This is not funny

[liliaeth]

I'm sorry Rachel Maddow, I usually like you, but this should NOT be treated as a joke.

This woman got within touching distance of McCain. Now anyone reading my livejournal knows I'm not a supporter of his and that I hope he loses the election, but laughing about something like this? Not acceptable.

Just think about it, he's standing on a stage, with security not right next to him. If this woman, got that close, imagine how close someone with less good intentions could have gotten as well.

The man is a presidential candidate for crying out loud.

If this had happened to Barack, there'd be outrage about it, and understandably so. Those security people who let that woman through were not doing their job, and were potentially endangering McCain.

I am not amused.

Comments

[ladypeyton.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I imagine that she got that close to McCain because she was not a threat in any way shape or form to anything but his dignity. If someone had gotten close enough and accosted him, even verbally, I'd share your outrage but all she did was pretend to be Palin and that's prettty funny, albeit in bad taste.

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

Believe me, nobody gets within sight of a presidential candidate without being overseen by security- I caughta glimpse of Bill Clinton in the spring of 1992 from the third floor of Westlake Center, through two panes of structural glass, and I was immediatly accosted by armed federal agents. She's about 10-15 meters back, in fact- there are shots from other angles, with shorter lenses, which show how much of the closeness is an artifact of a very long telephoto lense- and there are Secret Service people between her and Sen. McCain watching the crowd with guns at ready.

This is very much a piece of harmless theater- what are venue security supposed to do, bar people with a slight resemblance to a candidate from the hall?

Julia, she was very clever, and there's really no way to protect candidates from mere ridicule.

It isn't particularly funny...

[dkissam.livejournal.com]

But he's in no danger. The Secret Service isn't performing brain scans to determine what thoughts people might have about the candidate. They're performing body scans to determine that people are not in any way armed and thus a physical danger to the candidate. She's no more dangerous to his physical well-being than the rest of those people.