US Election Coverage 2008

[Hofstede]

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton released a statement on the Lewis comments.

"Sen. Obama does not believe that John McCain or his policy criticism is in any way comparable to George Wallace or his segregationist policies," Burton said. "But John Lewis was right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric that John McCain himself personally rebuked just last night, as well as the baseless and profoundly irresponsible charges from his own running mate that the Democratic nominee for president of the United States 'pals around with terrorists.' "

 

[The Truth]

Ona surrogates wa Obama.....hivi kweli unaweza kumlinganisha McCain na George Wallace? Unbelievable!!!!! Speechless!!!!

Georgia Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights-era icon , invoked segregationist Gov. George Wallace of Alabama in accusing John McCain and Sarah Palin of fanning the flames of hatred at Republican campaign events.

"What I am seeing reminds me of too much of another destructive period in American history," Lewis said in a statement released to FOX News. "Senator McCain and Governor Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse."

"George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights," Lewis added. "Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama."

He then accused McCain and Palin of "playing with fire" in a way that "disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy."

McCain immediately responded, calling on Obama to denounce Lewis' statement.

"Congressman John Lewis' comments represent a character attack against Governor Sarah Palin and me that is shocking and beyond the pale," McCain said in a written statement. "The notion that legitimate criticism of Senator Obama's record and positions could be compared to Governor George Wallace, his segregationist policies and the violence he provoked is unacceptable and has no place in this campaign.

For years, McCain has been an admirer of Lewis, including praising him in a book on courage and bravery. McCain cited Lewis as one of "three wise men" he would consult as president during a forum at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in August.

It's not McCain to blame, it is Obantu himself and his marxist/communist agenda. American people do not like being forced to fork over the money they worked hard for to benefit others. That's why the current financial bailout is so unpopular. Obantu is proposing similar ideas but in much bigger scale, people hate that. Perhaps this congressman should urge Obantu to move to the center of political scale instead of being a far left loon that Obantu is. He should have learned from Bill Clinton who moved to the center, adapted welfare reform and won two terms.

 

[Hofstede]

It's not McCain to blame, it is Obantu himself and his marxist/communist agenda. American people do not like being forced to fork over the money they worked hard for to benefit others. That's why the current financial bailout is so unpopular. Obantu is proposing similar ideas but in much bigger scale, people hate that. Perhaps this congressman should urge Obantu to move to the center of political scale instead of being a far left loon that Obantu is. He should have learned from Bill Clinton who moved to the center, adapted welfare reform and won two terms.

What is this???????, sound like posting to increase number in you account.

 

[Nyani Ngabu]

nyani, you will never hear those allegations from me. If obama is to lose (by a 1% point) conclusion yangu ni uchaguzi ume ibiwa. There's no other way. Akishindwa kwa large margin (=, > 3%)...i will say kuddos to pres. Mccain.

A win is a win and a loss is a loss. Sadly, you have pre-concluded part of the outcome. So what IF (remember, that is a big IF) Obantu wins by 1% point? Can I also pre-conclude that if that were to happen then Obama stole the election?

 

[mohammedzahor]

its not about obama winning, but it is about change in the pilitical spectrum. so we are not talking about obama winning but about the trend and to be in for a long time to come, that the dream of dr. Martin lutherking junior had is about to be proven correct. though there is a very huge complection in this sphere but politcal dynamic is changing. so todays debate is a proven fact once again we are all the same before our creator and that the only best brfore him is the one who woship most and contrary to what people have been saying that blacks are enfirior when it comes to interlectlua capability.
obama hasa won the election it is only a matter of time, because the world by it self need the changes and there is one big theory which say if it is correct, "there is nothing constant in this world other than change" are you there ? so changes are here to stay and world politics is not out of this boundries at all.

 

[Rev. Kishoka]

Obantu didn't defeat Clinton during the primaries that's the bottom line. You can slice it and dice it anyway you please but that's the truth. If it wasn't for the superdelegates ignoring the will of the Democratic constituency and select Obantu as the nominee he wouldn't have been here. Clinton defeated Obantu decisively in all major "Blue States" during the primaries.

As for your packing the stadiums comment, I don't really care about that. Most of those people have low IQ most likely will not vote. Just like what you see on this forum. If I was to count how many of people cheerleading for OBantu on this thread and all over the forum are actually voting in November, the number will be very low.

Kerpal,

Do not throw lies like Hillary wanted everyone to believe. her total votes include Michigan and Florida which Obama and rest of democratic Party Candidates did not field their names. Had Obama put his name on ballot and overlook the DNC rulling to bar Michigan and Florida, Hillary would not have been fussing about nothing and she could have surrendered earlier than May!

Acha biashara za mongomongo bana!

 

[Rev. Kishoka]

If Obantu was born outside American territory regardless that his mother was American, he is not elligible to run for presidency according to the American constitution. That's the point people are raising. Let Obantu produce his birth certificate and put all the innuendos aside. Just like he needs to remove all the questions about his IQ by producing his test scores.

John McCain was born in Panama, doesn't that disqualify him? Even if he was born on a milltary base, but that is not US soil, it is just a base outside the American territory.

Obama was born in US, sasa mnataka vielelezo gani zaidi?

 

[Rev. Kishoka]

LOL...We will have to see how Obantu abuses his power if he gets elected eh? We already know he has dubious associations, we know gave a hospital where his baby mama Michelle worked million tax dollars when he elected. The list of Obantu dirt is long. But that's nothing compare to what he will be capable of as president. So here is what I predict will happen during Obantu's presidency.

1) He will give presidential/executive pardon all Bantu militants in US prisons and let them go home free.

2) He will pardon Bantu violent criminals citing racist justice system treated them unfairly and let them loose on society to murder, rape, rob the American people.

3) He will go forward with his "global poverty act" initiative and send trillions of AMerican tax dollars to Africa while leaving the taxpayers in America footing the bill for generations to come.

4) He will punish the White middle class (making 250K) by raising their taxes and giving welfare check to the poor minorities. It will be reparations for all the evils they have been doing.

The list is endless of what Obantu presidency will do...

Pole Ponjoro,

The only clemency I am looking forward for him to shake the teeth out of you is to free Mumia Abul Jamal!

 

[Rev. Kishoka]

Ona surrogates wa Obama.....hivi kweli unaweza kumlinganisha McCain na George Wallace? Unbelievable!!!!! Speechless!!!!

Georgia Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights-era icon , invoked segregationist Gov. George Wallace of Alabama in accusing John McCain and Sarah Palin of fanning the flames of hatred at Republican campaign events.

"What I am seeing reminds me of too much of another destructive period in American history," Lewis said in a statement released to FOX News. "Senator McCain and Governor Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse."

"George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights," Lewis added. "Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama."

He then accused McCain and Palin of "playing with fire" in a way that "disregards the value of the political process and cheapens our entire democracy."

McCain immediately responded, calling on Obama to denounce Lewis' statement.

"Congressman John Lewis' comments represent a character attack against Governor Sarah Palin and me that is shocking and beyond the pale," McCain said in a written statement. "The notion that legitimate criticism of Senator Obama's record and positions could be compared to Governor George Wallace, his segregationist policies and the violence he provoked is unacceptable and has no place in this campaign.

For years, McCain has been an admirer of Lewis, including praising him in a book on courage and bravery. McCain cited Lewis as one of "three wise men" he would consult as president during a forum at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in August.

Wasn't it McPain who was buddy buddy with Jesse Helms and some other KK undercover Senators? Wasn't it McPain who voted against recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King day as day of conciliation and celebrate civil right movements?

 

[Rev. Kishoka]

Susu, Makao makuu, na wengine, Jumapili njema enjoy Maureen Dowd column ya leo NyTimes!

October 12, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Are We Rome? Tu Betchus!

By MAUREEN DOWD
With modernity crumbling, our thoughts turn to antiquity.
The decline and fall of the American Empire echoes the experience of the Romans, who also tumbled into the trap of becoming overleveraged empire hussies.
As our sand-castle economy washes away under the tide of bad gambles and debts, this most self-indulgent society lurches toward stoicism (even bankrupt Iceland gives us the cold shoulder and turns to a solvent superpower). It’s going to require more than giving up constant infusions of stocks, Starbucks and Botox.
As Seneca, the Roman Stoic who advised treating the body “somewhat strictly,” wrote in a letter: “Avoid whatever is approved of by the mob, and things that are the gift of chance. Whenever circumstance brings some welcome thing your way, stop in suspicion and alarm ...They are snares. ... we think these things are ours when in fact it is we who are caught. That track leads to precipices; life on that giddy level ends in a fall.”
The study of Latin and Greek, with illuminations on morality, philosophy, mob rule and chariot races, reached a nadir in the greedy ‘80s and ‘90s, when it seemed irrelevant for kids who yearned to be investment bankers and high-tech millionaires. But now we’ve learned the hard way that greed is bad — avaritia mala est — and the classics have staged a comeback. Amo Latinam, so I was happy to see last week’s Times story about the soaring enrollment for Latin classes in New York.
In high school, I translated swatches of Julius Caesar’s “The Battle for Gaul” from Latin to English while nibbling cheese crackers. To boost the felicitous new trend toward Latin, I enlisted Gary D. Farney, an associate professor of history at Rutgers University, to translate (loosely and creatively) from English to Latin “The Battle of Gall,” my take below on why the hyperventilating Republicans are not veni, vidi, vici-ing.
•
Bellum Gallium
Manes Julii Caesaris paucis diebus aderant — “O, most bloody sight!” — cum Ioannes McCainus, mavericus et veteranus captivusque Belli Francoindosinini, et Sara Palina, barracuda borealis, qui sneerare amant Baracum Obamam causa oratorii, pillorant ut demagogi veri, Africanum-Americanum senatorem Terrae Lincolni, ad Republicanas rallias.
Rabidi subcanes candidati, pretendant “no orator as Brutis is,” ut “stir men’s blood” et disturbant mentes populi ad “a sudden flood of mutiny,” ut Wilhelmus Shakespearus scripsit.
Cum Quirites Americani ad rallias Republicanas audiunt nomen Baraci Husseini Obamae, clamant “Mortem!” “Amator terroris!” “Socialiste!” “Bomba Obamam!” “Obama est Arabus!” “Caput excidi!” tempus sit rabble-rouseribus desistere “Smear Talk Express,” ut Stephanus Colbertus dixit. Obama demonatus est tamquam Musulmanus-Manchurianus candidatus — civis “collo-cerviciliaris” ad ralliam Floridianam Palinae exhabet mascum Obamae ut Luciferis.
Obama non queretur high-tech lynching. Sed secreto-serventes agentes nervosissmi sunt.
Vix quisque audivit nomen “Palinae” ante lunibus paucis. Surgivit ex suo tanning bed ad silvas in Terram Eskimorum, rogans quis sit traitorosus, ominosus, scurrilosus, periculosus amator LXs terroris criminalisque Chicagoani? Tu betchus!
“Caeca ambitio Obamana,” novum rumorem Palina McCainusque dixit. “Cum utilis, Obama laborat cum amatore terroris Wilhelmo Ayro. Cum putatus, perjuravit.” McCainianus bossus maximus Francus Keatinx vocat Obamam, “plebeium,” et ut iuvenum snifferendum cocaini minimi (“a little blow.”)
Cum Primus Dudus, spousus Palinanus, culpari attemptaret “Centurionem-Gate,” judices Terrae Santae Elvorumque castigat gubernatricem Palinam de abusu auctoritatis per familiam revengendum.
Tamen Sara et Ioannes bury Obama, not praise him. Maverici, ut capiunt auxilium de friga-domina, hench-femina, Cynthia McCaina Birrabaronessa, (quae culpat Obamam periculandi suum filum in Babylonia), brazen-iter distractant mentes populares de minimissimis IV 0 I K.ibus, deminutione “Motorum Omnium,” et Depressione Magna II.0. Omnes de Georgio Busio Secundo colossale goofballo. “V” (because there’s no W. in Latin) etiam duxit per disastrum ad gymnasium.
Gubernatrix (prope Russia) Palina, spectans candidaciam MMXII, post multam educationem cum Kissingro et post multam parodiam de Sabbatis Nocte Vivo atque de Tina Feia, ferociter vituperat Obamam, ut supralupocidit (aerial shooting of wolves) in Hyperborea.
Vilmingtoni, in Ohionem, McCain’s Mean Girl (Ferox Puella) defendit se gladiatricem politicam esse: “Pauci dicant, O Jupiter, te negativam esse. Non, negativa non sum, sed verissima.” Talk about lipsticka in porcam! Quasi Leeus Atwater de oppugnatione Busii Primi ad Dukakem: “non negativus, sed comparativus.”

 

[Susuviri]

Rev Kishoka, asante mkuu kwa waraka wa Maureen Dowd! I always enjoy her columns. Kuhusu John Lewis, before Obama repudiates etc his statement, John McCain should repudiate Palin's statement that Obama is palling with terrorists and does not think like me and you, un American etc rant! When Babu juzi alim-correct mfuasi wake that was not enough kwa sababu Palin ambaye ni running mate wake said worse things!!!

 

[Susuviri]

Please read this op-ed by Khaled Hosseini who is also the author of "The Kite runner" in the Washington Post. Serious food for thought!
he asked the right question

I prefer to discuss politics through my novels, but I am truly dismayed these days. Twice last week alone, speakers at McCain-Palin rallies have referred to Sen. Barack Obama, with unveiled scorn, as Barack Hussein Obama.

Never mind that this evokes -- and brazenly tries to resurrect -- the unsavory, cruel days of our past that we thought we had left behind. Never mind that such jeers are deeply offensive to millions of peaceful, law-abiding Muslim Americans who must bear the unveiled charge, made by some supporters of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin, that Obama's middle name makes him someone to distrust -- and, judging by some of the crowd reactions at these rallies, someone to persecute or even kill. As a secular Muslim, I too was offended. Obama's middle name differs from my last name by only two vowels. Does the McCain-Palin campaign view me as a pariah too? Do McCain and Palin think there's something wrong with my name?

 

[Susuviri]

Nyaniiiiiii! Kisura alienda kutafuta nini at a hockey match in Philly???? Na laijua atazxomewa ndo maana ali-admit she put her daughter in a Flyer jersey na alimbeba! lakini bado alizomewaaaaaaa! kwikwikwikwiiiiii!

When Sarah Palin dropped the ceremonial first puck at the Flyers' opener on Saturday night at the Wachovia Center, she was greeted by resounding (almost deafening) boos. Ed Snider, owner of the Flyers, had her introduced to the crowd more as a hockey mom than as the Republican candidate for vice president. She was flanked by Scott Gomez, the Rangers center, and Mike Richards, the Flyers center.
While Philadelphia fans are known for not being shy about voicing disapproval, the question has been raised - including by me in an earlier version of this post - whether the appearance was appropriate at a sports event like this.

Akome Kisura wenu kwenda kuharibu hafla za watu wengine kama sehemu ya kampeni yake!!!

 

[Nyani Ngabu]

Wasn't it McPain who was buddy buddy with Jesse Helms and some other KK undercover Senators? Wasn't it McPain who voted against recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King day as day of conciliation and celebrate civil right movements?

Voting against MLK's holiday doesn't make him a racist nor comparable to George Wallace...

 

[Nyani Ngabu]

Nyaniiiiiii! Kisura alienda kutafuta nini at a hockey match in Philly???? Na laijua atazxomewa ndo maana ali-admit she put her daughter in a Flyer jersey na alimbeba! lakini bado alizomewaaaaaaa! kwikwikwikwiiiiii!

Akome Kisura wenu kwenda kuharibu hafla za watu wengine kama sehemu ya kampeni yake!!!

Kuzomewa ni mambo ya kawaida wewe. Ukiwa mwanasiasa lazima utegemee haya mambo. Obama watu watasita kumzomea kwa sababu watu kama nyie mtawalaumu wazomeaji kuwa ni wababguzi. Kwa hiyo Obama mara nyingi hupata "fake" cheers....but you don't get that....sorry

 

[Nyani Ngabu]

Rev Kishoka, asante mkuu kwa waraka wa Maureen Dowd! I always enjoy her columns. Kuhusu John Lewis, before Obama repudiates etc his statement, John McCain should repudiate Palin's statement that Obama is palling with terrorists and does not think like me and you, un American etc rant! When Babu juzi alim-correct mfuasi wake that was not enough kwa sababu Palin ambaye ni running mate wake said worse things!!!

Obama is friends with Bill Ayers...that's a fact. And I believe Obama is a muslim.

 

[Hofstede]

Obama is friends with Bill Ayers...that's a fact. And I believe Obama is a muslim.

The issue of believing is too personal, no body can question your belief like none can question my belief that "Nyani McCain is jealous of Obama's accomplishments"

 

[Susuviri]

Sawa Nyani bana! Lakini kumbuka kwamba Troopergate haijaisha kwa sababu surrogates za akina Babu yako walijiundia haraka bodi nyingine walijua eti watapata sapoti sasa mambo yameharibika.....

A new Alaska legislative report finding that Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power and violated state ethics laws spells new trouble for the McCain campaign. Special counsel Steve Branchflower's report could lead to fines or legislative action to censure Palin. It also directly challenges the vice presidential candidate's credibility on key points related to the "Troopergate" controversy. Palin has said she fired Walt Monegan, Alaska's public-safety commissioner, last summer solely because of budget disputes and "insubordination" by Monegan. But Branchflower found that a likely "contributing" factor was Palin's desire to fire state trooper Mike Wooten, her ex-brother-in-law. While Palin had the right to fire Monegan, Branchflower found that she allowed her husband and top aides to put "impermissible pressure" on subordinates to "advance a personal agenda." The report also questioned Palin's public contention that her family "feared" Wooten, noting that shortly after she took office she ordered a sizable reduction in her personal protection detail.

McCain campaign spokeswoman Meg Stapleton dismissed the report as the product of "a partisan-led inquiry run by Obama supporters." But there could be more land mines ahead. Some weeks ago, the McCain team devised a plan to have Palin file an ethics complaint against herself with the State Personnel Board, arguing that it alone was capable of conducting a fair, nonpartisan inquiry into whether she fired Monegan because he refused to fire Wooten, who had been involved in a messy custody battle with her sister. Some Democrats ridiculed the move, noting that the personnel board answered to Palin. But the board ended up hiring an aggressive Anchorage trial lawyer, Timothy Petumenos, as an independent counsel. McCain aides were chagrined to discover that Petumenos was a Democrat who had contributed to Palin's 2006 opponent for governor, Tony Knowles. Palin is now scheduled to be questioned next week, and the counsel's report could be released soon after. "We took a gamble when we went to the personnel board," said a McCain aide who asked not to be identified discussing strategy. While the McCain camp still insists Palin "has nothing to hide," it acknowledges a critical finding by Petumenos would be even harder to dismiss.

Duh!! Kaazi kwelikweli...

 

[Susuviri]

Nyaniiii, before Palin there was Hillary this is true especially in your case as PUMA! Sasa Sijui utanasemaje....

When Bill and Hillary Clinton take the stage Sunday at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, it will be the launch of an active campaign for their former nemesis Barack Obama in the home stretch of the 2008 presidential race.
The nation's best known and most powerful Democrats for nearly two decades, the former first couple is getting used to a new role: cheerleaders for Obama, who vanquished Hillary Clinton last spring in a Democratic primary contest for the ages.

Whatever recriminations the Clintons may still harbor from that long battle seem to have been nudged aside as they campaign in earnest for the Democratic ticket.

The New York senator and the former president will appear with Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, at a rally Sunday in Scranton, a working class town that has assumed something of an outsize role in the presidential race.

Sasa unaona hiyo party unity??? HIllary hana donge na hajaweka kinyongo hata Babu Bill siku hizi ameingia line amejua ya kuwa hasira ya nini? Life goes on.... na wewe weka basi the primary hurt behind, kubali ushindi wa Obama tufanye kazi pamoja .....😉

 

[Nyambala]

The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama


By FRANK RICH
Published: October 11, 2008

IF you think way back to the start of this marathon campaign, back when it seemed preposterous that any black man could be a serious presidential contender, then you remember the biggest fear about Barack Obama: a crazy person might take a shot at him.

Many of us who had looked to John McCain to restore some semblance of sensible conservatism to the Republican Party have been dismayed and disappointed... "

Some voters told reporters that they didn’t want Obama to run, let alone win, should his very presence unleash the demons who have stalked America from Lincoln to King. After consultation with Congress, Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, gave Obama a Secret Service detail earlier than any presidential candidate in our history — in May 2007, some eight months before the first Democratic primaries.

“I’ve got the best protection in the world, so stop worrying,” Obama reassured his supporters. Eventually the country got conditioned to his appearing in large arenas without incident (though I confess that the first loud burst of fireworks at the end of his convention stadium speech gave me a start). In America, nothing does succeed like success. The fear receded.

Until now. At McCain-Palin rallies, the raucous and insistent cries of “Treason!” and “Terrorist!” and “Kill him!” and “Off with his head!” as well as the uninhibited slinging of racial epithets, are actually something new in a campaign that has seen almost every conceivable twist. They are alarms. Doing nothing is not an option.

All’s fair in politics. John McCain and Sarah Palin have every right to bring up William Ayers, even if his connection to Obama is minor, even if Ayers’s Weather Underground history dates back to Obama’s childhood, even if establishment Republicans and Democrats alike have collaborated with the present-day Ayers in educational reform. But it’s not just the old Joe McCarthyesque guilt-by-association game, however spurious, that’s going on here. Don’t for an instant believe the many mindlessly “even-handed” journalists who keep saying that the McCain campaign’s use of Ayers is the moral or political equivalent of the Obama campaign’s hammering on Charles Keating.

What makes them different, and what has pumped up the Weimar-like rage at McCain-Palin rallies, is the violent escalation in rhetoric, especially (though not exclusively) by Palin. Obama “launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist.” He is “palling around with terrorists” (note the plural noun). Obama is “not a man who sees America the way you and I see America.” Wielding a wildly out-of-context Obama quote, Palin slurs him as an enemy of American troops.

By the time McCain asks the crowd “Who is the real Barack Obama?” it’s no surprise that someone cries out “Terrorist!” The rhetorical conflation of Obama with terrorism is complete. It is stoked further by the repeated invocation of Obama’s middle name by surrogates introducing McCain and Palin at these rallies. This sleight of hand at once synchronizes with the poisonous Obama-is-a-Muslim e-mail blasts and shifts the brand of terrorism from Ayers’s Vietnam-era variety to the radical Islamic threats of today.

That’s a far cry from simply accusing Obama of being a guilty-by-association radical leftist. Obama is being branded as a potential killer and an accessory to past attempts at murder. “Barack Obama’s friend tried to kill my family” was how a McCain press release last week packaged the remembrance of a Weather Underground incident from 1970 — when Obama was 8.

We all know what punishment fits the crime of murder, or even potential murder, if the security of post-9/11 America is at stake. We all know how self-appointed “patriotic” martyrs always justify taking the law into their own hands.

Obama can hardly be held accountable for Ayers’s behavior 40 years ago, but at least McCain and Palin can try to take some responsibility for the behavior of their own supporters in 2008. What’s troubling here is not only the candidates’ loose inflammatory talk but also their refusal to step in promptly and strongly when someone responds to it with bloodthirsty threats in a crowded arena. Joe Biden had it exactly right when he expressed concern last week that “a leading American politician who might be vice president of the United States would not just stop midsentence and turn and condemn that.” To stay silent is to pour gas on the fires.

It wasn’t always thus with McCain. In February he loudly disassociated himself from a speaker who brayed “Barack Hussein Obama” when introducing him at a rally in Ohio. Now McCain either backpedals with tardy, pro forma expressions of respect for his opponent or lets second-tier campaign underlings release boilerplate disavowals after ugly incidents like the chilling Jim Crow-era flashback last week when a Florida sheriff ranted about “Barack Hussein Obama” at a Palin rally while in full uniform.

From the start, there have always been two separate but equal questions about race in this election. Is there still enough racism in America to prevent a black man from being elected president no matter what? And, will Republicans play the race card? The jury is out on the first question until Nov. 4. But we now have the unambiguous answer to the second: Yes.

McCain, who is no racist, turned to this desperate strategy only as Obama started to pull ahead. The tone was set at the Republican convention, with Rudy Giuliani’s mocking dismissal of Obama as an “only in America” affirmative-action baby. We also learned then that the McCain campaign had recruited as a Palin handler none other than Tucker Eskew, the South Carolina consultant who had worked for George W. Bush in the notorious 2000 G.O.P. primary battle where the McCains and their adopted Bangladeshi daughter were slimed by vicious racist rumors.

No less disconcerting was a still-unexplained passage of Palin’s convention speech: Her use of an unattributed quote praising small-town America (as opposed to, say, Chicago and its community organizers) from Westbrook Pegler, the mid-century Hearst columnist famous for his anti-Semitism, racism and violent rhetorical excess. After an assassin tried to kill F.D.R. at a Florida rally and murdered Chicago’s mayor instead in 1933, Pegler wrote that it was “regrettable that Giuseppe Zangara shot the wrong man.” In the ’60s, Pegler had a wish for Bobby Kennedy: “Some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow falls.”

This is the writer who found his way into a speech by a potential vice president at a national political convention. It’s astonishing there’s been no demand for a public accounting from the McCain campaign. Imagine if Obama had quoted a Black Panther or Louis Farrakhan — or William Ayers — in Denver.

The operatives who would have Palin quote Pegler have been at it ever since. A key indicator came two weeks after the convention, when the McCain campaign ran its first ad tying Obama to the mortgage giant Fannie Mae. Rather than make its case by using a legitimate link between Fannie and Obama (or other Democratic leaders), the McCain forces chose a former Fannie executive who had no real tie to Obama or his campaign but did have a black face that could dominate the ad’s visuals.

There are no black faces high in the McCain hierarchy to object to these tactics. There hasn’t been a single black Republican governor, senator or House member in six years. This is a campaign where Palin can repeatedly declare that Alaska is “a microcosm of America” without anyone even wondering how that might be so for a state whose tiny black and Hispanic populations are each roughly one-third the national average. There are indeed so few people of color at McCain events that a black senior writer from The Tallahassee Democrat was mistakenly ejected by the Secret Service from a campaign rally in Panama City in August, even though he was standing with other reporters and showed his credentials. His only apparent infraction was to look glaringly out of place.

Could the old racial politics still be determinative? I’ve long been skeptical of the incessant press prognostications (and liberal panic) that this election will be decided by racist white men in the Rust Belt. Now even the dimmest bloviators have figured out that Americans are riveted by the color green, not black — as in money, not energy. Voters are looking for a leader who might help rescue them, not a reckless gambler whose lurching responses to the economic meltdown (a campaign “suspension,” a mortgage-buyout stunt that changes daily) are as unhinged as his wanderings around the debate stage.

To see how fast the tide is moving, just look at North Carolina. On July 4 this year — the day that the godfather of modern G.O.P. racial politics, Jesse Helms, died — The Charlotte Observer reported that strategists of both parties agreed Obama’s chances to win the state fell “between slim and none.” Today, as Charlotte reels from the implosion of Wachovia, the McCain-Obama race is a dead heat in North Carolina and Helms’s Republican successor in the Senate, Elizabeth Dole, is looking like a goner.

But we’re not at Election Day yet, and if voters are to have their final say, both America and Obama have to get there safely. The McCain campaign has crossed the line between tough negative campaigning and inciting vigilantism, and each day the mob howls louder. The onus is on the man who says he puts his country first to call off the dogs, pit bulls and otherwise.