An e-mail:

That Sarah Palin is whipping up crowds to rage “Kill him” and “Nigger” brings to mind Hitler at the beginning of his ascent. This is no overstatement. And reporters like you don’t seem to mind. Keith Olbermann may be a gas bag, but he isn’t the one inciting terror. Sarah Palin is.

I’m getting a lot of these. Can we calm down a little? Otherwise it’s going to be an endless month. Sarah Palin is not reminiscent of Hitler and Barack Obama is not a terrorist. There are clearly some people saying some disgraceful things in rally crowds. That’s disgraceful. But that’s not Sarah Palin’s intention or fault. People often say disgraceful things, have disgraceful signs, at political rallies. That reality does not excuse anything. Violent exclamations and signs should be condemned (and investigated). But nor should some disgraceful crowd exclamations be used as excuses to ignore legitimate judgment issues.

We have an editorial up today making the case that Ayers and Wright are legitimate issues. (One of the syndicated columnists we run argues differently; I disagree. I appreciate a need for “Patriotic Grace” — a deep breath as we fight for that which we hold dear — but to suggest that Palin is insidiously using Ayers to bring up the stuff of chain e-mails is unfair, if not a smear.) MSNBC was downright scary on this issue last night — stirring up fear in what appeared to me both reckless and verging on ominous; I wrote about that here.

I don’t think anyone can be “enthusiastic” about Ayers — as an issue or otherwise. But the enthusiasm with which some seem to want to hide this judgment issue from public view does us all a disservice.