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A Fake Headline That's Actually True

2008-10-05T00:03:43Z

A friend of mine said that with McCain's new lines of attacks, he's basically giving up on the economy.

I think that pretty much sums up the state of John McCain's campaign, so while I won't expect to see this headline in The Washington Post, I wouldn't disagree with it one bit:

Why Barack Obama Is Winning -- And Why McCain's Cynicism Is Losing

2008-10-04T20:48:40Z

Here's the two key things you need to know about the Palin-McCain campaign's cynical new line of attack:

1. Barack Obama is way ahead of John McCain in this campaign. In fact, he's at or above 50% in three of the four national tracking polls, and leading in all of them.

2. The reason for McCain's slide in the polls is simple: While Barack Obama has focused his campaign on solutions to get this country out of the ditch that Bush-McCain policies have put us in, John McCain has focused his campaign around lies about his opponent and the glorification of his own personality and that of his running mate.

To put it in blunt terms, while Barack Obama has provided answers and solutions, John McCain has provided nothing.

And now John McCain is doubling down on his failed political strategy. He is now insourcing the Swiftboating slime machine that is the hallmark of Bush-Rove-McCain politics.

John McCain thinks the only way he can win this election is by destroying Barack Obama.

But he's wrong.

The problem for John McCain is that this election isn't about Barack Obama.

This election is about what's important to America at this crucial point in our nation's history.

It's about recovering from the disastrous Bush-McCain foreign policy legacy.

It's about recovering from this economic catastrophe unleashed by eight years of Republican economics.

It's about finally doing something about our energy and environmental problems.

It's about changing direction from the past eight years, and on that essential challenge, John McCain has nothing to say.

All he has is character attacks -- character attacks that just won't work.

If we wanted to play his game, we could go after McCain's fundraiser with G. Gordon Liddy who had advocated killing federal agents by shooting them in the face. We could make as a centerpiece of the campaign John McCain's vote against the seminal 1990s legislation that protected women's health clinics from anti-choice terrorists. We could talk about Sarah Palin's involvement with the pro-secessionist Alaskan Independence Party. We could savage her extremist witch-doctor religious freak show.

We could do all that, but that's not what this campaign is about.

This campaign is about the future of our country and the world. We have so many problems that are so serious and need to be dealt with.

Barack Obama is winning because has addressed these problems head on and talks about them every day. Because what matters to him -- and to us -- is delivering the change we need to start moving in the right direction.

John McCain is losing because the only thing that he has to offer is tired, old, recycled attacks on Barack Obama. The only thing he offers is the cynical politics of division. The only thing he offers is lies and deceit.

This November, we're going to move past John McCain, and we're going to close the door on the Bush era once and for all. We're going to leave it behind, in the past, where it belongs.

It's time to get something done for America, and the world.

Woodward: Bush Said His Iran Strategy Was "They're A**holes"

2008-10-04T20:01:03Z

There's been so much going on with the campaign lately, that I hadn't paid much attention to Bob Woodward's newest book, The War Within.

Tonight he was on Real Time with Bill Maher (video below) and he relayed a couple of interesting items.

First, he said that during White House discussions on Iran, a senior military leader asked Bush what his strategy was. Bush's answer? "They're assholes." Just gives you a sense as to how crude and clueless our current president is, and how desperately we need a change.

Second -- and this was really interesting -- he maintained that the surge was not the cause of the decrease in violence in Iraq. Instead, Woodward said a covert program run by the U.S. military was the primary reason for the decrease in violence. Woodward didn't get specific, but it basically sounded like a targeted assassinations program.

According to Woodward, the administration has confirmed his account. Seems like that might be something for McCain to ponder the next time he wants to say that the surge is the defining reason he ought to be elected president.

Here's video:

Bill Maher Takes On Palin's Debate Performance

2008-10-04T19:46:23Z

The good news is that Sarah Palin can complete a sentence...the bad news is that the rest of us have to listen to it, according to Bill Maher in his opening monologue on Friday night.

Maher also had mocking words for Rich Lowry, who thought Palin was 'man straightening.'

Here's video:

Three Out Of Four

2008-10-04T19:27:57Z

Obama is now at or above 50% in three of the four tracking polls.

Hotline/Diageo has it at 48-42. Gallup has it as 50-42. Rasmussen has it as 51-45. And Daily Kos/R2000 shows the biggest lead of all: 52-40.

But with good news comes bad. Unless McCain decides to give up the campaign, he's going to go nook-yoo-ler. That will probably have a negative impact on Obama's poll numbers, and it might even dominate news coverage for a short period of time, because conflict is sexy.

The challenge for us, as supporters of Obama, is going to be simple: we can't overreact to McCain's coming attacks, and we need to see them for what they are: desperate attempts to distract attention away from the fundamental issue in this race, which is reversing course from the disastrous path charted George Bush and the GOP over the past eight years.

So even if the race gets a little closer, we can't freak out about it. The poll numbers aren't what matters. The bile behind John McCain's attacks aren't what matters. All that really matters is getting this country out of the rut that John McCain's policies has put it in. Everything else is background noise. And as long as we stay focused, we win.

Brian Williams On The Late Show: "I'm A Maverick, And I May Not Answer The Questions Tonight"

2008-10-04T11:51:47Z

Friday night on the Late Show, it was a meeting of the two most prominent media personalities spurned by the McCain campaign -- Brian Williams and David Letterman.

Neither man is terribly happy about being rejected by McCain-land, but they both manage to maintain their sense of humor. Here's video:

Earlier in the show, Letterman had a number of zingers from McCain in his monologue. This one jumped out at me:

John McCain loved Palin's debate performance. Matter of fact, he applauded so much, all the lights in his home kept on going on and off.

They Must Know They Are Screwed

2008-10-04T03:20:57Z

Just take a look at their home page, which blares "Governor Palin proved beyond any doubt that she is ready to lead as Vice President."

Consider:

1. They couldn't bring themselves to declare victory, instead settling for a highly defensive proclamation that she is ready to be VPOTUS; and

2. They couldn't bring themselves to say she was qualfied to be President of the United States.

Here's what the home page looks like, with the key part highlighted:

Who Is The Biggest Winker Of Them All?

2008-10-04T01:56:37Z

A follow-up to "Winkers In Chief":

Winkers In Chief: Bush & Palin Salute America

2008-10-04T01:36:55Z

Update: Also see "Who is the biggest winker of them all?"

Keith O. played a funny video comparing the rhetoric Sarah Palin 2008 and George W. Bush 2000, ending with a video of both them winking.

So I did a tiny bit of googling and found a couple of higher-res images of the two of them saluting America with the squint of their eyelids...and wouldn't you know it, they almost look like twins.

Presenting the winkers in chief:

Stuff I Should Have Blogged

2008-10-04T00:29:17Z

She really did have a script: Sarah Palin actually read several of her debate responses from her notes.
I think Palin's regrets about Michigan were damage control, not an example of being out of the loop. The question is: was she doing damage control for herself, or for McCain?
Sam Stein raises a key question: Why aren't Sarah Palin's per diems in her tax returns?
Oops: McCain-Palin Web Ad Cites Thumbs Up From 'Famous Person'
Beau Biden heads to Iraq
Rich Lowry thinks Sarah's sexy
McCain's foreign policy experience includes dating a Brazilian?
Brokaw might as well hook up with Ron Fournier.
In the polls: DKos/R2000 Obama up 11, Gallup and Ras Obama up 7, Hotline Obama up 6

McCain's Crazy Laughter

2008-10-03T22:38:10Z

John McCain has got himself some really crazy laughter, and those grunts are starting to sound a little bit insane too.

I guess one thing is for sure: La Barracuda really tickles his funny bone.

Some Straight Talk, My Friends: By McCain's Standards, He Voted For 477 Tax Increases

2008-10-03T20:57:55Z

The Obama campaign continues hammering McCain on his bogus line of argument about taxes, this time with a new web video that illustrates that by the very same standard that McCain applies to Obama, McCain has voted for 477 tax increases -- far more than the 94 he accuses Obama of having supported.

Here's the new Obama web video:

The ad also points out that during the same period of time that McCain accuses Obama of 94 tax increases, he voted (by his own standards) for 105 increases.

I just have to say once again how awesome it is to have a Democratic candidate who not only fights back, but fights back hard, and fights back effectively.

What Sarah Palin Was Reading

2008-10-03T19:30:59Z

So we know that Sarah Palin couldn't -- or wouldn't -- tell Katie Couric what newspapers and magazines she reads to form her world view.

The obvious implication is that she is a ditzy airhead, just like George W. Bush.

But what if -- also just like George W. Bush -- she was essentially playing dumb, to obscure an extreme conservatism that she knows full well is out-of-step with mainstream America?

This is more than idle speculation. Remember that photo -- supplied by her family -- of her days on the Wasilla City Council?

Well, in that photo, she was reading a copy of the magazine of the ultra right-wing John Birch Society.

So we know of at least one periodical that she has read.

What we don't know is what she else reads, and I suspect the answer might be a bit unsettling.

This Is Just The Beginning

2008-10-03T19:05:35Z

Now that the bailout, er, rescue, bill has pased, what next? The immediate credit crisis has been addressed, but now what?

John McCain probably thinks that now we can get back to talking about the threat of radical Islamic extremism, or something like that. (As we all know, he hates talking about the economy. Recall that in January when asked about why he was better than Mitt Romney on economic issues, his response was that he was that radical Islamic extremism was the most important challenge facing America.)

But the reality is that this bill -- while necessary -- will only address the credit crisis. That is a serious issue, but the fundamental problem with our economy remains: it just isn't working for enough ordinary Americans. Wages are still stagnant, and unemployment is still on the rise.

For six or seven years, the housing market boomed away, obscuring the reality of that fundamental problem. But now that the housing market is in collapse, we can see the problem plainly. It is real, and it is big, and if John McCain thinks he can ignore it, he's sorely mistaken.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden will be talking about it every day between now and the election. They get it. They see the problem. They know it needs to get fixed. They know a healthy middle-class is the bedrock of a strong America. McCain doesn't.

Second Obama Ad Of Day Blasts McCain Health Tax Plan

2008-10-03T18:42:34Z

The Obama campaign is up with their second ad of the day targeting John McCain's plan to tax individual health benefits.

While the first ad focused on Sarah Palin's inability to explain McCain's health tax plan, this ad goes straight at the core issue: that John McCain is proposing -- for the first time ever -- to tax health benefits.

If this message sinks in with voters, it will cause a real problem for McCain, whose health care plan -- including provisions that would gut employer-based health care -- is one of the most radical elements of his agenda.