Two-faced McCain

McCain vowed to run a "clean campaign." Watch this clip of him:



Now, look at what he said to a group of bloggers today:

"I think it's very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States. So apparently has Danny Ortega and several others. I think that people should understand that I will be Hamas's worst nightmare....If senator Obama is favored by Hamas I think people can make judgments accordingly."

Media Matters has a great run down of all the smears that McCain has benefited from. Just something to keep in mind.

DNC hits McCain

Great ad:

Having it both ways

The North Carolina Republican Party is running a new ad linking Obama to Jeremiah Wright, calling Obama "too extreme for North Carolina." Here's the ad:



John McCain has since "asked them not to run it." McCain added, "There's no place for that kind of campaigning - and the American people don't want it, period." I previously wrote about disgusting tactics used by the Tennessee Republican Party. In both instances, McCain gets to appear to take the high road by disowning the smears while also benefiting from the repeated plays the ad gets on cable news.

Well now Obama is calling McCain out. In an interview with the Huffington Post (a website looking more and more like BarackObama.com every day) Obama said, "Well, my understanding is that the Republican National Committee and John McCain have both said the ad is inappropriate. I take them at their word. And I assume that if John McCain thinks that it's an inappropriate ad that he can get them to pull it down since he's their nominee and standard-bearer."

Good for Obama, though it's disappointing that it took him to make this point.

Update: Case in point: The Los Angeles Times blog post on this story has this headline: "N.C. GOP defies McCain on ad depicting Obama and Wright." The implication, of course, is that McCain has fought hard to get the ad off the air, but the party just won't listen.

Unfortunately true

From Time:

Even so, the real winner of the Democratic race in Pennsylvania is John McCain. The most significant number coming out of Tuesday night wasn't Clinton's 10 point margin of victory, but 43. That's the percentage of Clinton voters who say they would stay home or vote for McCain if Obama is the party's nominee in November. It is no longer just the Chicken Littles within the party who openly worry about an outcome that leaves large blocks of women or African-Americans frustrated and alienated.

The extended race is also clearly getting to Obama, who is noticeably fatigued on the stump and lacks the energy that drew in so many new voters earlier in the primary season. The largely positive media coverage he previously enjoyed has been replaced by a tenser relationship. The candidate now limits his availability to the political press corps, and recently snapped at a reporter who tried to ask a question while he was eating breakfast at a Pennsylvania diner.

At the same time, Tuesday night's results may require Clinton to alter her case against Obama in ways that could do real damage if he becomes the nominee. His ability to improve his standing among key constituencies while withstanding intense scrutiny makes it more difficult for her to argue that he could not win in November. (Clinton admitted as much in their 21st debate, answering "yes, yes, yes" when asked if Obama could beat McCain.) That means she'll have to instead argue that he should not be president. And that's music to Republican ears.

Four months old

Friday fun

Charming

You know how McCain's above the fray? He's a straight talker who doesn't sink to the level of previous Republicans? He's respectful of the other party and wants to reach across the aisle? Well, forget that nonsense. Republicans previously said Osama bin Laden would rather see a Democrat in the White House than a Republican. Now, the McCain campaign is saying that Hamas, the Palestinian group labeled terrorists by the US government, is pulling for Obama. From CNN:

“Barack Obama's foreign policy plans have even won him praise from Hamas leaders,” writes McCain deputy campaign manager Christian Ferry. “Ahmed Yousef, chief political adviser to the Hamas Prime Minister said, ‘We like Mr. Obama and we hope he will win the election. He has a vision to change America.’”

That uncredited quote is drawn from an interview published Monday by conservative news site World Net Daily, whose current headlines include “District bans 'John 3:16,' promotes demonic leer” and “Lesbian demands custody of Christian mom's 6-year-old.”

The McCain fundraising e-mail says Obama’s stands have earned him “kind words” from Hamas. “John McCain's foreign policy provides a stark contrast to the policies of Barack Obama,” writes Ferry. “While Senator Obama would surrender in Iraq and hold talks with the Iranian regime, John McCain will never surrender in the struggle with Islamic extremists. Please join our campaign today by making a generous donation of $50, $100, $250, $500, $1,000 or $2,300.”

For some reason I doubt these disgusting tactics will do anything to sour the love affair between McCain and the media.

The other Obama on Colbert

Clinton on Colbert

"Despicable"

I didn't see more than a few minutes of the debate last night, but it sounded pretty awful. The influential TV critic at the Washington Post, Tom Shales called it "another step downward for network news."He added that the performance of the moderators -- Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos was "despicable."

Here's a key portion of the article:

For the first 52 minutes of the two-hour, commercial-crammed show, Gibson and Stephanopoulos dwelled entirely on specious and gossipy trivia that already has been hashed and rehashed, in the hope of getting the candidates to claw at one another over disputes that are no longer news. Some were barely news to begin with.

The fact is, cable networks CNN and MSNBC both did better jobs with earlier candidate debates. Also, neither of those cable networks, if memory serves, rushed to a commercial break just five minutes into the proceedings, after giving each candidate a tiny, token moment to make an opening statement. Cable news is indeed taking over from network news, and merely by being competent.

Gibson sat there peering down at the candidates over glasses perched on the end of his nose, looking prosecutorial and at times portraying himself as a spokesman for the working class. Blunderingly he addressed an early question, about whether each would be willing to serve as the other's running mate, "to both of you," which is simple ineptitude or bad manners. It was his job to indicate which candidate should answer first. When, understandably, both waited politely for the other to talk, Gibson said snidely, "Don't all speak at once."

For that matter, the running-mate question that Gibson made such a big deal over was decidedly not a big deal -- especially since Wolf Blitzer asked it during a previous debate televised and produced by CNN.

The boyish Stephanopoulos, who has done wonders with the network's Sunday morning hour, "This Week" (as, indeed, has Gibson with the nightly "World News"), looked like an overly ambitious intern helping out at a subcommittee hearing, digging through notes for something smart-alecky and slimy. He came up with such tired tripe as a charge that Obama once associated with a nutty bomb-throwing anarchist. That was "40 years ago, when I was 8 years old," Obama said with exasperation.

Obama was right on the money when he complained about the campaign being bogged down in media-driven inanities and obsessiveness over any misstatement a candidate might make along the way, whether in a speech or while being eavesdropped upon by the opposition. The tactic has been to "take one statement and beat it to death," he said.