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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2008 / Fool Us Three Times, We All Lose

Fool Us Three Times, We All Lose

by John Cole|  July 31, 20086:27 pm| 52 Comments

This post is in: Election 2008, Mainstream Media's McCain Mancrush

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Billmon, a guy I didn’t listen to enough a few years back, is back to blogging, and man is it depressing. Well, his return is not depressing, but what he has to say is. If you will, some quotes from Billmon’s new post at the Great Orange Satan, juxtaposed with some quotes from our illustrious media. Billmon:

McCain’s primary talent has always been his ability persuade simple-minded people (i.e. his media cheerleading claque) that he is flipping or flopping as a matter of great personal principle and at great possible cost to his political career – even as he has used his various flips and flops to climb the greased pole and become the presidential nominee of his party.

***

Now, if you go back and look, you’ll see that if Keating didn’t comp McCain as generously and vigorously as he did the other four, it was probably because McCain was a very junior senator at the time, with relatively little influence to peddle. But it wasn’t because Honest John was shy about accepting the favors that were offered him. If John McCain had a problem with the way lobbying (i.e. legalized prostitution) was being done in Washington, you definitely won’t find it in the record of the Keating investigation. McCain’s fit of Puritan self-righteousness (or political calculation, depending on your view) came after the fact, once he’d already been caught. And yet, from that single Senate speech sprang the shoot that eventually grew into the sturdy tree of John McCain’s media image.

You have to admit it was a neat trick: Happily accepting the naughty goodies while they were being handed out, but then winning brownie points for admitting he took them – after the world had already found out he took them. But that’s precisely what McCain did. He’s never looked back since.

The St. Petersburg Times:

Virtually all candidates, including Obama, distort their opponent’s record. But McCain has gone beyond reasonable bounds. The self-described “happy warrior” in the 2000 presidential campaign has turned sour in 2008, and the candor and straight talk that once made him such an attractive candidate are rapidly disappearing.

Billmon, discussing McCain in 2000:

So suddenly John McCain, the supposed straight talker, was ducking and weaving around the perennially important issue of whether the Confederate flag should continue to wave over the cradle of the Civil War.

He lost anyway, of course — but here again, as during the Keating Five scandal, McCain managed to make political vice look like virtue, at least in the media’s eyes. In late April, he gave a speech announcing he’d been wrong not to denounce the Stars and Bars. “I chose to compromise my principles,” he confessed, and “broke my promise to always tell the truth” in order to win in South Carolina.

“I do not intend for this apology to help me evade criticism for my failure,” the noble McCain nobly added. “I will be criticized by all sides for my late act of contrition. I accept all of it, I deserve it.”

Once again, the hearts of supposedly hard-hearted reporters melted like butter – not withstanding the obvious fact that McCain had saved his road-to-Damascus moment until after the votes were cast in South Carolina and after Bush had effectively nailed down the nomination. (McCain’s flips and flops on racial issues, such as his forth and back and forth on making MLK’s birthday a federal holiday, are worth a post just in themselves.)

Todd Purdum, today in Vanity Fair:

Bill and Hillary Clinton proved the severe political dangers of running against hope last winter and spring, and McCain’s own great strength has always been his realistic optimism, his conviction that every American should sign up—as he did so long ago—in a cause greater than his or her own self-interest. “I’ll put my country first, and I’ll never let you down,” he told a crowd at a Caterpillar dealership outside Denver on Wednesday. Wise words to live by, for sure.

But by suggesting that Barack Obama is the kind of politician who would put self-interest and political expediency above problem-solving, as McCain did more than once this week, this honorable, intelligent, maverick, cagey, come-from-behind character risks doing precisely that himself.

Billmon, explaining why we are seeing McCain act the way he is the past few days:

But McCain and his new team of Rovian handlers now realize they won’t have a prayer in November unless they can motivate the conservative base and (to use Lee Atwater’s charming phrase) “strip the bark” off Obama. And they have to do it NOW, so McCain can pivot back to a softer, more upbeat message in September.

And when he does, you know what we can expect. All will be forgotten. All will be forgiven. The destruction of Obama’s character will be complete, the Maverick can go back to serving donuts BBQ to the press, and he will be welcomed back in open arms. After all, they haven’t learned anything from his past behavior. Why should we expect a media universe filled with folks like Tapper and Halperin and Broder to begin to learn now?

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52Comments

  1. 1.

    Tax Analyst

    July 31, 2008 at 6:38 pm

    OW. Scary. Goodnight.

  2. 2.

    Ted

    July 31, 2008 at 6:41 pm

    Great post, John. And great one by Billmon. He’s one of the biggest intellectual assets in the left-wing blogodrome. I don’t read Red State much; do they also have articles that well done?

  3. 3.

    Ted

    July 31, 2008 at 6:46 pm

    the Maverick can go back to serving donuts to the press

    The press serve donuts to him which is rather obsequious. St. BBQ serves BBQ (apparently very good BBQ) to the press.

    I’ll just never forget that AP reporter’s exchange with McCain on that occasion: “We brought you your favorite treat. … And a little coffee with a little cream and a little sugar…”

  4. 4.

    DannyNoonan

    July 31, 2008 at 6:47 pm

    Accusing the first black presidential nominee of using race to his advantage is audacious chutzpah and deserves to mocked and derided. But McCain also deserves a strong pimp-slap from the press. It’s good to see that’s starting. He’s revealed scales and a noxious odor that belies a cold blooded lust for the presidency. Power is all he cares about. Decency be damned. But at least somewhere in Hell, Dick Nixon is shedding a tear.

  5. 5.

    strawmanmunny

    July 31, 2008 at 6:59 pm

    I dearly hope that Obama wins this thing. To the tune of actually contributing to a candidate for the first time. But, I fear that this country will fall for these same tactics again. I don’t share the optimistic feelings that some have of the larger American populace, at least the ones I come into contact with.

    Over and over again, this kind of crap works in Presidential elections. It’s bad to be liked, it’s bad to have plans, it’s bad to be able to speak coherently, it’s bad to actually THINK about our problems and not have them condensed into a bumper sticker, and on and on. Never are people valued on WHAT their actual plans are, it’s just demagoguery all the time and the people fall for it.

    It’s just mind boggling and frustrating.

  6. 6.

    nightjar

    July 31, 2008 at 7:01 pm

    And when he does, you know what we can expect. All will be forgotten. All will be forgiven.

    Let’s face it, being a former POW and war hero has allowed MCcain to slide past a lot of duplicitous behavior and it’s something Obama and his team will have to deal with in creative way. If you look at the situation dispassionately, MCcain has more than flip-flopped on a few issues. He has literally created a dual persona to try and win the presidency. He has bet on his years of stroking the press, that they will let him have a lot of rope to run with and won’t hang him with it. And so far, his bet is paying off. The apathetic voters (many of them anyway) in this country will not notice his political whoring unless the media rams it down their throats. Or to put it simply, tells them the truth. I’m not holding my breath till they do.

  7. 7.

    Jim

    July 31, 2008 at 7:07 pm

    I’m trying to not get too depressed about this whole thing, but the shitheads that comprise the American press, combined with an electorate that, quite frankly, doesn’t seem to be able to find its own ass with two hands and a flashlight, are very likely to put McCain in office. Rove may have turned being a Republican into the equivalent of a child molester, but in the case of electing a President, relentless attacking your opponent, no matter how unfairly and cynically, works. There is no other reason we’ve had the Incompetent-in-Chief we’ve had for the last 8 years.

  8. 8.

    Ash Can

    July 31, 2008 at 7:15 pm

    Somewhat OT, but just plain good comedy relief. And encouraging, especially in light of this thread, considering that it’s being reported by a McCain sympathizer.

  9. 9.

    Zifnab

    July 31, 2008 at 7:53 pm

    And when he does, you know what we can expect. All will be forgotten. All will be forgiven. The destruction of Obama’s character will be complete, the Maverick can go back to serving donuts to the press, and he will be welcomed back in open arms.

    Wait, what? Who’s character will be destroyed? So far McCain has blamed Obama for everything from high gas prices to losing the Iraq War (that we’re winning, btw, or not, depending on what time of day it is) to enabling anti-Semetism to raising everyone’s taxes via Presidential fiat. And virtually none of it has stuck.

    He’s been reduced to accusing Obama of being too popular to be President. Too Popular, John. This is McCain’s strategy. He’s a complete clusterfuck.

    Don’t let the wingnuts and the doomsayers try to selling you a different story. When Bush ran in 2000, he needed to cheat like mad to win. Rove had him dicking around in California with some faint, bedazzled hope of flipping a state Bush lost by 12 freak’n points. The best kept secret in American politics is that Republicans haven’t run a decent election since Dukakis in ’88. It’s been all down hill. Only good old fashioned bare knuckle raw boned cheating has saved their bacon the last two runs. So called strategy has had very little to do with it.

  10. 10.

    Perry Como

    July 31, 2008 at 8:00 pm

    Tune in tomorrow when Mavericky McMaverick maverickly mavericks his way out of a maverick.

  11. 11.

    cleek

    July 31, 2008 at 8:03 pm

    i love Billmon, but man, his skill is in being devastatingly bleak. you rarely come away feeling like things are looking up.

  12. 12.

    justin

    July 31, 2008 at 8:06 pm

    jake tapper is a piece of shit.

  13. 13.

    DannyNoonan

    July 31, 2008 at 8:37 pm

    “Evidently no recording was made, so we’ll probably never know the exact wording,” Dana Milbank writing about his disputed quote.

    What a prick. Using a second hand quote that might or might not be accurate is nothing other than professional arrogance. As a journalist I would expect to be fired for doing this. Milbank has instead reveled in his pathetic malpractice. His word is now worthless.

  14. 14.

    Jim

    July 31, 2008 at 9:05 pm

    Cleek – Billmon may be bleak, but truly, what in the last 8 years serves as a cause for hope?

  15. 15.

    sistermoon

    July 31, 2008 at 9:05 pm

    Somewhere in the darkest depths of Hell, Lee Atwater’s laughter is ringing…

  16. 16.

    ScreamingInAtlanta

    July 31, 2008 at 9:07 pm

    Let’s not forget we have something new this time – grass roots true believers and plenty of money. Don’t despair. And Obama knows his stuff. He beat the Clinton machine with guerilla warfare before they knew he was even there. Every time I start to freak the Obama campaign rises to the occasion. Also the debates will clarify who these 2 are.

  17. 17.

    cleek

    July 31, 2008 at 9:18 pm

    check out this fool, claiming that McCain “McCain has not predicated his campaign on his identity or personal story”.

    for fuck’s sake, his military service is all his supporters can talk about! it’s all he has!

  18. 18.

    El Cid

    July 31, 2008 at 9:23 pm

    I think you have the ingredients for an online betting calendar on when McCain turns back into Old Softy and the media can all run back to get their dry rub(s) again.

  19. 19.

    Montysano

    July 31, 2008 at 9:24 pm

    i love Billmon, but man, his skill is in being devastatingly bleak. you rarely come away feeling like things are looking up.

    True dat, but I can’t think of anyone who did bleak better than he did. His return may indicate that he believes, in the words of Howard Beale, that “We’re in a lotta trouble!”

    My family and I spent 6 lovely, magical years in New Orleans in the mid-late ’80s. His epitaph for New Orleans remains one of the best I’ve read. It’s great to read him again.

  20. 20.

    tomjones

    July 31, 2008 at 9:26 pm

    McCain can only pray that somehow, someway, the fear of terrorism re-asserts itself. I think, and hope, that the low-info American voters will be far less susceptible to character attacks when the alleged deficiency in character won’t – as in the 2004 race – result in their grisly and untimely death by suicide bombing.

  21. 21.

    skippy

    July 31, 2008 at 9:31 pm

    ash can beat me to the punch to point out that the hiltons are furious w/mcmuffin for using paris in his ad comparing obama to celebrities.

    dont’ be too bleak…first of all, billmon eats bleak for breakfast, it’s his nature. second of all, we didn’t have things like olbermann and maddow to balance sh*t out the last 8 years.

    thirdly, as john pointed out w/the st. petersburg times piece, the media (at least some) are starting to question mcmuffin’s tactics.

    joe klein is quite disenchanged w/mcmuffin, as are a few other op/ed pages.

    i just wish the dems and/or obama would start a campaign of showing america what bush has done to us, and how mcmuffin would just be four more years of same.

  22. 22.

    jake

    July 31, 2008 at 9:39 pm

    So. Imagine it’s the second year of McCain’s term. The money’s all gone, 30 people died in a riot over the last can of dog food and no other country will send us aid because they’re grumpy about that little trick with the bonds backed by crap mortgages. Trained attack moose and killer iguanas prevent us from escaping the hell hole that was once the U.S.A. My question is this:

    Who should we eat first? I originally thought the lobbyists followed by the Congresscritters and then any rich bastards we can catch. But now I’m thinking the crappy reporters should be first.

  23. 23.

    cleek

    July 31, 2008 at 9:41 pm

    Cleek – Billmon may be bleak, but truly, what in the last 8 years serves as a cause for hope?

    oh i know. he’s right.

    but he’s just such so sharp, it stings sometimes.

  24. 24.

    nightjar

    July 31, 2008 at 9:55 pm

    I think you have the ingredients for an online betting calendar on when McCain turns back into Old Softy and the media can all run back to get their dry rub(s) again

    If you think about it, this current MCcain strategy of politics for three year olds is quite ingenious, although by accident I’m sure. By dragging Britney and Paris into the race, along with videos of Obama shooting hoops with the troops in an ad that claims he doesn’t care about them, Mccain is building a kind of strawman psycho Clown angle of attack. How does Obama take it on without becoming a caricature of a person who worries about the antics of a crazy old senile Bozo. Brilliant Mr. Watson, just brilliant.

    Now I’m going outside and scream at the planet Mars.

  25. 25.

    Ron Beasley

    July 31, 2008 at 10:00 pm

    Thanks John I would have missed this – even this old hippy rarely goes over to the “Orange Satan”.

  26. 26.

    KC

    July 31, 2008 at 10:20 pm

    Obama needs to start hitting McCain, hard. But like all Dems, he can’t and won’t. Until it’s too late.

  27. 27.

    Voice of Reason

    July 31, 2008 at 10:35 pm

    Billmon was one of the blogs I first started reading regularly. The thinking is always insightful, the writing top-notch, and I hope he’s truly back in the picture. I missed that guy.

  28. 28.

    Adam

    July 31, 2008 at 10:42 pm

    Obama’s response. Man he’s good.

  29. 29.

    Brachiator

    July 31, 2008 at 10:51 pm

    KC Says:

    Obama needs to start hitting McCain, hard. But like all Dems, he can’t and won’t. Until it’s too late.

    I disagree. The press loves to tsk tsk with disapproval about a campaign “going negative” even as they fall all over themselves to print every piece of bile coming out of either candidate’s mouth. They sit like hopeful little fools at their desks, waiting for the daily conference call from the candidates and their surrogates, and suck up insults and innuendo for future regurgitation to their readers and viewers.

    It’s a fool’s game, especially when a number of reporters have decided to do everything they can to present McCain in a positive light.

    But McCain can be needled into self-destruction. He cannot long contain his nasty side, nor can the compliant press successfully hide it from voters forever.

    The Democratic Party has an impossibly strong line-up of people to back Obama up and “peel the bark” off McCain and the Republicans without going as hamfistedly negative as the GOP Smear Machine. They’ve got a former president, Jimmy Carter. A freakin’ Nobel Bell Prize winning elder statesman VP in Al Gore. The most firstest Former First Lady Ever, Senator and Sun Queen Hillary Clinton. And the Bad Boy himself, Bill Clinton. Even with John Edwards apparently removed from the board for now, the Democratic Party line-up is one of the most formidable in the history of the party. They could easily be deployed almost around the clock to puncture the delusion that the GOP knows how to govern, cares about the average person or is remotely honest and competent. And since McCain has decided to chain himself to Bush, it should be easy to sink him along with his vile political party.

    And oh yeah, that Obama guy can hold his own against anyone.

    Especially with the Clinton’s out front for Obama, McCain would have to slime them as well, which would only make him look more desperate and foolish.

    But if Bill and Hillary are holding back because they are still waiting for Obama to offer the VP slot to Hillary, and if the Democrats think that they can wait until sometime closer to their convention to organize and execute a coherent counter-strategy to McCain’s Rovian attack campaign — well, the Democrats just might find a way to piss away a victory in November.

  30. 30.

    GSD

    July 31, 2008 at 11:00 pm

    Barack Obama is just like these two, dissipated young Republicans.

    Just like them.

    -GSD

    P.S. Looks like John McCain is back to obsessing over young blondes who aren’t his wife.

    Don’t tell Cindy.

  31. 31.

    btchakir

    July 31, 2008 at 11:05 pm

    Want to keep in touch with Obama’s response to the lies, low blows and desperate crap that McCain and his minions are putting out?

    Notice stuff like this in NY Times Editorials??? :

    “Well, that certainly didn’t take long…The candidate [John McCain] who started out talking about high-minded, civil debate has wholeheartedly adopted Mr. Rove’s low-minded and uncivil playbook.”

    Visit McCain’s Low Road Express and arm yourself for the dirty street fight that the Old Man is starting to wage!

    Under The LobsterScope

  32. 32.

    Ed Marshall

    July 31, 2008 at 11:10 pm

    But McCain can be needled into self-destruction

    I’d keep the Clinton’s under wraps if it was me, but I think you are right.

    McCain is going to snap off on someone. He’s not the same guy he was in 2000. Frankly, it’s his age. He’s going to snap off on someone and I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be woman who asks him the wrong question, and instead of having that horrible, frail, looking moment that he had when he was trying to remember what tenent of conservative orthodoxy he was trying to hold up with not requireing insurance to cover contraception he’s going to have a pissy chair throwing fit and say something incredibly stupid and offensive.

    The press loves a storyline arc. Yeah, they will go after Obama with a visciousness based on the same logic eventually, but taking down Obama now is like offing an incredibly good, villian, character in a single episode. The destruction of McCain would be so much more epic. After a decade or more of making this guy the ultimate in bi-partison, straight-talking, hero of the militant moderate he becomes an unhinged, mean old man. Maybe they will even work in a way time cheated him and their theoretical old McCain was the leader America needed and was cheated out of as age turned him into a senile old jerk yelling at everyone to get off his lawn.

  33. 33.

    Ninerdave

    July 31, 2008 at 11:16 pm

    Thanks John I would have missed this – even this old hippy rarely goes over to the “Orange Satan”.

    Great to see Billmon is back (hopefully).

    I too rarely read GOS anymore. Too much group think, second guessing, squabbling, etc, etc. oh and the current front pagers suck. When do go there it’s to read Kos, Darksyde, or Bill for Portland. Or to post diaries that are going to piss people off.

  34. 34.

    Ninerdave

    July 31, 2008 at 11:22 pm

    On a sorta off topic but related note:

    we have an anonymous unsubstantiated quote about McCain readying ads about Obama no matter if he visited troops or not in Germany as pointed out by our illustrious host here.

    And Dana Milbank’s unsubstantiated quote (since dis-proven) for yesterday.

    The latter caused a media firestorm…will the first? Or am I just alone in thinking there are similarities between the two situations.

  35. 35.

    Gus

    July 31, 2008 at 11:31 pm

    Having Billmon back is huge. He had an excellent series of posts quoting Gibbon and comparing the late Roman Empire the the current U.S. empire.

  36. 36.

    99 Percent Pure

    August 1, 2008 at 12:33 am

    Especially with the Clinton’s out front for Obama, McCain would have to slime them as well, which would only make him look more desperate and foolish.

    But if Bill and Hillary are holding back because they are still waiting for Obama to offer the VP slot to Hillary, and if the Democrats think that they can wait until sometime closer to their convention to organize and execute a coherent counter-strategy to McCain’s Rovian attack campaign—well, the Democrats just might find a way to piss away a victory in November.

    Not true, and it never has been, despite the rabidity of white feminists and the forked tongues of media pundits. After the terrible campaign she ran in which she and her husband not only ‘played the race card,’ as folk like to say, but also attempted to use code words to call for Obama’s assassination, there was no way she would have been chosen. Refusing to concede the night Obama became the presumptive nominee put that coffin six feet under.

    Because of their feelings of entitlement, and given their attempts, under the guise of the DLC, to split the Democratic Party, I never believed that they would EVER campaign for or with Obama and, thus far, I’ve been proven correct. I’ve said so since March, when even the jr. senator knew that Obama would be the presumptive nominee, yet continued racking up millions in campaign debt. Obama didn’t need the Clintons to win the primary – and he never has. Against all odds and the obstacles they themselves set for him, he won, in spite of them. In fact, they need him, since they were the ones who were effectively vanquished.

    The destruction of Obama’s character will be complete

    Another point on which I disagree because, as Al Giordano posted on The Field yesterday, “We Are the War Room We’ve Been Waiting For,”

    You – and any neighbors, co-workers or relatives are walking around with false impressions in [your] heads . . .

    The Howard Dean campaign showed in 2004 that the Internet could be utilized to raise millions of dollars in small donations, ending dependence on the “influence donors” that so destroyed the Democratic Party in recent decades. In 2008, the Obama campaign mastered that technique, and now pioneers its use as a messaging sword for those small donors and grassroots volunteers to make false rumors die the death of a thousand cuts.

    Politics has . . . evolved from the centralized “war room” of the 1990s to a decentralized one that exists in a million or two homes right now, of which bloggers and independent media are a new kind of precinct captain that needs no orders from headquarters nor permission to take initiative. We saw that at work last weekend in the rapid response from the bottom up to the McCain campaign’s false claims in a television ad about Obama’s European trip. Only four days later, the McCain camp has backed down.

    And that’s a large reason why the Chicken Little proclamations that we so often read and hear elsewhere – the petulant demands from armchair campaign managers that the Obama campaign fight back in specific ways – are so silly: Surrogates almost always make the better counterpunchers and anybody with a modem or a network of friends or neighbors is now as much of a surrogate as the big names that can garner mass media attention. When you can do something yourself, it’s just plain infantile to call upon daddy or mommy – or the presidential candidate or political leader upon which you project that role – to do it for you.

    If progressives act as if McCain is a wizard who only needs to wave his POW/BBQ wand to win, as if he only needs to put on his tinfoil crown to be ordained president, they not only give him much more power than he has, they demonstrate piebacked, lily-livered support for Obama, and he’d be better off without them. We’re in a fight for our lives and Chicken Littles need not apply.

    The evil that is McSame triumphs only if good people do nothing, except cower and write epitaphs for Obama based on the illusory power of McCain’t – and corporate media. Obama will lose only if his weak-kneed supporters continue extolling the virtues of the monster that scares them, while worrying about his media base, instead of doing something about the lies and distortions themselves.

    Like Al, I’m not going quietly. Like Al, I understand that, for the first time in our history, corporate media are not designing the political landscape or driving the political narrative.

    Rather, the new media – the Netroots Nation – are setting the tone and we need to have Obama’s back instead of crying and whining and diarying about every little dirty trick that desperate little century citizen pulls. People are acting all brand new, as if they expected McCentury to go quietly into that good night. He won’t and I won’t and neither should other Obama supporters.

  37. 37.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    August 1, 2008 at 12:49 am

    Billmon’s back? Further proof the FSM wants us to be happy and Obama to win the election.

    McCain is a flip flopping asshole who has always been all about himself. Let’s not for this very fine video of John McCain arguing with himself.

    Its been 35 years since McCain’s done anything remotely heroic. The Double Talk Express is slowly being peeled like an onion, and exposed for what it is: bullshit. The establishment media has been putting lipstick on that pig for years.

  38. 38.

    Brachiator

    August 1, 2008 at 1:46 am

    99 Percent Pure Says:

    But if Bill and Hillary are holding back because they are still waiting for Obama to offer the VP slot to Hillary…

    Not true, and it never has been, despite the rabidity of white feminists and the forked tongues of media pundits. After the terrible campaign she ran in which she and her husband not only ‘played the race card,’ as folk like to say, but also attempted to use code words to call for Obama’s assassination, there was no way she would have been chosen. Refusing to concede the night Obama became the presumptive nominee put that coffin six feet under.

    You miss my point. That Obama probably won’t choose Hillary for VP is irrelevant. Post-primary stories indicate that Bill is hot for Hillary to be named the VP choice, and may be holding back on helping Obama because he needs his ego stroked.

    And no matter how royally the Clintons screwed up during the primary, their participation in the general election is crucial. Anybody who wants to exile them from the party because of their misbehavior is courting electoral disaster come November.

    Because of their feelings of entitlement, and given their attempts, under the guise of the DLC, to split the Democratic Party, I never believed that they would EVER campaign for or with Obama and, thus far, I’ve been proven correct.

    You are right, but the larger point is that the Clintons are a resource that Obama should be able to tap.

    If progressives act as if McCain is a wizard who only needs to wave his POW/BBQ wand to win, as if he only needs to put on his tinfoil crown to be ordained president, they not only give him much more power than he has, they demonstrate piebacked, lily-livered support for Obama, and he’d be better off without them. We’re in a fight for our lives and Chicken Littles need not apply.

    You win elections by inviting those in your party to climb on board, not by handing out ideological pink slips.

    Like Al, I’m not going quietly. Like Al, I understand that, for the first time in our history, corporate media are not designing the political landscape or driving the political narrative.

    You are not paying attention to your own best insights. For corporate media, it has been business as usual. They underestimated the power of the Internets. But they are fast learners. You cannot expect for Obama’s advantage in this area to last for very long.

    Rather, the new media – the Netroots Nation – are setting the tone and we need to have Obama’s back instead of crying and whining and diarying about every little dirty trick that desperate little century citizen pulls.

    Here’s the thing. The “new media” is a powerful wild card, but the Limbaugh crowd have convinced a significant number of people that the mainstream media and anything not explicitly labeled “conservative” is inherently un-American and should be avoided. Newspapers are dying by the score every day and cutting back on competent original reporting. And too many people on the net scurry to little blog holes that simple-mindedly echo their fears and prejudices. Hell, I talk to people every day who are not happy with Dubya, but who still oddly depend on Rush and Fox news for everything that they believe is “objective” news.

    All this makes it a little harder for Obama to get his message out. Obama so far has been extremely adept at making use of the Internets, but the fact remains that there are many people who work hard at using the net solely to reinforce their ignorance. And there are others who are too stupid or to lazy to seek out information for themselves, and so depend on the people who live for Rush and Hannity to tell them what to think.

    People are acting all brand new, as if they expected McCentury to go quietly into that good night. He won’t and I won’t and neither should other Obama supporters.

    I don’t expect McCain to go quietly. The question is how best to push him into that good night. And I think that this is best done by using all the resources of the Democratic Party, not in making a list of which Democrats have been naughty and nice and purging those who disappointed you.

  39. 39.

    Person of Choler

    August 1, 2008 at 4:07 am

    Relax, folks. What you perceive as McCain’s favorable treatment by the major mainstream media will soon be over. Remember, the mmm (with the exception of Fox News) don’t mind a Republican being nominated, they just can’t stand one being elected. McCain got to be the mmm’s favorite Republican by doing everything possible to infuriate conservatives. But there now there that there is a chance that he could be elected he will, by November, be shredded by his erstwhile media pals to your unmitigated satisfaction.

    I would appreciate seeing current and future examples of what you consider to be favorable non-Fox coverage of McCain.

  40. 40.

    gypsy howell

    August 1, 2008 at 6:46 am

    Whiskey Bar was my first experience with this whole blogging thing (and shouldn’t your first be your best?), back in mid-2003 when I was commenting under my latin name. He was fucking right about everything, which is why he was so depressing to read sometimes.

    I don’t now what to make of the fact that billmon is blogging again. Another sign of the Apocalypse? If it is, at least we’ll have great reading and insight while the flames lick at our heels.

    Welcome back, billmon, if you’re reading here. I really missed you. If only Gilly could come back too.

    Will the bar be opening up again soon? I’ll buy the first round.

  41. 41.

    harlana pepper

    August 1, 2008 at 7:19 am

    Um, so Obama is just supposed look up at the ceiling, pretend he is not half black, stick his fingers in his ears and go ‘lalalalalala’ throughout the rest of the campaign.

    You know, he approached the subject in the most casual and graceful manner imaginable, and this is what we get from the other side in return. The tired, worn-out old ‘race card’ bullshit from the days of OJ.

  42. 42.

    cleek

    August 1, 2008 at 7:28 am

    I would appreciate seeing current and future examples of what you consider to be favorable non-Fox coverage of McCain.

    TNR

    WaPo

  43. 43.

    harlana pepper

    August 1, 2008 at 7:32 am

    And, yeah, ‘maverick.’ Wish we could put that one to bed also, considering it’s completey inapplicable in this case, but it’s just too handy for lazy reporters to retire its number.

  44. 44.

    Fulcanelli

    August 1, 2008 at 8:05 am

    The only people who are going to buy into McMaverck’s bull shit ads and his Bush-lite “reformation” are the people who A) Are going to vote for him anyway and B) The easily duped “low-information” idiot voters who are instantly recognizable by the fact that they have no nose on their face as a result of the last two Presidential elections.

    Anyone, regardless of party affifliation, who has an iq higher than their frickin’ shoe size can discern that the deviant, immoral GOP SS fucks running his campaign, and indeed populate the upper ranks of the GOP the are beyond desparate, and have decended to the level of abused primates flinging poo at the Zoo visitors in frustration.

    When the Pony Ride begins in January they and their fluffers in the MSM will be like vampires on a sunny morning, howling in agony as the information begins to flood out as to just how royally fucked this country and it’s economy has become as a result of the “compassionate conservatism” of Bush/Valdemort and their minions on K street.

    All but the most deranged wingnuts will have to face that they were either royally suckered, or willfully blind to the crimes, corruption and historically vile malfeasance of the Bush regime. The rest will be frothing and catatonic from denial, easy to spot and should be hunted for sport where ever they surface.

    The Right knows they’re going to be persecuted like vermin, witness their gearing up and doubling down with the obscene contracts recently given to fascist mouthpieces Limbaugh and Hannity.

    Let the investigations begin…

  45. 45.

    Krista

    August 1, 2008 at 9:07 am

    He’s going to snap off on someone and I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be woman who asks him the wrong question,

    You get that feeling too, huh? Then again, anybody who would call his wife a c**t and a trollop in the first place, let alone in front of other people (adding humiliation to her hurt), is definitely somebody with a noteworthy temper. And yeah, I’m also just waiting for the day when some young female reporter catches him on a bad day and asks him something he doesn’t want to answer. As his numbers get worse, it’s more and more likely to happen.

  46. 46.

    ...now I try to be amused

    August 1, 2008 at 9:44 am

    You have to admit it was a neat trick: Happily accepting the naughty goodies while they were being handed out, but then winning brownie points for admitting he took them – after the world had already found out he took them. But that’s precisely what McCain did. He’s never looked back since.

    “It’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up.” McCain is one of the rare politicians who doesn’t think he’s smart enough to weasel his way out of scandal, so he doesn’t try. He brazens it out by pretending not to brazen it out. If the crime mattered as much as the cover-up, McCain would have no political career anymore, but that’s the f’ed up country we live in.

    I’m looking forward to seeing McCain go all Captain Queeg on someone, ideally in the debates.

  47. 47.

    Chris Johnson

    August 1, 2008 at 10:04 am

    “Is that the best you can do? Is that really what this election is about?”

    I have to wonder if a white guy can even come up with the TONE Obama was coming up with, and not seem like a hippie. What a great way to put it. No concern troll, no anxiety whatsoever, no concessions at all about “what if it works”, just immense dignified contempt not for the opponent, but for that decision to carry on the old school, low road politics that never works unless everybody politely agrees to take it oh so seriously.

    Most of the media are still obediently doing so, but thank you, Barack Obama, for treating it like the foolish crap it is. We may be a nation of retarded children but we face adult problems…

  48. 48.

    Person of Choler

    August 1, 2008 at 11:03 am

    Cleek,

    The Washington Post article was certainly nice to McCain.

    But the penultimate sentence in the TNR piece: “Yet somehow the idea of a McCain presidency itself doesn’t terrify me.”

    This is favorable?

  49. 49.

    99 Percent Pure

    August 1, 2008 at 12:57 pm

    Brachiator, I just don’t see how having the Clintons involved in the Obama campaign helps him. Granted, it may or may not hurt him, but I don’t believe that it is crucial that they are involved. Their involvement, how ever much or little it was, did not help Kerry in 2004. I don’t believe that they are interested in campaigning for Obama, but we shall see. Obviously, we disagree on the importance of the Clintons to Obama.

    Post-primary stories indicate that Bill is hot for Hillary to be named the VP choice, and may be holding back on helping Obama because he needs his ego stroked.

    Why should Obama stroke his ego? Where I’m from there’s a saying – it ain’t what you want that makes you fat, it’s what you eat. I still maintain that the Clintons aren’t crucial to an Obama win.

    [Corporate media] underestimated the power of the Internets. But they are fast learners. You cannot expect for Obama’s advantage in this area to last for very long.

    No, they are not fast learners else they would have been ahead of the curve first in November 2006, then as early as March 2008, when it was clear that Obama would be the nominee, even as they continued giving the jr. senator from NY free airtime (like they’re doing McCentry now) because she had run out of dough.

    Your points not notwithstanding, I expect that Obama will maintain the advantage in the area of Netroots, especially when Netroots is combined with his campaign’s fantastic grassroots activism – that he orchestrates. Do remember that, because Obama has opted out of public finance, he is dependent on a combination of Netroots/grassroots/bundled donors to keep his campaign solvent.

    [T]he Limbaugh crowd have convinced a significant number of people that the mainstream media and anything not explicitly labeled “conservative” is inherently un-American and should be avoided. Newspapers are dying by the score every day and cutting back on competent original reporting. And too many people on the net scurry to little blog holes that simple-mindedly echo their fears and prejudices. Hell, I talk to people every day who are not happy with Dubya, but who still oddly depend on Rush and Fox news for everything that they believe is “objective” news.

    All this makes it a little harder for Obama to get his message out. Obama so far has been extremely adept at making use of the Internets, but the fact remains that there are many people who work hard at using the net solely to reinforce their ignorance. And there are others who are too stupid or to lazy to seek out information for themselves, and so depend on the people who live for Rush and Hannity to tell them what to think.

    I take your point except I don’t believe that the numbers of so-called low information voters who will influence the election – such that Obama loses – are that huge.

    Yet I hold no illusions about the neo-cons and those who support them; however, I believe that Obama has proven successful in getting his message out just as adequately as he did during the primaries. Howard Dean’s southern tour to register voters should also help. There will always be those who won’t hear it or don’t get it but it isn’t because he will encounter difficulties getting out his message, especially if we do our part.

    By the way, I think we agree that those low info voters who listen to Hannity, that fat-a** drug addict (TM Paul Hackett), and the like are as dangerous as the idiot talking heads to whom they’re listening.

    And I think that this is best done by using all the resources of the Democratic Party, not in making a list of which Democrats have been naughty and nice and purging those who disappointed you.

    Moi? Purging? No, I’m not, and I’m not disappointed in the CBC, the DLC, the rabid Clinton supporters or the Clintons either, nor was I surprised at their “kitchen sink-anything goes” strategy during the primary. I have been following politics since I was ten years old, when JFK was assassinated, and I very much understand the rough and tumble of politics, that it’s a dirty business.

    But I’ve come to realize that this isn’t politics as usual and that the Democratic Party or any other political entity can only use “all the resources” who are willing to be used. I don’t believe that the Clintons fall into the category of wanting to be used by Obama. However, as I posted earlier, we shall see; after all, she will be speaking at the convention.

    As for the other – you posted that Bill wants his ego stroked. If he has to have his butt kissed and licked before he supports the political party that he led for so long, and if he is unwilling to willingly support his party’s nominee, that cannot be interpreted as ‘making a list of naughty and nice Democrats/purging’ since, by his very actions, he’s taken himself out of the campaign now that he is no longer top dog.

    I believe it to be even more simplistic than that even – as my mom likes to say, when it is all said and done, he’s a white man from Arkansas.

  50. 50.

    Hedley Lamarr

    August 1, 2008 at 3:58 pm

    McCain, as a veteran who suffered greatly during wartime is beginning to resemble Bob Dole; bitter, sarcastic, and yearning for rewards that have previously eluded him.

  51. 51.

    opeluboy

    August 1, 2008 at 5:54 pm

    Todd Purdum of Vanity Fair is aptly described by Billmon when he refers to his ilk as “simple-minded people (i.e. his media cheerleading claque).”

    Purdum, somehow believing against all evidence that “honorable, intelligent, maverick, cagey, come-from-behind character” describes uber-Conservative McCain, who is in fact none of these things, reveals the abysmal state of journalism in this country and the reason we are mired in Iraq, likely to be mired in Iran and living in a nation peopled by ignorant, smug racists and xenophobes.

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. Billmon!!!! « Beware The Man says:
    July 31, 2008 at 7:26 pm

    […] Update: Well, not enough said. Back during the most recent Israel-Lebanon war, over two hostages, Billmon was so freakishly ahead of the curve of how it would go down I thought he was some sort of mystic, I fell in love. (But only as friends.) The man is really, really smart, and here John Cole reminds us of how much this is so.   […]

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