Dear John

Dear Senator McCain,

Up until the last week, I may have disagreed with your campaign, but I believed that you were still a good person. You served our country not only in the Vietnam War, but as a member of the Senate. You cared enough about our country to serve it in one form or another for many years.

This past week though, your campaign has taken, what I feel is a dangerous turn. You have tried to peg Senator Obama as someone whose judgment you can not trust. In doing so, you have brought up his connection to Bill Ayers, who at one point in his life was a domestic terrorist. What Bill Ayers did and was involved in was horrendous, this is not a letter to defend his actions, but to discuss my disappointment with yours.

The anger and hate that this strategy has unleashed among your supporters is incredibly dangerous. When a member of the crowd at one of your campaign stops yelled out "A terrorist" after you had asked who the real Barack Obama was, you were presented with the opportunity to put an early halt to the boiling rage of some of your supporters. You chose to ignore the comment.

It took a woman at one of your rallies calling Obama an Arab for you to speak up and try an put a stop to these dangerous antics. While trying to explain to your crowd that Obama was a good individual, you were booed, or at least the idea that Obama was a good person was booed.

It is the year 2008 and we for the first time will either have an African American President or a woman as Vice President. It should not matter the color of a candidates skin, their gender, or sexual preference. We should be looking at issues, and discussing the future of our country. What gets me more than the accusation that Obama is an Arab, is that to this woman, him being an Arab was a bad thing.

I understand that you can not control what people at your events say. These things were not said though until your campaign starting the accusations of Obama palling around with a terrorist. The negative tone that your campaign took, has given credence to the negative feelings of some of your supporters.

It should not have taken a woman with a microphone for you to step in. You should have done this the minute your crowds started shouting "terrorist". Your campaign has unleashed some potentially harmful feelings, feelings that if acted upon could lead to violence.

With the election less than a month away, I should be focused on looking at your plans for economic recovery and reestablishing our relationships with foreign countries. I should not be chastising you for fostering hatred towards your opponent.

I am disappointed with where your campaign has gone, and hope that in the remaining weeks you decide to refocus on the issues. You are currently at a crossroad where you can continue to take a stand against your supporters and quell a very dangerous storm that is brewing, or you can decide to watch the storm come.

Please show me that their is some good left.

Respectfully,

Eric