Nana nana boo boo!

From the NYT yesterday:

John McCain! Not Hussein!” So goes the latest popular chant on the campaign trail with Gov. Sarah Palin, demonstrated at a morning rally in central Florida.

Ms. Palin was midway through her stump speech when a group of supporters began shouting it in unison, drowned out a few seconds later as Ms. Palin talked over them.

A similar chant, “Vote McCain, not Hussein,” was heard at a campaign event for Ms. Palin in Williamsport, Pa., earlier this week.

Senator Barack Obama’s middle name is Hussein, a fact that some of his opponents say proves that he is a Muslim. Mr. Obama is, in fact, a Christian.

And from Salon:

Introduced by Cindy McCain (the McCains' daughter Meghan was also onstage), South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham played to the crowd of firearms enthusiasts, "The deer are glad you're here!" (Har! Dead deer!) Graham also had great fun at the expense of "the most liberal senator in the United States Senate," giving someone in the crowd the chance to yell, "He's more liberal than the socialists!" Graham then poked at "Joe the Biden," whom he called "the gift that keeps on giving."

By the time McCain began speaking, the crowd was good and riled, booing every time Obama's name was mentioned, and letting out random cries of "Obama sucks" and "He's a socialist!

Nana nana boo boo!

You think anyone at these rallies ever stops and thinks how ridiculous all this sounds?

If only it were immature name-calling, however:

It was hard to believe he was actually saying it, but the words were really coming out of his mouth. Arlen Specter's, that is, at an afternoon rally for John McCain in Perkasie, Pa., a small town north of Philadelphia. Specter, the senior senator from Pennsylvania, was talking about his "sense" that Election Day in his state was going to be a rude awakening for Democrats, despite weeks of polls showing Republicans lagging far behind in this former swing state. That's when he let loose with his reason for optimism:

There are a "couple of hidden factors" in this election, said Specter. "The first is that people answer pollsters one way, but in the secrecy of the ballot booth, vote the other way."

Yes. That is what he said, to a chorus of hopeful affirmation. Arlen Specter was openly -- in public, into a microphone -- crossing his fingers, and hoping for racism.

It's unclear whether that's what Specter actually means, but he does seem to be referring to the "Bradley Effect," according to which support for black candidates is overestimated in polls due to social desirability, and then lower on election day. But still, that's pretty lame.