Way before Sarah Palin ever put out her “locked and loaded” ads, her rhetoric helped increase violence. Here’s a reminder in an article from November 8, 2008:

The Republican vice presidential candidate attracted criticism for accusing Mr Obama of “palling around with terrorists”, citing his association with the sixties radical William Ayers.

The attacks provoked a near lynch mob atmosphere at her rallies, with supporters yelling “terrorist” and “kill him” until the McCain campaign ordered her to tone down the rhetoric.

But it has now emerged that her demagogic tone may have unintentionally encouraged white supremacists to go even further.

The Secret Service warned the Obama family in mid October that they had seen a dramatic increase in the number of threats against the Democratic candidate, coinciding with Mrs Palin’s attacks.

Michelle Obama, the future First Lady, was so upset that she turned to her friend and campaign adviser Valerie Jarrett and said: “Why would they try to make people hate us?”

This report came out when George Bush was still President, so it wasn’t “Obama’s Secret Service”, but rather the findings of the Secret Service under the former President. It really is troubling that a person who aspires to be a leader of this nation refuses to take any responsibility for the effects of her rhetoric. Palin is quick to claim her first amendment rights, but with those rights come responsibility. You can’t yell fire in a crowded theater without legal repercussion just the same way you can’t insinuate violence should be taken against our leaders or any other person. Sarah Palin needs to quickly realize that or she needs to get off the national stage.