McCain writes a letter:
Dear Chairman Daves,
From the beginning of this election, I have been committed to running a respectful campaign based upon an honest debate about the great issues confronting America today. I expect all state parties to do so as well. The television advertisement you are planning to air degrades our civics and distracts us from the very real differences we have with the Democrats. In the strongest terms, I implore you to not run this advertisement.
This ad does not live up to the very high standards we should hold ourselves to in this campaign. We need to run a campaign that is worthy of the people we seek to serve. There is no doubt that we will draw sharp contrasts with the Democrats on fundamental issues critical to the future course of our country. But we need not engage in political tactics that only seek to divide the American people.
Once again, it is imperative that you withdraw this offensive advertisement.
John McCain
Get used to seven long months of this crap:
Step 1: GOP wingnut (is that redundant?) says something offensive, writes a nasty editorial, creates a vicious radio or tv spot.
Step 2: Ad receives widespread coverage and national attention.
Step 3: McCain condemns the ad/editorial/whatever.
Step 4: Chris Matthews and other bobbleheads in the media show off their man-crush for McCain while praising his integrity AND showing the offending ad/editorial on national television.
Step 5: I scream at the television and send another 25 bucks to the Obama campaign.
bootlegger
I wonder what is in that ad that has him so up in arms (pun intended).
Tax Analyst
OK…so I’ll see your $25 and raise $25 – as soon as my AMEX billing cycle passes on the 24th.
Anybody else in? It’s really the only game in town.
4tehlulz
This just makes it obvious that McCain is a communist agent raising money for the Obama campaign.
He is the Manchurian Fundraiser.
DragonScholar
Hmmm, I think there’s something here – if people keep sending money the more dumb wingnut ads come out, the more money Obama raises, and it gives a publicity advantage.
Also I like the general screaming. It’s cathartic.
jake
Yep. Your party sucks the village idiot’s balls, ours doesn’t.
Too bad Das Base has been on a steady diet of still-twitching meat (some of it torn from McCane’s ass) for nearly a decade. Can doubts about Bush v 2.0’s manliness be far behind?
jrg
More detail here
The NC GOP is an embarrassment to this state. I hope that people see through this, but there are a lot of dumb ass rednecks living in the boonies down here.
peach flavored shampoo
Sorry, OT (Sorry John!):
When did this happen?
h/t Atrios
ThymeZone
I reject and renounce this kind of negative posting.
Dreggas
Uh….crap.
Costco and Sams club are now limiting the amount of rice that can be purchased by customers at one time.
Zifnab
Is this really a strategy? Calling out crappy ads by your own party? Does McCain plan on being elected President on the “Sternly Worded Letter” Platform? Perhaps he just doesn’t keep up with Dem or Indie (or even Conservative) blogs, because we’ve all got a word for politicians who confront crisis in double-spaced 8 point Times New Roman font: Pussies.
Congratulations McCain. Maybe the wingnuts are right and you really are a Democrat at heart.
cleek
Michelle McCarthy has some information you may find useful.
peach flavored shampoo
Are you kidding? They’re now rationing basic foodstuffs? Seriously?
And MSNBC can’t lose their hard-on over Obama’s face scratch/middle finger motion, but no mention of this?
Holy f%ck are we screwed.
jake
Fixed.
But if the GOP wants to blow its money on pointless ads I have no objection.
Dan
Rinse, repeat. I am going broke $25 at a time.
jake
Got link?
All I can find is one NY Sun article that says some Costco’s out west are limiting rice purchases. Some in NY are limiting oil and flour sales.
PeterJ
Rye production worldwide seem to have gone down considerably between 1992 and 2005. So the recent rye shortage could be because the current production isn’t enough for a rising demand. Since the price of wheat has gone up this may affect the demand for rye.
Con Mhac
Dammit! How will I be able to have my pastrami rueben? Oh the humanity!
nightjar
Also, MCcain is trying to inoculate himself from the dem ad blitz tying him to Bush specifically and the GOP crime syndicate in general. It’s a pretty feeble cry in the wilderness, but really the only thing he can do — play the victim card at the hands of the mean and nasty democrats.
jnfr
Sam’s Club limits rice purchases
For Costco, all I see is this:
Costco CEO: demand rises for rice, flour
which mentions limits in some California stores.
Mary
You have to be fucking kidding.
Not the GOP shenanigans. I expected that.
But FOOD RATIONING?
Man, am I glad I have a freezer full of meat. Now I just have to run to the Caribbean grocer around the corner and make sure I have enough rice and dhal puri.
Paul L.
I am sure that your state NC has nothing else to be embarrassed about.
Maybe the NC NAACP and Democrat Mike Nifong.
Elvis Elvisberg
Donating to Obama is nice, but is there a group that makes these kinds of ads targeting McCain?
I’d prefer to live in a world where the GOP didn’t act like this. But we have to deal with things as they are on this planet.
Let’s see some ads about McCain’s age, the Keating Five scandal, his philandering, his scandalous remarriage to the heiress that funded his career.
Who’s making and airing those ads?
The instant that these pro-McCain ads targeting Obama go away, so should ours. But until then…
Jake
Is there any scenario under which McCain would agree to debate both Obama and Clinton?
I’m thinking Obama should suggest this at this point. Why not? The Dem-only debates have become mudsling-fests.
Is John “The Maverick” McCain really afraid to debate two Democratic candidates at once???
jake
80 lbs of rice/customer/visit is indeed a serious problem.
If you own a restaurant that serves a lot of rice.
Is it wrong to wonder if Haliburton has just purchased a major rice distributor? Oh well.
Kathy
And they wonder how Obama raises all his money! There are probably a lot of us out there who donate as much out of a feeling of disgust with all these other factions as we do out of respect for the Senator from Illinois!
Zifnab
Paul, you’re the spoofiest. Seriously, you’re awesome. Ten points. Gold Star. You win.
Notorious P.A.T.
I don’t see Obama agreeing to that. It would just turn out to be Clinton praising and praising McCain, and echoing his talking points and proposals. In other words Obama would be double-teamed.
Billy K
I was gonna give Obama some money, but I’ve decided to buy Rice instead.
(I don’t really eat rice that often, I just hear it’s the newest status symbol)
Chris
It’s a hope I almost dare not express, but could John McCain be relying too much on his “I was a POW” cred? During his interview with George Stephanopolous last weekend, George pressed him on the question of why every Amercian shouldn’t be able to enjoy the sort of healthcare John McCain’s been able to have for his entire life.
McCain’s response was that he didn’t have healthcare for ALL of his life, that he had foreign healthcare for a while over in Vietnam. (Followed by that quivering smile and snicker he does when he laughs at his own jokes and gotcha-lines)
Is this what we have to look forward to for the next several months? “What’s my plan to balance the budget? What about the time I was balanced on a board and tortured in Da Nang?!”
Davis X. Machina
McCain is doing the political version of the old Italian mano morta, the ‘dead hand’ — a blatant ass-grab, when, if you’re caught, you look at your hand with haughty distain, as if to say ‘now whose hand is that, and however did it get there?
Faux News
ThymeZone Says:
I reject and renounce this kind of negative posting.
Dreggas
more on food shortage here
Zifnab
But Guiliani got so far with “I am 9/11”, I can’t see how this would backfire.
McCain can weasel and one-line his way through this election, but it won’t save him. He knows that. Still, its better than openly expressing his policy opinions before they’ve been ginned up by Luntzian double-speak and Rovian ad jobs.
Every time he opens his mouth on an issue – 100 years in Iraq, tax cuts to solve every economic woe, home owners can suck it and get foreclosed on – he loses popularity. He’s probably safer sticking with Vietnam flashbacks as a campaign strategy. He’s not going to win on the issues.
Jake
I don’t see Obama agreeing to that. It would just turn out to be Clinton praising and praising McCain, and echoing his talking points and proposals. In other words Obama would be double-teamed.
I was going to argue that this would be a pretty stupid/destructive way for Clinton to behave. Then I realized who I was talking about.
My bad.
Dennis - SGMM
When the Swiftboat ads came out in the 2004 election I was angry. By the time our even-handed media got through I was furious:
TALKING HEAD: “Today a group calling itself Swiftboat Veterans for Truth launched an ad that questions John Kerry’s Vietnam service. Let’s show the ad.”
(Ad plays)
TALKING HEAD: “These are veterans who also served in Vietnam. Let’s show the ad again to see what they’re trying to say.”
(Ad plays)
TALKING HEAD: “This could be devastating for the Kerry campaign, particularly this part:”
(Clip from ad plays)
TALKING HEAD: “And this part:”
(Another clip from ad plays.)
And so on for days. These groups don’t even need to pay to have their ads shown. Just put them out on the Internet and they’ll be shown nationwide (Because they’re like, news, ya’ know) over and over again. In the case of the Swiftboat ads, they were largely shown without Kerry or one of his spokesmen or even a another vet present to refute them. Often, one of the Swiftboaters was on hand for an interview (And a showing of the ad). This didn’t go on for just a couple of days, it went on for weeks.
Yet we all know that the Fairness Doctrine is obsolete because it encroaches on journalistic freedom and the ability of those who use our airwaves to make money.
jake
People panicing about a shortage that doesn’t exist thereby possibly creating a shortage? Shocking!
If I hadn’t read Metzger’s Dog I would find this completely stupid rather than 99% stupid and 1% alarming.
In the mean time I don’t want to alarm anyone but there is a marked shortage of cat turds in the world. I’m willing to part with the large collection at my house for a reasonable fee. OK, form a line, no pushing.
marjowil
There’s a Stephanie Miller promo on our local lib radio station that has her show’s impersonator say in McCain’s voice:
“Hope is a whore who will wink you off for a dollar and leave you dazed, bloody and naked in a Saigon ditch filled with human excrement.”
the more I hear it, the more I laugh.
cleek
McCain makes a lousy Good Cop.
Ted
Damn. Tom Friedman just dodged some pies.
les
This is just McPain’s innovative media plan; get national exposure for ads without paying to air it. Brought to you by Pundit Public Relations, Inc.
Tom in Texas
Re POW and military cred:
McCain didn’t exactly show a lot of tactical brilliance in getting shot down and captured. I’m not questioning his honor, I’m just pointing out that he ain’t George Patton. That he’s ancient and prone to forgetting who we are fighting until a Liebercrat whispers it in his ear is also not a mark in his favor.
On top of that, from the results of the last several elections, we can see that people don’t find military experience (even successful) to be the most important factor when they vote. We haven’t had a chief executive with military experience for nearly twenty years — and the last two Presidents to serve were also the only two one term Presidents in that frame, showing we certainly don’t factor it for reelection.
I don’t think McCain’s military experience hurts him, but I don’t think it’s this HUGE advantage everyone seems to think it is. I suspect the media will have a very difficult time addressing this, but in the end, people don’t vote based solely on someone’s military creds.
Janus Daniels
Use it every chance we get: McCain, he’s their candidate for president, and not even they pay attention to him. He can’t manage his own party. How could he manage the country? He’s an old man; let him rest.
Jamey
Okay, so when the Dems have their nominee, and the debates begin in earnest, will anybody ask McCain whether he’ll pardon Bush, Cheney, Rice, Tenet, Rummy, et al for their illegal approval of torture?
Because, really, there’s a good chance that the Bush crew will be brought up on charges, either in The Hague, or some other jurisdiction.
Cyrus
A cheaper alternative would be to link to this every time. Only three versions of that showed up in the first six pages of Google image results I saw. Clearly, that’s not enough. I realize that almost every sentence in the English language that begins “The American people couldn’t possibly be dumb enough to …” is false, but still, McCain’s principled maverickness is nothing more than an illusion, just a firmly entrenched one.
And even putting that aside, the benefits to McCain of the five steps John lays out aren’t totally certain. Swiftboating worked when the Swift Boaters weren’t directly or officially connected to the Bush campaign. It might not work as well when it’s coming from the Republican Party itself.
Rick Taylor
Be of good cheer, John. In the long run the Republican party is cutting itself off at the knees if it resorts to thinly veiled race baiting. For all that I disliked in Bush/Rove, they at least the good sense to realize they had to make some attempt to appeal to minorities and to eschew racism for their party to be relevant in the long run. More attacks like these may help McCain this election, but they’re assuring long-term Republican irrelevance.
PeterJ
There was a toilet paper shortage in the ’70s…
Egilsson
Those nitwits at RedState didn’t waste much time proving John right.
Dave_Violence
Dude, if Hillary! “got away” with the rail car loads of BS regarding pizza, beer, guns, etc., McCain gets away with writing letters like that.
4tehlulz
oh shi-
Jeff
Walmart is also rationing rice.
Links to Costco story are there as well.
Cain
Of course not, did Darth Maul flinch when he engaged two fine young strapping male jedi’s? Not at all!
cain
jayackroyd
You’ve got 2 and 3 reversed. FIRST, McCain sends out a press release. THEN national coverage of the denounced video ensues, saving the state party/527 the price of running the ads.
Gus
I know how bad NC Repubs are. I have a highly placed Republican cousin in NC, and I love him dearly, but he’s a wingnut’s wingnut.
Tax Analyst
Relax…that $25 wouldn’t buy much of anything by the time Dubyah’s term is up anyway.
I’m guessing a large-size bag of Cheetos and maybe a gallon of gas.
One point that isn’t made nearly enough is how inflationary the Feds obsession with pleasing “Wall Street” with interest cuts have been and will be. Knocking the dollar down at every turn is really kicking J.Q. Public’s ass at the gas pump. Oil is paid for in dollars – dollars are worth shit now – ergo oil is now around $117/barrel and nearing $4 at the pump…with no real end in sight. Then everything that has to be transported, particularly food, has the same type of cost-bump thrown into the pricing mix. If you’ve been to the “other Market” – the Supermarket – lately you may have noticed prices rising higher than the tits on a giraffe.
Mike
One of the things that the extreme wingnuts like Dobson are unhappiest about is that McCain won’t call Democrats traitors and perverts. This kind of decent behavior is going to cost McCain a significant share of the GOP base, and he deserves credit for continuing it.
p.lukasiak
You’ve got it in the wrong order, Cole.
The ad goes up, recieves minimal exposure in the media, then McCain condemns it — at which point it becomes imperative for the media to show us what McCain is condemning in its entirety.
Its a variation on “I’d never say that Obama is arrogant and elitist….” scam. I just said it. And I got the message out while denying the message.
JasonC
WTF, John? Why is Duncan ripping you off with no link?
jake
In other news, McCane is practicing his love of women.
Apparently you girls can’t get equal pay because 1. You might sue someone; 2. You just need more edjumacation. 3. Gibber, dribble, mooo:
Jesus BASE jumping Christ. How can anyone not be sick of wondering if the president is a evil, lying SOB, stoned out of his mind or just dumber than a sack of hammers.
Any Dem. who says he (or she) will vote for this nightmare if their candidate doesn’t get the nom. deserves a shit ton of mockery and three farts in their general direction.
Davis X. Machina
McCain is 71.
Every day the country he wants to run is less white, less native-born, less straight, less Protestant, less Christian, less religious, than it was the day before.
For him, there is no long run.
For his party, there is no tomorrow.
I expect the dirtiest campaign in modern American history.
Deniable, of course — but the dirtiest.