Putting it In Context

The country has been rocked by news reports of inflammatory statements yelled by McCain/Palin supporters outside of campaign rallies. Racist statements, threats of violence, and accusations of terrorism are common in these situations. Both McCain and Palin have denied the bloodthirsty nature of their supporters, and many of the rally-goers have come forward claiming that the mainstream media has misquoted them in order to fabricate a story. Today we'll be talking with some of these supporters.

"It's horrible," says Amanda Cavers of Columbus, Ohio. "Ever since I showed up on television, all my Democrat friends are callin' me a racist! I was misquoted!" Breaking into tears, Amanda explained herself. "When I said, 'ain't gonna be no darky president of mine!' I went on to say that I was talking about the dark times ahead if Obama was elected. The liberal media is so unfair!"

James Forrester of Raleigh, North Carolina, tells a similar story. "All I said was 'He's a muslim! He's a muslim! Blast the sand demon!' Now those liberal elites in New York City can spin it any way they want, but I meant to blast him with votes, not violence." When asked if he thought Obama was a muslim, he replied, "Um, well, duh. Everybody knows that." He quickly added, "Now lemme make it clear, I don't hate muslims. I just don't want them worshipping their moon god in the White House."

Allegations of racism aren't the only thing surrounding these Palin supporters, though. Many times the mobs outside the convention centers have threatened violence upon Democratic protesters. According to Mike Keller, however, they didn't mean it. Keller started an organization called "We Meant It Figuratively, Stupid Liberal Media," which is circulating a petition to show how figurative all these threats have been. Keller could not be reached for comment, but his answering machine message told us to "figuratively chop off the figurative heads of any figurative Democrats [we] see."

Possibly the most lasting image of these rallies is from Carrie Atwood of Savannah, Georgia, who stood for ten full minutes screaming "terrorist!" at protesters. We got a chance to sit down with her. "Now look, I was just taken a bit out of context. All I was saying at the time is that those protesters were just bein' a little bit terrorist, you know? All standing out there with their signs. It's a terrorist thing to do. Now I'm not a racist, I just don't want a black man to be president! Is that so bad? Not only is he black, he has black friends, too! Now how terrorist is that? See? It's all perfectly reasonable once you get to talk to me more."