Is a whisper still a whisper if a million mouths speak it at the same moment?It’s been a taboo subject to discuss openly since democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama began running for the highest seat in the land more than a year ago.

It’s one of those topics that everyone has on their mind, whether they’ll admit to it or not. Its context was raised a few times during the bloodied and brutal democratic primaries, but still remains one of those areas of discussion that, when said out loud, is generally silenced for fears of bringing on curses of otherworldly damnation.

But there have been whispers. Millions of them – and they all ask the same thing:

What if Barack Obama is assassinated?

When those words are uttered aloud, many people immediately get defensive and uneasy, as if even thinking about such a travesty feeds the concept enough to potentially will it into reality.

And you know what? They’re right. And here’s why.

In recent weeks, as the U.S. economy took a suicidal plunge through a Wall St. sidewalk, republican presidential candidate John McCain has seen his polling numbers take an equally fatal dive.

With McCain’s campaign on the ropes, he resorted to the tried and true political method straight of Karl Rove’s playbook: fear.

McCain and Palin campaign rallies have turned into something of a pitchfork-wielding lynch mob as of late. The overwhelming anger of some McCain supporters, who have been practically screaming for Obama’s blood at recent campaign events, stands as a sickly reminder of just how easy it is to stoke the flames of fear in people.

When it became clear that his polling numbers were headed steadily south, McCain began launching misleading – some outright lying — attack advertisements linking Obama to former 1960’s radical and Weather Underground member Bill Ayers (who is now a college professor).

At recent campaign events, members of the McCain campaign began addressing Obama by his middle name, Hussein, in blatant attempt to tap into the post-9/11 fears and prejudices that still harbor in the minds of many Americans.

In the process of casting Obama off as a mysterious person with a funny name and links to “domestic terrorists,” the McCain campaign has created an angry slew of individuals who are literally calling for Obama’s head on a stick.

Shouts of “terrorist!,” “he’s a communist!,” and “kill him!” have started sprouting up at McCain rallies when Obama’s name is mentioned.

Last week, McCain actually had to step in as Obama’s defense.

During a campaign stop, it became clear that the beast McCain created had become bigger than he was, as audience members admitted to being “scared” of Obama because “he’s an Arab.”

McCain called Obama a decent family man who was – can you believe it? –not an Arab, but rather someone he happened to disagree with on certain issues.

McCain asked the crowd to be respectful, to which it responded by booing McCain in protest as he stood flailing his rigamortisly robotic arms and stuttered through an explanation.

Those familiar with Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein can note the similarities between the doctor’s creature and McCain’s own propaganda creation. Both Dr. Frankenstein and John McCain created something they thought they could control. Something that they, in their own eyes at least, did for the better of society.

But in the process they created something that far exceeded their expectations, as their creations became too powerful too quickly, leaving their makers grasping for a control that they would never again regain.

One can only wonder how far John McCain’s creature will choose to go.

King . . . JFK . . . Bobby . . . Lennon . . .

Obama?