When I was a young criminal defense lawyer, I already had a fairly dedicated groups of clients who felt a sense of loyalty to me.  It was a good feeling, but one that I really didn’t appreciate as my influenced spanned the lawyer world into the criminal world.  I learned a very scary lesson.  I think John McCain may be learning that lesson too.

With a particularly loyal client sitting in my office chair, a nice maroon leather Chesterfield chair, I took a phone call.  The call was from a person with whom I was having some difficulties, and who was acting like a real jerk.  It was clear to anyone listening to my end of the call that I was getting increasingly angry with the other person, ultimately hanging up the phone in disgust.  As I did so, I uttered aloud that this person was someone who shouldn’t exist.

I then went on to discuss the case with my client.  At the end of the meeting, he was pleased with my efforts and we shook hands.  He had a broad smile on his face.  As he prepared to leave my office, he said, almost as an aside, “and don’t worry about that guy.  We’ll take care of him.” 

It hit me like a ton of bricks.  Yes, I was angry with this person, but never did I mean him any harm.  My client, on the other hand, understood such anger to mean that extreme action was warranted, and as a favor to me, he was happy to do so.  There was a monumental gap in understanding my intentions, and it was entirely my fault.

I explained to my client, clearly and unequivocally, that no matter how angry I was with someone, I would not wish harm to come to him.  Harm was never a solution to my problem, and I explained in excruciating detail that he was not to “take care of him” in any way whatsoever.

Had my client not said something on the way out the door, something very bad might have happened as a result of my thoughtlessness.  I understood then how cautious I had to be about what I said, and how horrible the consequences of my carelessness could be.

As the electoral race has devolved to inflammatory rhetoric and accusations that some will hear, regardless of what is intended, that Barak Obama (or Osama in some parts of New York), is the embodiment of evil, some people will react with a visceral hatred that they truly believe should be translated into action.  When one hears screams of “kill him” and “terrorist” from members of the crowd, it’s clear that the wrong message has been sent.  When others tell the candidate that Obama is an “Arab” and “Muslim” in an age where these words are tantamount to the murderous enemies in an ongoing war, it is no longer the whispered joke from Florida’s elderly counties. 

Like it or not, there are people out there, often believing themselves to be ultra-patriotic and thus prepared to do anything, anything, for the good of the nation, who will do harm.  When John McCain stopped the woman who told him that Barak Obama was an Arab and took the microphone away from him, it seemed that he had the epiphany.  The joke had gone too far.

While he explained that Obama was a “decent man with whom he had a strong disagreement on some issues,” certainly an effort to diffuse the glaringly erroneous belief, the question remained why McCain did not affirmatively say “Barak Obama is not an Arab or a Muslim.”  Those words were not spoken by candidate John McCain, and those are the words that should have been said.

Even as their are glimmers of the old John McCain, the man who wouldn’t say or do anything to stop the bleeding in his last ditch effort to be President, they are insufficient to clear up the misunderstandings that have been caused and promoted by his campaign staffers and his cute little Yorkie Terrier.  As they continue to put out inflammatory television advertising and whip up the crowds to connect Obama to terrorism, they are unconcerned with the potential consequences of their choices.

Why concern myself with McCain, and ignore Obama’s attacks?  Because there is no one in the Obama audience screaming out their desire to kill John McCain.  There’s nothing in the Obama attack ads suggesting that McCain as president needs killing.  They may claim he’ll make a terrible president, but not that he is an inherently dangerous and evil human being.  The kind that must be killed.

John McCain doesn’t want to be the match that lights the fuse of some lunatic who assassinates a President.  He may not care so much about causing a divisiveness within America that will manifest as four years of partisan hatred.  But he doesn’t want to go down in history as being the Angel of Death. 

But McCain does want to be President, and inflammatory rhetoric is the only cartridge left in his presidential shotgun.  The question is whether his desire to be President is stronger than his desire not to be the Angel of Death.  One might wonder whether winning the Presidency with such tactics is the way John McCain (the real John McCain) would want to do it, but things have gone too far already for consideration of such a subtlety.

While it isn’t John McCain’s fault that this country has people out there who will misinterpret his purpose and hear a message of hatred that commands violence, it is his fault when he knows that to be true and continues to fuel their hatred anyway. 

If he doesn’t want to be the Angel of Death, then he must explain with the same degree of clarity to these people that Barak Obama is not a dangerous and evil person who needs killing, is not an Arab, a Muslim or a terrorist who we are at war against, and that they had grossly misunderstood the message.  Anything less will not suffice.  And if anything happens to Barak Obama, he will bear responsibility.