I think it was only a matter of time before the rather incendiary rhetoric being used at many McCain/Palin campaign rallies spilled over into actual acts of physical violence, and in the first account I’ve heard, a reporter was assaulted by a McCain/Palin supporter at a recent rally:
I sidled up to one of the Obama supporters and asked why they were there, what they were trying to accomplish.
As he was telling me a large, bearded man in full McCain-Palin campaign regalia got in his face to yell at him.
“Hey, hey, ” I said. “I’m trying to interview him. Just a minute, okay? ”
The man began to say something about how of course I was interviewing the Obama people when suddenly, from behind us, the sound of a pro-Obama rap song came blaring out of the windows of a dorm building. We all turned our heads to see Obama signs in the windows.
This was met with curses, screams and chants of “U.S.A” by McCain-Palin folks who crowded under the windows trying to drown it out and yell at the person playing the stereo.
It was a moment of levity in an otherwise very tense situation and so I let out a gentle chuckle and shook my head.
“Oh, you think that ‘s funny?! ” the large bearded man said. His face was turning red. “Yeah, that ‘s real funny…” he said.
And then he kicked the back of leg, buckling my right knee and sending me sprawling onto the ground.
Now sure, this isn’t indicative of the behavior of all McCain/Palin supporters, but it speaks volumes about the effect of their rhetoric on some of their supporters.
H/T to Dan Cody and Jason Haas.
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