When Things Get Ugly

You know this election is coming to a close when the real nasty politics start coming in. But here's something I saw in this article from ABC News.

At a rally on Monday in Clearwater, one man shouted "Kill him," according to the Washington Post, after Palin mentioned Obama's association with 1960s radical Bill Ayers. It was not clear who made the comment or if the man was referring to Ayers or to Obama, but the Secret Service says it will investigate.

So this is how far we've gone? I think it is ok to question Obama on any association with Bill Ayers but threading him with death is not something you should do. You can't really blame Palin for this because she wasn't the one who said it, but there are those like Kimberly Gross, a professor of political communication at George Washington University who think she should have done something about it:

Gross said politicians had a responsibility to call out their supporters when they say offensive things, not only for the good of their own electoral chances but for the good of the political system.

"In my opinion candidates have a responsibility to say something," she said. "Negative campaigning per se is not absolutely a bad thing, and can be informative. But candidates do us disservice when they create the conditions that can allow a crowd to get out of hand. It just reinforces a cynicism about politics."

I think she has a point. It would be a sign of great respect to call a supporter out when they say an offensive thing and would make me think more highly of them. Unless they want to totally ruin Obama's career which hopefully is not the case.

There is one thing that I always wonder. Bill Ayers is considered a terrorist yet he is a Distinguished Professor at the the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. We either must be very forgiving or I'm seriously missing something here.

UPDATE:
I want to thank John McCain for trying to calm the crowd down Friday. It's nice to know that there are people out there that know that you can disagree with someone at still say that they are a good person.