When Packer asked Ms. Dunham where she’d gotten her information, she replied, “On the Internet.” He doesn’t record asking any followup questions. I think I’d have asked her if she taught arithmetic; and if so, how anybody gets to be two-thirds of anything. Then, if she hadn’t gotten wise yet, asked her what’s wrong with being an Arab. Didn’t they invent mathematics?

Ah, the Internet! It’s a Mississippi River: a constant passing giant stream that picks up all sorts of cargo as it goes. Some of it is terrific (as long as you check the source for reliability). I haven’t hauled out an arthritis-inducing volume of encyclopedia for months; I can look up Clarence Birdseye’s middle name and the course of his career in an instant, if I need to; and in moments of feeling a little down, I can Google Monty Python or a Labatt beer commercial. But the Big Muddy, as it flows along, picks up a lot of pretty nasty stuff, too. It carries a lot of garbage masquerading as fact. As the current presidential campaign rounds the last turn and heads into the home stretch, frustration, anger, misinformation, and attacks are morphing from innuendo to outrage.

There’s an old lawyer’s axiom that goes, “If you have the facts, argue the facts. If you don’t have the facts, argue the law. If you have neither the facts nor the law, argue the Constitution.” In political campaigns, the axiom seems to be, “If you have the issues and the record, argue them. If you don’t have them, attack your opponent’s record. If you’re slipping in the polls, attack your opponent’s character.”

The problem with that is that, if you sow the wind, you may reap the hurricane. The naughty winks and digs by Sarah Palin – “pallin’ around with terr’ists” – accomplish exactly what they’re supposed to: inflame the already frustrated. The level of anger at recent Republican rallies has risen to the dangerous, to the point at which people in the crowds feel free to shout threats against a candidate they honestly believe to be an angry, radical Muslim. The Secret Service boys must be popping antacids by the pint.

To his credit, John McCain in person – the ads are a different story – is damping down some of his supporters’ rhetoric. When a woman at a Minnesota rally claimed angrily that she didn’t trust Obama “because he’s an Arab,” McCain took the microphone back and said, “No, Ma’am, he’s a decent family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues; and that’s what this campaign is all about.” Right on, John!

Notice the subtext: He’s not an Arab; he’s a decent man. And of course there are others, mainly racist, which are only just beginning to come out of the closet for discussion in reputable media. We have tended to pussyfoot around the suggestion that the United States is still plagued by race hatred, and that the polls showing Obama leading will be overturned on Election Day when people can express their fears in private. Not so J.K. Patrick of Inez, Kentucky, also quoted by George Packer: “I really don’t want an African-American as President. I think he would put too many minorities in positions over the white race.” An unjustified fear, of course, but very real.

If Obama is elected, he will not allow the American flag to be painted on the tail of Air Force One. – from an anonymous mass e-mail.

There are two things about all this I find especially irritating. The first is that so many of us, without realizing it, see only what we know the name of. When Republicans some years ago began referring to the “liberal media,” it stuck; when Hillary Clinton referred (accurately, I think) to a “vast right-wing conspiracy,” she was hooted down.

The second is the e-mails I’ve been getting from “Christians,” urging me to pray for the right man to win. For example: Please join me every night at 9 pm Eastern to pray for our country. I will be asking God to vote through me as I listen and discern and step into the booth....Those who have no vision shall perish! This is the SCARIEST election we as Christians have ever faced. From the looks of the polls, the Christians aren’t voting Christian values. We all need to be on our knees. I will be, sister; I will be – praying that if God does decide to intervene in this election, he separates Church from State and goes with the popular vote.

Bill Brown, “a highly respected retired member of the Billy Graham team,” recently sent out an e-mail about “Barack Hussain [sic] Obama” that compares his charismatic speaking manner to that of Billy Graham or Hitler. Guess which one you’re supposed to choose. Then he lists a couple dozen of Obama’s legislative and moral sins that to me read like a really good and consistent liberal record. Right on, Barack!

The choice actually is not as apocalyptic as either side would have us think. Maybe we could get used to believing that cave men really did battle dinosaurs.