In the days before the election, media figures have repeatedly compared Obama to Hitler

Since October 16, numerous media figures -- among them Jerome Corsi, Ann Coulter, Mark Levin, and Bill Cunningham -- have compared Sen. Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler or the Nazis.

Since October 16, several media figures -- including author Jerome Corsi, Fox News contributor Ann Coulter, radio hosts Mark Levin and Bill Cunningham, author Hilmar von Campe, and Townhall.com columnist Laura Hollis -- have compared Sen. Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler or the Nazis.

  • In an October interview with Gentleman's Quarterly magazine, responding to the question, “What's been the most interesting reaction to your book?” Jerome Corsi, author of the debunked and discredited book, The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, asserted: “This whole cult of personality is a miscalculation. We should have learned in the last century that a cult of personality was very dangerous -- left or right, Hitler or Stalin. It didn't work out very well.”
  • On the October 30 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Coulter asserted: “With one association after another that is beyond the pale with Barack Obama, I feel like we are talking to the Germans after Hitler comes to power saying, 'Oh, well, I didn't know. I had no idea he was going to be like this.' ” As Media Matters for America has documented, Coulter has repeatedly likened Obama to Hitler.
  • On the October 29 edition of ABC Radio Networks' The Mark Levin Show, Levin asserted that Obama is “really into these big German-like events that he creates in this country, isn't he? Have you noticed that?” Curtis Sliwa, WABC radio host and CEO and founder of the community activist organization Guardian Angels, responded: “I am telling you, and he comes out and it's almost as if the crowd stands in unison, and I'm saying to myself, 'Oh my God, the Olympic Stadium, Berlin, 1938,' ” to which Levin replied: “Yeah, we've seen this. It's scary.” Sliwa then asserted: “And the only thing missing is he's not standing up in an open car.”
  • On the October 28 edition of Clear Channel's The Big Show with Bill Cunningham, referring to Sen. John McCain, Cunningham asserted: “Maybe it's his age, or maybe it's his lack of eloquence. Whatever it is, the guy just doesn't have the same verbal skills of someone like a Barack Hussein Obama. Of course, Adolf Hitler had great verbal skills, too, and he led the country of his country to disaster.”
  • In her October 16 column headlined, “Time to Use the 'C' Word,” Hollis wrote: “And we are being lured into the same noose that has ensnared so many millions of hapless souls, despite reams of pages of history. We express horror at the Hitler Youth in little matching uniforms singing 'Hitler will save us, Hitler is our Lord,' but then we smile and laugh as we see grade schoolers in matching blue t-shirts singing, 'Obama's gonna save us.'”

As Media Matters for America has documented, conservative pundits have repeatedly made comparisons between Obama and Hitler or the Nazis.

From Corsi's October interview with Gentleman's Quarterly magazine:

What's been the most interesting reaction to your book?

Well, what's happened with this book is the ideological bent of the mainstream media has never been more apparent. The New York Times, which claims to be objective journalism, introduces me with a string of loaded, emotionally weighted adjectives and says the book is full of lies. These guys are in love with Obama, and they don't realize that that's to the detriment of Obama. Because of the mainstream-media love affair, I think you're going to see voters experiencing Obama fatigue. Is he going to break open the skies and come down in a chariot of lightning and start healing people? This whole cult of personality is a miscalculation. We should have learned in the last century that a cult of personality was very dangerous -- left or right, Hitler or Stalin. It didn't work out very well. And it didn't work out well with the columns at Invesco Field, either.

From the October 30 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:

COULTER: With one association after another that is beyond the pale with Barack Obama, I feel like we are talking to the Germans after Hitler comes to power saying, “Oh, well, I didn't know. I had no idea he was going to be like this.”

ALAN COLMES (co-host): Ann --

COULTER: With this guy, Americans ought to know. The media is covering up except on this channel -- thank you, Sean Hannity.

COLMES: What -- what kind of judgment does it show --

COULTER: This is shocking. One time after another.

From the October 29 edition of ABC Radio Networks' The Mark Levin Show:

LEVIN: Let me ask you something. By the way, my buddy Curtis Sliwa on WABC in the mornings and also being syndicated throughout the country. Curtis Sliwa, you know, since Barack Obama made a comparison, I will make less of a vicious comparison, but -- I'm getting feedback in my ears, boys -- but, he's really into these big German-like events that he creates in this country, isn't he?

SLIWA: Oh --

LEVIN: Have you noticed that?

SLIWA: I am telling you -- and he comes out and it's almost as if the crowd stands in unison, and I'm saying to myself, “Oh my God, the Olympic Stadium, Berlin, 1938.”

LEVIN: Yeah, we've seen this.

SLIWA: Yes.

LEVIN: It's scary.

SLIWA: And the only thing missing is he's not standing up in an open car. He's basically trotting out, you know, on the tarmac that leads right to the main stage. But he -- he's loving every second of it. He wants love from the audience. And they give it to him.

LEVIN: Well, he's trying to create the impression that he's bigger than life, that he is the messiah, that he's already our leader, and that this election is just sort of an administrative step to the inevitable.

From the October 28 edition of Clear Channel's The Big Show with Bill Cunningham:

CUNNINGHAM: After eight years of George Bush and Dick Cheney, I think many occasional voter watching American Idol says it's time that we had an American president who could actually talk well and made some sense. And when John McCain talks, he often makes no sense and doesn't know what he's saying. Maybe it's his age, or maybe it's his lack of eloquence. Whatever it is, the guy just doesn't have the same verbal skills of someone like a Barack Hussein Obama. Of course, Adolf Hitler had great verbal skills, too, and he led the country of his country to disaster. Change is coming. Change came to Cuba with Fidel Castro. Change came to China, Mao Zedong. Change came to Russia with the Bolsheviks and then the communists. Change is not necessarily a good thing.

From von Campe's October 28 WorldNetDaily column:

Nietzsche is an atheist German philosopher who lived from 1844-1900 and together with others of the radical left of that time like Arthur Schopenhower [sic] created the intellectual atmosphere for Karl Marx and his Communist Manifesto. They called for changing society -- but not to improve the life of people but to use them to gain power and keep it. He created the concept of “overman,” the man stronger than others with the right to step over the weak, which attracted Hitler. The alternative to Marxism is not capitalism, as so many people believe. The only alternative is an answer to the spiritual fundament of this godless philosophy. The change they are talking about is no change but a steppingstone to their own power on the way to a totalitarian system. Socialist Hitler destroyed free society in a few months. Socialist Obama is close to his steppingstone. The following is an attempt to clarify the issue.

From Hollis' October 16 column posted on Townhall.com:

What is exceptional is our economic and political system. If we dismantle the very procedural protections that were put into place to protect us from tyranny (by people who had lived with tyranny and knew it well), then tyranny is what we will get.

And we are being lured into the same noose that has ensnared so many millions of hapless souls, despite reams of pages of history. We express horror at the Hitler Youth in little matching uniforms singing “Hitler will save us, Hitler is our Lord,” but then we smile and laugh as we see grade schoolers in matching blue t-shirts singing, “Obama's gonna save us.” We are outraged by the army of children in Sudan, but think nothing of American black boys in camouflage pumping their fists and chanting propaganda from Obama's campaign. We are repulsed by some dictators' claims that they are gods, but shrug it off as insignificant when Louis Farrakhan -- a vicious anti-Semite, among other reprehensible things - says “the Messiah is speaking” in a speech referring to Obama.

Still don't think it can happen here? Well, you're in good company. Neither did the Russians. Or the Germans. Or the Chinese. Or the North Koreans. Or the Vietnamese. Or the Cubans. Or the Cambodians.

Critics will call this alarmist fear-mongering. So be it. Don't say you haven't been warned.