Must Reads

Chris Kelly: John McCain Makes Bob Dole Look Like Bobby Kennedy

...I was still digesting [the "Britney" ad] when the "Moses" ad came out. The point of this one was that there are voters who are so tragically, laughably ignorant they're actually thinking of voting for someone who inspires them. They're assholes. You know, like the Israelites.
People with faith! They'd be sad if they weren't so damn funny!
Don't they get it? It's a garbage existance -- even if Jihadists don't kill you -- and you're just making fools of yourselves with this "change" bullshit. So pull up your socks, stop acting like some love-struck German, and vote McCain...

Digby: Negative Appeal

“Sen. Obama is still opposed to a comprehensive energy plan,” McCain claimed. “It seems to me the only thing he wants us to do is inflate tires” to improve gas mileage.

Just like Bush: "you can believe me or you can believe your lying eyes, rubes." At this point I don't care if Obama flips on every single issue, I will do everything I can to see this jackass defeated. Ugh.

And speaking of improving gas mileage...

Ben, Think Progress: Clueless Gingrich Claims Inflating Car Tires Properly To Save Energy Is ‘Loony Tunes’

...Obama is correct to suggest that inflating tires properly and getting regular tune-ups “could save all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling” — and by a long shot. According to the Energy Information Administration, if Congress lifted the moratorium on offshore drilling, by 2030, oil crude production in the “lower-48″ outer continental shelf will increase by about 200,000 barrels per day. By contrast, the production offset based on Obama’s proposal will likely approach 800,000 barrels per day, immediately.

T Minus 171 Days

"Tribal sovereignty means that; it's sovereign. You're a - you're a - you've been given sovereignty, and you're - viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between - sovereign entities."

- Washington DC, August 2004

McCain, The Race Card and The Obama Currency

Barack Obama: “So nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face, so what they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me... You know, he’s not patriotic enough. He’s got a funny name. You know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills, you know. He’s risky. That’s essentially the argument they’re making.”

McCain Campaign Manager, Rick Davis: “Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck... It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.”

John McCain on Davis' statement: “I agree with it, and I’m disappointed that Senator Obama would say the things he’s saying...”

Steve Schmidt, McCain Campaign: “The McCain campaign was compelled to respond to this outrageous attack because we will not allow John McCain to be smeared by Senator Obama as a racist for offering legitimate criticism. We have waited for months with a sick feeling knowing this moment would come because we watched it incur with President Clinton."

Now watch a McCain web ad inserting Barack Obama's face on a hundred dollar bill.



They really should leave the comedy to the non-Republicans. McCain and his campaign went apeshit over Obama's "doesn't look like other presidents on dollar bills" comment, accusing him of injecting race into the campaign. And now it looks as if the very thing they were so outraged about was in fact ACTUALLY PERPETRATED by the McCain campaign over a month ago!

Granted, Obama didn't speak specifically to this video, he was speaking in general terms, although one wonders if he did see the video in passing or perhaps someone had described it to him. But you have to admit it's an interesting development nonetheless to have actual McCain campaign ad footage of the very thing that Obama described and then accuse him of playing the race card.

It's two separate incidents, but it's one BIG coincidence.

(H/T Michael Shaw, HuffPo)

The Veepstakes

God, how I hate that word. Veepstakes. Who thought that was a bright idea? Do you think that Kathleen Sebelius, Tom Kaine or Jack Reed are sitting at home waiting for Ed McMahon to show up at their door with their veepstakes tickets to the White House?

Anyway, with all the hoopla on a possible VP pick for Senator Obama, all we've gotten from the media is that Hillary Clinton is probably off the short list. No shit. These people get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to analyze this crap and I could've given you that tidbit of wisdom even before the primaries were over.

Then Virginia Governor Tim Kaine was in the mix, and perhaps still is, but it seems to me that when you're getting major exposure on being a possible pick, it ain't you anymore. Another name mentioned since Day One has been Kathleen Sebelius but what worries me, and perhaps I'm reading too much into this, is all the nutty Clinton supporters (not ALL Clinton supporters, just the nutty ones) who would take a Sibelius pick as a slap in the face in lieu of Hillary. Too many times I've heard "if it's a woman other than Hillary, I'm voting McCain." See the logic in that? That's why I call it nutty. Their numbers don't worry me, but the possibility of the McCainstream Media pounding the "Hillary was dissed" meme at the expense of covering substantive issues does.

Months ago I was speaking with Armadillo Joe and we were tossing around names as well. Bill Richardson, John Edwards, Jim Webb... and then we came across Wesley Clark.

I think Clark would compliment Barack Obama well. You can't dismiss his military service, he knows his foreign policy, and hell, he was Supreme Fucking Allied Commander Europe of NATO during the Clinton years. That's a helluva lot more experience than "getting shot down in a fighter plane."

I wouldn't object to Clark as a VP candidate even though he was a Hillary Clinton supporter during the primaries and has since publicly endorsed Sebelius as the next VP choice. But I prefer Clark. He has the gravitas you want in a running mate and people know him. His comments on "Face The Nation" will probably resurface for a time and then fade as fast as the attention span of most voters. Also, because of those comments, picking Clark might be seen as a "fuck you" to the GOP and the McCain campaign, and we can always use more of those.

Here's Digby's take:

...Obama's going to need people like Clark close by to help him manage the military, which is going to be hostile to his leadership. The Man Called Petraeus is gearing up for his run in 2012 and they already injected themselves into the campaign by sandbagging Obama with that visit to the wounded troops flap. It's not going to be easy.

So what do you think? Obama/Clark '08? It sounds really good to me.

(H/T Bob Cesca)

The Milhous Argument

I happened to be home to watch the first segment of Hardball today. Guest host Mike Barnicle was filling in for Tweety and of course, all the talk was about how BOTH John McCain and Barack Obama were running negative campaigns. EXCUSE ME?! Equating John McCain's "Britney" ad (she's a W. supporter by the way) which he says he's "proud of" to Barack Obama's rebuttal ad correcting the record of the lies told in the McCain ad, and insinuating that they are equally negative is appalling but that argument is for another post.

What I wanted to bring attention to was good ol' reliable Pat Buchanan and his recurring meme that there's nothing wrong with using Obama's middle name "Hussein" in ads or speaking it when referencing Obama, to which everyone on the panel, Michelle Bernard, Bob Shrum and Barnicle just went giddy over. They couldn't stop laughing at Buchanan for comparing Barack Hussein Obama's name to Richard Milhous Nixon.

Hey Pat, it's not what you say but how you say it. Bernard eventually said there's absolutely nothing wrong with the name but it's wrong when you say it in a tone that makes people think they're electing a jihadist to be president. At one point, even Buchanan just starts chortling because I'm sure even he couldn't believe what was coming out of his mouth.

When I first watched it I was enraged, but then I looked at it again and just laughed along and shook my head at the ridiculousness of "Statler's" statements. Attempting to call the subject of McCain's attacks "real issues" because that's the only way he can get close to winning is a complete joke. Those Republicans talking point regurgitators will literally say anything and not care how stupid they look when saying it. Same goes for Ron Christie and even Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

Barack Bites Back

(H/T Sam Stein, HuffPo)

Mr. "Respectful Campaign"

McThuselah has come out with yet another negative Obama ad. I suppose this is what we're to expect from the McCain campaign for the next three months.



Mr. Respectful Campaign really has nothing else to run on. His foreign policy shift towards Obama's repeated policies for the past year and a half has left the supposed GOP foreign policy "expert" with nothing but slamming his opponent with false, negative ads. How can the Maverick tout himself when there's nothing to brag about? His Keating Five Scandal? His ties to lobbyists?

T Minus 174 Days

"I think war is a dangerous place."

- Washington, DC, 2003

Who's Next?

Is this supposed to be a positive poster?

(H/T Bob Cesca)

Sen. Ted Stevens Takes Bridge To Nowhere...

...as the longest serving Republican Senator is indicted on seven criminal charges "of falsely reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars in services he received from a company that helped renovate his home."

Prosecutors said Stevens "took multiple steps to continue" receiving things from oil services company VECO Corp., and its founder, Bill Allen. At the time, the indictment says, Allen and other VECO employees were soliciting Stevens for "multiple official actions .... knowing that Stevens could and did use his official position and his office on behalf of VECO during that same time period."

The wheels are coming off.


UPDATE (9:52pm): It seems the good Senator was not charged with bribery because the statute of limitations had expired.

Straight Talk Goes Out The Window

Andrea Mitchell started to vindicate herself yesterday when taking on the GOP surrogates for McThuselah and stating the obvious - that McCain's new ad criticizing Obama for not visiting the troops because he couldn't bring cameras, or that he couldn't find time to visit them but found time to go to the gym is "literally not true", a kinder way of saying that the Maverick is a fucking liar.

I ripped Mitchell in the past for dumb remarks she's made towards Barack Obama, so I must give her kudos for acting like a journalist in this case. I suppose that even she can't let some of the McCain gaffes and specious lies go without calling them out for what they are - a betrayal of "straight talk" and "respectful campaigning," my friends.



Later in the day, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow took a look at McCain's record of how he supposedly supports the troops.



Hopefully as we get closer to the election, the reporting of John McCain will stray away from the St. Barbecue style that it has been to this point and will concentrate more on the gaffes, hypocrisy and inanity of some of his statements.

(H/T Jason Linkins, HuffPo)

UPDATE (7/30/08 10:45pm): More Andrea Mitchell -

MITCHELL: Did he make a bad call deciding not to go to Ramstein? He had every right to go to Ramstein, to visit the troops in Landstuhl. He had already been to visit the troops in Iraq. Without cameras, without an entourage. And he got-his people, rather-got so backed off by warnings from the Pentagon. Now please be careful, don’t bring your military aide, because he’s now a political aide. The Pentagon was way too aggressive probably in that. And they got so nervous: oh this is going to look political. And they were damned if they did or damned if they didn’t. Let me just finish what I was saying…just this one point…there was never any intention-let me be absolutely clear about this-the entourage was never going to go. There was never an intention to make this political. But by tacking it on to the tail end of a political-the political leg of the trip, they opened themselves up they feared to the criticism, and if they’d gone, they’d be criticized and not going, they were criticized and the McCain commercial on this subject is completely wrong! Factually wrong.

Why Morning Joe Sucks Balls

Here it is, the puppets repeating the right wing talking points in discussing McCain's new ad ripping Obama for not visiting the troops that he was told not to visit by the Pentagon. Good ol' reliable Joe Scarborough took a back seat and lobbed softball questions to intrepid pundit, Pat Buchanan.

Scar (paraphrase): And you know if McCain had been told by the Pentagon that he wasn't allowed to visit the troops he would've asked, "What's your name, rank and serial number because you're fired." And the other guy that's not Joe, we'll call him Scooter, said "Yeah, McCain would've said, 'Rules be damned. I'm going to visit those troops.'

But I guess we'll never be able to test that, will we guys?

Here's what Morning Joe looked like to me this lovely Monday morning.

Joe, Pat and Not Joe.









What a trio of pathetic clowns.