Ed Schultz takes on the Republican fear mongering that's stirring up the crazies at these town hall meetings.

But first, tonight's "OpEd."

Goofy? Yes. Spooky? Yes. And a guy shows up with a gun at a presidential town hall.

If that's not dangerous, I don't know what is.

Now, to do all of this justice, I have to show you this first tonight. Take a look at what happened inside the town hall meetings of Senator Arlen Specter and Senator Claire McCaskill today.

Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You and your cronies in the government do this kind of stuff all the time. Well, I don't care!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do not want to pay on a health care plan that includes the right for a woman to kill her unborn baby.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't want this country turning into Russia, turning into a socialized country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What it says is, as a 74-year-old man, if you develop cancer, we're pretty much going to write you off.

MCCASKILL: You don't trust me?

AUDIENCE: No!

MCCASKILL: Hey! Hey!

OK. Ma'am-OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Fear, fear, and more fear.

And outside the president's rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, today, this was the scene. Wild Bill Hicock shows up.

What is this guy's program? Can it get any worse? Well, it does.

This is vandalism outside Congressman David Scott's office in Georgia. He held a town hall meeting a couple of nights ago. He was greeted with a four-foot-tall swastika today.

And this is how the president is being depicted in Maryland at Senator Ben Cardin's town hall meeting-Obama with a Hitler-like moustache.

You know, this is not the country that we should be proud of right now. These folks have got to be distanced from the Republican Party. You would think that the Republican party would step and up say, these aren't our people.

This is all a product of the Republican fear mongering that's taking place out there. This is really all the game that they have right now. It's a party without a message.

So, what happens? The fringe fills in the vacuum.

Today, the president went on the offensive. I tell you, President Obama was on top of his game today. He hit on the four major points on all the talking points that they've been hammering the White House with-

Medicare, death panels, public option, and taxes.

I thought he did it with tremendous clarity.

The big questions I've had, and someone asked it today, how are you going to pay for this reform? I mean, you're really all concerned about the money, aren't you? With Republicans, it's all about the money.

Here comes a piece of truth from the president. Here's the answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: It should not burden people who make $250,000 a year or less. And I think that's the commitment that I made, the pledge that I made when I was up here running in New Hampshire, folks.

So, I don't want anybody saying somehow that I'm, you know, pulling the bait and switch here. I said very specifically, I thought we should roll back Bush tax cuts and use them to pay for health insurance. That's what I'm intending to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: Got that, top two percent? You're going to get taxed if all this goes through. That means 98 percent of Americans, you don't have to worry about it. Middle-classers, you're not going to get taxed when it comes to health care reform.

He also pointed out that insurance companies are rationing care right now. The president threw the bullet points right back in their face today in a very classy manner, and did it with the facts.