Newsweek: Obama Camp was very concerned that about the frenzied atmosphere at Palin rallies

[sabra]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/167950/page/5

<snip>

"I'm worried," Gregory Craig said to a NEWSWEEK reporter in mid-October. He was concerned that the frenzied atmosphere at the Palin rallies would encourage someone to do something violent toward Obama. He was not the only one in the Obama campaign thinking the unthinkable. The campaign was provided with reports from the Secret Service showing a sharp and very disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October. Michelle was shaken by the vituperative crowds and the hot rhetoric from the GOP candidates. "Why would they try to make people hate us?" she asked Valerie Jarrett. Several of Obama's friends in the Senate were shocked by the GOP rabble-rousing. Dick Durbin, the U.S. senator from Illinois who pushed for early Secret Service coverage for Obama, called Lindsey Graham, who was traveling with McCain. (Graham scoffed at the call as "an orchestrated attempt to push a narrative" about McCain going negative. He said he told Durbin, "OK, buddy, but remember—that goes both ways.")

[Lumpsum]

1. Lindsey Graham, what a shit-bag.

[AbbeyRoad]

13. I'll second that.

Durbin's a good friend for giving it a shot.

[LVdem]

18. Nice logo...

its now on my desktop!!!

[d_b]

2. "Why would they try to make people hate us?"

:nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr: :nuke: :grr:

[kestrel91316]

4. Because they are RACIST PIGS, Michelle. It's really that simple.

[Jennicut]

8. I feel bad for Michelle. She did not deserve having to be worried that some nut was

going to be influenced by these rallies and go off on her husband. Its bad enough that as the first black nominee for prez he had to be worried anyways but to incite crowds like this, such ugliness.

[Withywindle]

24. That's probably why she put up so much resistance to his run at first.

God protect them both. I know they know the risks, and they're taking it anyway. For this country. Now THEY are patriots.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. They were not the only ones who were worried...

[Cleetus]

5. I'm not surprised...

I'll tellya what, the internal workings of the McCain campaign would make one hell of a movie. I would pay to see it..

[Jennicut]

6. It only works both ways if the other side is just as dirty and disgusting and Obama and Biden

were not. Someone also needs to seriously kick Lindsay's pompous ass. I detest him even more then John McCain.

[Cha]

7. Rec'd~ And, just who wouldn't be? Any sane

American would be.

So don't give me "gracious" now.

[Cha]

9. You have to have an intelligence chip missing

to be the republican ilk of a lindsey graham.

[last1standing]

10. This is why I can't forgive mcRacist and Hatin' Palin.

They did the unimaginable, they stooped to levels even rove and bush* never lowered themselves to. They explicitly attempted to goad their knuckle-dragging, mouth-breather sycophants into violent acts against a presidential opponent. They should both be in jail. :mad:

[GetTheRightVote]

11. 1st black president and most white people did not vote for him...

I think this is a no brainer. They need to cover him 24/7 and I hope that they do a really good job of it. We need Obama to stay alive for a really long time. Keep Obama in your prays.

:kick:

[uppityperson]

12. McCain NEEDS to start speaking out loudly against this.

Seriously, that would probably do a lot of good. There will be those who won't listen, but I'd really like him to start talking about this and working to settle it down.

[tblue]

14. I hold McC and SP personally responsible. They incited the talk of violence.

It's unforgivable. McC will take this to his grave.

[uppityperson]

16. Me too and I agree. And I just wrote him and toldhim he should do this.

It is unforgivable.

[Dr Fate]

15. I'll bet Lindsey knows all about going both ways.

Did anyone catch Rachel Maddow referring to Graham as McCain's "man friend"?

[Crunchy Frog]

19. I doubt he knows much about going the other way.

Just sayin'.

[Lifelong Protester]

17. See, this is why all those threads about not being mean

to the Repubs because "we were there once, too" make me angry. They (the backers of Palin in particular) deserve NO SYMPATHY from us. There was a very real threat (still is) from them, so quite frankly, I don't see how our suffering 4 and 8 years ago can be equated with theirs now, and induce me to feel empathetic towards them. They ran the most RABID ad hominem campaign I've seen, and deserve to be in the diaspora for a long time for their sins.

[EmilyAnne]

20. Can we PLEASE remember this before giving the Obamas shit if they don't send their kids to a public

school? Seriously. There are some very hateful, scary people in this country.

[Muttocracy]

21. I was just reading that series... some fun stuff but a lot of sad or scary stuff :(

[krkaufman]

22. If the Secret Service notified the Obama campaign of the increased threats ...

... my question is whether or not the SS also contacted the McCain campaign regarding the relation of the threats to Obama and the McCain/Palin rhetoric, and, if so, whom did they contact within the campaign?

[Born_A_Truman]

23. What scares me

What scares me is just because the election is over, their followers are still riled up. McCain and Palin can go back to Alaska and Arizona but their hate fest doesn't stop because they lost.

[mikiturner]

25. How pathetic

(Actually, Palin was feeling hurt and angry over the tabloid treatment of her 17-year-old daughter Bristol, and decided—on her own—that Ayers should be fair game. McCain's advisers were working on a strategy that would launch an Ayers attack the following week, but McCain had not signed off on it, and Salter was resisting.)

So she's hurt by tabloid coverage (coverage that Obama rebuked immediately and NEVER subsequently raised and threatened to fire anyone who did) of her daughter, so she decides to say Obama is "palling around with terrorists?"

[K Gardner]

26. This woman is DANGEROUS. I hope THIS part gets MSM coverage.