After a week or so of hate mongering by the McCain campaign, John McCain spoke up, defending Barack Obama as a good man with whom he disagreed. That was the kinder, gentler McCain of old and Barack Obama was generous in response. Meanwhile the Pit Bull in Lipstick continues [1] and the campaign staff denies race bating. Where is the truth?

It's a campaign staff job to spin. Hardly the place to look for truth. Look instead to the response from the faithful at those rallies. When you hear words like "Arab", "traitor", and "kill 'em", and especially when those words are allowed to pass without remark, the truth is obvious.

Perhaps if Palin recants we should, like Barack Obama, do the statesman like thing. Just forgive and forget. Move on. Raise the level of the debate.

I think not. Even if the candidate repents publicly, the words, the raw emotions, and the ideas they convey are still out there. American history is replete with similar examples. What follows is violence, bloodshed, and sometimes death. Add the economic pressure such people may be feeling and the prescription becomes more certain. Add in the 'Bush doctrine' of preemptive strike, however misused it may be, and the outcome becomes still more certain.

When the violence happens will Palin feel remorse? Or will she simply pass it off as an act of God? Check her record. "It's God's will..." is a favorite phrase for anything she wants to justify.

It will be a long time before the damage is undone. Barack Obama is now the most 'at risk' candidate since JFK. He is not alone. People who resort to violence over ideology are often very indiscriminate is their actions. Hate is rarely focused. Anyone who publicly supports him may be at risk.

Now consider the number of Americans who would continue to support a candidate with Palin's tolerance for violence. The spiritual fellow travelers who might not pull the trigger, but who would quietly cheer for those who would. Today, the thin veneer of civilization has been weakened again.

One man has the power to stop this. Not just to declare that his hands are clean, but to stop it. Doing so requires courage, honor and decency to triumph over winning at any cost. What will John McCain do?

There may come a time for forgiveness. We must never forget.