As Campaign Gets Uglier by the Hour, Obama Urges Supporters to Argue and Get Into Neighbors' Faces

A month ago, the American people were being told by both Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain that they should look forward to a campaign that emphasised issues and reject the negativity that marked recent presidential elections. Both campaigns had grabbed the mantra of offering a change in politics, and the way Washington does business.

Well, forget about it.

Both sides are snapping at each other, and on a very personal level. With about 46 days until we go to the polls, it has started to become a bloodbath. The trend starts at the top.

Today, Obama urged is supporters to get angry with McCain supporters on a personal level. Literally, urging hand-to-hand combat among neighbors. Kathleen Hennessey of The Associated Press reports this afternoon:

In Elko, Obama tried to anticipate his critics and called on the crowd of about 1,500 to sharpen their elbows, too.

"I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face," he said.

"And if they tell you that, 'Well, we're not sure where he stands on guns.' I want you to say, 'He believes in the Second Amendment.' If they tell you, 'Well, he's going to raise your taxes,' you say, 'No, he's not, he's going lower them.' You are my ambassadors. You guys are the ones who can make the case."

The nastiness doesn't start or end there. In the same AP report, McCain is quoted as saying Obama isn't interested in the country's future, he's interested in his future.

"Let's have some straight talk: Sen. Obama is not interested in the politics of hope; he's interested in his future. That's why he's hurling insults," McCain said as he and running mate Sarah Palin addressed a rally in Ohio.

But wait, there's more. While it's pretty ugly on the campaign trail, it gets worse among the hardcore supporters.

For instance, as we all know by now, an Obama supporter has hacked into Sarah Palin's private email account and through a sympathetic web site released her personal messages, family photos and her address book with contact information. Most, probably 99.9999999 percent of Americans both Democrat and Republican, would find this as an awful invasion of privacy. But there are vocal Obama supporters who are positively gleeful over this act of personal vandalism.

For example, David Lester Young writes in a blog on Democrats.org:

Now she know how it feels to have people in government as our political leaders to hack "At Will" into Confidential Personnel Files and Confidential Workman Comp files of Palin subordinates for the reason to Terminate them. That a innocent state employee got Terminated for opposing her "At Will" authority.

What an irony this is. She is getting the treatment she used that her Ethnic Lawyer warned her would have grave concerns.

If they prosecute the hackers it will be fun in court as they bring them into court, and say they want to be treated like Palin, special.

Not to spend a long time on what "at will" means, but Young doesn't seem to understand that a chief executive has every right to look into a personnel file and/or a Workman's comp file. It's not "hacking" when a chief executive looks into those files. But more importantly, it would seem that anyone who is concerned about civil liberties and privacy issues would be in an uproar about this, even to the point where they would defend someone who stands across the political fence. Unfortunately, for some on the left, winning is everything. And if it means putting aside your fundamental belief system in order to hurt a political adversary, so be it. For some liberals, civil liberties and privacy only matter if you are on the left. Those on the right are fair game.

If Palin can survive the next 47 days as the left throws everything at her, legal or not, then she is more than qualified to be "one heartbeat away" from the Oval Office. Nobody deserves the treatment she is getting. And it's only going to go downhill from here.

This campaign is getting scary. As long as Obama and McCain give their supporters the green light to attack by any means possible, even to the point where neighbors are urged to "get into the face" of neighbors, we are going to see a true bloodsport over the next few weeks on a very personal level.