Readers Write: 12 Stomach-Turning Revelations About Sarah Palin

AlterNet readers respond to the latest evidence of just how bad Sarah Palin is for an office that puts her a heartbeat away from the presidency.

By AlterNet Staff

AlterNet.org

Over the weekend, a perfectly good PR opportunity was ruined for Sarah Palin when the audience at a Philadelphia hockey game booed the Alaska governor during the ceremonial dropping of the puck.

Philly hockey fans have not been the only ones to loudly express their disapproval of Palin in recent weeks. The VP candidate's spiraling drop in popularity is reflected in polls, in the press and among prominent conservatives -- by everyone, that is, but the die-hard fans who still eat up Palin's forced folksiness at campaign events.

Palin's drastic loss of support has been driven in large part by the endless revelations about her competence and character that have emerged since her nomination -- revelations that can't be glossed over with frantic winks and "you betchas."

Last week, AlterNet compiled yet another list of stomach-turning new facts about Palin, ranging from her attempts to undermine trust in Obama with racially tinged rhetoric to her shady history as governor of Alaska.

AlterNet's readers had a lot to say about the latest evidence of just how bad Sarah Palin is for an office that puts her a heartbeat away from the presidency. We've compiled some of the best reader comments below....(Click here for remainder).

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John McCain Sows the Seeds of Hatred

John McCain: You're better than that! Stop the hate speech before it's too late.

By Rory O'Connor

RoryOConnor.org

John McCain was right in August when he called John Lewis one of the "wisest people" he knew.

So when Representative Lewis -- a Georgia Democrat and veteran of the civil rights movement - recently denounced the McCain/Palin campaign for its use of divisive rhetoric and said the negative tone of the Republican presidential campaign reminded him of the hateful atmosphere that segregationist Governor George Wallace fostered in Alabama in the 1960s, he was calling it like it is.

I have been writing, speaking and blogging extensively of late about the hate speech epidemic in America, which has been mostly playing out on the airwaves of shock jock talk radio. Knowing the tenor of the times, I was unsurprised when the tone of the presidential campaign veered into similar territory. The truth is that Lewis simply called it like it is when he said McCain and running mate Sarah Palin were ''sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.'' Rather than rejecting his remarks as ''shocking and beyond the pale,'' McCain should have listened to Lewis, who is one of three people the Arizona Senator said he would "rely heavily on" if elected president.

Lewis was also right that the fear and loathing being expressed on the campaign trail in 2008 is frighteningly similar to that of the dark days of 1968. Those of us who were around at the time remember well what happened then, shortly after the hate speaking began. As Lewis noted, ''George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama.''...(Click here for remainder).

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