I am listening to Carly Fiorina on Bob Schieffer, and one thing that I find absolutely amazing is that her message, in full, is that John McCain will fix every problem by… doing nothing. He will not change tax policy, he will not do, well, anything. But our problems will be fixed, because he has a strong bi-partisan record.
Also, we learn today from Fiorina that you don’t enter negotiations with ultimatums. This will come as news to the Obama campaign, who every time they signal a willingness to compromise they are labeled flip-floppers.
Christ. David Brooks is up next. It is too early to start drinking.
lurker
I’m beginning to think that McCain has serious cognitive problems. When he talked to John King about the race card claim and when he answered a question about it in a FL town hall meeting, it looked like McCain really didn’t understand what he was talking about. And then I see, via The Page, that McCain that his campaign would “respond” if “racism” “comes up again.”
What is he talking about? What racism? Is he claiming that Obama is anti-white?
But I’m probably giving him too much credit to think that McCain is confused. He’s probably being Machiavellian/Rovian by claiming that the biracial candidate who wants to move beyond racial differences has been racist in his messaging.
wvng
From Ian Welsh at FDL comes John McCain and the Art of the Big Lie.
Worth a read because it’s true, and on topic.
Dennis - SGMM
How do they get away with it it? They get away with it by scheduling Carly Fiorina followed by David Brooks, interspersed with replaying all of McCain’s attack ads.
wvng
Oops, here’s the Carpetbagger link:
mellowjohn
is it too early to start drinking?
as the song says, “it’s five o’clock somewhere.”
John Cole
Why the hell can you all not embed your god damned links?
Jesus, I run a tutorial every month
I am just going to start deleting comments. I am so tired of having to go through and fix them. What is so hard about following those directions? Practice it.
KLG
John:
Thank you for enduring this ordeal for the rest of us. We need you. I stopped watching Meet the Press when Spivak retired. Ditto for Face the Nation after George Herman quit. Never could get past David Brinkley’s smartassitude; plus he had Geo. F. Will. And I never could watch the cable news (sic) shows either. If it weren’t for Left Blogistan I would have no idea what these dweebs were saying. But, a painful thought intrudes. Does this make me like the Chimpster himself, who has his staff to parse the news for him? Cripes. Can’t win for losing.
dorkboy
What I find amazing (still) is that we’re supposed to listen to Carly Fiorina in the first place. If the board of directors at HP didn’t believe her BS then why are we, and news organizations hearing anything from her?
I mean, she bought Compaq for chrissakes!
Dave
Today on Meet The Press:
Joe Lieberman: “First, I want to say that John McCain is all-male.”
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
Jumpin’ Jebus on a pogo stick, somebody, PLEASE tell me that ratfucking bastard didn’t say this!
matt
It must have been great watching her stutter and stammer when Bob Schieffer pressed her for specifics.
Davis X. Machina
What I find amazing (still) is that we’re supposed to listen to Carly Fiorina in the first place
Political campaigns are largely staffed, and broadcast journalism is largely peopled, with folks too dumb to make it into a good MFA-creative writing program, not too dumb to make it into a good MBA-accounting program.
Remember, this is a country where everyone’s got a screenplay, not an annual report to shareholders, buried in a drawer somewhere. A country where people positively refuse to ‘read the prospectus before sending any funds.’
Fiorina’s story — chick CEO in male-est of male-dominated worlds — is compelling, in a man-bites-dog-bites-glass ceiling kind of way. It’s Revenge of the Nerds meets Wall Street meets Pretty Woman. The guy over at Kung Fu Monkey could pitch it to Lifetime or Oxygen in an elevator, and they’d buy.
It’s all about the Story. And on the tombstone of this Republic will be the epitaph “Killed By A Story Arc”.
TR
Agreed. Unless we’re looking for tips on how to destroy a blue-chip business in short order, Fiorina has nothing to tell us.
Richard Bottoms
So, are we done with the “We are the World”, it’s a new day, why must we stoop to meanness to win horseshit?
I voted for Hillary because she would be the one to take a fucking rhetorical sledgehammer to John McCain’s teeth. Obama may be realizing that he needs a VP pick to do exactly that.
Welcome back Ms. Clinton.
cleek
so, this isn’t really surprising…
a McCain ad actually put Obama on a dollar bill, in June. and Obama’s the racist for pointing it out?
chrome agnomen
since jan 20, 2001, there has never been a moment which it was too early to start drinking.
LiberalTarian
John, you obviously need some cheering up.
Dave
@Ivan Ivanovich Renko:
It really happened. Check the transcript later or watch the MSNBC re-broadcast. Holy Joe was responding to Brokaw’s citation of a WSJ op-ed that said McCain’s tax policy wasn’t just a flip-flop but a sex change.
Robert Johnston
If you’re planning on watching the Sunday morning beltway wankathon shows, there’s an exception to the rule that allows you to drink heavily from an hour before you first turn on the television.
Hubris
It’s the McCain-Heller Campaign Reform Act of 2008:
Obama not compromising = “not reaching across the aisle”
Obama compromising = “flip-flopping”
The Thinking Man's Mel Torme
semi-OT, I suppose, but from now on, when anyone yawps about Obama winning Florida, I tell them you’re going to have to get past three-plus-million of these jokers (I refer to the comments) first.
MNPundit
Since the year 2003 I have never NEVER said Fiorina’s name without prefacing it with “that bitch” for the destruction she rained down on HP during her reign.
The Thinking Man's Mel Torme
We have several million in HP equipment in our various datacenters, so we have HP field engineers onsite for one reason or another about once a quarter. It’s amazing the profane tirades that even the really laid-back ones can work up if one is foolish enough to mention She Who Will Not Be Named. The ex-Comapq/DEC people are especially vicious.
wvng
Here I am dutifully practicing my links so John’s head explodes less: very funny video, will make John less cranky, via AmericaBlog
Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Presidency
The Other Steve
Well after 8 years of Bush, everything is perfect… so why change?
Martin
John McCain will make your babies cuter because of his strong bipartisan record.
Conservatively Liberal
Saint John of Arizona doesn’t have to do anything because he is such a dynamic force that things will get better just by making him president!
I wish someone in the press would ask Carly how it feels to be the one who brought HP to its knees financially, and if disasters like that are what attracted her to the McCain Train Wreck Express.
demimondian
You know, you might want to look at HP’s margins before you make that statement — the money that HP has made in the last few years is exactly on the schedule that Fiorina predicted, and is largely predicated on the changes she pushed through.
Splitting Image
Depending on when you voted, that may or may not have been a reasonable action. Clinton spent most of March praising McCain over Obama, which 1) called into question whether she would attack him at all, and 2) made it a lot harder to envision Obama picking her as his running mate.
McCain is making it clearer every day that he is unfit for the job, which makes it problematic that Clinton is on record saying that he has “passed the threshold to be Commander in Chief”.
I’ve said it before, but of all the things that have happened in this campaign, those words are going to be the hardest thing Clinton has to live down. McCain isn’t making it any easier.
Notorious P.A.T.
You mean like she did during the primary, right?
“Oh John, you are so ready to be Commander in Chief!” “Wow John, that gas tax holidy is a great idea! I’m going to jump on board!” etc.
John Cole
I hate to break it to you all, but this election is over.
The McCain campaign was ludicrously allowed to frame Obama as a racist this week, with an assist from Jake Tapper and Rick Klein at ABC, who started this whole thing, and aid and comfort from the MSM who repeated the crap with out so much as acknowledging that the dollar bill comment heralds from a McCain ad, and now Obama is not only the racist, but the aggrieved black angry man that scares the fuck out of the white voters.
I know, it sounds insane. How did the GOP get away with framing the black democrat as the racist two weeks after canonizing Jesse Helms? Simple answer, they had help, and they are better at race games.
This election is over. That dollar bill comment, now defined the way the mcCain campaign wants, will be spliced with the Rev. Wright crap, and whatever other comments they can find to fit the narrative of angry america-hating black man, and it will be in every email box, on every tv funded by a group that of course John mcCain has denounced, and it is just over.
Sorry to be so pessimistic. But it is how it is. The media made their decision. They want an edgy tough race with all sorts of bullshit smears, and the McCain campaign will give them that. So they will run with it.
This is over. In November, you can come back to this thread and see how right I am. Bob Schieffer ran every McCain smear that appeared this week, did nothing to swat them down, and then had David brooks on to discuss them. The poison from the McCain campaign is merely labeled a “strategy.”
He then ended with his own little speech, in which he did a pox on both their houses. You see, the race has turned too ugly for Bob, and Obama and McCain are equally to blame. Obama surrogates are attacking McCain’s military credentials, according to Bob.
I shit you not. This race is over. The media and McCain win.
cleek
there are three months left. 12 weeks.
a lot can happen in 12 weeks.
LanceThruster
I use your site’s comment box as a template to embed links for posts elsewhere. THX!
Buddha bless cut & paste!
TR
I know you’re new to the party, but you’ve really embraced the tradition of Democratic Despair very well.
This isn’t over yet. For most Americans, the campaign hasn’t even begun.
El Cid
At least John Kerry played the fool for Tom Brokaw to revisit Bob Schieffer’s “How Dare Wes Clark Question My Personal Hero John McCain”, thus making happy all the pundits’ right wing friends who’ve been begging them to stick his cartoon version of what Clark said to Kerry.
If this had been a better universe, maybe John Kerry could have answered honestly and said, ‘yes, you’re right, Tom, my service in Vietnam did not in and of itself qualify me to be President, and surely no grown person in the country would believe such things, would they?’
ploeg
I agree, but not for the reasons you give. The election is over because pretty much everybody has made up their minds by now. People might be temporarily swayed by questions about whether Obama is ready to lead, but all they need to do is look at McCain and his team, and they’ll say, “I don’t know if Obama is ready, but I’m ready to take my chances.”
Last night, digby does a post on this survey and proclaims that it shows McCain’s Britney ad having an effect. As you can see from looking at the actual data, the main effect is that it pisses off the Democrats. The Britney ad moved one percent of independents from the Obama column to the McCain column. Sunspot activity can move one percent of independents from the Obama column to the McCain column. Subjecting us to this shit won’t change anybody’s mind, it will just mobilize Obama’s base.
John Cole
Yes, it really is.
They now have free license to play any race game they want, and when called on it, they will simply respond with “Woah- only one side has played the race card here, and that is Obama.”
Bet me. The media this week gave them their get out of jail free card, and unlike monopoly, this one will work more than once.
TR
The media has clearly decided who they want, but as we’ve seen in the past, the public might not be buying,
Check out Pollster’s electoral vote map, John. They have it at 284 Obama, 147 McCain, with 107 in the toss-up. In other words, they think Obama already has enough to reach the 270 threshold.
Electoral Vote, meanwhile, has it with fewer tossups — Obama 316, McCain 209, and 13 ties.
John Cole
See also.
I guess I am in the minority because I saw neither as racist, but could understand why Herbert and others felt it was.
JayMi
Long time lurker, first time comment: LOVE the blog, even the trolls. It gives me a laugh while working in the ‘software mines’. But if we are giving hope up now…with twelve weeks to go. Then the audacity of hope really does apply. *sigh* Being an ex-Chicagoan, I think that perhaps Obama’s campaign is like that of former mayor Harold Washington. He ran in a primary against a strong democratic female mayor. And won. Then ran against a white republican challenger. The city divided almost evenly racially. But, Washington won with an extremely slim margin, something like 51%. Hopefully (there’s that word again) history can repeat itself on a larger scale. Now, to go find the alcohol.
cain
No.. what he should have said was “Boo fucking hoo. Where the fuck was
SchiefferShitter when my service was being tarnished by Swift Boaters? Where the hell were you, Tom? I gave my goddam life for this country and not one press person stood up for me or questioned the other side. And now their sensitive?? Fuck you Tom, and fuck you Bob. That’s my rebuttal.Now that’s what I would like to see. :P
cain
TenguPhule
Fixed.
mark
Via Sully, George Will writes
Mother. Puss. Bucket.
Some three decades after putting on a sweater made Jimmy Carter toast, and Reagan’s “morning in America” ads, Obama is mocked for optimism???
Furthermore
So now we can expect the Straight Talker to humbly promise to “muddle through without breaking too much crockery”?
Jeebus.
El Cid
Okay, cain, you’re right, that would have been more satisfying, but even less likely.
Perry Como
Then unleash the surrogates and get people talking about Songbird McCain. Why are McCain’s POW records still classified? Is it because McCain made propaganda tapes for the Commies 32 times? The guy behind Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry is also behind Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain. I’m sure Axelrod can dig up some choice quotes about McCain from the POW/MIA Senate Select hearings in the early 90s.
You don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.
Ming
John,
Yeah, McDecent McMaverick is channeling Rove and throwing shit at the MUP, and the press is way on board. And *yeah*, that sucks. And *yeah*, it could really mean Obama (and the country, and the planet) loses because of it.
But we’ve got twelve weeks left. I doubt you really want to fold your cards and go home with a tear-stained face just yet. The most effective way of turning out the vote for a candidate, of turning maybe’s into yesses, and noes into maybe’s is direct, person-to-person contact. It’s time to engage, not withdraw. I don’t know — maybe Obama is wrong — Maybe We Can’t. But you know what? He won *Iowa* and he won *Maine*, and by god, I’m not going down without a fight.
TenguPhule
Fixed.
TenguPhule
You don’t got to the gunfight, period.
You leave an IED in the other guy’s car and walk away.
John Cole
Sorry I am so negative. I watched Animal Cops last night on Animal Plan et Hd and have been in a shitty mood ever since.
People suck. Those people who did that to those animals should be in a god damned cage.
TenguPhule
Instead they will graduate to Humans and get hired by this admin just in time to shit on Obama.
Dave
John, I agree this has been a bad week for Obama. If he and his surrogates do not get out there soon and start playing some offense, they will be forever on defense.
But I wouldn’t call this thing over yet. Even the execrable George Will made a good point this morning in comparing 2008 to the 1980 election — a lot of folks have already decided they can’t stand the party in power and are just looking for a good reason, as yet undemonstrated, to vote for the other guy. One solid debate performance from Obama will put this thing away.
Plus, they haven’t even decided running mates yet! You’re telling me a McCain-Romney ticket would defeat Obama and a bag of doorknobs?
The Thinking Man's Mel Torme
Wasn’t that Dubya’s appeal? After 8 years of the Clenis’s drama we needed “C.E.O. U.S.A.” No nation building, social experimentation, or slap’n’tickle in the Oval Office, just four (eight?) years of quiet, chamber-of-commerce Republicanism. Heh, indeedy.
Plus, in a non-thinking kind of way, it fits in with guvmint-is-the-problem Reaganism, and good golly ol’ Dutch surely brought us those go-go ’80s after he finished cleaning up after Commie Carter though an aggressive program of power naps and Alzheimer’s.
Show me something that indicates the low-information cohort has gotten any less so in the last 8 years.
The Briscoe Kid
I did see one ad late last night from the Obama camp directly challenging the false McCain ad that blamed Obama for higher gas prices. It aired right before a rerun of 24. (The shitty sixth season of 24.) They need to get more aggressive though. It’s time to start pounding McCain for all the lies and mistakes he’s made. And it’s way past time for somebody from Obama’s camp to start talking about that dollar bill ad.
Brachiator
It drives me nuts that the media take a candidate’s boilerplate BS as the jumping off point for their questions, instead of doing actual journalism. So Schieffer agreed with the McCain camp’s assertion that the Maverick man has long “experience” in reaching across the aisle to Democrats.
This is entirely irrelevant to whether McCain has accomplished anything, and certainly does not address the implications of McCain’s own admission that he did not know anything about the economy.
I also am tired with the political kabuki of the pundit shows where the politely ask questions when the candidates or their surrogates appear to “debate” each other, and let people lie and not challenge their bullshit.
On both “Meet the Press” and “Face the Nation,” McCain’s people made the easily refuted claim that offshore drilling would decrease America’s dependence on foreign oil. There is just no reason for a credible journalist to allow anyone to make this claim without pointing out that it is a lie, not just a difference in policy between Democrats and Republicans. That Obama has recently had to suggest that he is open to considering offshore drilling indicates that the Republicans have won on this because they have convinced voters that the tiny amount of proven offshore reserves might somehow magically grow to equal the Middle East oil reserves.
The Democrats are losing on the tax issue as well. The Republicans keep pulling out their standard trope that the Democrats want to raise taxes. Why the Democrats cannot clearly and simply say that the Bush massively cut taxes for investors while screwing wage earners is beyond me. I am equally mystified that the Democrats can’t clearly say that Bush tax policy has hurt small businesses and killed jobs, and that the Republicans are just promising more of the same.
And wasn’t Fiorina fired by HP? And wasn’t one of the reasons for her firing related to a lack of accountability and transparency? Why hasn’t some reporter asked exactly why she feels that she is qualified to be an adviser to McCain on the economy given her own past failures?
Yeah, I caught this too, although I am not yet as pessimistic about it as you are. But this does touch on something interesting and important. There are clearly some people, including a number of journalists and pundits who have a man-crush on McCain because of the aura of his military service, and this makes it impossible for these people to distinguish between a criticism of McCain’s policies and qualifications, and an personal attack on McCain.
And the media love to root out an equivalency between candidates no matter how weak the facts are. So, now, supposedly both camps are going negative when any more reasonable assessment of the campaign would have been about how McCain’s people scrambled to throw mud on the positive impact of Obama’s world tour.
nightjar
Obama is going to have to show the world that John McCain is a liar and not the Maverick Straight Talking media darling creation. He will have to be clever about it, and utterly ruthless. It can only be done with relentless attack using facts as a weapon, that is the only way to separate MCCain from his media co-campaigners. No more high road let’s unite crap, but also not the wingnut low road of sleaze. Don’t know if they can pull it off, but my money is on they’ll do what’s necessary, like they have so far, and do it with uncommon skill.
Oh, and FUCK you media, and your misuse of the power we the people give you.
apocalipstick
Why do the Dems insist on trotting out Kerry? He’s abysmal in a round-table or talk show format. He may be an effective legislator, but he’s bottom of the barrel as an advocate. cain has it exactly right, but if Kerry can’t even find a way to defend his own record, how could he help Obama?
mark
I worked at Lucent while Fiorina was on her way up. I didn’t follow her doings closely, but her image seemed — dare I say it? — mavericky, what with having studied philosophy and history before going into business. Maybe she found a fellow faux-maverick.
gbear
It may be true that Obama is losing the talking points war on television. How important that is compared to McCain losing it out on the campaign trail in front of the public is another matter. I think the impact of who played the race card first is going to fade pretty quickly if McCain starts having these senior moments at his events on a regular basis.
Liberaltarian
Stranger things than the GOP losing an election have happened John.
Why are we afraid that McCain will win? Because we are afraid of things that cause catastrophe. Electing McSame means another Great Depression (and not just our feelings).
But, if it isn’t about winning for you (because you believe Obama can’t), then make it about something else. Showing valor, making the pols listen, fighting the good fight. Cuz I tell you what, that sinking feeling in your stomach is what the McCain folks are hoping for–to dispirit you enough to make you stay home, keep your donations to yourself, and convince you Obama could never be president.
Aren’t you just too damn cantankerous to give them what they want EVER? Let alone this early in the game???
jrg
No way. The McCain cannot continue to push the “race card” unless he drags Obama into the fight, otherwise McCain will look like a crazy old racist. This is a talking point that will last a few news cycles before the RNC tells McCain to knock it off.
Also, keep in mind that Obama will most likely have a white running mate to help fight this nonsense, should McCain stick to his guns (which would be vile, and would damage the GOP long term… but it’s probably his only hope at this point).
Even if McCain won (I don’t think he will because I think a sizable portion of the GOP base won’t show up in Nov, but the Dems are pissed), Obama’s candidacy alone is a long-term strategic victory for Dems.
Well, I think I found your problem.
Chris Johnson
I don’t think they can really call off the debates or the election, so Obama will have his chance of continuing to look Presidential- and taller than McCain- and more adult than McCain in spite of the age difference- and the economic indicators still say McCain hasn’t got a chance in fucking hell.
Throw your tantrum, John, just go to the fucking polls- and let’s have people watching those fucking polls like hawks for Diebold cheating. Swamp them. Have massive rallies. SHOW that the media and indeed the electronic voting machines are lies. SHOW that this is a fucking third world banana republic making a desperate try for democracy against horrible odds, blatant vote rigging and a government-run media.
We have an advantage over most banana republics- we just have to take our country BACK, we don’t even have to invent a whole new one. DO IT.
For fuck’s sake, McCain is talking about wanting military style police domestically! I realize we are run by a junta but it’s beginning to affect people’s personal experience and that is a big, big vulnerability. Fascist dictatorships break down. They’re not RESILIENT, they contain the seeds of their own destruction. It’s time.
The Other Steve
Turn John McCain into a joke. It’s the only way to beat the game.
The Grand Panjandrum
There in lies your problem. You aren’t drunk before you watch those morons.
I’m just waiting for them to explain (with a straight face) that Obama is Bad For American AND he causes cancer. Therefore, by their logic, we must elect McCain because by doing nothing we will stop all the cancer in the world and solve the other pressing issues of they day.
The McCain campaign thinks we’re stupid. We’ll know sometime late on November 4th if they are correct.
nightjar
Thank you gbear, that clip brightened my day.
Laura W
Well it’s 5:01 EST and it is NOT too early to drink so I’m having an adult beverage while watching MTP on tape (yes, VHS. I’m a broke late adapter.) Liebermann has twice just called Obama “a fine young man”…for cripe’s sake, he’s in his freakin’ 40s! He’s not 22!!!
If I were more cynical and conspiracy-oriented, I’d say they were calling him a BOY.
Robert Johnston
Obama is The One™. He shines like a bright light from the heavens. The sun is a bright light from the heavens. The sun causes cancer, and McCain will personally testify how he overcame the Viet Cong’s efforts to kill him with skin cancer through years of exposure to the sun. Not only does Obama, the sun, cause cancer, but he is also the willing tool of the Viet Cong terrorists who tortured McCain for years on end. A vote for Obama is a vote to torture McCain to death with communist cancer.
DannyNoonan
McCain just had his best week, including organizing a high-tech, Jack Tapper-led lynching of Obama and the tracking polls show him only peaking at 44 percent. Um, this ain’t close to being over and chances are things will be looking much different after a week of economic talk, two weeks of olympic-inspired patriotic masturbation and then a BIG FAT Hope filled convention.
Also, it’s worth noting that David Gergen just called the McMaverick out for using coded racial language. McCain may have won the first Race Battle, but these things can boomerang, especially considering it’s a near certainty that one of the mouth-breathers in the GOP is going to say something blatantly racist.
D-Chance.
/sigh
Here goes the quadrennial lesson for those who haven’t figured out how the US Presidential Elections work…
The election is not over. “Pretty much everybody” means nothing. 43% of the electorate will always vote Democrat, no matter how unqualified or vapid the candidate; 43% will always vote Republican, no matter how corrupt or dimwitted their guy may be. That’s reality. 86% of the voters have decided, and they decided well before the candidates were even named. They’re party faithful and party ignorant to the end.
And they don’t amount to shit. No, really, the silly season that has been the last few months hasn’t meant shit.
Because the election is decided by the final 14% of the voter class… the “squishy middle”. The Roadkill Class (always on the double-stripes in the political highway).
They don’t read blogs, don’t follow day-to-day activities, don’t read the newspapers past the headlines (and, even then, forget the headlines 3 seconds after turning the page), and watch the television coverage only as background noise. Hell, they don’t even know who Osama bin Bama or John McCairry are. Most of them would probably answer, “Hillary and that New York mayor guy” if you asked them who the nominees were right now.
They are the variances in the daily polls, and the people who respond “not sure” or “undecided” all the way until they actually step into a voting booth. They do not participate in the primaries. They do not waste their summers tracking anything or anyone. They will not watch the conventions. They won’t give a damn about the elections until November 4… and until then, their only exposure and remembrances will be of a select few 30-second spots on TV or a couple of soundbites on the radio that they heard within the last week of that Election Day.
Nothing anyone is saying or doing right now matters. And it won’t matter until some time around mid-October. That’s when the first few of the 14% will begin to take notice during the commercial breaks of their football games and soap operas. The rest will make their decisions over the final couple of weeks. That’s when they’ll begin talking politics and start asking questions; and, even then, those questions will be limited to the general feel of their own little worlds and a one or two personal issues.
How’s the war going in Iraq. How’s the economy. How’s my paycheck and financial pocketbook looking. How’s my (insert pet cultural issue here) doing. Those are the snapshot deciders for the people whose votes really count, the 14%, and they won’t take that picture until November.
“This election is over”… Hell, to the voters who matter, the election hasn’t begun. And won’t for another 80-90 days.
4tehlulz
McCaintards? Speak in code? Nahhh……
Sleeper
While this has been a bad week for Obama, I think it’s overly simplistic to state that the media is in the tank for McCain. Certainly, many odious types still dote on him (Mark Halperin, Jake Tapper, Katie Couric to name a few). But there have been signs for a long time now that the love affair is on the skids . Joe Klein, of all people, is now bashing him.
I think if anything, the media is biased in favor of a tight race. This year’s primary coverage has made them addicted to nailbiter tight races, and the ratings bonanzas that that provides. I think that that’s why they doted on Obama as much as they did late last year, because he could shake up the Clinton inevitability meme, and that’s why they kept pretending that Clinton had a chance long after Super Tuesday and Obama’s month of victories sealed it. It wasn’t a candidate-based bias so much as an editorially-imposed mandate to keep the race going, for ratings, for the dramatic narrative.
That’s why it’s disappointing that Obama’s campaign seems to be stalling when it comes to hitting back this week. They need to get out and smash him with a 2×4. This has just been a very ineffectual week for everybody concerned, and they need to take the gloves off. They don’t need to smear McCain, either – his own words and policies do that for him, they just need to highlight them.
lurker
Frankly, I think this kind of crap will get Obama a nice endorsement and accompanying ads from Colin Powell and Chuck Hagel pretty soon.
Wouldn’t those be nice ads for the Olympics?
Conservatively Liberal
I have a feeling, and I hope I am right, that Obama is going to hit back hard but time it so it is closer to the end of the election. Right now is too early and it may be forgotten/dismissed in the run-up to the election. Timing is everything, and that is especially true in politics.
During the primary I was more than worried at a few points by his seeming ignorance of the attacks against him, but when I least expected it his camp would fire off a salvo and hit back in a subtle but firm and effective way.
I am going to keep my hopes up and while I will get pissed at the narrative that the MSM will spin, I believe that people are getting tired of this shit. I have yet to see one McCain yard sign or bumper sticker in my town or in my travels. I see Obama stuff all over the place. Hell, at the hotel in Coos Bay a few days ago, there were six vehicles with Obama stickers and not one for McCain.
I think Obama is using the old saw ‘Give ’em enough rope…’, and when Obama does not respond (or responds weakly) to the attacks it only emboldens the McCain camp to keep it up. I expect the crap emanating from the McCain camp to get slimier and smellier as this progresses.
The right knows that they are in a position of disfavor with the majority of the public, even people in their own party are sick of them. They are desperate to do something that will pull it out for them, and I expect that desperation to grow as we approach the finish line. Desperate people do stupid shit, and I expect that too.
The MSM is only interested in a cat fight or anything that will bring in viewers and readers, and they are going to act accordingly. Combine that with the fact that most of the MSM is owned and controlled by large corporations that tend to be conservative (or support conservatives) over liberals and you have the reason for their bias.
It will take time, but people are going to start comparing the ‘reality’ in the news with the reality in their lives and notice that things don’t match up. It is happening now, and I expect that to accelerate as things go to shit in our country.
This fall is not a lock for Obama, not by any stretch of the imagination, but while I am sick and tired of the MSM I am not despairing yet. I will hold on to that until after the election, if needed.
There is a lot riding on Obama winning, and while we need to point out and deride the shit that passes for news in our country we also need to keep our eye on the finish line.
ksmiami
John – I just spent a weekend in Orlando and spoke with a couple from Ocala, Florida in the heart of bible country. They own a small business, have one daughter and had a few health problems and are giving Obama a chance. This is amazing and an almost impossible feat prior to 2006…. So DON’T GIVE UP!
Davis X. Machina
For those who place their hopes in the debates, recall that people who watched the debates in 2000 thought that Gore won, but those who only watched the coverage of the debates — and they far outnumbered the actual debate audience — thought Bush won.
You’ll take the president GE and Disney and Time Warner and Viacom want you to have, and you’ll be grateful, dammit.
(Of course, thanks to our squishy middle’s belief in the magical powers of divided government, President McSame will lose the popular vote, and face a greatly increased Democratic majority in both Houses. Gridlock and veto, while the dollar turns to beer coasters and the Greenland icecap melts.)
Delia
This is why it ain’t over yet. David Gergen is calling McCain out on this one. Watch the press minions who are beginning to jump off the McCain Commander-in-Chief Bus. Joe Klein. Andrea Mitchell. Now David Gergen. It’s just possible that before this long, tedious year is through, the story of Songbird McCain might make it through to the MSM. That is, if they get disgusted enough with him.
Gus
How do they get away with it? You were watching, did Schieffer call her on any of her bullshit? Of course not. That’s why they get away with it; our press corps if absolutely fucking useless, and the American people are too fucking stupid and lazy to see past it.
Martin
Buck up, John. McCain won’t win. His best shot was to have the public like him – and increasingly they are turning against him. By comparison, the public likes Obama and that doesn’t seem to be wavering. If Wright didn’t kill him, this 3rd grade shit from McCain won’t.
Don’t underestimate how important that is. People connected with Bill Clinton but not with Hillary. They connected with Bush more than Gore or Kerry. McCain in 2000 was a liable guy – but not in 2008. The media can’t change that. And don’t overestimate the sunday morning pundits – almost nobody watches them. I’m a junkie and I never watch them because I figured out two decades ago that they were just religion for the non-church-goers. Whenever they talk about McCain’s straight-talkin’, just say an ‘amen’ and kiss your FSM medallion.
If you must watch, Tivo it so you can watch +5 or better.
Laura W
What Conservatively Liberal said!
And I just finished my second.5 adult beverage over Face the Nation on (VHS) tape and had to rewind three times to be sure I was correctly hearing Shieffer call Paris and Brit:
TARTS
That, on the heels of CBS Sun Morn doing Steve Winwood, brought many a warm fuzzy hopeful smile to my cynical face.
I believe the answer for combating the Sun morn talking potato head angst is to just tape it all (or Tivo, whatever that is) and watch in the late afternoon when it is socially acceptable (even if you live alone and have denial issues) to enjoy an adult beverage or four with/before/after dinner.
grandpajohn
Wow some very perceptive questioning if you followed the link
And what does it say about our asshole media, that we have to depend on ordinary citizens to ask the questions that the media stars ought to be asking
Jason F
I disagree. Senator Obama is right now doing some things that will make a huge difference. First, he’s dumping a cubic buttload of cash into voter registration. If he follows up with get-out-the-vote in the fall — and I have no reason to doubt he will — that will make an enormous difference.
Second, he’s preparing to roll out a massive advertising blitz during the coverage of the Olympics. And while you’re absolutely right that most people don’t start paying attention to the election until some time around Halloween, advertising during the Olympics will plant the seed of Obama being presidential in the minds of a lot of people who haven’t been paying attention to the back-and-forth.
bago
Why? We talk about it, especially if it is useless and ineffective, this brings eyeballs, eyeballs that pay their salaries.
This is why you should just quote and mock, and not link and mock. It’s the jerry springer effect. You knew half of it was bullshit but you had to see for yourself.
Don’t.
Let one person take the brain damage for the rest of us and then make sure their advertisers never see your eyeballs.When you only see self financed groups making these claims you have driven them into bircher truther territory, and have eliminated them.
DannyNoonan
Quick point: Here’s Merriam-Webster’s definition of Uppity: putting on or marked by airs of superiority; arrogant, presumptuous.
Brachiator
I was looking at some of the other top stories at the Rasmussen link and could only shake my head.
Chuck Butcher
You’re worrying way too soon John and you also give the Republicans too much credit. Their shit isn’t new, look across history, but this iteration of it was fresh enough for Rove/Bush do something with it – it’s no longer fresh. It is tired old shit that voters have had the results of. Note this – it looks just like what GWB did and this is what we’ve got.
The media is playing this silly and will wake up to see their “credibility” on the line once again and won’t be willing to take that bullet again. The information ship is too leaky for it to not get noticed. When some of those noted in previous comments start calling BS warning signs are up. Even the smug self-assured Scheiffers will take a second look once it penetrates their denseness that they look like idiots.
It’s probably silly of an ex-drinker, have a couple stout ones, throw some “whatever tunes” on and relax. People are better and smarter than you’re giving them credit for right now.
AkaDad
I’m John McCain and I approve of this message…
Chris Johnson
Gore vs. Obama? Come on, Obama would CLOBBER Gore. That was in Gore’s stick-up-ass period, before the economy really obviously went to shit.
Gore wasn’t in the least able to nail his opponent with a perfect sound bite. Obama is. Fuck man, he even looks good in the OPPOSITION tv ads, even when they edit him up to appear to be acting totally opposite to the point he was really making, he STILL has charisma and looks like a capable guy.
I’m sorry, it’s not going to be possible to cover the debates in a way that will make it look like McCain is the folksy regular guy and Obama the uptight prig- or that Obama is floundering and helpless and McCain is on top of his shit and knows what’s happening. The ONLY thing they could do is actually shoot him, and I wonder if maybe the Secret Service et all have figured out which side their bread’s buttered on- they’d probably get lynched if they let anyone hurt big O. I have a funny feeling that Obama may well live to be President, as if he were a Clinton or something…
Maybe it’s just that the military-industrial complex is becoming more fragmented, between military, big oil, Blackwater, Halliburton… the likely candidates in the ‘black helicopters’ camps are definitely in cash out and run mode. Nobody tries to kill the janitor. I believe McCain is taking a dive for the Republicans so the guys they LIKE aren’t tainted, and Obama will be allowed to be President so he can catch the collapsing nation and be on the job when the shit hits the fan. The fascists are laying plans for the next wave, this one’s pretty tapped. We’re supposed to build this country up again so they can take it over once more and this time attack Iran- and it needs too much work that they’re not willing to do.
That’s all just gut feelings but my gut feelings say you’re crazy if you think McCain is supposed to win. Diebold might not even be cheating on his behalf- they might want a clean election to point to so they can infiltrate more backdoored voting machines into everywhere. The media can be explained as bootlickers who aren’t really up to speed, and who are waaaay too interested in manufacturing controversy and drama. Do you realise how hard they have to work just to make it seem like an exciting contest?
Chris Johnson
What I’d like to believe is that Obama, behind the scenes, is also pulling strings and laying very long range plans. If he set the country up so we could work towards having our liberty back, played better with other countries, got more energy independence, fell back on our tripartite non-monarchical governmental system, and did two terms, I would absolutely be happy to turn to Hillary in her dotage to carry on that work. By then we might have a setup that could resist her ‘Evita’ streak… or maybe he’d do a term, and hand it off to Hillary after that. I think he’s done something to convince the powers that be that he’s the one to handle this particularly grueling stretch.
Not all the powers that be are Republicans and neocons. They would like you to believe it, but there’s a lot of other centers of power out there, and the Clintons are at the heart of a lot of it.
The fact is, you can’t go too bonkers believing Karl Rove, the Bush family, and the neocons are the ultimate powers of the world, because really they’re just jumped-up seamy little fuckers with delusions of grandeur. They’re Nixon, only more so, and with more self-delusion. You can’t always believe what people think of themselves, sometimes their egos write checks that reality will not cash.
Delia
Now that’s a really good line.
NR
Sorry, but I think John’s right.
People say that voters don’t pay attention until later, but the truth is that presidential elections are won or lost in the summer months. And McCain has definitely won these summer months.
The Obama campaign made a crucial mistake – they decided that since they were in the lead, they were best off playing it safe. Well, now that lead is gone, because while they were playing it safe, McCain was moving to aggressively define his opponent. That was what Obama should have been doing from the moment he clinched the nomination. The image of McCain as a cross between George W. Bush and Abe Simpson should have been cemented in everyone’s minds by now.
Obama is rerunning Kerry’s 2004 campaign. I don’t need to remind anyone here how that turned out.
ploeg
D-Chance:
I don’t disagree with your analysis of the party faithful of either party. I disagree strongly with your analysis of independents, at least as far as presidential elections are concerned, and certainly as far as this presidential election is concerned. Granted, independents are notoriously fickle and easy to sway, particularly for offices from dog catcher up to US House. But for President, independents know how they feel about the country and its condition, and they see the incumbent on the TV every so often and generally know what party the incumbent belongs to. And this particular incumbent was shitty enough to be a boat anchor for any GOP nominee. The only chance McCain has is to distance himself from the GOP (he’s mavericky!) and to raise as many doubts as he can about the challenger (Paris Hilton! Moses!). And if you refer back to the survey to which I linked earlier, it’s not working. Even when independents are shown the Britney ad and asked point blank who they would vote for, the results barely changed at all. You could chalk that up to the ad sucking eggs (which it did), but typically you have more than one point worth of movement, no matter how much the ad sucks.
I grant that extraordinary events in the fall could change the game substantially, and of course you will have statistical blips around the conventions as each party trots out its “product”. Granting all that, I think that the lines are pretty much set for president, and the only remaining questions are turnout and how many gains the Democrats can manage in the House and Senate.
Ed Marshall
Bet me. The media this week gave them their get out of jail free card, and unlike monopoly, this one will work more than once.
I’ll offer a c-note up on it. I don’t want your money, and if you really feel this way you would be better off buying McCain on intrade right now for 38. I’d think about it long and hard though.
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
Yeah, they defined him as an ‘uppity negro’. How surprising, shocking, and unpredictable. That’s really going to scare off all those independents who haven’t noticed the black man running for President.
To repeat what Noonan said: 44 percent. That’s where all of McCain’s ‘rally’ has achieved. All the while, his favorables continue to head down the toilet. An unlikeable guy stuck with a crap economy, unpopular war, and even more unpopular incumbent President wrung around his neck, and you’re telling me he’ll actually win?!
Cromagnon
Unfortunetly, I think Cole is right. Obama said he wouldn’t bring a knife to a gunfight, and he hasn’t. He apparently came totally unarmed. So far the McCain campaign is making him look like a chump and he’s just setting there taking it. On every single ‘controversy’ so far, the Obama campaign has backed down. From the Wes Clark episode to the current BS. He better get a backbone soon, if it’s not already too late
grandpajohn
Really? based on what those nonsensical irrelevent media driven polls called tracking polls? Check out some real sources that have the state by state polls http://www.pollster.com/>pollster
or some of the other sites that that keep up with all the polling instead of the tracking poll crap.
mark
ZOMG, a black guy with a knife!
/McCain campaign
Splitting Image
Count me among the ones who thinks McCain is closer to blowing it than Obama.
I think the “racial” angle of the Britney/Paris ad is legitimate but secondary. The Republicans picked those two because they’re celebrities that practically nobody likes. Someone like Rove would have chuckled at the fact that putting them on the same screen as Obama neatly set up the Harold Ford dynamic, but it wasn’t why they were used.
If there was another reason for connecting both Paris and Britney with Obama, it is surely the fact that they are not only unpopular, they are unpopular Republicans. McCain has already tried to transfer the Bush anchor to Obama, and this is quite likely going to be an ongoing theme. Basically, they’re going to argue that everything you have ever hated about the Republicans is represented by Senator Barack Obama, not that nice Mr. McCain who has heroically fought them his entire mavericky life.
I don’t think he’s stayed on message though. His very next ad tried to link Obama to Charlton Heston, who may be unpopular with pinko leftists, but is nonetheless quite popular with the Republican base. If McCain isn’t careful to throw only the right Republicans overboard, he’s going to hit a nerve pretty soon.
McCain’s whole ship will sink if Hagel jumps, for example, and I’m becoming more and more convinced he’s going to. He’s obviously begging McCain to give him a reason to vote for him, and McCain isn’t obliging.
Delia
Um, did you notice that in this particular poll McCain is up in his home state by less than 4 points?
John
It’s been clear for a while now that Fiorina has absolutely no idea what she’s talking about on any given day.
That the McCain campaign still puts her out there as a spokesperson speaks either to their incompetence, or their cynacism and the media’s incompetence.
slip
I’ll see that and raise you a Colin Powell for Obama Veep. How’s that for playin’ a race card?
Ed Marshall
McCain’s whole ship will sink if Hagel jumps, for example
I dunno, I don’t think that would do anything. Hagel is a sort of anti-Lieberman and while I watched Republicans and independents put him in office as a man without a party, could you see Hagel doing that? I think if he got knocked off in a primary his ship would be sunk not anyone elses.
I know some Obamacans and they are all the sorts of people who are predisposed to like Chuck Hagel. They have left that ship already. All the folk sticking it out hate his guts anyway.
Gus
Fuck that. I’ll never forgive that fuck for his performance in front of the U.N.
slip
I’d forgive Powell if he apologized with sugar on top and then went out and knifed McCain in the gut. You wouldn’t like to see that?
Chuck Butcher
I made the point in the Primary that Obama has to make his approaches and attacks on a different basis than Hillary did and the same is true in this election. Let’ try the supposition that he came out guns blazing against McCain and then you’ve got the angry black man thing going. It is a narrow line he has to hew to, this is a different deal in a lot of ways.
Obama has shown no difficulty in fighting back on his own terms, he’ll manage it and McCain doesn’t show any signs of moving up. If McCain keeps up substance free attacks he won’t go up.
Chris Johnson
It just amazes me that there are still people who give ANY of a fuck about the fact that there are people who will stand up and say, “Hi! Obama is doomed, and you know that all the right people say that McCain is going to demolish him for thus and so reasons!”
You know- LIE.
I would think that our experience in Iraq was lesson enough that you can’t just make shit up and expect it always to work the way you think it would.
In fact I DO think that was lesson enough.
I say there are many sensible metrics and even some foolish ones which say Obama will destroy McCain easily. If we totally disregard everything of substance, he is taller and more charismatic than McCain- kaching. If we totally disregard policy and charisma and indeed everything about the candidates, he’s the opposition candidate running against an incumbent party presiding over economic collapse. “It’s the economy, stupid” worked against a wealthy Republican the last time it was tried by a charismatic Democrat, namely Clinton. Those times are back, thank you mr. Bush.
Let’s all have our fun in the grand old American tradition of blindly bullshitting everybody including ourselves, but John: get a grip. I’ll happily bet you, but I have to define terms a little bit. I say, if Obama lives, he wins.
There are people other than me with the job of safeguarding him, and I guess I’m gonna have to trust them, aren’t I?
Jane_in_Colorado
Yes, they should. But there is hope for the animals. Five years ago, I adopted a dog from the local shelter who had been beaten, abused, starved, neglected. It took a year to win her trust, but I did win it. Now she’s an absolutely great dog: loving and utterly loyal. She would follow me into hell. Mind you, I’d like to take a baseball bat to the head of the man who terrified her. But I can’t. Still, living well is the best revenge, and I’ve given this sweet-natured animal a good life. She has repaid me by being a lovely pet.
And there’s hope for this electorate. Obama is opening field offices all over the country. The phone calls and the voter registration drives will matter. We’re going to win this thing. I believe it. You need to believe it too. Part of how the Rovians win is getting people to believe there is no way to win against their negative tactics.
Don’t accept it. Get out there and make phone calls–they really work when they come from neighbors. Register new voters. Yes, we can. No, really. We can.
MNPundit
Look, it’s over because Obama’s not doing a fucking thing to stop it. He’s just happily collapsing.
Whatever I guess, he hates all of us bloggers and interneters anyhow (he thinks we’re part of the partisan problem) so he is on his fucking own.
Emma Anne
Actually, no. You have forgotten an important factor: turnout. I have been running into those Obama whippersnappers lately (I work with the Dems and we are coordinating). They will crawl over broken glass to vote for their guy. And they are registering zillions of new voters and infecting them with their enthusiasm.
How do you think the mood is among the Repubs this year? You think they love their guy? Do you think they are excited about the chance to vote for him?
In our caucuses in Colorado, we had ten times the usual number of people show up – and two thirds of them were for Obama. Hillary was a really good campaigner – better than Gore or Kerry, for sure. But Obama was even better.
McCain is very much like Giuliani – people think they know what he is about and they kind of like him. But he doesn’t wear well. The more people see and listen to him, the less they like him. And he is a crappy debater. Obama wasn’t bad at debating even at the beginning of the primaries, but by the time he went toe to toe with all the other candidates many times (and especially Hillary and Edwards) he was really good.
So I disagree with John. I think this is the nadir of the campaign, and it will get better from here. People will get a good look at the conventions, and then at the debates. They’ll like Obama more and McCain less. And when it comes time to vote, Dems and Independents will turn out enthusiastically, and Republicans will turn our grudgingly or not bother.
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
What I read:
Dude beat Hillary. Don’t count him out because McSame is rallying the GOP’s bedsheet brigade.
Splitting Image
But Hagel isn’t running for anything. There is nothing the Republicans can do to stop him speaking his mind, and other than opposing the war, he’s a fairly by-the-book Republican. McCain’s problem is that Hagel would rationalize his defection by saying that the war is so important that other considerations fall by the wayside, and that it is not okay to oppose the Iraq war and then go ahead and vote for McCain. The Republicans are doomed if that kind of idea starts getting popular round about October.
Also, I don’t think that all potential Obamacans have left the ship already. Hagel himself has been sticking it out because he’d really rather vote for a Republican. When he speaks, it’s always something like “John, do this so I can vote for you.” He’s still one of the 65% or so of the Republicans who are unenthusiastic about their candidate. Lots of them may jump between now and the election. I won’t start to worry until Republican enthusiasm actually goes up.
Historically, keep in mind that Carter and Reagan were neck and neck until the last couple of weeks. The Great Reagan Democrat Exodus didn’t happen until the last possible moment. It is quite likely that the same thing will happen this time out.
ThymeZone
Wow, nothing says committed fundraising like “This election is over and our guy already lost.”
Good work, John. Really. Impresssive.
Bedlam UK
With Thyme on that one John, Stick up your little Thermometer gif and a big smiley face. Probably helps the cause a little more :)
I can really see the West taking a positive turn if America gets Obama in office. The US can still lead rather than be the butt of the joke. Please, we cant have these EU politicians running things !