Jon Stewart on "You Didn't Built That"

"I've been listening to and involved in this argument since the beginning. You didn't built THAT. "THAT" was in reference to infrastructure, specifically roads and bridges in this particular case. I had a Twitterfight, if you will, on this subject over the course of an entire day with someone who refused to believe the facts when presented to them; shrugged off the fact checkers and journalists who correctly identified that this wasn't a gaffe, it was a quote taken out of context. Yes, sometimes we speak inartfully and sometimes we even talk about two things simultaneously which may cause confusion, especially when reading a transcript.

Enter Jon Stewart, who dissects the situation and as usual, sticks it to the propagandists. You know, because the truth has a liberal bias.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Now the Obama campaign has already put out an ad basically doing the same thing, but with what I believe is a muddled message because of the dual "will say anything" / "actually agrees with the President" juxtaposition. They should have kept it simple.



I would suggest to the Obama campaign that they immediately hire Stewart's editor, and pay him/her whatever they want to construct their commercials because that last 30 seconds is gold.

 (Cross-posted at ABLC)

Just Say 'Oops!' and Get Out (The 'Romney Should Have Quit While He Was Ahead' Edition)

By now we all know about the "you didn't build that" gaffe that wasn't a gaffe. President Obama was referring to roads, bridges, schools and infrastructure already in place, when he said business had help along the way. But just so we're clear, he's the full statement.

There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me -- because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t -- look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.) 

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet. 

The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.

So the Romney campaign, and some would say rightfully so in the world of negative campaigning, decided not only to quote the President out of context to show that he was maligning and dismissing small business and individual achievement, they quickly produced a commercial to further illustrate their point.



And there you have it. A pretty good, effective ad. If only it were true. The whole premise is based on a heavily edited version of Obama's quotes over three paragraphs. But one thing the Romney camp missed was the possibility that the person they were lying to for use in an opportunistic ad can't be controlled once the cameras leave.

Neil Cavuto thought it would be a good idea to interview the "star" of the new ad, New "Live Free or Die" Hampshire small businessman Jack Gilchrist. Cavuto asked what he thought of the President's comments... and it seems that Gilchrist knew all of them, not just the one line soundbite. (2:30 mark)

Gilchrist: "Well, I mean, there's truth to what [President Obama] says, I mean, Helen Bresnehan, Ms. Bresnehan was my eleventh grade English teacher and she made an impression on me that will last with me for the rest of my life. I can't even tell you what but she just sticks with me. I think my dad and his parents, they're great generations, on their back we built the interstate highway systems, bridges and whatnot. But we all pay taxes every time we put gas in our tank which go to maintaining the roads and keeping up the bridges. I think the military maybe, I don't know if it was Al Gore I'm not sure which that created the internet for whatever purposes it was intended but we all get the benefit from it since then, so ya, there's been some help along the way."

Watching the full Cavuto interview with Gilchirst is a little disappointing and unfortunate because while he actually agrees with the President's premise, he still accepts Romney's wrongly contextualized interpretation. But hey, I know a lot of successful businessmen that aren't the brightest bulbs or worse yet, willfully choose to believe something other than the truth in order to fit their narrative. I don't know if Gilchrist is the former or the latter, but his "Al Gore internet" jibe sheds a little light, doesn't it?

Finally, not only does Gilchrist fundamentally agree with President Obama that without infrastructure in place that only a centralized entity like the government can create (albeit with tax funds) business ventures would be much harder if not next to impossible, someone else agrees with Obama as well. Mitt. Freakin'. Romney!

Romney: "We value teachers, firefighters, people that build roads... so you really couldn't have a business if you didn't have those things."

They couldn't leave well enough alone. They kept hammering until they smashed their own thumb. Romney even tried it again with a Roxbury, Massachusetts businessman.

Company owner Brian Maloney, 69, agreed with Romney's assessment. "I take umbrage at the suggestion that people don't start and build businesses," Maloney said. "I started out with 500 bucks and worked with my hands to afford grad school at night. My wife supported me. Started a little body shop and was able to bring together people, one at a time." 

He added: "We don't need any more of government's help. We haven't had any. We've only had pain. It's overbearing. It's top-heavy." 

But in an interview with Boston-based reporter Jon Keller of WBZ-TV, Maloney acknowledged that his business received some government help. "The only way I was able to come here, because I had no money, was with an industrial revenue bond," Maloney said in the interview. Industrial revenue bonds are typically issued by local and state governments to attract new business to an area. They create low-interest loans for new development and startups.

That thumping sound you hear is my head banging against my desk. How many of these "Keep your government hands off my Medicare" morons are out there?! Mitt Romney wants to take advantage of every one of them. And it seems they're more than willing to oblige.

 

(Cross-posted at ABLC)

Leave Cory Alone!

This morning, Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker was a guest on Meet The Press and sort of stuck his foot in his mouth in the false equivalency market, and Fox News ran with it.

"This kind of stuff is nauseating to me on both sides," Booker said. "It's nauseating to the American public. Enough is enough. Stop attacking private equity. Stop attacking Jeremiah Wright. This stuff has got to stop, because what it does is it undermines, to me, what this country should be focused on. It's a distraction from the real issues."

Booker was immediately attacked on Twitter, some of it justified, some of it way over the top, to the point that he decided to clarify his remarks in a video.



I think he realized the false equivalency and tried to correct the record. But in no way did Booker deserve some of the nasty comments he received on the interwebs.

Stupidest. Quote. Ever.

I’m not familiar precisely with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said, whatever it was. 

~Mitt Romney on whether Rev.Wright attacks on President Obama are legitimate while being reminded that he used Rev. Wright to attack President Obama on Sean Hannity's show in February.

Is this guy that stupid? 'I don't know what I said but I stand by it.' Also, his reaction and active avoidance on his campaign aircraft to reporters' questions surrounding the Joe Ricketts/SuperPAC controversy before he knew the full story shows how much of a weasel and a coward he can be when confronted with such issues. A thinker on his feet he's not.

A Sickening Feeling

Four years ago, I sat on my living room couch and watched a young politician I'd never heard of give an incredible speech at the Democratic National Convention. I immediately thought, "Where have they been hiding this guy?" I had never felt the combined feelings of awe, inspiration, national pride and hope all rolled into one - and evoked by a politician. And there he stood, calling to our better selves as one nation, as one people.

Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America. The pundits, the pundits like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue States: red states for Republicans, blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states. We coach little league in the blue states and, yes, we've got some gay friends in the red states. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq, and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

He was presidential material then, and even I could recognize it.

The next day we all spoke of the new guy, Whatsitsname. What an amazing speech he gave, that guy, Whatsitsname. Too bad he can never be elected president - he wouldn't have a shot - there are too many racists in this country. Whatsitsname would never have a chance.

"Whatsitsname" was Barack Obama, and he announced his run for the Presidency two years later. Not only was he an African-American running for president, but he would have to take on the most powerful political machine in recent history. How could he possibly compete against Hillary Clinton, the Clinton machine and all her money? The night he won the Iowa primary, I finally believed it could happen. I thought if Iowa could vote for Obama over Clinton and Edwards, then so could others.

And then the smears began. The ugliness reared its head. Obama wasn't like us, he was "different." We heard rumors of Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers and Tony Rezko. We heard a Manchurian candidate theory. We heard that he was hiding a Muslim background, that he was educated in a madrassa when he was a child in Indonesia. We heard that his wife was never proud of her country until her husband ran for president, that he wouldn't recite the Pledge of Allegiance and would turn his back on the flag, that he wouldn't wear a flag pin on his lapel, that he took his oath of office not a Bible, but on a Koran. Veiled and not so veiled racism permeated everything and my euphoric feeling of national pride became one of shame and embarrassment.

But through it all, Obama's message of hope rang through. It didn't matter that the racists were throwing everything they could at him, he was coming out on top. Hope trumps fear. Change supersedes the status quo. We were tired of being beaten over and over again with the fear mongering, smear tactics and lies of the last seven years from the most corrupt administration in our nation's history, and we weren't going to take it anymore. And on August 28th 2008, forty-five years to the day that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, Barack Obama was accepting the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

And then along comes the "honorable, maverick, war hero reformer" John Sidney McCain III and his peanut gallery of a campaign. Back in 2000, McCain was touted as one of those thorns in the side of his own party, voting his conscience, not kowtowing to the party line. That is, until the Rovian Machine of Destruction turned him into a shell of his former self with a smear campaign the likes of which we hadn't seen before. Up was down, left was right and black was the color of the illegitimate child the Bush campaign accused him of fathering.

But the 2008 John McCain, however much he may have stated that he wanted to run an honorable campaign, remembers the tactics that killed his 2000 campaign, and in a last ditch effort is throwing all of his chips into the pot to try and gain some traction with little more than three weeks left until Election Day. The problem is that he's miscalculated who he was reaching. Moderate Republicans, independents and Reagan Democrats have stopped responding to fear mongering, so the only people he is reaching are the frenzied base whose votes he already had. And boy, has he worked them up into a lather!

John McCain asks, "Who is the real Barack Obama?" Sarah Palin, a transparent vice presidential choice to appease the Republican base, stokes the flames of uncertainty when she says Obama doesn't see America as she sees it; that Obama sees America as "being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."

The fear chip, the Ayers chip, the mysterious foreigner chip, all politically designed to help decrease McCain's deficit in the polls has only caused a greater schism between the Democratic and undecided voters he's trying to woo, and the ever increasing radical base he is playing to. And at this point in the campaign, if you're still trying to win over your base instead of trying to expand your appeal, it's over.

But I fear it may be too late. The genie of racism has been let out of the bottle. And no matter how hard McCain may try to put it back, the damage has been done. The rage he's let loose, the fear and overt anti-Obama hate displayed at his rallies has truly made this a dangerous situation.

Unfortunately, it was always in the back of my mind that Senator Obama would inherently be in more danger solely because of the color of his skin. This danger has now been amplified by the nasty, hate-filled rhetoric of the McCain campaign, Sarah Palin and yes, the "honorable" John McCain. And there is no way that you cannot blame McCain for it. It's his name at the top of the ticket. He is responsible for the actions of his campaign, whether the idea to go this route was his, or Rick Davis' or Steve Schmidt's, McCain either approved it or went along with it knowing it was the last bullet in his gun. And seeing the hate from the pitchfork and torch crowds has given me a sickening feeling.

Morning Joke™ Off The Rails

Scarborough, Buchanan and TIME's Washington bureau chief Jay Carney are sitting around in DC waiting for the Chimp in Chief's latest poo flinging, talking about the negative ads released today by the RNC and the McCain campaign associating Ayers and Rezko to Obama. Nothing new, right? Then I heard this (paraphrasing):

Carney: I don't think the ads are going to work because people are scared to death about the economy.

Buchanan: McCain missed an opportunity because the market is tanking after this $700 billion bailout and he should have voted against it. He could've been "in the catbird seat" if he had voted against bailing out Wall Street.

Scarborough: Well, why did he vote for it?

Wait for it... Ready?


Buchanan: Because he's an "ESTABLISHMENT GUY." He voted with the majority.

Mika from the studio: Wait, I'm confused. I THOUGHT HE WAS A MAVERICK!

Carney: Well... he's a maverick within the establishment... he's on the edges of the establishment.

Maverick Or True Conservative?

You can't have it both ways, Johnny. Either you're a "Maverick" (it is to laugh) or you're a "true conservative." Which is it?

Here's McCain's new attack ad on Obama, cleverly using comments made by Democrats praising the Maverick. Unfortunately for McCain, all but one of the comments were made at least two or more years ago.



Of course, we all knew the Hillary comment made during the primaries would be used as an attack against Obama the second it came out of her mouth.

Here's the DNC's response just hours after the McCain ad surfaced.



Well I suppose McMaverick is going to go with all that is mavericky because it looks like the McCain campaign is pulling all his "true conservative" spots from his website.

Crooks & Liars: Just one day after the McCain campaign proclaimed its man the “Original Maverick,” Barack Obama blasted that assertion both on the stump and in a new ad of his own. “You can’t be a maverick when politically it’s working for you,” Obama said, “and not a maverick when it doesn’t work for you.” Which may explain why the McCain campaign has apparently tried to purge any traces of its “True Conservative” ad, a February 2008 spot designed to win over hard right GOP primary voters.

As it turns out, McCain’s latest ads (”Broken” and “Praising McCain”) tout the Arizona Senator as the populist “Original Maverick.” But that resurrection of McCain’s tattered maverick image is contradicted by the “True Conservative” TV spot he used during the Republican primaries. In February, McCain to be sure wasn’t the maverick battling special interests in his own party...

...McCain’s claim to be a “true conservative” didn’t just disappear once he sewed up the Republican nomination. For the most part, so did the ad itself.

Here is the "True Conservative" ad -



So which is it? John McCain: Original Maverick? Or John McCain: True Conservative?

How about - John McCain: Just Another Republican Liar.

Paris Hilton's Response Ad

I must admit, this is pretty funny. Had trouble with the video player but you can watch it at FunnyOrDie.com via the link provided.

Colbert's Word: We The People

Awesome!

I Miss Tim Russert

Watching Meet The Press this week was an eye opening experience as I sat dumbfounded by the lack of moderation by Tom Brokaw. One thing that you could always count on when watching MTP with Russert at the helm was an informed debate, thoughtful questions and a chance for the guest to respond. None of that was on hand this past Sunday.

Joe Lieberman and John Kerry were on as surrogates to their respective political parties; Kerry for Obama and Lieberman for McCain. Yeah, I don't care that Holy Joe has an "ID" after his name - there's no such thing as an "Independent Democrat."

From the second Brokaw asked his first question, "Do you think running a campaign ad in which you feature Britney Spears and Paris Hilton with Barack Obama is respectful?" and Lieberman answered "I do," I was thankful that I didn't have anything in my hand or else I'd be getting a new TV today. I knew I was in for a bucket load of bullshit from then on. An to tell the truth, I expected it from Lieberman; it's become his normal routine. What I didn't expect was that when it was Kerry's turn to speak, he was interrupted by Lieberman more than once with no objection from Brokaw, and in an attempt to get to as many questions as possible, Brokaw would rush along and leave the "debate" unresolved.

It was a piss poor attempt at moderating and made me realize the talent that Russert had when sitting at that table.

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 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.

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?

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.

Two Faced McCain and The GOP

For weeks now, John McCain and the GOP have been jumping on Barack Obama for his supposed lack of knowledge of what's happening in Iraq simply due to the fact that he hasn't traveled to Iraq (as of this writing) in the last 923 days, and even rigged a clock to their website in an attempt to make it an embarrassing issue.

John McCain had even suggested that he and Obama should make the trip together. My guess on that bright idea is so the Maverick could show Obama all the hot spots and perhaps go bar hopping. Maybe even take Obama to the local strip club where the burkas only go down to just above the ankle. Ultimately, McCain was trying to pull an Izzy Mandelbaum and show the young kid the ropes, a position that the Illinois Senator wouldn't be caught dead in.

Now that Senator Obama has left on a world tour to visit war zones as well as foreign dignitaries, the McCain campaign and surrogates dare to call the trip a stunt, while McThuselah is trying to get his story straight after initially saying that Obama's trip was good thing. The audacity of Obama to go on a foreign trip, visit war zones and introduce himself around the world! It's not as if he would visit a country and by the strangest of coincidences, US hostages would be released from said country. That wouldn't be considered a stunt, would it?

And now we have this ad from the man who pledged a "respectful campaign."



Shall we take these claims one at a time?


"Barack Obama never held a single Senate hearing on Afghanistan."

It turns out that presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain has attended even fewer Afghanistan-related Senate hearings over the past two years than Obama's one. Which is a nice way of saying, McCain, R-Ariz., the top Republican on the Senate Armed Service Committee, has attended zero of his committee's six hearings on Afghanistan over the last two years.

...A review of the Senate Armed Services Committee hearings as listed on the committee Web site for the past two years reveals that McCain's committee has held six hearings that included the word "Afghanistan" in the title or Central Command -- which overseas U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

McCain missed them all.

"[Obama] hasn't been to Iraq in years."

Not that it matters whether he's been there or not, but this trip will change that fact. It's also worthy to note that a person which such vast foreign policy experience as McCain should probably know not to leak the possible itinerary of a fellow Senator when travelling in hostile territory.


"[Obama] voted against funding our troops."

From Media Matters: "...on March 29, 2007, McCain himself voted against H.R. 1591, an emergency spending bill that would have funded the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and would have provided more than $1 billion in additional funds to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Senate passed H.R. 1591 by a margin of 51-47. Once the bill's conference report was agreed to by the House, the Senate again passed the measure on April 26, 2007, by a vote of 51-46. McCain did not vote on that version of the bill. By contrast, Obama voted for it on both occasions. President Bush vetoed the bill, citing its provision for a timetable for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

Moreover, McCain has voted against other legislation funding care for veterans. On April 26, 2006, McCain voted against an amendment by Sen. Daniel Akaka(D-HI) that would have "provide[d] an additional $430,000,000 for the Department of Veteran Affairs for Medical Services for outpatient care and treatment for veterans." In addition, on March 14, 2006, McCain voted against "increas[ing] Veterans medical services funding by $1.5 billion in FY 2007 to be paid for by closing corporate tax loopholes." On March 10, 2004, McCain also voted against "creat[ing] a reserve fund to allow for an increase in Veterans' medical care by $1.8 billion by eliminating tax loopholes." Obama voted for the first two measures; he had not yet entered the Senate when the third vote was cast."

This doesn't even include McCain's opposition to and non-vote of the Webb GI Bill, which passed in the Senate 75-22.


"John McCain has always supported our troops and the surge that's working."

Well, that's the rhetoric. But when it comes to putting your vote where your mouth is, McCain has been conspicuously absent. And as far as the "surge working," isn't it pretty obvious that when you negotiate with terrorists and pay insurgents to stop shooting at you, that violence is bound to go down?


"I'm John McCain and I approve this message."

I'm sure you do, Maverick.

Why, Hillary? Why?

So after taking a deep breath and stepping back to look at the overall campaign situation and the history of the last couple of weeks, here's my take on the Clinton campaign going all out negative on Barack Obama: desperation.

1 - Obama has won 11 straight contests, beating Clinton by wide margins.

2 - Clinton going negative (but not all the way) in Wisconsin was viewed by their campaign as a boost for them. They've been quoted as saying the didn't lose by as much (17 points) as they thought they would.

3 - Her closing statement in the Texas debate was viewed by many as conciliatory, which probably prompted the Clinton campaign heads to work overtime to negate that view, else be perceived as giving up.

4 - The Obama mailers on health care and NAFTA caused Hillary's campaign to see red and go off the deep end.

Now, it's one thing to challenge Obama and call him out on it: "Shame on you, Barack Obama. It is time you ran a campaign consistent with your messages in public — that's what I expect from you... Meet me in Ohio, and let's have a debate about your tactics."

It's another matter entirely to mock his message and compare him to the second coming of Jeebus. And here, in my opinion, is where the flaw with Clinton's reactionary attacks get the best of her.

Does she not remember the painting of Howard Dean in 2004 as unhinged because of his overenthusiastic "YAAARRR!" during a rally that sunk him? Seeing the anger in her eyes (scary) reminds me of the Dean incident, not in seeming like a nut, but in how it may be perceived.

The latest polls show Obama beating Clinton or in a statistical dead heat in Texas and Ohio after Clinton had 20 point leads in both states just two weeks ago. The Clinton campaign is not conceding and actually turning 180° in the attacks, looking for a fight to the bitter end.

One thing's for sure: it's going to be a very interesting debate on Tuesday in Cleveland.