John McCain skal ha blitt skremt av responsen på Sarah Palins angrep på Obama, og har gitt beskjed om at han ikke vil ha noe av det.

McCain has become alarmed about the fury unleashed by Sarah Palin, the moose-hunting «pitbull in lipstick», against Senator Barack Obama. Cries of «terrorist» and «kill him» have accompanied the tirades by the governor of Alaska against the Democratic nominee at Republican rallies.
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McCain believes the attacks have spun out of control. At a rally in Lakeville, Minnesota, the Arizona senator became visibly angry when he was booed for calling Obama «a decent person». He took the microphone from an elderly woman who said she disliked Obama because he was «Arab», saying, «No ma’am, no ma’am».

When another questioner demanded that he tell the truth about Obama, he said: «I want everybody to be respectful and let’s be sure we are.»

Grasrota i det republikanske partiet mener McCain er for forsiktig. De vil at han skal angripe Obama. Palin har gjort det, men McCain liker ikke det han ser i kjølvannet av disse angrepene. Han vil heller tape valget en piske opp slike følelser.

Mark Salter, McCain’s long-serving chief of staff, is understood to have told campaign insiders that he would prefer his boss, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, to suffer an «honourable defeat» rather than conduct a campaign that would be out of character – and likely to lose him the election.

McCain tussles with Palin over whipping up a mob mentality