The dark side

Here's a thought about the upcoming election, delivered in a roundabout way:

Sometimes I like to jump on to Yahoo Answers! People leave all sorts of questions in a variety of categories, and other people try to answer them. Sometimes this comes out of genuine curiosity, or out of a need for someone else to do a homework assignment, or to advance a particular viewpoint.

The latter has come out in the last few months in political season. Granted, the questions and answers are anonymous, so it's easy to get nasty. And Yahoo Answers! is no place for thin-skinned supporters of Senator Obama.

For example, that site is where I first learned that a few people were comparing Obama to the Anti-Christ. Here's the lead-in to a question posted today: "According to The Book of Revelations the anti-Christ is: The anti-Christ will be a man in his 40's, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a massive Christ-like appeal, prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace when he is in power and will destroy everything. So do we recognize this description?? I strongly urge each one of you to examine this 'Obama.'"

Here are some examples of some of the questions posted lately:

"If Obama does not like being called Hussein, why has he not changed his name again? I mean, he's already changed it several times."

"If elected, will Obama be impeached? Ties to felon Tony Rezko. Ties to criminal organization ACORN. Ties to domestic terrorist Bill Ayers. Which will it be?"

"Why has Obama Thrown his Grandma & Muslims 'Under the Bus'?"

"Did Bill Ayers actually write Obama's book DREAMS FROM MY FATHER?"

"Why do Democrats throw anyone out of the party who votes against abortion?"

"Is there a coming, Liberal Thug-ocracy?"

Now, McCain has gotten a few slings and arrows on the site too ("Does McCain have one of those blue handicap parking stickers?"), but he's getting a more polite treatment overall.

I used to wonder what these people who are so dreadfully ill-informed and impolite looked like. However, the organization called Keystone Progress (which in fairness is quite public in its support of Obama) brought some cameras to a McCain rally in Bethlehem, Pa., recently, and shot some footage. I got the impression some of Yahoo people were there. You don't have to watch all 5:10 to get the idea, the first few minutes will more than do:



(And thanks to Buffalo Pundit for the link.)

I'm not sure if McCain and Palin knew what they were unleashing when they stepped up their personal attacks 10 days ago. I just hope they can get some of that hate back in the bottle.