Winning strategy?

I'm not the only one who thinks it likely Obama will be assassinated. There are those who are outright saying that if Obama is killed his blood will be on McCain's and Palin's hands. And, as that link and news organizations note, McCain understands it himself. He contradicted a few of his supporters at a recent rally (to a chorus of boos), trying to tell them that Obama is honorable, there are just disagreements between them on how to run the country. However, it seems Palin hasn't gotten the memo. It leads to the question why McCain started down the road of stirring up the crazies in his base at the expense of losing the independents. Some possible reasons:
* McCain has lost it.
* He actually thinks it is a winning strategy.
* He hopes some violence will change everything, perhaps stop the election.
* He hopes this will sabotage an Obama presidency.
* Palin is running the show.
Whatever it is, those running the campaign thinks the crazies don't need to be stopped. That's scary.