I spent most of the day today arguing the nerdly technical aspects of the Facebook Poll Incident -- wherein some numbnuts posted the poll question "Should Obama Be Killed?" using a third-party poll generation application on Facebook -- in Cory Bantic's excellent diary.
And while my responses tended to focus on the intricacy of database design and cross-server application interaction, I've been pondering the greater question of why someone would do something so dumb. The internet tends to bring out the worst in people, the thin veil of anonymity (which is not as real as some think) gives people the stones to say things dumb, hurtful, sometimes illegal. But beyond that, there is an inescapable conclusion.
For anyone asking for/praying for/encouraging others to facilitate the death of our President, the only possible excuse is racism.
The proof is in the answer to this question: "Then What?"
Do these fools think that if Obama dies, McCain gets to become president? This is not Miss America, where the runner-up gets to take over if the winner can't fulfill the duties of her crown.
Someone needs to educate them about the 25th Amendment: Joe Biden would assume the presidency.
Maybe they think "President Biden" would have a different agenda or a less liberal set of priorities?
I guess they didn't watch the Vice-Presidential debates:
IFILL: Thank you, governor.
Probably the biggest cliche about the vice-presidency is that it's a heartbeat away, everybody's waiting to see what would happen if the worst happened. How would -- you disagree on some things from your principles, you disagree on drilling in Alaska, the National Wildlife Refuge, you disagree on the surveillance law, at least you have in the past. How would a Biden administration be different from an Obama administration if that were to happen.
BIDEN: God forbid that would ever happen, it would be a national tragedy of historic proportions if it were to happen.
But if it did, I would carry out Barack Obama's policy, his policies of reinstating the middle class, making sure they get a fair break, making sure they have access to affordable health insurance, making sure they get serious tax breaks, making sure we can help their children get to college, making sure there is an energy policy that leads us in the direction of not only toward independence and clean environment but an energy policy that creates 5 million new jobs, a foreign policy that ends this war in Iraq, a foreign policy that goes after the one mission the American public gave the president after 9/11, to get and capture or kill bin Laden and to eliminate al Qaeda. A policy that would in fact engage our allies in making sure that we knew we were acting on the same page and not dictating...
So policy would not change, ideology would not change. The only thing that would change is the skin color of the Commander in Chief. The only logical conclusion that can be reached is that racism is their true motive.
Not policy, racism. The sooner we realize that, the sooner we make them realize that we are not fooled, the better.
Side note: I've seen in the comments on TPM and other sites, suggesting that the way the poll on Facebook was phrased -- as a question -- somehow provides some legal wiggle room for the perpetrator because they were merely asking, and somehow that does not rise to the level of inciting. I don't think that argument holds water when you provide "YES" as two of the options in the poll, and "Maybe" as a third.