm inMaine...­......I'll give it a go here.

[IndependenceDame]

If this article is factually accurate and supported, then John McCain should be investigated for ethics violations by Congress and censured. Based on his past performance, he will deny knowledge and blame it solely on Fredericks from Virginia. During this election, one thing is clear, John McCain does NOT take responsibility for his campaign.

[mrskorn]

"Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon," he said. "That is scary."

That is all the trainer is quoted as saying. He did not accuse Obama of terrorism nor was he teaching the volunteers to make any accusations about Obama. If the volunteers said another thing, that doesn't make the headline "McCain volunteers taught to accuse Obama of Terrorism", true.

I find it very necessary that we all look very closely to the true information given before believing any headlines or accusations.

[AntonioGramsci]

Man, thanks so much for clearing that up for me. Now we can all go out and vote for Palin-McCain with clear consciences! "Look very closely to the true informatio­n."

Seriously, did Colbert write this for you? I mean, that is quality stuff right there.

[Glenn1441]

Agreed, Antonio. mrskorn clearly watches the news and reads papers, magazines and blogs with myopic vision.

[Gidster]

Ayres never actually bombed the Pentagon, so the statement is false. The fact that Ayres was wanted as a subversive, not a terrorist makes most of the McCain rhetoric a lie.

But you are right. Multiple sources for your info, and I do not mean Limbaugh and Fox!

[mrskorn]

Semantics.­.he was an accomplice. Even Obama's campaign manager called it terrorist activity. Now you are defending the guy?

You guys can slam me all you want, but I read both sides and also go to many fact checking sites because I want the truth. and I know the media twists words ON BOTH SIDES. I don't want the truth bent by putting words into people's mouths as this writer was doing.

I am happy to admit the deficiencies of McCain Palin even though I am for them. I have yet to find anyone do the same with Obama.

[kbwill]

Does this make McBush And Palin TERRORISTS Also

McCain/Palin's Connections to Terrorists

SO HIS A TERRORISTS­TERRORISTS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tNk-4nGQkE

McBush /Palin push phony ACORN voter fraud lies - racist crap

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW7TPOMbd8Y

[gigs]

shouldnt the secret service be investigating this?

[hortonhearsawho]

It is not a secret...t­hese pepople are proud of what they do and say.

[IndependenceDame]

Tempers are flaring all over this country. We are sitting on a powder keg. Have McCain and Palin resorted to the McCarthy-era playbook? It's divide and conquer by demanding "truth" when the truth has been spoken but not received by those who choose not to hear it because it doesn't fit their agenda. In a win-at-all-costs attempt to reach their ultimate goal, McCain and Palin have done far more harm to the U.S. than the man they hope to replace. Seven years ago REAL terrorists united us as one nation, but it has taken this election only a few months to divide us worse than we were before 9/11. I never thought I'd miss the days following 9/11, so many lives lost, so many tears shed. The McCain/Palin Campaign has trivialized the term "terrorist" by painting anyone against them or their ideology as a terrorist. How long will it take the flames of hate to die down after November 4th or will they continue to burn until the next time REAL terrorists send America another wake up call? President Theodore Roosevelt would be appalled, and President Lincoln would weep at our house divided against itself. Those who fail to learn the lessons of history ...

[Glenn1441]

We lost our '9/11' solidarity rather quickly, Dame. Within a year Americans gleefully slipped back into the rabbit hole of reality television, online shopping and swelling credit, all the while floating blithely on a bubble of self-entitlement. By the time Iraq came around, we lost the good will of the world.

Together, McCain and Palin have willingly allowed themselves to become the Trojan Horse of the far right demagogues' rabidly violent armies.

Thankfully the armies have been decimated by their leader's failing policies over the last 30-years, particularly those of the last eight.

And yet, McCain and Palin must be held accountable for extraordinary lack of ethics, if not morals. All right thinking Americans must hold them accountable -- never letting up until both are driven from the national stage.