I was commuting to work this morning along Rt. 422 in Montgomery County, PA. Entering the highway on a round sweeping cloverleaf, there were the usual assortment of Presidential and candidates signs that have sprung up over the past weeks.
But this morning, a new one stuck out. Homemade black and white computer-generated and taped to blue construction paper and stapled to a wooden stake, in huge block letters it read:
"Terrorists for Kerry"
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It took a few seconds for the sign to register and my blood to begin to boil. I pulled the car over in heavy traffic, walked back to the sign and pulled it out. It is sitting here besides me in pieces as I type.
It wasn't the only one, though. As I pulled out onto the highway, I passed another about a mile down the road. This one, I couldn't reach.
I wonder how many more are dotting the highways in suburban Philadelphia. And more than that, I wonder who is behind this last-minute garbage. Is it a lone Bush supporter who thinks he's helping? Is it a local GOP organization without scruples? Or does it go higher?
In the end, do a few ugly signs really matter? Maybe not. But to me, it's just one more signal that the people on the other side -- some of them certainly, and possibly many of them -- will stop at nothing to smear John Kerry and hold the White House.
We can't let that happen.