Pufferfish

Called It

And Nate Silver says so far it isn't working.

Liar, Liar

Of course he knew the questions. We now know McCain was in a motorcade on the way to the debate Saturday night and not stuck in Rick Warren's stupid cone of silence, bullshit vault. Guessing at whether McCain had access to the questions Warren asked Obama is an exercise in futility. It's easier to point out that every aide in Washington would feed their boss debate questions if the opportunity was there. It would be professional negligence for a senior adviser to watch the exchange, know the boss could be reached, and not give him a heads-up. And of course reporters know this.

Still, playing fast and loose with the truth doesn't matter for McCain, as he's demonstrated again and again. And it's not because the McCain campaign stupidly said it was out of the realm of possibility for McCain to cheat because he was a POW; as we all know being a POW means getting to play a lifetime Get Out of Jail Free card on any issue dealing with morality (especially anything to do with adultery). No, the reason this won't matter is because the media has chosen its narrative and McCain's role as the honorable, straight-talking Maverick does not square with this version of reality. The MSM doesn't do nuance and instead tries to fit candidates into easily manageable story lines. McCain lying his ass off and being caught doesn't work well with the current plot. This is where being a tight-ass, flag-waving, moralistic-crusading douchebag has its advantages.

When Infidelity Becomes a Virtue

Byron York shows McCain can do no wrong:

Obama answered that he drank and “experimented” with drugs as a teenager, which he attributed to his own selfishness. McCain, on the other hand, said, “The failure of my first marriage. It’s my greatest moral failure.”

McCain’s actions in that matter are nothing to brag about, but what came from it onstage at Saddleback was the sense that he was willing to dig deeper and take a greater risk in his answer than had Obama.

Talk about being in the tank for McMaverick. As far as we know, both candidates answered honestly. York wants us to swallow that McCain deserves more love for cheating on his wife, who was disfigured in a car accident while he was a POW in Vietnam. No thanks. Making a mistake as a teen is much different than running around behind your wife like a scumbag as an adult. Now, I don't really care what either did. But don't spin that McCain deserves bonus points because he had the greater moral failure. Carrying this logic out, York would clearly be impressed if Obama beat up a cripple - but then fessed up on national TV. Now that's leadership you can believe in!

Oops, He Did It Again

 

Many liberal bloggers are claiming McCain’s ad featuring Spears and Hilton is a subtle reference to sexuality, linking a black man to promiscuous white women. I don’t buy it. The comparison to Spears and Hilton, a vapid has-been and vacuous never-was, is an attempt to relegate Obama to lightweight status who attained popularity despite lacking substance. Too bad for McCain what this add reveals is envy. Obviously he would do anything to receive global adulation and has responded with a petty attack that serves only to diminish his own stature. McCain's adolescent tantrum now being ripped on cable talk shows is an embarrassment that has even led to a longtime McCain loyalist to gripe that the old man has lost his bearings:

"John's been a celebrity ever since he was shot down. Whatever that means. And I recall Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush going overseas and all those waving American flags,” said Weaver. "There is legitimate mockery of a political campaign now, and it isn't at Obama's. For McCain's sake, this tomfoolery needs to stop."

Weaver resigned from McCain’s campaign earlier this year out of respect for Obama; he said he wouldn’t be a part of tearing him down. Debating Weaver’s motives for calling out his old boss is fine, but misses the larger point: the press now has a vital talking point to push the narrative that McCain is straying from his McMaverick reputation and gives Obama ample room to swing back without interference from the press.

Question of the Day

"How many demonstrable lies does the McCain campaign have to push before it colors the portrayal of his campaign?

As I alluded to at the top of this post, it is the norm that obvious campaign tactics that are treated as obvious after a campaign is over are nonetheless treated by most reporters as ambiguous or unclear during a campaign. But in this case it would be nice if that were not the case. Because here we have a candidate, John McCain, who is running on a record of straight talk and honorable campaigning running a campaign made up mainly of charges reporters are now more or less acknowledging are lies," Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo.

Well here's one answer from MSNBC:

McCain and his campaign repeated at least two lines of attack against Obama, which when first said in early July, were called "bogus," "wrong," "inflated" and "misleading" by independent fact checkers.

These things can snowball quickly. McCain's reputation might be at a tipping point in the wrong direction.

McCain Charge Against Obama Lacks Evidence

That's the headline of a Washington Post article, nearly causing me to fall out of my chair. Whaaa? The WaPo injecting some fact-checking in a campaign story? Insane. Money quote:

For four days, Sen. John McCain and his allies have accused Sen. Barack Obama of snubbing wounded soldiers by canceling a visit to a military hospital because he could not take reporters with him, despite no evidence that the charge is true.

And then the NYT writes the obvious:

Mr. McCain is clearly trying to sow doubts about his younger opponent, and bring him down a peg or two. But some Republicans worry that by going negative so early, and initiating so many of the attacks himself rather than leaving them to others, Mr. McCain risks coming across as angry or partisan in a way that could turn off some independents who have been attracted by his calls for respectful campaigning.

The drumbeat of attacks could also undermine his argument that he will champion a new brand of politics.

Undermine a new brand? That's a laugh. The brand we're talking about is running a campaign straight out of the Lee Atwater Playbook, with McCain sounding more petulant and aggrieved every passing week. And it's about time he got called on it. The press typically says this goes against type, while they've done well to mitigate McCain's fuckups, serving as a Florence Nightingale to their guy ever since he was mugged by Bush during the 2000 Republican Primary. But McCain is nothing if not a ruthless, crass politician. He convinced himself it was ok to make amends and help Bush in 2004, so long as that got him closer to the Oval Office. And he's again convinced himself that using Mitt Romney to raise money and possibly even place on the ticket is fine if it serves the ultimate goal. The self-righteousness indignation and victimization McCain and his surrogates use against anyone who would dare get in McCain's way (Bush, Romney and now Obama) is telling. While Republicans push the meme of arrogance against Obama, it's their own man who bathes in the notion that no one else is deserving.