This was really not a good idea. The media’s love for McCain and his phony Straight-Talking Maverick image was the best thing he had going for him, and it’s falling apart at the worst possible time. McCain picked a running mate with more skeletons than substance, and he needs to look presidential and credible in the midst of a financial crisis. Both very risky propositions when you can’t count on the media to report your version of reality.
Maybe the McSame stooges think they can run a successful campaign against the media. Somehow, I doubt that. The media carries your message as surely as the soundman in a club engineers your sound.
The media are not a filter, they’re an amp… but only if they’re on your side. Now that McCain has so cruelly spurned his erstwhile lovers, his shiny new running mate is getting tarnished by stories about her dodgy record as mayor and governor, and he has to explain how he can be trusted to do the right thing on the mortgage meltdown when one of his top advisers was getting $15,000 a month from Freddie Mac until the government had to take it over. Not. Helping.
Schmidt and McCain will find it much harder to pull off a successful smear-and-mirrors campaign without the kind of media assist that Dubya got in 2000 and 2004. But they’re going for it anyway, because it’s all they know, and it’s all they’ve got.
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NIce, Eli. Thanks. And I think it’s all they are ever going to have. Amen.
I usually hope I’m *wrong*, but not this time.
WASHINGTON — One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month from the end of 2005 through last month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain’s campaign manager, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement.
The disclosure undercuts a statement by Mr. McCain on Sunday night that the campaign manager, Rick Davis, had had no involvement with the company for the last several years.
nyt
Yeah, that is… inconvenient.
“Never pick a fight with a man who buys his ink by the barrel”
Mark Twain
McShame picked Schmidt. He also picked “On Palin of Mortal Sin.” Seems to me the story here is that for some reason this man has a political death wish.
Seriously makes you wonder if the guy who was known for crashing planes wasn’t really “shot down” but simply “drove down.” There’s something about some people who are full of unconscious shame – but also need to shame themselves over and over, through getting themselves into disastrous situations.
Just what we need – another self-saboteur in the White House.
Told the downstairs
So are they still going to be able to steal the election? Or are they keystone kops at this, too?
The disclosure undercuts a
statementlie by Mr. McCain on Sunday night that the campaign manager, Rick Davis, had had no involvement with the company for the last several years.message to McGramps and camp:
Do NOT piss of the NYT.
Has to be close enough first.
At least, I *hope* there’s some limit on how much they can game it without it being too obvious…
The Democratic Party will make sure every vote is counted, just like they did in 2000 and 2004, so now worries there, mate!
Yes, I would love to see an Obama blowout. Something so big that the repigs couldn’t touch it.
hell, I still think 2006 was merely a result of Karl Rove fucking up the numbers as to how many votes were truly needed to be switched inside the voting machines in order to guarantee 51-49 Repub victories.
I’m not sure which I’d like more – an unstealable blowout, or an unstealable blowout that the Republican dirty-tricksters get caught red-handed trying to steal.
On second thought, I guess I am sure…
No prisoners.
….or an unstealable blowout that the Republican dirty-tricksters get caught red-handed trying to steal.
let’s go for Option “A” – my pitchfork is rusty.
And where the hell does one buy a decent torch these days?
I wouldn’t mind lots and lots of prisoners, actually.
Talkative prisoners.
I’m convinced that the 2006 election, which gave a Dem majority, but a majority that could never be large enough to overrule W in the Senate, nor be enough to impeach..was a fix…and that it was done that way in order to make people, suspicious about 2000 and 2004, believe that the votes were not messed with and less likely to worry about the big one, 2008.
Geeze.
Hi Eli,
Everything you say is true, but the bottom line is that the American people are becoming as afraid as they were in the aftermath of 911 and the anthrax episode. Will they go towards McCain, who still has a tattered patina of safety to the low-informationals, or to Obama, who is the real article? The debate is crucial. It has nothing to do with substance, as several commenters have noted here and elsewhere, and everything to do with style. If Barack can convince Mrs Joe Six-Pack that he can protect them against god knows what, the deal is done. If he can’t, we’re in for a nail-biter that we could possibly lose. I’m betting on Obama, because he and his people, unlike Gore in 2000, understand the psychological dynamics.
It’s a sad commentary on the United States that this election is even close.
I would be more inclined that they were just mostly hands-off in 2006.
Don’t be pessimistic – it never works out anyway. *g*
Evidently they are getting the troops ready for the people who will protest when McPalin loses. Not.
If you’re talking about the financial crisis, McCain is in a very very bad place if he doesn’t have the media in his corner, pretending that Wall Street lobbyists aren’t running his campaign.
Your tinfoil hat must be 5 feet tall. :)
and some of the firedogs may have missed this morning’s Bloomberg disclosure:
William Timmons, Sr. McCain’s designated Transistion Team Leader – has taken $250,000 in lobbying fees from Freddie Mac this year – and continued to work for them right up to the Govt bailout
Bloomberg
and it looks lovely on her.
(waves to LS)
Sorry. Trust on…be my guest.
Rove would never dream of such a thing..he’d never plan ahead for something like an ultimate permanent Republican Majority…or politicization of the DOJ…and goodness, he’d surely never try to pretend to be innocent during an election.
Mrs. Allan Greenspan on GE tee vee. It is so sad for the Greenspan’s that Irak was all about the oil. It is sadly politically inconvenient because you cannot say what everyone knows.
But it might also be sad for the people there and sad for people here. Especially, the Iraki children, the refugees, and war casualties might actually have a real reason to be sad.
Ev’rything’s agin’ me and it’s got me down
If I jumped in the river I would prob’ly drown
No matter how I struggle and strive
I’ll never get out of this world alive.
These shabby shoes I’m wearin’ all the time
Are full of holes and nails
And brother if I stepped on a worn out dime
I bet a nickel I could tell you if it was heads or tails.
I’m not gonna worry wrinkles in my brow
‘Cause nothin’s ever gonna be alright nohow
No matter how I struggle and strive
I’ll never get out of this world alive.
I would never trust a Republican about anything – except Suzanne, of course.
Jon Stewart, always a media leader, was among the first to fall out of love. When I saw him flash his angry face after McCain segments as The Daily Show went to break, I knew the rest of the media had permission to remove their rose-colored glasses.
Stewart mocks the media relentlessly, but they watch him and go on his show whenever they can. They know he has America’s eyeballs and eartufts, and that they way to get them back is be more like him.
So they will fall out of love with McCain, publicly and loudly.
Meow
http://cache.gizmodo.com/asset…..il-hat.jpg
And then, there’s reality.
Kiddo, that is reality. You came into this life un-sheltered and all alone and that’s how you’ll go out.
You too, Kiddo.
Yeah, that Bloomberg story was such a new disclosure that Christy covered it on 9/12
thanks. I meant to add that Christy had been on it for awile
RawStory is featuring the excellent EmptyWheel post from today.
Did White House sit on bailout plan?
In case you’re not sufficiently motivated to work against a McCain administration, if he wins, the girl in this video is going to be on your television, talking in that voice, all the time.
Hi Eli. Great post.
Hi Betsy, and thanks.
So McCrazy is making ads saying Obama has ties to Freddie and Fannie, turns out that McCrazy’s campaign manager Rick Davis, has been receiving payments from them up until last month.
Go EW!
new definition of irony? or of chutzpah?
Who could have seen that coming.
Is there anyone McCain’s staff *didn’t* lobby for?
bom dia pups
Love the title of your post Eli
I just heard Rosa Brooks of the LA Times say that the McCain camp is “lying like crazy.” Wow, the L word finally.
And not doing any work.
Here’s that NYT Story about Rick Davis receiving lobbying money from Fannie Mae right up until last month! Another McCain campaign lie caught out!
D’ya think that when the Times reported on Sunday that McCain campaign head Davis was a lobbyist for Fannie Mae that they knew that the real sh*t would be exposed. So all that screeching about “Media bias” was a pre-emptive shot to make this story disappear. And they said that Davis hadn’t worked for FM for several years!
Now the boom has fallen!
Imagine…Rick Davis was not only on the Fannie Mae teat for years, but receiving $15000/month right up until the Fannie was given a $200 million Baby Wipe by Bernanke and Paulson. And I found it most interesting that Davis did not overt lobbying for Fannie Mae while on their payroll. The only Senator that he constantly had the ear of was John McCain…the man who would be President!
$15,000 a month and worse they report no work was actually being done.
Thanks! I mainly wrote the post just so I could use that title.
This probably happens more than it should…
Yeah, that is the part I’ve been sitting here scratching my head about. Why would they be giving mister davis money for NO work? Hummm……..
hmmmm so $15,000 a month because he has the ear of McCain. What’s the word I’m looking for????
That is the whole Rovian tactic…McCain is McLobby mouthpiece and Bushco mouthpiece..so..attack Obama and claim that he is the lobby lover…
Rove attacks the opponents strengths and offsets the Rove-supported candidate by claiming that the opponent is the one doing it, when it is the Rovian candidate that “is” doing it.
Well, that works because we only read the titles.
What cinnamonape said. $15k a month for the ear of a senator and possible president seems like a worthwhile investment.
And the payments only stopped because Freddie was nationalized.
sure !
The Childrens Defense Fund
OXFAM
Doctors Without Borders
American Friends Service Committee
ACLU
Habitat For Humanity
silly Ely, the list is endless *g*
So they get $15,000 pay for no work. I am also qualified for that.
Obviously I was not specific enough. Yeah, anyone corporate or evil.
Er, a Tinkerbell?
I would take that job for half the cost!
I don’t know how McNutjob carries around all that brass.
I would be willing to moonlight for a third of it.
I am SHOCKED! Shocked I tell you!
dirtbag, scumsucker, asshat, etc.
Oh, I can’t wait until these men have their asses handed to them
corrupt?
overpaid…underworked…a kept man..no wait that’s McCain.
I think this illustrates what the day after a McCain/Palin victory would look like.
There we have the reason for the rush to write a bill…I’m sure with immunity in there somewhere…
Palin kissed Henry Kissinger today…I think he was quite “thrilled”…
Why?
Why would Henry Kissinger endorse Palin (other than being a Repub)? He certainly wasn’t hot on Kissinger, when he approved him to be president for us.
Edit: He certainly wasn’t hot on Nixon, when he approved him…see Nixon tapes at Nixon library…
ding ding ding
What’s the word I’m looking for????
whoore.
I imagine it chafed less than the Nixon’s perpetual five-o’clock stubble.
Nice Job, Eli!
They are going to all come back as shit in their next life
Okay, I’m convinced. *g*
that works as well
that was mr cbl’s first thought when he saw the “no judicial review” passage
Thanks & aloha, CTut!
Why wait?
Paulson: we care about the tax payer
(paying off our bad shit so I can buy that 6th mansion)
Ding.
LEAVE MEGHAN ALONE!!!
They are going to all come back as shit in their next life
worm shit seems appropriate…
tiny, insignificant, and smells like, well, shit.
The funny thing is, I doubt if Palin OR Kissinger could understand a single word the other said.
My shitwand is on the fritz otherwise the WH would have looked like a port-a-potty
one of our front pagers inspired my wish that they come back as flies forced to crawl all over and eat shit
Did the pukefaces from Politico ever bring Michelle Obama flowers?
Only the very best kind of lobbying from David Manafort: no work product.
Just access.
It was pretty funny..I was trying to read their lips…so nice to meet you…so nice to meet you too…no really, it was so nice to meet you…and you too…and then Palin lurched forward and kissed him!! And, he got all whimpy and all…
“Power is an aphrodisiac”…Oh yeah, he was the one who said that…my how the tables are turning…
meow!
Perhaps this is why there’s such a big rush?
“Ahma hawky mawm!”
“Vee hoff no vay ov understanning…”
“Power is an aphrodisiac”…Oh yeah, he was the one who said that…my how the tables are turning…
Herr Kissinger is how old now?
He’d need to be made Absolute Ruler of The Universe in order have enough “power” to get his aphrodisiac-target up.
Poor little Mooselini is cheated out of justice…
He’s learning that aphrodisiac is power…and viagra I’m sure…
She couldn’t understand his accent and he can’t hear sounds that high.
Heh.
Yeah, “Typically nasty weather”…”Tickle your a** with a feather”…
Something like that…*g*
I seem to recall a firedog urging folks to visit their library or borrow from a friend in the Woodward thread today
Loved it !
Listening to Palin speak is annoying, Kissinger is damn near unintelligible. You practically need a seismologist to interpret the sub-sonics.
Question everyone? I just watched the Rachael Maddow show where she just reported that a recent government open source translation of a press conference by Prime Minister Maliki states that the PM stated that in the negotiations with the Bush Administration they had agreed that the end of 2010 was when troops should be out of Iraq but the Bush Administration requested that the troops stay until the end of 2011 because “it would be good for domestic politics.” I still can’t believe what I just heard reported. If this is so it should be all over the news like NOW. Maddow also reported that the White House had been contacted for comment and they issued but did not deny the translation. This might just be the final straw that makes the election a blowout for Obama. Is your hair on fire yet?
and viagra I’m sure…
even ‘miracle drugs’ have their limitations.
maybe a combination of viagra and a string tied to a balloon filled with helium….
Romance must be in the air. This is from Woodward’s The War Within.
Truly. Keep troops in harm’s way and lose more lives as long as possible for Republican politics…
Scum of the earth.
Wait, Woodward called him Kommander Guy?
Anybody seen this…?
Darth must be losing his touch…
Only after the guest had left, though. *g*
Usually I urge people to buy the books we feature on Book Salon — I mean, that’s why authors take time to come and chat, right? But there’s no reason to add to the Woodward coffers for this one.
And now that he’s gone and the Book Salon is over, expect some analysis of the book, from me & Marcy & likely others as well. There are some really odd holes in it, some discussed this afternoon, some not.
At least he didn’t go screaming from the room like Mark Penn!
ratfood,
as he ages, his vocal cords shrink and he’s a tiny bit easier to listen to. Still really hard on the ears but slightly better.
I wonder if that maded Jeff Gannon jealous?
Hahahaha
Ummm…I had to read that 3 times.
OMG.
Woodward!!!
Great video. If you want everyone to hate John McCain! Can someone tell this entitled little girl that the rest of the world does not live like her mommy and daddy do? And no, the money shots of bud beer bottles sitting on the picknic tables do not help. Neither do we the public give a rat’s back side about what a great time the McCains had in one of their thirteen houses! Ship it, this game is done.
http://twocanpete.blogspot.com/
Their Three Stooges Impersonations usually are well received.
Should I regret being late to this thread?
(Happy to see T-Rex back in action!)
Enough mit der Wienerschnitzel, nein, nein!
OMG! TRex treats! Back to read.
Think Progress was all over it…! ;-)
of course after the guests left. just loved your light touch
it’s never too late to snark along with Eli….
Financial companies under investigation for fraud by FBI:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…..estigation
lots of the usual suspects…
Enough mit
derdem Wienerschnitzel, nein, nein!There fixed it for you
Wangdangdingdong..Hiya!
Hey lady, go read #107 about 5 times….
Holy shizzola…Woodward nailed Bush!!
I always thought he sounded as if he needed to cough.
Maybe he should hook up with Rita Cosby…
Unfortunately, as I age, my hearing shrinks. An audiologist once asked me if I worked around loud machinery and I joked about the Hendrix factor (fell pretty flat, like now, probably). Anyway, I’m kinder to my ears these days. Want to try to preserve what I’ve got.
Enough mit der Wienerschnitzel, nein, nein!
der little
Nazisoldier von’t zalute!So very true! But closing in on my bewitching hour…
Niters, good doggies.
5… 4… 3… 2… 1…
Zappa has damaged my hearing.
good grief – that would shake the house off the foundation.
Great News! The Democrats are moving to the Center, scrapping for votes from the folks whose mantra is “drill, drill, drill!” as they chanted at the RNC.
yep, thats how you peel off a few McCranky supporters and get their votes for Barack Obama, drill drill drill!
brain bleach please
No, I had to punchup his boring sentence: “I later read Hadley’s statement to the Prezident during an interview in the oval office.”
That Bob Woodward…he’s a sneaky little forker isn’t he…Bwahahaha
boa noite wangdangdoodle
nite, wdd.
Live Nude Drunk-blogging Saturday night?
Oh well, that’s what I was afraid of. I would respect him a lot more if that was the actual quote…
Just a big ol’ lovable bucket o’ phlegm, It’s easy to imagine how Sarah could have been smitten. Better look out, Todd…
Nothing quite like hooking up with an old phlegm…
Yeah, me too. Saw him on a half dozen occasions, wish it had been more. Also wish he was still around offering caustic political commentary.
that’s just nasty
Reminds me of the Rodney Dangerfield line about being so poor as a kid they couldn’t afford tinsel for the Christmas tree, they just waited for Grandpa to sneeze.
I freaking love this photo
can’t find a Yoo-Tube, but didn’t Zappa once counter some gooper who asked whether Frank shouldn’t be called a “girl” because of his long hair with “yeah, and you’ve got a wooden leg. Should I call you ‘table’?”
where’d ya find it? can i borrow it?
As I am looking at this Woodward book, it has lots of stuff and lots of Hadley. For instance randomly choosing pg. 160,
Hadley: “We’re going to have to do this by the drink. We’re going to have to buy American support for continuing the war by the drink…We’re going to have to do this on the installment plan”
This is lot of work for some blogger to go through this, 437 pages not counting notes.
Yeah, the Bush years in a nutshell.
Made of Fail.
Cool. And then they went out and 84 Republicans voted with the Democrats in the House to pass the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2008.
Heh, the new wallpaper design at the Beach House…? ;-)
Frank Zappa on Crossfire in 1986
I think this is the link
Um, like I just love, um, like, um, dontcha know, like, um. I jus luv my dad’s BBQ.
It’s been up on many sites today.
Sounds familiar. I’ll check wikiquotes.
You think the Repugs are seeing the handwriting on the wall?
nah, seems perfectly suited for mock,paper,scissors though
Yeah, but it’s tough. The Rethug in my district suddenly sees the light. So now the challenger is reduced to asking what took him so long. It was much easier when the guy was just wrong.
“The media are not a filter, they’re an amp…”
Well, really they’re both. We know they’re a filter because they fall silent on topics that should excite them. Like the financial watchdogs have been writing about the worry signs in the financial services sector for at least a year. And who is writing about the maltreatment of our valiant members of the armed forces, both in and out of service? The MSM blurted out some things in connection with the Walter Reed fiasco, but then has gone back to sleep.
I’m really happy that they’re waking up to McCain however. Just in time, too.
Bob in HI
Here’s a good FZ quote I just stumbled across.
CTuttle, honey, that encounter was planned by very expensive people.
Look forward to it.
Frank Zappa on Crossfire in 1986
I think this is the link
thanks – I saw that too. trying to wade thru the 21 minutes…. *g*
True; they’re usually like a megaphone pointing left. Everything from the right gets amplified, everything from the left gets dampened.
Also, pretend that megaphones work like binoculars…
believe that was Paul Krassner, founder of The Realist pushing back on reactionary cartoonist Al Capp
lol.
OKK and Lahoma. Are you with us?
I was wrong, it was on the Joe Pine Show
see my 169
Woops. Not to LS.
In the 1960’s. No youtube for it (yet)
that makes some sense…
thanks again.
I think this one might describe the Bush/Palin weltanschauung.
Nice post Eli. And thx for the Trex link, he is on his game!
“It’s all they know and it’s all they’ve got.”
Bang!
(((((Eli))))) ((((((Trex)))))
Faux news was saying the election might be a tie and then the House would vote on the Prez and Obama would win and the Senate would have to vote on the VP & because of 2 Independants that it would be a tie and Cheney would break the tie and Palin would be VP. Is this how a tie works? Waht a horrible thought. I want to say I think Obama will win by a large margin and the press is all wrong abt the polls.