McCain Gets Testy On Morning Joe

John McCain defended his campaign from charges that it has a problem with the truth and batted back suggestions that he is economically out-of-touch during appearances on all seven morning shows Tuesday.

It was an uphill task, perhaps best illuminated by the Senator's appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe. McCain was forced to redefine what he meant when he declared the "fundamentals of our economy are strong" just yesterday. He offered curt responses to charges that one of his ads falsely accuses Barack Obama of supporting sex education for kindergartners. (Later in the show, in fact, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds sent an email to host Mika Brzezinski defending the ad, which she subsequently read on air.)

Most glaringly, McCain openly sparred with Brzezinski, whom he accused of being an open supporter of Obama. Asked by the host to assess whether an ad attacking him on the economy was out of bounds, McCain replied:

"I'll leave that for the American people to decide. I still say to you, and I know you are a supporter of Senator Obama, if you would urge him to come and do town all meetings with me as I have asked him to do time after time the whole tenor of the campaign would change."

The charge created an awkward and tense environment for the rest of the segment, with Brzezinski forced to note (as she has done in the past) that one of her brothers works for the McCain campaign (another brother works for Obama, and her father was once an adviser).

"Senator," she said, "as a characterized Barack Obama supporter, I take objection. I'Il just say, take care of my brother working at the campaign."

"Thanks," replied McCain, "that was a cheap shot."

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But the issue clearly hung over the rest of the morning. Later in the show, Brzezinski addressed it once again.

"In light of the John McCain interview, I feel I need to say not only does my brother work for the McCain campaign, but he worked for George Bush for six years," she said. "I'm proud of him."

Meanwhile, Republican strategist and former McCain aide Mike Murphy was left to explain away the Senator's humor, albeit adding that he thought the campaign's antagonism to the media had crossed a line.

"i don't think he meant it as an attack," he said. "There's definitely become a mentality inside the McCain campaign which is very hostile for anybody in the media they think is at all favorable to the other side. I think that's mistake. I think they overreact. I think doesn't do McCain well to have that mentality in the campaign. I don't really understand it because it's not his natural way."

Here's video for the full segment:

Comments

[Terriann]

You call that testy?? That was laughable.
As for the economy, well of course each Candidate is horrified by what has happened. The American worker tries to get ahead, & use those stock options to retire on.We've been betrayed. McCAIN is right on that one. Greed & no regulation has screwed the American worker again. Yep, McCAIN was right on that one too. Then of course there's a little piece of paper that says if you go under we'll bail you out...signed, your congress. If only this was a Monopoly game & fake money.
As of right now we have two men who are fighting to lead this country. One has asked for Town Hall meetings, the other said ok. Well, until someone who dodged the draft starting coaching him. I guess you could say that OBAMA was FOR Town Hall meetings, BEFORE he was AGAINST them.
We are at war. Ask yourself this: If OBAMA & McCAIN were both in IRAQ & they each went to sit down & eat with the soldiers. They walk around & each choose a table & sit down. What would the soldiers at the OBAMA table do if they knew he was being coached by a man who chose to run from a war, rather than serve in it. At the McCAIN table everyone knows that he not only went to war, he ended up being POW/MIA, & tortured. I can picture all of the soldiers at the OBAMA table getting up as

[ScoutandBuckGoodDogs]

I have NO IDEA what your point is. You want to talk draft dodger? Let's talk D i ck Cheney. PUH leeeeze. Obama, according to what he said, signed up for selective service. At the time, there was no draft. He did his duty as a male of 18 and signed up for selective service. I find it interesting that you're calling him a draft dodger when there was no draft instituted.

D I CK Cheney is a WORLD CLASS draft dodger. Period. And if you call what GW did in the military useful, then well... yer just delusional.

[Knowitall]

Is it just me or is this post confusing? I did see the words "town hall meeting" in there somewhere--a subject that McCain keeps bringing up for some reason. That ship sailed a long time ago. I keep saying that there's no way Obama was going to adjust his campaign schedule to suit McCain's, in order to build the audiences that McCain can't draw. That's Palin's job now, and she's good at it. Only thing is, she's beginning to think she's the presidential candidate. And the audiences are leaving right after she speaks. That's what McCain should be focussed on right now.

[wilder5121]

The most obvious sign a person is lying is how often they blink their eyes. In the two minute forty-seven second Morning Joe clip, McCain blinks over 260 times in those 167 seconds. That averages about 1.5 times...every second. In fact, McCain blinks so often...and so fast...it's almost painful to watch. Conclusion: He's a liar (big surprise), and he knows he's lying (also big surprise).

[Probus]

It's tough for McCain when known GOP water carriers like Mika openly question McCain's honesty. If he can't handle Mika how will he handle the terrorists?

[LAThinker]

The king is naked and no amount of lies can cover it

http://www.ucubd.com/Index.aspx?id=719&cid=3140

[CaliBoy145]

McCain is such a liar...you cant trust him

[kwa7154]

Google: "Zeitgeist" and then maybe you'll understand why we are in the current economic crisis we are in now

[hiriumi]

McCain sounded like a guy who was jealous of a girl that likes someone else. LOL

[KarateKid]

Hey, where are all the Republicans tonight? I guess they're out getting drunk. I mean, even they know Grandpa is lying through his teeth. If Karl Rove admits it, they have to know it. Hyporcrites.

[kwa7154]

Hey! Got a good one here! Look out for the "Aricept" commercial! It's a pharmaceutical drug for alzheimers. The actor portraying the guy with alzheimers looks just like, GUESS WHO? YUP THE ONE AND ONLY....................JOHN MCCAIN!!!! When I first saw it, I thought it was a SNL skit for a sec and then realized this was the actual commercial!!! Unbelievable!!!

[LAThinker]

[gevan]

McCain is piling up lots of enemies: the Army, Democrats, the press, the truth. Who will be left to support his administration? Fudimentalist Right-to-Lifers? If they will recall that he is a maverick and prone to wander away from every principle that he has ever had, and ever will hold, in the interest of political expediency; even they might be forced to think twice before pressing their fingers to their touch screen machines.

[KarateKid]

You forgot conservatives, the true ones, not the faux Rush Limbaugh/Sean Hannity ones, like George F. Will. They can't stand the guy, either.

[ultrabop]

Obama is the true conservative. McCain is a liberal. McCain is all about de-regulation. De-regulation is a liberal notion. Just leave corporations alone. Let them steal and cheat. That's liberal.

[kenny453]

Will it matter if they think twice when the touch screen is programmed to flip Obama votes to McCain's column.?

[Mysticalsister]

I plan to use my phone to photograph my vote. I think everyone should. you may not have a paper ballot, but the pictures would be hard to refute and easy to count.

[Mysticalsister]

I wondered if he was prone to wander away . . . people get cranky when their minds start to go.

[ultrabop]

Americans like losers. I don't understand...maybe it has something to do with abortion? Or people like sending their sons off to die in war? Or they like liers? They'll take a lyin' grumpy grandpa over a healthy young intelligent black guy? What gives? Is this country as racist as it looks?

[OrganOfThought]

""Is this country as racist as it looks?"" unfortunately yes

But, there may be just barely enough normal people and the Repub candidate may be just bad enough, to get O elected.

[Krankil]

That's what they do best: attacking the media at any opportunity and opening they see. Actually his sarcasm and making fun of Mika suggesting that she didn't go to his website and therefore she doesn't know what she's talking about ("I know you visited my website many times" with that smirk), this, should be an opportunity for Dems to go on the offense and accuse him of sexism.. The Karl Rove doctrine: Accuse your opponent of what you think they would attack you on. Attacking Kerry on his military service was a great example. Here we have a guy shot 3 times fighting in vietnam running against a guy who, at the time, was an AWOL hiding in Alabama and working on his father's friend's campaign.. and guess how they shifted the debate? We're not sure that Kerry's 3rd wound was the result of ennemy fire. Some people say he faked it !!!

[sammy50]

I hve seen testier exchanges between friends over where to hve lunch.

[diogeron]

McCain's voice was cracking from anxiety. He was obviously shaken by being challenged by what he should have known would be the line of questioning given his dishonest attack ad on Obama's vote to let educators help teach kids how to recognize advances from potential child predators (something that parents could opt out of, incidentally.) It will be interesting to see how he handles the debates. That is not Obama's strength but it is not McCain's either. Palin will benefit from low expectations, but my guess is that if you factor that out, if it were a fight, they would stop it in the third round and not because she is a woman. Hillary kicked ass in a few of those debates but Sarah Palin is not Hillary Clinton.

[jonathanu]

Is it my imagination, or did McCain's voice sound a little weak and wavering? And was that emotion, resentment (against Mika), or illness?

[ultrabop]

It was nerves. Or anger.

[matt1996]

I agree. I know these candidates get run ragged and the sleep was still showing during an early morning interview, but still, the camera doesn't lie. He comes across as sooo curmudgeon-y. He sounded so out of it.

And those damn awkward smiles, like when he's ripping Mika for a 'cheap shot'.

Now, I've criticized Mika for a lot of things, but truly, if you've watched Morning Joe closely this year, the only one saying she's 'in the bag' for Obama was Joe Scarborough!! He says that all the time yet she is constantly criticizing Obama, asking probing/critical questions of Democrats on the show and saying positive things about the Republican side. I know, I've watched the show every day, and I've yelled at the TV when I've seen her do it.

So for freaking McCain to take Scarborough's lead and try an mar Mika's partiality like that just shows how much the GOP is focused on making this McCain vs. the so-called liberal press.

[j.gold]

Because Obama won't do what he wants and change his schedule to conform to McCains town hall meetings McCain is force to take the low road? It's Obama's fault???? I don't know why reporters don't call him on this. He is supposed to be in charge of his campaign and how it is run.

McCain needs to own up!

[smag]

Obama doesn't have the guts to face him in the town hall!! He is lousy when he can't get a MSM pundant to shoot questions that he can anticipate. As it is all you crybabbies should be happy With Democrat Charllie Rose

[mikekev58]

Yeah, that's what I don't get. Has any interviewer called McCain out on that logic? "I'm running mean ads, I know they're lies, but he wouldn't do the town hall meetings, so what's a guy to do?"

Just as most of the media missed the point of Sarah Palin's lie in the "I said NO to Congress" mantra, they're allowing McCain to get away with a really crazy negative quid pro quo.

In '92 I felt that if the Clinton camp aggravated GHW Bush enough, his mean side would come out. And it did. I'd say Obama's campaign should let McCain be McCain, push back hard against the lies as the Clinton camp did in '92, but walk close enough to the edge to let the old (as in former) McCain revert to his nasty Bob Dole repertoire.

[matt1996]

I know! Why don't people call McCain on that??? 'Mr. Obama, all you have to do is cave into my demands and I will stop distorting and lying about your record."

Hmmm...sounds like a classic interrogation technique.