By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist
Surely John McCain's long political career has not unraveled to the extent that he needs to seek refuge with the thuggish extremes of the Republican party.
Rallies on behalf of McCain and Sarah Palin grew ugly last week, with party activists sneeringly referring to the Democratic opponent as "Barack Hussein Obama," and people responding with cries of "treason" and "kill him." Attendees at some functions booed and heckled the mainstream media.
This is NOT McCain's style. Never has he cozied up to this element. But his tepid protests about how Barack Obama is an "honorable" man don't cut it.
McCain, who said he would rather lose an election than lose a war, needs to prove that he would rather lose the nutty fringe of his party than lose his honor. In the words of his opponent, he needs to "denounce and reject" these smears and innuendo.
Obama, prodded by Hillary Clinton in a debate, said in a debate that he denounced and rejected the extremist views of Louis Farrakhan. McCain should also denounce and reject, loudly and forcefully, the next Republican supporter who drags his campaign into segregationist territory.
And he needs a new strategy for Palin. Her "pit bull" antics are dishing up nourishment for the fringe.
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McCain Tactics
So the poor MSM got booed, well boo-hoo. the media had spent the entire campaign on its collective knees in front of Obama. Maybe if you would report the truth about Obama's connection to Freddie/Fannie executives, his connection to Ayers, ACORN, tell the truth about his tax plan instead of just "reporting" that 95% of all Americans will not get a tax increase, do I need to go on? Have you forgotten why the first ammendment exhists? It was to keep government honest. Why don't you try reporting instead of issuing the press releases and let the electorate decide?