Was Sarah Palins's use of "crosshairs" imagery on a map that "targeted" Rep Gabrielle Giffords irresponsible?

As a former political/business consultant, I would never have suggested any tag like this that could have insinuated violten behavior. The target sign like that has been known as a symbol of, "marking for death," for many years. Granted, in this case, it meant to mean, "political death," but the fact that an alterior meaning could be gathered made it wrong.

Notice that there has been a quick separation from this picture by Sarah Palin's people. Some sources are reporting that she is saying that it was in poor taste. More on this will come out in the next few days.As a person taht has helped people on political movies, There are locations, though, where this poster could still be found as of this morning.

I can say that if you have to separate yourself from a choice after a tragedy like this, you made the wrong choice in the first place. I major point of politics is asking, "What if," questions. If you ask enough of these of yourself before hand, you have less of a chance of asking, "Why did I do that?

" later. In this case, people were not asking themselves about the possible symbolic meanings of the symbols. They were not paying attention to the fact that every political moviement in America rigt now has at least a handful of extremists that follow it.

Extremists can take messages like this in a different way than anyone else. I am not saying that the person that did the shootings this morning was an extremist Sarah Palin follower. I am saying that one could have taken this message in the wrong way.

I think that Sarah Palin's people have done a very good hob of keeping her in the public eye and mixing her poltical views with her celebrity status. As a person that has working in and around politics, I look forward to seeing what they do with her two plates in teh future. The target symbols, though, point to the fact that someone dropped the ball in not thinking of all of the ramifications.

Now, they run the chance of a major backlash taht could be stronger than Palin has seen yet.

Absolutely, it was very irresponsible. Sarah Palin has created a very violent image of herself over the last two years. I'm sure the minutemen, tea party, and other right wing wackos will love it; but I do NOT believe mainstream America will embrace Sarah Palin when she runs for President in 2012.

For all the violence the Bush administration created, they would have never done anything like this. That says something. Sarah Palin is dangerous.

Her violent view of the world and her lack of education will combine for a very scary future. Luckily, her insincerity and egotistical ways have become very apparent. Even most Republicans now admit that she is totally unqualified.

The fact Sarah Palin has a hit list of American Representatives is appalling. It's ironic that she is targeting them because they voted for the Health Care Bill. She is condemning them to death because they want to bring basic health care to poor families and children that can't afford it?

Ironic again that the majority of people who would benefits from this bill are poor Republicans in middle America. Sarah Palin played with fire and got burned. Remember when she egged on supporters who were making death threats to Obama at campaign rallies? This woman is pure evil, and she WILL.NOT.CHANGE.

I speak for most Americans when I say that we would prefer if Sarah Palin and her family stuck to reality tv and left the government to the grown ups.

I don't think it was irresponsible seeing how this image was posted on Sarah Palin's facebook page prior to march of 2010 and was taken down some time ago. Useing crosshairs as targeting icons, as was the case in this image, is nothing new or even out of the ordinary. Its an effective visual to make the point that SarahPac was intending.

The crosshairs on this image were used to indicate 20 Democrats tageted by Sarah Palin's political action committee for the Nov midterm elections. Unfortunately Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords district was one of the districts targeted by Sarah Palin's organization. I think it is in very poor taste that there are people that are attempting to tie this to the tragic shooting that took place which has left a number of people dead and many in critical condition fighting for their lives including Gabrielle Giffords.

The expression of condolences made by Sarah Palin are just as sincere as President Obama's with regards to the victims of this horrible crime. Suggesting that a political image such as this had any bearing on causing this tragic event is akin to suggesting that the Beatles were responsible for the Manson murders. Very misleading and in very poor taste.

Personally I feel that had more citizens, who were attending Congresswoman Giffords event, been carrying firearms fewer people would of been shot by this lunatic.

Yes, if this is really Palin's site and description she should be help fully responsible and charged with conspiracy to murder. The rabid Republicans have long espoused guns and violence and have insanely demonized anyone who disagreed with them. They should be held fully accountable when violence results.

Of course not. No more so than the Daily Kos using the words "target" to identify the same Congresswoman, nor the Democratic advertisement with red and white "bullseyes" all over it (indicating shooting targets). Perhaps far less so than Presidents Obama's charge to his supporters to "bring a gun" because our opponents (whom he sometimes calls enemies who must be punnished) fight with knives.

The left is encouraging Obama to pin this on the Tea party, just as Clinton tried to pin the Oklahoma bombing on the right during his day. Read this chilling quote, framed while some victims are still fighting for their lives and other bodies are still warm: --/quote-- One veteran Democratic operative, who blames overheated rhetoric for the shooting, said President Barack Obama should carefully but forcefully do what his predecessor did. €œThey need to deftly pin this on the tea partiers,” said the Democrat.

€œJust like the Clinton White House deftly pinned the Oklahoma City bombing on the militia and anti-government people. € --/end quote-- http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47294.html#ixzz1Af1WzwCd There is so little truth to the desperate left's attempt to politicise this tragedy (as all tragedies)that even in the UK they recognize it. There is simply no evidence tying Palin or the Tea party to the shooter, period.

If you believe even some of the reported news concerning the shooter, he was a drug user, kicked out of community college for bizarre and threatening behavior, refused psychiatric help, included "Mein Kampf" and "The Communist Manifesto" among his favorite books, was offended when an Army Recruiter gave him a "mini-Bible", included flag burning on his Youtube channel, and the list goes on. Hardly a poster boy for Palin or the Tea Party, although there are plenty of organizations (left wing) where those sort of ideas and activities might be welcome. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/100071004/the-unseemly-rush-to-blame-sarah-palin-the-tea-party-and-republicans-for-murder-in-arizona/ Here is one example of an Obamma supporter strategizing the blame game tragedy even before this tragedy.

The left has been waiting for this opportunity, obviously. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjO6NFLLE04.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.