It all started with the word "liar".

I can't remember if it was McCain or Palin who uttered it in reference to Obama but I do remember thinking that I've never heard it actually used in a presidential campaign before.

Later, it went down hill as Palin's rhetoric on the campaign trail heated up to accusations that Obama "palled around with terrorists" in her attempts to tie Obama to 60's radical William Ayers. That in turn inspired rally attendees to follow with words like "kill him", "terrorist", "traitor" and "treason" although it is not clear whether they were referring to Ayers or Obama. Both McCain and Palin implied Obama was a dangerous mystery man and who the American people really didn't know and that had a radical agenda on abortion, although they did not explain what that agenda was.

It's obvious that the McCain campaign was just attempting to shore up the Conservative base and get them to the polls but it backfired when instead it brought out the nut factor of the Republican party.

The nut factor exists in both parties and usually doesn't rear it's head so publicly during a presidential campaign.

But heated rhetoric in the hands a political amateur like Sarah Palin can be dangerous. There is a fine line between using it to get a political base fired up and ready for the polls and inciting them to violence against another candidate or party.