Beyond Pathetic

Obama pulls in crowds of up to 100,000 on a regular basis. I didn't think there were 100,000 people total in America who gave enough of a rat's ass about politics to stand for hours in line just to get packed in like sardines for yet more hours in order to listen to a man's stump speeches, but here we are. Obama's just that good.

McCain had a rally in Ohio today - wonder how he's measuring up? Oh, deary me:

The McCain campaign actually had to bus in school kids from the surrounding area in order to fill the event. As reported by MSNBC:

A local school district official confirmed after the event that of the 6,000 people estimated by the fire marshal to be in attendance this morning, more than 4,000 were bused in from schools in the area. The entire 2,500-student Defiance School District was in attendance, the official said, in addition to at least three other schools from neighboring districts, one of which sent 14 buses.

This happened -- as if a reminder were needed -- less than a week out from the election, when the heat of the campaign should be drawing record crowds.

I feel sorry for those kids. I remember the agony of being forced to attend rallies at which a bunch of blithering idiots yawped at us for an hour or so. But at least we were only window dressing for our school spirit rather than warm bodies to plump up the crowd numbers for a two-bit Republicon hack who bears an eerie resemblance to that embarassing elderly relative who rants at the young-uns from the front porch.

McCain seems to feel safe with kids who are too young to vote. Maybe he feels that seeing his former-POW self hurl insults like "socialist" at his political opponent while the crazy adults filling in the cracks in the audience scream "communist!" "terrorist!" and other choice epithets will ensure the kiddies are brainwashed enough to vote Republicon when they come of age. It hardly matters to McCain anyway: by the time these children are all growed up and voting straight Democratic tickets in hopes of purging the trauma from their minds, he'll be safely dead or demented. But it's a far different story when it comes to people who are old enough to vote and young enough to be suspected Obama supporters:

Audience members escorted out of Sen. John McCain’s, R-Ariz., campaign event in Cedar Falls questioned why they were asked to leave Sunday’s rally even though they were not protesting.

David Zarifis, director of public safety for the University of Northern Iowa, said McCain staffers requested UNI police assist in escorting out “about four or five” people from the rally prior to McCain’s speech.

[snip]

[Lara Elborno] said McCain staffers wouldn’t tell her why she was being asked to leave and when she got outside, she saw “a group of about 20 people” who had all been asked to leave.

Elborno said after seeing the people who were asked to leave, she was concerned that McCain’s staffers were profiling people on appearance to determine who might be a potential protester.

“When I started talking to them, it kind of became clear that they were kind of just telling people to leave that they thought maybe would be disruptive, but based on what? Based on how they looked,” Elborno said. “It was pretty much all young people, the college demographic.”

Guess why they'd be chucking college-age people out on their ear? Yup:

Among 18- to 29-year-olds, Obama leads by 32 points in the latest Gallup poll, by 36 points in the latest CBS/New York Times poll and by 39 points in the latest Pew poll [and 29 in the latest R2K - DemFromCT].

McCain's ham-handed tactics might make those numbers rise:

“I saw a couple that had been escorted out and they were confused as well, and the girl was crying, so I said ‘Why are you crying? and she said ‘I already voted for McCain, I’m a Republican, and they said we had to leave because we didn’t look right,’” Elborno said.

I'm sure that's one McCain voter wishing she could take that vote back. Makes you wonder how many more have realized their mistake before it's too late?

One more thing I want to note here: Republicons have an interesting habit of throwing stones from their glass houses. It hadn't really occurred to me until now to chalk that "communist" bullshit up under the column headed "I know you are, but what am I?" However, the above noted items make me think I shouldn't have been so hasty to write it in under the "Hey, Red-Baiting Worked in the Fifties!" label.

Let us take note of the similarities between McCain's actions and the good old Soviet Communist Party:

1. "Everything that comes out of their mouths is a lie." Check.
2. "Want total control over the media." Check.
3. "Compulsory shows of support by the masses for the beloved Party." Check.
4. "Paranoid purges of suspected enemies, even when those 'enemies' are actually allies." Check.
5. "Failed ideology forces them to manufacture and attack enemies to keep the people distracted from harsh reality." Oh, check.

Hmm. It appears the old Soviet Communists and the McCain campaign have much more in common than just the color red. Remember your Shakespeare, my darlings: the next time McCain blithers on about Obama's communist tendencies, we'd be right in thinking Grampa McCrankypants doth protest too much.

(Tip o' the shot glass to Steve Benen and Kos)