Liberal exaggeration of conservatives' outrage at rallies

RK

You ought to see the worsr of outrages, name-calling, threats, I have been on the receiving end of it. It's not coming from the right, but the left.
They are the most intolerant people, matter of fact!

As John Leo points out in commenting on reported verbal blurts at McCain rallies lately, the shout "kill him" was directed at Bill Ayers. That doesn't make it right, but it does make the story--and Rich's column--entirely different, if you know the facts. (The NYTimes is counting on its readers only knowing what they report, and in which case the facts can be ignored without fear of contradiction.)

Leo also notes that only one reporter, the notoriously unreliable Dana Milbank, reports the "racial epithet" allegedly shouted at a Palin rally. Nobody else covering the rally reported it. And it should probably have been mentioned by Frank Rich that the alleged shout wasn't directed at Obama but at a member of the media--a slightly significant fact in a column alleging that the McCain campaign is whipping up dangerous anti-Obama sentiment, don't you think? (For the record, if any idiot did shout a racial epithet at anyone, he's a despicable jerk)

Not only that, but the shout of "Off with his head" was in reaction to Sen. Obama's tax-raising proposals. Is it a call for a jihadist-style approach to politics, or an ironic reference to King George III and the tax issue that help found this nation?

And even the shout "terrorist"--which isn't a call for violence but just an editorial opinion--was greeted with laughter from the audience. They didn't perceive it as a threat, but as a joke.

And this is the evidence upon which the charge is being made of "the Weimar-like rage at McCain-Palin rallies." The Partisan Press have used (to quote Joe Biden) literally one confirmed shout from one person to create a story out of whole cloth that McCain supporters are jackbooted thugs ready for a "Jim-Crow flashback" in America.