McCain's Bold Lies New Lows in Politics

After Palin's interview last night, I guess we know why the McCain camp needs to lie. Kudos to Charlie Gibson for asking some tough questions.

NYT: Dishonesty is nothing new in politics. I spent much of 2000 — my first year at The Times — trying to alert readers to the blatant dishonesty of the Bush campaign’s claims about taxes, spending and Social Security.

But I can’t think of any precedent, at least in America, for the blizzard of lies since the Republican convention. The Bush campaign’s lies in 2000 were artful — you needed some grasp of arithmetic to realize that you were being conned. This year, however, the McCain campaign keeps making assertions that anyone with an Internet connection can disprove in a minute, and repeating these assertions over and over again.

Take the case of the Bridge to Nowhere, which supposedly gives Ms. Palin credentials as a reformer. Well, when campaigning for governor, Ms. Palin didn’t say “no thanks” — she was all for the bridge, even though it had already become a national scandal, insisting that she would “not allow the spinmeisters to turn this project or any other into something that’s so negative.”

McCain Approves This Message

Boy Envy of Obama

Maureen Dowd says there are a lot of boys out there, McCain and Bill Clinton included, who have a case of boy envy. There's a lot of testosterone flying around in this election that's making it easy to differentiate between the grownups and those still playing juvenile politics.

NYT: Not since Iago and Othello obsessed on the comely Cassio, not since Richard of Gloucester killed his two nephews, not since Nixon and Johnson glowered at the glittering J.F.K., has there been such an unseemly outpouring of boy envy.

Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson and John Edwards have all been crazed with envy over the ascendance of the new “It” guy, Barack Obama.

Unlike his wife, Bill Clinton — the master of fake sincerity — still continues to openly begrudge his party’s betrothed.

Asked by Kate Snow of ABC News in Africa whether Obama was ready to be president, Clinton gave a classic Clintonian answer: “You could argue that no one’s ever ready to be president.”

.....
Now John McCain is pea-green with envy. That’s the only explanation for why a man who prides himself on honor, a man who vowed not to take the low road in the campaign, having been mugged by W. and Rove in South Carolina in 2000, is engaging in a festival of juvenilia.

The Arizona senator who built his reputation on being a brave proponent of big solutions is running a schoolyard campaign about tire gauges and Paris Hilton, childishly accusing his opponent of being too serious, too popular and not patriotic enough.

Even his own mother, the magical 96-year-old Roberta McCain, let slip that she thought the Paris Hilton-Britney Spears ad was “kinda stupid.”

Bill Clinton's lame response video. Obama's not only fighting McCain, he's fighting the democratic power structure. We need to get past Clinton politics. If Obama beats that, change is upon us.

McCain calls for an "economic surge." No he didn't. Yes he did. 

Speaking in Jackson, Ohio, the senator from Arizona said the surge has worked in Iraq so it's time for one at home.

"What we need today is an economic surge. The surge has succeeded in Iraq militarily -- now we need an economic surge to keep jobs here at home and create new ones," McCain said, referring to the additional 30,000 troops sent to Iraq in 2007.

Bob Herbert on Morning Joe

Herbert talks about his most excellent story about how the republicans are appealing to the "white working class," also known as the voters who wouldn't vote for a black man.
He also wrote about Obama's unforgivable offenses. Shame on Obama for being presidential.

We're coming to the end of the George W. Bush era. We have an opportunity and we should be focusing on issues, Herbert says.

McCain Selling Arrogance

The McCain camp has accused Obama of playing the race card.

The Obama camp says no. It says McCain has run out of ideas. Besides, Obama doesn't have time for that nonsense. 

CNN: "You haven't heard a positive thing out of that campaign in a month. All they do is try to run me down," Obama said while campaigning Wednesday in Union, Missouri.

The accusation came the same day that the Obama campaign released an ad comparing McCain to President Bush, and the McCain campaign released one likening Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

"Since they don't have any new ideas, the only strategy they've got in this election is to try to scare you about me," Obama said.

But dig down deep into McCain's negative appeal and what do you find? I can get directly to the point. McCain and his crew are subtly appealing to racists or to put it nicely, the "white working class" voter. It's genius really. It's the exact tactic used by Hillary in the primaries: Appeal to the racist voters and then accuse Obama of pulling the race card.

For people who don't like to admit that they'd never vote for a black man, the line that Obama is arrogant, an uppity celeb, is much easier to swallow. They can ride with that one and they're having a heyday. It makes everyone feel good.

Note, I'm not saying that EVERYONE who dislikes Obama is racist. I'm saying the ones taking the bait -- these foolish ads that McCain has out. We learned this from Hillary's campaign. People who would rather not admit they'd never vote for a black man need something to buy and McCain is selling.

Who are the ads targeting? I'd say Appalachia, the so-called "lunch box" workers. Remember them?

The smart people, the folks who aren't racist, oppose Obama based on policy and they don't need an immature TV ad to hang on to. They can argue based on the issues.

Too bad for McCain there won't be enough racists to tip the election.
Here's a new video that shows that McCain was planning to attack Obama if he HAD visited the soldiers in Germany. He would've been attacked for precisely the reason Obama decided not to go.