Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (and elsewhere)

This video, taken after a Palin rally near Vegas this week, captures well the mood of GOP activists.

To be fair, many of the Republicans who show up at McCain and Palin rallies are well-behaved party activists or McCain fans just doing their part for the cause.

But campaign events also tend to draw the most passionate of partisans — casual voters don't often take out time from their lives to listen to politicians speak — and the GOP mood is undeniably an angry one right now.

As I wrote after a McCain rally last week in Northern Virginia, they're spoiling for a fight.

Much of their animus is directed at Obama, and for reasons far beyond what is publicly acceptable to McCain and his campaign. Not only do rank-and-file Republicans want to talk about Jeremiah Wright, but some of them think the Democrat is barely American and may even be a terrorist.

So these events are like viral e-mails come to life. While McCain is hammering Obama on taxes and spending on stage, safe and conventional attacks, some in the crowd prefer to talk about the Democrat's middle name or his "Arab" ties.

And it's not just at the rallies. I've heard anecdotes of Republican activists at local campaign offices raising these issues, only to be urged by campaign staffers to stick to the preferred message.

When asked about the comments by some of those who attend his rallies, McCain alludes to, without offering specifics, things said about him at Obama events and then notes that many of those who come to GOP events are veterans, as if to shame the questioner for raising the matter.

In short, he minimizes and largely avoids what is an uncomfortable issue.

To my mind, here is the difference between Republican and Democratic events: Those who attend the latter are largely driven by passion and affection for Obama. Many at the former show up as much out of opposition to Obama as in support for McCain.

This disparity evened up some after McCain tapped Palin, giving Republican activists something to be excited about, and she now routinely outdraws McCain when they're campaigning apart and helps deliver major crowds when they're together.

But Palin aside, the GOP rank and file seems to be in the same place where their counterparts were four years ago. Democrats had little fire for John Kerry — there was one website that made this point in an especially pointed way but its lengthy title is not family friendly — and were far more driven by a desire to prevent four more years of a Bush presidency. In this, the sometimes-aloof Massachusetts senator represented a means to an end — and the end. The end of Bush, Cheney, Rove and the gang.

Similarly, McCain is now for many in the party a vessel, or, perhaps better put, a bulwark. Republicans aren't terribly enthused about the idea of electing an unpredictable maverick. But, in their minds, it's a far better option than what Obama represents.

And that, an Obama presidency, is what they're scared of and what is primarily motivating them right now.

McCain just happens to be the alternative to, and rhyme well with, "Hussein."

By Jonathan Martin

source: http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/1008/Fear_and_Loathing_in_Las_Vegas_and_elsewhere.html