WP: Anger Is Crowd's Overarching Emotion at McCain Rally( who is James T. Harris?)

maddezmom

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Thu Oct-09-08 09:20 PM
Original message

WP: Anger Is Crowd's Overarching Emotion at McCain Rally( who is James T. Harris?)

Edited on Thu Oct-09-08 09:40 PM by maddezmom

By Michael D. Shear and Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, October 10, 2008; Page A04

WAUKESHA, Wis., Oct. 9 -- There were shouts of "Nobama" and "Socialist" at the mention of the Democratic presidential nominee. There were boos, middle fingers turned up and thumbs turned down as a media caravan moved through the crowd Thursday for a midday town hall gathering featuring John McCain and Sarah Palin.

"It is absolutely vital that you take it to Obama, that you hit him where it hits, there's a soft spot," said James T. Harris, a local radio talk show host, who urged the Republican nominee to use Barack Obama's controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., and others against him.

"We have the good Reverend Wright. We have Pfleger. We have all of these shady characters that have surrounded him," Harris bellowed. "We have corruption here in Wisconsin and voting across the nation. I am begging you, sir. I am begging you. Take it to him."

The crowd of thousands roared its approval.

In recent days, a campaign that embraced the mantra of "Country First" but is flagging in the polls and scrambling for a way to close the gap as the nation's economy slides into shambles has found itself at the center of an outpouring of raw emotion rare in a presidential race.

more:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/09/AR2008100903169.html

http://jamestharris.com/james.htm
http://www.620wtmj.com/shows/directory/8048642.html

and then this from the NYT:
McCain Joins Attacks on Obama Over Radical

Mr. Obama, in turn, condemned Mr. McCain�s plan for the government to buy bad home loans as a �bailout� for risk-taking banks and lenders, and he told several thousand voters in Dayton, Ohio, that Mr. McCain�s approach to the financial crisis was �risky� and �erratic,� a word Mr. Obama used twice.

The language and tone indicated that both men would continue their negative campaigning in the final weeks before Election Day, even as voters say they want solutions to the worsening economic conditions rather than back-and-forth blasts from the stump.

But what has been most striking about the last 48 hours on the campaign trail is the increasingly hostile atmosphere at Mr. McCain�s rallies, where voters furiously booed any mention of Mr. Obama and lashed out at the Democrats, Wall Street and the news media.

�I�m really mad!� shouted a man in the audience in Waukesha, where Mr. McCain and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, were conducting a town-hall-style meeting. �And what�s going to surprise you, it�s not the economy. It�s the socialists taking over our country.�

more:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/us/politics/10campaign.html?ref=us