Anger on the campaign trail

last updated 8 January 2015

John McCain should "apologize for the ugly and racist tones that have crept into his campaign rallies," said Mary Mitchell in the Chicago Sun-Times. He makes excuses—and demands that Barack Obama repudiate supporters for their unfair attacks on the GOP ticket—but McCain is the one who chose the "low road," and he has not even come close to doing the right thing when his fans cross the line.

Sure, a few activists on the right are "getting out of hand," said Michelle Malkin in National Review Online. But what the Obama-loving media won't tell you is that left-wingers are just as bad. You don't hear about it when a "menacing horde of New Yorkers" (click here for the YouTube video) berates a "small, brave contingent of McCain supporters" marching through Manhattan, because that doesn't fit the liberal media's "Angry Right narrative."

Fans of Sarah Palin who shout "terrorist" at the mention of Obama's name have clearly lost it, said Clarence Page in the Chicago Tribune. But McCain is to be commended for "damping down" ugly sentiments during his own rallies. It's easy to understand how "Republican rage has risen as McCain's polling numbers have tanked," but that doesn't mean "civility" can't be restored on the campaign trail.