Cliff Schecter

Cliff Schecter

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Cliff Schecter is a veteran campaign strategist and political commentator. Schecter writes a monthly column distributed by Knight Ridder and was a guest columnist for United Press International from 2002-2004. His work has been featured in a variety of publications including The Miami Herald, The American Prospect, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Fordham Urban Law Journal, The Sacramento Bee and Salon.com. He blogs for The Gadflyer and writes a weekly satirical column each Friday called "Cliff's Corner," summarizing the week's most ridiculous events for AMERICAblog. Surprisingly, Tom DeLay gets mentioned a lot.

During the 2004 election cycle, Schecter worked as the "liberal" pundit for The Sinclair Broadcast Group, where he debated conservative Armstrong Williams -- for significantly less cost to the White House. He has also appeared on CNN, CNBC, NPR FoxNews, The Canadian Broadcast Channel and Al Jazeera. Additionally, Schecter has provided analysis on American politics for international diplomats, journalists, students and politicians as part of The State Department Bureau of International Information Programs.

Schecter holds an MA in International Affairs from the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs and is currently receiving his Ph.D. in American History as a Dean's Honors Fellow at American University.

Schecter was a pollster for the successful reelection of President Bill Clinton in 1996 and fundraiser for former Governor of Virginia Mark Warner in 2001. He has also consulted for the DNC, DCCC and some other candidates he won't mention here because they lost.

Blog Entries by Cliff Schecter

The Real McCain Goes Viral

4 Comments | Posted May 20, 2008 | 11:01 AM (EST)


No, not my book (one can dream though), but a new video by Brave New Films (full disclosure: I used to work there) that does in video form what I hope my book The Real McCain accomplishes in prose--laying bare the fallacy of the "straight-talk" label that...

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McCain's Murderers Row

27 Comments | Posted May 13, 2008 | 11:28 AM (EST)


A new website (firethelobbyists.com) has been created by the pro-campaign finance reform organization Campaign Money Watch, to convince Senator McCain to fire three lobbyists in the top levels of his organization that have lobbied for ruthless dictators. You may recall that over the past two days, two...

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Arianna Huffington: The Latest Victim Of John McCain's Surge In Lies And Smears

38 Comments | Posted May 6, 2008 | 04:05 PM (EST)


As many of you have no doubt seen, the straight-talking reformer had the following to say about Arianna, after she exposed yet another bit of hypocrisy about a man who at this point might join Karl Rove in smearing hiw own daughter if he thought it would win him...

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John McCain On Healthcare: The Ultimate Hypocrite And Yes, Liar

70 Comments | Posted May 1, 2008 | 10:10 AM (EST)


Roger Hickey has a great post at ourfuture.org on the "dangerous fraud" that is John McCain's healthcare plan. As I point out ad nauseam in The Real McCain, McCain's positions are not simply fraudulent. The "straight-talker" rarely limits himself to simple dishonesty.

First, read the email The McCain...

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John McCain's White Supremacist Problem

96 Comments | Posted April 28, 2008 | 03:02 PM (EST)


One would have to strain to be shocked that a racist ad is finding its way out of the bowels of conservativism in North Carolina. For political observers from the 1980s and 1990s will remember that Senator Jesse Helms was a master of using divisive tactics inject race into...

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Important Questions For George Stephanopoulos To Ask John McCain This Sunday

220 Comments | Posted April 18, 2008 | 11:56 AM (EST)


Many have already pored over the ins and outs of a Democratic debate tailor-made for "Enquiring minds" earlier this week on ABC. Well guess who just happens to be coming to dinner...or This Week, this weekend?

Why none other than John McCain!

So in the spirit of seeing...

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When John McCain And His Sock Puppet Attack! (In This Case Me)

13 Comments | Posted April 14, 2008 | 02:31 PM (EST)


The Week That Was 4/11/2008

Another week. More preposterousness to report.

So I wrote a book. You know, because I had nothing better to do for those nine months. And because John McCain is more dangerous than Mel Gibson at a bris.

So, in any case, here...

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John McCain Accuses Me Of "Trash Journalism" While He Engages In "Trash" Propaganda During The Petraeus Hearing

90 Comments | Posted April 8, 2008 | 10:55 AM (EST)


Apparently some of the straight-talk released from The Real McCain yesterday got Rambo a bit peeved. So I'm glad I'm nowhere in his vicinity, because we know what happens to people when McCain gets a bit peeved at them.

He responded to the factual piece in my book...

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Americans Catch A Glimpse Of The Real McCain

Posted February 21, 2008 | 12:38 PM (EST)


Well, what do you know? Somewhere in between the unctious mass media religious ceremonies held on air in his honor we have actually caught ourselves a glimpse of The Real McCain. Not the "maverick," or the "straight talker" or the man of more integrity than Superman + Batman +...

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The Politics Of Hope Vs. The Politics Of Nope

Posted February 14, 2008 | 12:26 PM (EST)


Who represents the politics of hope? And who is the nope?

A hint: One guy is inspirational and the other is like 147 years old (and apparently--according to Academy Award hopeful Chuck Norris--each year is worth like 4 for men of war like himself [Mission Impossible 3] and the...

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Note To Democrats: Courage Leads To Victory

Posted December 18, 2007 | 02:43 PM (EST)


Yesterday turned out to be a fantastic day. So many times we've watched as our so-called leaders have done anything but lead. We've been left in shock wondering how they can still be cowed by a a pathetic excuse for a man who has a 24% approval rating...

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Why We Need A War On Greed

Posted December 7, 2007 | 01:35 PM (EST)


"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit." So said fictional character Gordon Gekko, the embodiment of a 1980s corporate...

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Bill O'Reilly Suffers Another "Momentary" Lapse Of Reason

Posted November 6, 2007 | 12:39 PM (EST)


A steady diet of cough syrup and falafels apparently can can do that to you.

During his Letters segment the other night, Billo read a nice email from another well-informed Fox viewer, this time from Ireland, who was just all broken up about being "forced" to watch

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Couric Admits Feeling NBC Pressure On Iraq Coverage

Posted September 27, 2007 | 03:42 PM (EST)


This is the sad state of our corporate-owned media. Katie Couric now admits she felt "corporate pressure" to ease off of Condi Rice and the Bush administration overall after a "tough interview" she conducted with the former:

After the interview, Couric said she received an email from an NBC...
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Blackwater Banned In Iraq; See The Short Film That Exposes These War Profiteers

Posted September 17, 2007 | 02:55 PM (EST)


Blackwater, as you may know, has been banned from Iraq for shooting civilians. Whether this ban lasts, or this business with numerous right-wing Republican connections will prevail, is yet to be seen (sadly I would bet on the latter, as some experts on warfare already have).

Yet,...

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House Minority Leader John Boehner Again Insults The Memory Of Troops Lost In Iraq

Posted September 15, 2007 | 02:16 PM (EST)


It's pretty clear that Crying John Boehner's most recent inane statement dismissed the sacrifices made by our troops in Iraq. He labeled almost 4,000 deaths and thousands upon thousands of physical injuries, cases of psychological trauma and numerous suicides among active military--a result of being lied into war...

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Political Imprisonment In America In The Age Of Rove

Posted September 12, 2007 | 02:17 PM (EST)


Is there anything you grew up believing about this country that this venal, vicious, amoral cluster of bleached, hair-club-for-men victims known as "neoconservatives" and "GOP operatives" haven't destroyed?

Seriously, whether it's preemptive war, illegal wiretapping, torture, destruction of an independent press, politicization of the military and bureaucracy of government, etc.,...

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Poor Rudy Giuliani

Posted September 10, 2007 | 01:04 PM (EST)


It must hurt deep down in the gut--where Republicans make all of their decisions, mind you--that our video detailing Rudy G's exploitation of 9/11 is knocking on the door of 200,000 views in FOUR DAYS (191,000+ as this is being written), while Rudy's website suckered in only 124,000 viewers...

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Why Can't We All Practice Broderism?

Posted September 5, 2007 | 02:07 PM (EST)


Because some of us have a few neurons still firing, perhaps?

In any case, this is the name of Andrew Glass' piece in The Politico. It will read like satire, yet sadly, it is not. Mr. Glass apparently thinks that finding the middle position on any issue and...

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The Band Marches On: War Profiteers Find Ever More Sickening Ways To Commit Treason

Posted August 30, 2007 | 05:25 PM (EST)


"There is such a thirst for gain [among military suppliers]...that it is enough to make one curse their own Species, for possessing so little virtue and patriotism." -- President George Washington, 1778

George Washington knew a thing or two about war. Unlike a more recent George W, he chose to...

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