Another nail in the coffin

"President Obama." Better get used to saying it, folks:

A bipartisan legislative ethics committee investigating Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says that she unlawfully abused her position in the firing of the state's public safety commissioner.

The investigative report said that a family grudge was a contributing factor for firing former public safety commissioner Walter Monegan.

[...]

Chief Investigator Stephen Branchflower found Palin to be in violation of a state ethics law prohibits public officials for using their office for personal gain.

"Governor Palin knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda, to wit: To get Trooper Michael Wooten fired," the report said, which was released in part in Anchorage Friday evening.

Branchflower said Palin violated a statute of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

The Republican vice presidential nominee's supporters have questioned the timing of the report and call it politically motivated.

McCain himself seems resigned to defeat, actually (and rightly) calling out his own supporters for their unhinged anti-Obama rhetoric at a rally yesterday:

Fearing the raw and at times angry emotions of his supporters may damage his campaign, John McCain on Friday urged them to tone down their increasingly personal denunciations of Barack Obama, including one woman who said she had heard that the Democrat was "an Arab."

Each time he tried to cool the crowd, he was rewarded with a round of boos.

"I have to tell you. Sen. Obama is a decent person and a person you don’t have to be scared of as president of the United States," McCain told a supporter at a town hall meeting in Minnesota who said he was “scared” of the prospect of an Obama presidency and of who the Democrat would appoint to the Supreme Court.

“Come on, John!” one audience member yelled out as the Republican crowd expressed dismay at their nominee. Others yelled "liar," and "terrorist," referring to Obama.

McCain passed his wireless microphone to one woman who said, "I can't trust Obama. I have read about him and he's not, he's not uh — he's an Arab. He's not — " before McCain retook the microphone and replied:

"No, ma'am. He's a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign's all about. He's not [an Arab]."

The public display of fear and unease over Obama comes at the end of a week in which other Republicans at McCain and Sarah Palin events expressed similar frustrations, a product of exasperation at the prospect of the Illinois senator becoming president and their own nominee not doing enough to prevent it.

Damian P.

Posted by damian at October 11, 2008 12:04 PM