May 09, 2008
Friday McCain-Bashing: Out of Touch
Crooks and Liars, John McCain’s Top 10 Out-of-Touch Moments
Sample:
2. “Great progress economically” during the Bush years. If Americans’ financial woes are all in their heads, John McCain’s assessment of George W. Bush’s economic leadership is pure hallucination. Asked by Bloomberg’s Peter Cook on April 17 if Americans would say they are better off today “than before George Bush took office more than seven years ago,” McCain replied:“I think if you look at the overall record and millions of jobs have been created, et cetera, et cetera, you could make an argument that there’s been great progress economically over that period of time.”
Mugged by reality, McCain’s firm response to the classic Ronald Reagan question (”are you better off now?”) lasted exactly 24 hours. The next day on April 18, the so-called maverick acknowledged Americans are “hurting badly” and concluded, “Americans are not better off than they were eight years ago.”
Bonus bash: Arizona Republic, n tight Senate votes, McCain not a maverick: When it matters the most, he seldom bucks his own party
And this one really deserves weekly posts of its own: We’ll ‘never’ see the McCains’ tax returns?
May 02, 2008
Friday McCain-Bashing: Double Talk Edition
Pop-Up Double Talk, Episode 2: Health Care
Bonus double-talk: Compare this statement at TPM:
Slowly but surely, Republican presidential candidate John McCain is putting some distance between himself and unpopular President Bush.With this video of what McCain actually said at “the time”:
This week it was the ill-timed “Mission Accomplished” banner that the White House hung behind Bush five years ago when Bush declared major combat operations over in Iraq.
“I thought it was wrong at the time,” McCain said in Cleveland Thursday
CAVUTO: … Senator — after a conflict means after the conflict, and many argue the conflict isn’t over.
MCCAIN: Well, then why was there a banner that said ‘mission accomplished’ on the aircraft carrier? … the conflict — the major conflict is over, the regime change has been accomplished.
Don't Ask McCain to Discuss Things He Doesn't Want to Talk About
It seems you can get thrown out of a town meeting and questioned by the Secret Service for asking a Republican candidate to deny a published story that he once lost his temper and called his wife a bad name.
Ask a rude but nonetheless legal and reasonable question, get thrown out of a public meeting. Such is ‘democracy’ in these United States.
(Note, incidentally, that McCain didn’t deny it.)
It sounds as if McCain is trying to get into a Bush Bubble, where he’ll be protected from anything he doesn’t want to see or hear. Which makes sense if you consider he’s running to serve Bush’s third term. But definitely makes you wonder who he’ll find to reprise the Cheney role as veep….
April 28, 2008
RNC Whining About DNC McCain Ad
There is a country in which the ruling party has made a concerted effort to keep a factually accurate advertisement by the largest opposition party off TV by appealing to the owners of TV stations to prevent the ad from airing.
No, not Zimbabwe. The USA.
Today the RNC sought to prevent the DNC from airing its anti-McCain ad by calling on TV stations not to air it. The DNC responded immediately.
Gov. Howard Dean and Joe Sandler, the DNC’s General Counsel, held a telephone press conference a few minutes ago. (As it was a last-minute deal, even I got to listen in.) They started by categorically denying the RNC’s charge that the DNC’s ad was in any way coordinated with either the Clinton or Obama campaigns. Dean said “I know of no conversations of any kind that have taken place with the campaigns” about the ad. (Had the ad been coordinated, it would count as an in-kind contribution which would have legal consequences; if it’s fully arms-length, it’s a legal independent expenditure.)
Sandler said that so far none of the networks running it (MS-NBC and CNN) have said they will pull the ad. So far, the ad is slated for cable only. From which I deduce this isn’t a hugely expensive ad buy. Ordinarily you would not expect the RNC to add oxygen to such a small flame; tying McCain to his own remarks about Iraq must really hurt.
The RNC also claimed in its publicity blitz that the ad is false, and thus could expose stations that run it to some sort of liability. That’s a weak argument, since the ad uses McCain’s own words, and DNC Chairman Dean made hay with it. “I understand the RNC thinks it is illegal to criticize Sen. McCain,” Dean said, and he basically invited them to sue.
Here’s one bet that they won’t: this is just scare tactics. And if they do sue, they’ll lose. (Outside Zimbabwe.)
April 27, 2008
Belated McCain Bashing
I was busy on Friday, but here’s the DNC’s anti-McCain ad.
It’s a good one.
Hope they run it everywhere and often.
PS. And it’s fair, too
April 18, 2008
Friday McCain-Bashing
Seems like there are an awful lot of things that are younger than John McCain.
He’s older than…Iceland?
April 16, 2008
McSame Video
Progressive Media launches its first commercial, McCain: Out of Touch.
I gather opinions are divided as to whether this is effective or boring.
April 08, 2008
The Real McCain
Lots of buzz about Cliff Schecter’s new book “The Real McCain”. It certainly supports what I’ve heard — that he’s a real hothead. For example, McCain Once Physically Attacked Fellow Congressman. And there’s another alleged unsavory episode here, which the author says is vouched for by three witnesses, but apparently McCain now denies it.
Are these disqualifying issues? Not alone, no. But they are not exactly encouraging either.
Bonus McCain bashing: Senator Straight Talk Won’t Go on the Record with Project Vote Smart — he’s on their Board and he won’t answer their questions! Wait, make that he was on their Board.
March 27, 2008
Today's McCain Site
Free Ride: John McCain and the Media
Bonus: compare NSN Fact Check: McCain’s Rhetoric Doesn’t Reflect Reality with how your news source cover’s McCain’s latest foreign policy speech.
March 26, 2008
New McCain Blog
Say hello to Straight Talk McCain.
Bonus link: Crooks & Liars, Campaign spending limits don't apply to mavericks
March 24, 2008
The McCain Plan Really is More Wars
Anatol Lieven writes in the Financial Times, Why We Should Fear a McCain Presidency.
(via The Washington Note, McCain’s Rogue State Rollback Sounds Like John Foster Dulles & Curtis LeMay)
I thought “Less jobs. More wars.” was a parody of McCain’s platform. I didn’t realize it was the platform…
McCain Confronts Modernity
There is a really funny moment, about a third of the way into this video Mac or PC?, in which John McCain explains how he uses computers.
March 22, 2008
March 21, 2008
McMeme
Energy Smart launches a phrase that I think might take hold: McFlip, McFlop, McSame?
March 20, 2008
McCain's Take on Purim
Kevin John Heller brings us McCain on the Jewish Holiday Purim.
Really, about all you can say to that is, Oy vey.
March 09, 2008
McCain UnHeroic Outside of Prison
There’s no debate that John McCain was heroic as a POW. Unfortunately, his behavior in uniform in more normal circumstances is more controversial.
The case for the prosecution is laid out at John Mccain: Unfit to serve as Commander-In-Chief, a screed aptly summarized by its subhead: “The spoiled son of military privilege got a free ride throughout his military career despite repeated instances of sex scandals and screw-ups.”
I knew he dated strippers. (And so what?) But losing five planes, three in training accidents or while joyriding (or should that be ‘skylarking’?) and two in the field—is that some sort of post-WWII record?
And this doesn’t even begin to get to the question of his more recent judgment about Iraq, Iran, or other wars…
March 08, 2008
March 05, 2008
February 28, 2008
The McCain Songbook
From the folks at Bravenewfilms comes, John McCain sings “Bomb Iran”:
February 27, 2008
Latest from the 'Straight Talk Express'
Hullabaloo: Honor and Integrity.
February 14, 2008
February 13, 2008
McCain Votes Against Banning Waterboarding
Maverick Fails The Test: McCain Votes Against Waterboarding Ban.
He was against torture before he voted for it.
February 12, 2008
McCain vs. the YouTube Generation
In what likely will be my only decent piece of political prognostication this electoral cycle, back in November 2006 I predicted that John McCain would be undone by YouTube, saying “it’s interesting to see just how out of touch with modern realities the increasingly aging McCain seems to be. Pre-YouTube it might have been possible to campaign out of both sides of one’s mouth, but that approach is in the dustbin of history now.”
The media will let you run away from what you say in the primaries. YouTube will not. Yesterday I posted a masterly example of what McCain is in for. Here’s another, hot on its heels, that’s almost as good, YouTube - John McCain: No, You Can’t.
In the competition between the YouTube generation and a 71-year-old with a penchant for gaffes and the occasional doubletalk, don’t bet on the get-off-my-lawn guy.
February 11, 2008
Brilliant Obama/McCain Video
Someone has done a brilliant takeoff of the Obama video that is taking the Internet by storm.
It’s not a parody of the video exactly, although it has parodic aspects. The real target is McCain.
February 09, 2008
A Tale From the Forked Tongue Express
Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director, takes a ride on the Forked Tongue Express, and writes that John McCain Should Be Ashamed. Here’s the start:
I have just listened to carefully coached staff members for Senator John McCain lie repeatedly about the Senator’s failure to show up and vote on the first Senate economic-stimulus package, which included tax incentives for clean energy. I am in a state of shock not because of the Senator’s vote, although that disappointed me, nor over his desire to avoid public accountability for that vote — that’s politics. But to carefully coach your Senate staff (I assume the Chief of Staff, not the Senator, was the author of this shameful performance) in how to mislead callers in such depth is appalling, and surprising, because it was almost certain to be found out.
He’s got details.
February 08, 2008
McCain -- What's Fair Criticism?
The Smirking Chimp, Puffing up John McCain, POW, has some rough stuff about McCain.
I think this part is not only fair criticism, but gets at the heart of one of the main reasons I can’t trust the guy and get steamed every time I hear about his ‘Straight Talk’:
McCain’s tragic flaw: He knows the right thing. He often sets out to do the right thing. But he doesn’t follow through. We saw McCain’s weak character in 2000, when the Bush campaign defeated him in the crucial South Carolina primary by smearing his family. Placing his presidential ambitions first, he swallowed his pride, set aside his honor, and campaigned for Bush against Al Gore. It came up again in 2005, when McCain used his POW experience as a POW to convince Congress to pass, and Bush to sign, a law outlawing torture of detainees at Guantanamo and other camps. But when Bush issued one of his infamous “signing statements” giving himself the right to continue torturing-in effect, negating McCain’s law-he remained silent, sucking up to Bush again.
Ditto McCain’s off-again on-again kowtows to the theocratic right wing. Or yesterday’s cowardly eleventh-hour failure to vote on the stimulus package even though McCain was in DC.
But the main thrust of the Smirking Chimp article is that McCain is to be blamed for cracking after days of very vigorous torture that he suffered as a POW and/or for not correcting people who say he didn’t. I don’t buy that.
April 19, 2007
McCain's Madness
Is it possible to look at this little clip recorded earlier today and imagine John McCain as President?
“Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran”???
And his poll numbers were already bad.
January 29, 2007
McCain Gets the YouTube Treatment
I’ve predicted before that John McCain will be undone by YouTube. And now it begins:
Can we call it the Double Talk Express now?
November 20, 2006
McCain Flip-Flop Watch
The Carpetbagger Report notes McCain's flourishing flip-flop list. This weekend, McCain added Roe v. Wade to the list of issues on which he's done an about-turn.
It really is a little sad to watch someone of at least occasional integrity totally disintegrate into a pandering puddle due to his desparation for the Presidency. I presume the strategy is to run right for the primaries and then try to loop back. But I think the brand will be pretty tarnished by then. Indeed, it is already, although mass media are still clining to the St. McCain narrative.
Actually, that's good for the Democrats: better if the scales fall from the media's eyes when more people are paying attention.
Meanwhile, it's interesting to see just how out of touch with modern realities the increasingly aging McCain seems to be. Pre-YouTube it might have been possible to campaign out of both sides of one's mouth, but that approach is in the dustbin of history now.