Jackson Free Press

The St. Petersburg Times in Florida reports:

CLEARWATER -- Constantly under the watchful eyes of security, the media wasn't permitted to wander around inside Coachman Park to talk to Sarah Palin supporters. When reporters tried to leave the designated press area and head toward the bleachers where the crowd was seated, an escort would dart out of nowhere and confront him or her and say, "Can I help you?'' and turn the person around.
When one reporter asked an escort, who would not give her name, why the press wasn't allowed to mingle, she said that in the past, negative things had been written. The campaign wanted to avoid that possibility Monday.
-- Times staff writer Eileen Schulte

Are they out of their freakin' desperate minds!?!

Previous Commentsshow

This explains it: the campaign is afraid the media is going to interview the bigots in her audiences; this is getting ugly. Washington Post: Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy." McCain's swoon is largely out of his control, the result of an economic collapse that ignited new fears Monday when the Dow Jones industrial average closed below 10,000 for the first time in four years. That's why his lead in Florida polls, which once reached as high as 15 points, has turned into a three-point deficit. But the campaign has reacted with recriminations (the St. Petersburg Times reported that the Florida Republican Party chairman, after questioning Palin's aptitude, was told that he couldn't fly on her plane) and now Palin's rage. The angry GOP vice presidential nominee even found a way to blame the market decline on the yet-to-be-enacted tax policies of the yet-to-be-elected Obama. "If you turn on the news tonight when you get home, you're gonna see that, yah, this is another woeful day in the market, and the other side just doesn't understand -- no!" she said at an afternoon fundraiser at the home of mutual fund giant Jack Donahue. "Especially in a time like this, you don't propose to increase taxes. The phoniest claim in a campaign that's full of them is that Barack Obama is going to cut your taxes." Of course, Obama never promised to cut taxes for people at $10,000-a-plate lunches in air-conditioned tents on waterfront compounds. And the crowd -- among them New York Jets owner Woody Johnson -- reacted without applause to Palin's Joe Six-Pack lines. After they didn't strike up the usual "Drill, baby, drill" or "USA" chants, Palin, rattled, read hurriedly through the rest of her speech. The reception had been better in Clearwater, where Palin, speaking to a sea of "Palin Power" and "Sarahcuda" T-shirts, tried to link Obama to the 1960s Weather Underground. "One of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," she said. ("Boooo!" said the crowd.) "And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,' " she continued. ("Boooo!" the crowd repeated.) "Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

DonnaLadd

Oct 6 2008

Bigotry and hate, manifestations of the true American values. The quintessential American icon, the Statue of Liberty, came here as a gift from France.

HardTravelin

Oct 6 2008

Here's what I want to know: Why isn't the McCain campaign ejecting people from the rallies who are yelling out "Kill him!" about Obama or racial epithets at black camera men??? This is really, really ugly. You have Sarah Palin, who herself has palled around with anti-American secessionists (which included her husband until she ran for governor) coming down here and sowing hate in the lower 48. So to speak. If McCain is half the man we all have long thought him to be, he will put an end to this. The American public has changed a lot in the last 40 years, and he needs to stop the "southern strategy" of treating us all like hateful bigots. And so does his attack doggie dog. (Good that she called herself a pitbull, huh?) This rhetoric is the worst of America. It causes division here on our soil, and makes us look terrible to people abroad. It seems to be territory Palin is very, very comfortable in, and that should scare the hell out of the rest of us who believe we've come quite a distance in recent years. This is our year to prove it. And by playing these cards, the Republican Party is showing just how out of touch it is. It's time for that party to remake itself, and be strong once again without sowing hatred and division. That starts with halting efforts to keep people from voting. (Hosemann, that means you, too.) Try makinig more people want to vote for y'all. There is something horribly wrong when the strategy relies on keeping people who don't look like you away from the polls. Meditate on it. Pray on it. Move past Karl Rove-Steve Schmidt rhetoric. Your party is not going to survive this, and don't try to take our country down with you. Just because you're losing does not give you free rein to carpetbomb America with hatred and distrust of "the other." It's not only people of color who recognize this strategy. We all do. Younger white Americans have grown up hearing this kind of nastiness, and we know what it is. McCain legacy will be this if he doesn't stop taking advice from the Steve Schmidts and Todd/Sarah Palins of the world and reel it in. Americans are not going to stand for four weeks of this.

DonnaLadd

Oct 7 2008

I listened to video from a McCain rally at which, after McCain asked what kind of guy consorts with terroists, a guy in the audience screamed, "a TERRORIST!". These are sick people. I was born in 1961. I do not recall such public displays of hatred as a part of a political strategy in my adult lifetime. If they win by slander AGAIN (they smeared Kerry, a war hero), this country will reap what they have sown in hatred inside and outside the country. It will end up a hollow "victory".

FreeClif

Oct 7 2008

Did ya'll see the Daily Show last night? They were at a bar in Wasilla during the debates and talked to some of the locals. Wow! What a racist, homophobic bunch of ignorant folks! One big fella with a bear t-shirt said there was going to be "a white out in the voting booth" on election day. They made me proud to be from Mississippi! Palin says we need a little "Wasilla Main Street brought to Washington, DC." Thanks, but no thanks!

Tre

Oct 7 2008

It seems that, not only would McCain's plan to extend tax cuts for the rich be financed by borrowing from China, but they will also borrow China's policies on restricting freedom of the press!

FreeClif

Oct 7 2008

Here's the thing: an idiot or a bigot can work him or her way into anyone's rally. But the test for the Palin-McCain campaign is how they and the rest of the audience respond. Do they boo people making bigoted remarks and shouting "kill him!"–or do they sit back and enjoy it because those people are on their side. No evidence yet that any of these morons got kicked out; it seems that it is the exact fervor Palin is trying to work up. She even warned herself that was going to "get ugly." How many Republicans in 2008 are going to keep going along with such blatant bigotry and ugliness? I remember a 2004 voter rally the JFP held with Democrats and Republicans and Independents, candidates and audience members. If there was anything that united us all with open disgust, it was the racist ravings of Jim Giles. It is time for good Republicans to take a stand against this ugliness in their own party.

DonnaLadd

Oct 7 2008

And I'll be honest. When McCain was chosen as the nominee, I thought it was smart because he would have the best shot of beating Obama (or Hillary) precisely because he wouldn't give into the dark side of his party. He is ruining his legacy.

DonnaLadd

Oct 7 2008

No press allowed? What happened to all that Fourth Estate stuff? "Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience. The Secret Service should have tackled him to the ground.

LatashaWillis

Oct 7 2008

Race keeps the common folks distracted while the few at the top grab the gold, most recently $700 billion.

HardTravelin

Oct 7 2008

The ignorant folks are the one's who seem to be easily distracted by facist propaganda.

FreeClif

Oct 7 2008

The ignorant folks are virtually everyone in the USA. You can spot them in airports around the world - talk loud, don't speak the language, and don't know which fork to use.

HardTravelin

Oct 7 2008

Uh oh, HardTravelin. They're gonna call you an elitist now.

LatashaWillis

Oct 7 2008

L.W., I am an elitist to this extent: I can see that the America concept is a failed experiment of tragic proportions. Unfortunately, it's the people on the bottom who feel it the most. I'm for them.

HardTravelin

Oct 7 2008

We need to see the zeal of the American Revolution again! I still have faith that the American "experiment" can work out. I don't believe that the majority of Americans are ugly. Unfortunately, there still are far too many "ugly Americans" and some are running for public office. The problem is with the apathetic Americans --- those who don't even muster the energy to stand up for their own interests. What happened to "Live free or die."? Those early patriots would not have stood for the invasive elements in the oxymoronic "Patriot Act".

FreeClif

Oct 7 2008

Check out this video about "Palin Land". There's some footage of Palin supporters watching the VP debate on a jumbotron. At around 2:45, when Biden chokes up about losing his first wife and daughters, some people actually laugh. It takes a special kind of evil to laugh at another person's tragedy.

LatashaWillis

Oct 7 2008

To paraphrase Palin, perhaps they have a special place in hell reserved for those who pretend to be Christians, but encourage that kind of spirtual wickedness.

FreeClif

Oct 7 2008

Cohen agrees with Palin that the media is part of the problem: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/10/media_gives_palin_a_pa.html

FreeClif

Oct 7 2008

Love the soapbox, that's why I keep reading these threads. Glad you think McCain is "ruining his legacy." He's trying to win the Presidency! The gloves are off on both sides in this late stage. I don't know why anyone is surprised.

QB

Oct 7 2008

I'm surprised that McCain would stoop so low as to allow the race and terrorism games to be played. Apparently, unlike his supporters such as yourself, I expected more of him. You don't win this way. Not in 2008. America as a whole has changed even if some Americans have not. The good thing is that, at this point, response to the campaign is showing exactly who out there doesn't mind these kinds of strategies. I can't tell you how many times recently that someone white has said to me, "I couldn't believe what someone said to me about Obama." What many white folks are realizing is that many people they thought they knew are feeling comfortable being blatantly racist to them because they're white, much as Palin is doing. The good news is how many white people do not want to hear it any more. Praise glory.

DonnaLadd

Oct 7 2008

Fat Harry, your comment is an insight into who you are that you see nothing wrong with their rallies degenerating into virtual lynch mobs shouting "kill him" and "terrorist". I doubt that you have any white people feeling afraid to be around an Obama rally. I guess this reveals how you all really feel --- that you think this is normal politics.

FreeClif

Oct 7 2008

It is revealing. McCain needs to come out today and condemn all of this hate that Palin is bringing out of people. It could lead to real violence if they don't stop fanning the flames. Then he has *that* on his conscience.

DonnaLadd

Oct 7 2008

Yep- it's like when that lady asked McCain "How do we beat the bitch?" (talking about Hillary). He just laughed, then answered the question.

Tre

Oct 7 2008

He's going to pay dearly–legacy, wise–if he doesn't stop Schmidt and Palin. I'm as confident of this as I was that Frank Melton was going to be a huge problem and that people would end up despising Bush for hurting the country. McCain needs to take control of this campaign and get it out of the gutter. And I don't say that because I think Obama needs him to; I think their gutter politics is going to help send Obama to the White House. I say it because I believe that, deep inside, he is a better human being than this. Schmidt convinced him to pick Palin (story in L.A. Times), and then is using her as a willing accomplice to get nasty. I think she will suffer, too, back home in Alaska, but frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. She ain't no nobody's hero, and never has been. But McCain can do better than this. He needs to maintain some level of self-respect after this campaign.

DonnaLadd

Oct 7 2008

Yes, it could degenerate into violence. It is ironic that some of the mainstream media idiots wanted do stories on how African Americans would react if Obama lost. Why did none consider that certain reactionary types of white people might react with anger at the thought of their preferred candidate losing as we are seeing? I guess there was no reason to suspect that they might get even wingnuttier.

FreeClif

Oct 7 2008

The video of the woman laughing as Biden choked up while remembering when his son was in the hospital reminds me of the pictures of white women laughing as black men hung from trees. It is the incongruity that it remings me of. These people are beasts. I don't like McCain or Palin, but I would never laugh at any personal calamity of theirs. That is what animals do.

FreeClif

Oct 7 2008