Sarah Palin is a strikingly beautiful woman, but her campaign rhetoric was ugly and frightening. With a smile and a wink she got away with uttering the most vile, contemptible and baseless accusations against Barack Obama.

Many times I would listen to Palin speak, and smile at her hokey charm. It wasn’t until a few moments later that I would think: Wow, she just called Obama a socialist who pals around with terrorists.

Sarah Palin is perceived by the press and most thinking Americans as a harmless intellectual lightweight, but her ill-chosen words are destructive. Palin is a very dangerous demagogue, and the GOP is playing with fire if they seriously consider her as a future presidential candidate.

“Sarah Palin’s attacks on Barack Obama’s patriotism provoked a spike in death threats against the future president, Secret Service agents revealed during the final weeks of the campaign.

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?’” — [MORE]

Palin’s over-the-top attacks on Obama could very well have inspired some of her more crazy fans to kill Obama. Yes, Palin is beautiful and charming, but what comes out of her mouth is ugly and dangerous.

Now that the McCain/Palin obituaries are being written, thinking conservatives should condemn Palin’s hateful speech. There should be no place in a presidential campaign for groundless vicious attacks.