John McCain and the capitalization of fear

I was reading this piece by Ana Marie Cox and it suddenly dawned on me what is happening. I am quite surprised that I did not think of it before.

John McCain is essentially doing what Hillary Clinton tried to do and failed harshly at doing it. It also seems like John McCain’s campaign has some of the same issues that Hillary’s campaign had as well. One hand not knowing what the other is doing.

Quoting Ana:

Here in Lakeville, the traveling press was pretty sure we’d see more of the kind of vicious anti-Obama attitude that’s becoming a hallmark of McCain rallies of late.

As the town hall started, McCain was off with more pep than usual. Making the same old jokes, but with energy that reminded us of “the old McCain.” But would he use his power for good or evil? An audience member teed up a great big softball that could totally hit a dark side home run, asking, “We want you to fight at your next debate… we want to see s REAL fight at the debate, we want a STRONG leader for the next four years.” That is Minnesota nice for “RevWrightACORNAyers,” etc.

But then something weird happens: He acknowledges the “energy” people have been showing at rallies, and how glad he is that people are excited. But, he says, “I respect Sen. Obama and his accomplishments.” People booed at the mention of his name. McCain, visibly angry, stopped them: “I want EVERYONE to be respectful, and lets make sure we are.”

The biggest difference is that this time, it is Right Wingers hating on a Left Wing candidate. The biggest notable exception to this, is this guy here. But he’s an idiot and everyone ignores him. Now, do I believe that there is some crazy person out there who will be inspired to blow Obama away at the first chance he gets? I highly doubt it. Obama is so damn well-protected that he can’t even take a damn leak by himself. So, the chances of that happening are slim to none, in this day and age of super high security. The events of JFK and Ronald Reagan were a wake up call the Secret Service and after that Presidents were so well protected, that something of that nature will most likely never happen again.

Another big and glaring difference is that the McCain campaign, in a indirect sort of a way stoked this whole “Obama is a terrorist” mentality up. Although, to be fair to John McCain and his campaign; these “Obama is terrorist” e-mails had been floating around for a very long time, long before it was ever brought up by John McCain and the campaign. They simply did what Hillary’s campaign attempted to do and were pretty successful at it, for a short time; they capitalized on the fear behind it. However, in the end, it ended up blowing up in their faces, just like it did with Hillary’s campaign.

The lesson to be learned here in this election is this; if you are going to run a Presidential Campaign that Capitalizes on the use of fear, you better be prepared to deal with the extremist factions and reactions of your political party. Because if you not properly prepared to deal with such a thing, it can and will blow up in your face. It also helps to, if you have a political campaign that it settled 100 percent on a campaign strategy.

(Hat Tip to Memeorandum)   

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