Oh what a tangled web we weave...

...when first we practice to deceive.* And deceive the McCain/Palin ticket has been doing up a storm in this campaign season, and particularly this last week.

By now we all know about the increasingly angry, aggressive crowds at some McCain rallies and most Palin participates in. I blogged about that a few days ago so I'm not going to rehash it again, but I've felt strongly that McCain and Palin both need to step up and calm down the supporters they've spurred on with all their misrepresentations of Obama. Listening to clips of some of their speeches (particularly Palin's) makes it clear that they are intentionally using those little weasel words to scare people into voting for them instead of "that one". The xenophobia has got to stop people!

Today I read this article about how McCain has recently tried to correct some of the angry shouting and panicked questions by supporters at his rallies, only to be repeatedly booed for trying to bring things back to a respectful place and explain to a supporter that Obama is in fact not an Arab. Sorry McCain, once you've opened Pandora's Box it's a bit difficult to stuff everything back inside.

What I find interesting though, is while McCain is putting on a show of trying to soothe the fervor, his campaign says it will continue to push ads that continue in the same vein as they have lately. And we've not seen Palin telling people they don't have to be afraid of Obama and that he's a good, respectable citizen--good on you Biden for calling her out on it too!

I'd like to believe that somewhere inside McCain is that same person that 8 years ago I had great respect for. I'd like to believe that he's genuinely concerned about the direction things have taken and is worried about the damage this rabid divisiveness will do to our country if and when Obama wins the election. I'd like to believe that he truly feels his campaign has stepped over the line and they need to get back on track. But I think I'm too jaded to. I'll still say kudos to the man for trying to correct some of the people at his recent rally. However, I think this is just a ploy to look good while Palin and others on his campaign continue to fan the flames in any way they can.

And speaking of Palin. Two days ago the McCain campaign attempted to pre-empt the expected findings of the ongoing ethics probe in Alaska by stating they'd done an investigation into the accusations made against her and their findings cleared her of any wrongdoing! Turns out the Alaskan legislative panel doesn't agree. And remember, this was a BIPARTISAN panel. I find it ironic that McCain wants to jump into a character and judgement debate with Obama, and yet the VP on his ticket abused her power as Governor to try and get her sister's ex fired! And not just her, but her aides as well as her husband. Oh yes. A vote for Sarah is a vote for her husband Todd obviously. Wonder what lovely things they'll get up to with the additional expansion of the VP role Sarah feels is needed. Cheney must be so proud of her.

And as if we haven't heard enough about the Ayers thing, apparently now the McCain campaign has felt the need to drag Michelle Obama into the whole mess! Even though McCain has stated repeatedly that the spouses should be off limits during the campaign. Come on John, do you control anything that goes on in that campaign anymore, or are you really that low??

Exactly. That's what I thought.

*quote by Sir Walter Scott