This is why we need "Real Americans for Obama" buttons

Extracts from
Confessions of a Phone Solicitor
by Gail Collins for the New York Times, October 22, 2008
Word comes from Wisconsin that a telemarketer named Ted Zoromski quit his job this week over John McCain's message. Zoromski was prepared to interrupt people during their dinner hours to encourage them to vote Republican. But when he got the script saying "you need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge's home and killed Americans," he packed it in.

Opening for a McCain rally in North Carolina last weekend, Representative Robin Hayes said he wanted "to keep the crowd as respectful as possible."

Hayes then announced that "liberals hate real Americans that work and accomplish and achieve and believe in God."

All this was a direct outgrowth of Sarah Palin's own comments in North Carolina, in which she praised the "pro-America" areas of the country.

Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota suggested that the news media should investigate "the views of the people in Congress and find out: Are they pro-America or anti-America."

The tone of this campaign has given some of the Republican faithful, even those who are members of Congress, the impression that questioning the patriotism of large groups of the population is now O.K.