On Friday's The Ed Show on MSNBC, host Ed Schultz and MSNBC political analyst Richard Wolffe - formerly of Newsweek - drew attention to a woman at a shooting range who recently encouraged Rick Santorum to "pretend it's Obama" while the GOP presidential candidate was firing at a target.
After Schultz noted that Santorum criticized the comment when it was brought to his attention, Wolffe warned viewers:
Well, think what happened towards the end of the McCain campaign in 2008, the kind of comments that were coming out of the crowds then, we're going to see the same thing again. Brace yourself. This kind of ugliness will come out, it will be more vocal...
The MSNBC analyst may have been referring to a report debunked by the Secret Service that someone in the audience shouted, "Kill him," during a rally with Sarah Palin in Pennsylvania in October 2008.
Wolffe went on to admonish Santorum for visiting a shooting range during the campaign, asserting that "you're asking for trouble" by doing so. Wolffe:
But, honestly, what kind of candidate goes and has an event at a shooting range? I mean, you're asking for trouble.
For his part, after playing clips from the shooting range, Schultz had set up Wolffe's take as the MSNBC host posed, "He distanced himself from it, but what does this say about this incident and about Santorum's supporters and the people that are hanging around Republican candidates?"
-- Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center