Bruce:

There were large numbers of peaceful protesters, and a smaller number of violent ones.

There is no evidence that Obama, his campaign, or anyone in particular of his supporters were fomenting the disorder. It is natural to assume, since they were protesting the Republican administratiojn, that most of the protestors, violent or not, were probably of the Obama persuasion, but to impugn a causative connection ion that regard is disingenuous.

The anger of these protestors, it should be pointed out, comes from exactly the same heavy-hamded disrespect that has been institutionalized by Bush, Rove, Wolfowitz and their ilk. The suspension of rights, the invasions of privacy, and the use of police-state tactics justified by the generalized "war" on "terror" has done more to damage our civil relations than can be tallied.

So yes, these protests very much reflect on the repute of the GOP as the party of creeping fascism, disrespect of individuals and the undermining of civil liberties and the Consitution.

Had the Bsuh administration taken more care to defend the actual freedoms of American citizens, instead of steamrolling them in a hyperactive dramatization of frenetic war-mongering, these protests, IMHO, would not have occurred.

A