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The disintegration of the current Republican presidential campaign into personal innuendo and the stoking of partisan fury (call it the Hate Talk Express*) has provoked a great deal of serious, valuable commentary — see, for instance, Greg Sargent at TPM, Devilstower at dKos, Sen. John Kerry, and Emptywheel.
But it’s also provided an opportunity to witness some hilarious tone-deafness from the McCain camp. Responding to Barack Obama’s remarks today ("The American people aren’t looking for someone who can divide this country — they’re looking for someone who will lead it. We’re in a serious crisis — now, more than ever, it is time to put country ahead of politics."), McCain spokesliar Tucker Bounds said:
Instead of acknowledging the real differences that exist in this election, Barack Obama is using America’s economic crisis to deflect legitimate criticisms of himself and his record.
Is that brilliant, or what? To help you appreciate the audacity of Bounds’ accusation, consider this tidbit from Frank Newport at Gallup Daily about their recent polling:
About half of Americans indicate in Gallup’s economic tracking measures that they personally had worried about money the day before they were interviewed.
Roughly fifty percent of the country is concerned about their financial security… and Team McCain’s attitude is, dammit, people, you’re letting this distract you from what really matters! Like who Barack Obama sat with during lunch at the school cafeteria when he was a teenager, and so on.
Fortunately for them, I have a solution. Since McCain needs to communicate to the American public how much more important Obama’s personal history is than this silly economic meltdown — and since the financial crisis itself was considered sufficient cause for McCain to "suspend" his campaign briefly a few weeks ago — he obviously needs to suspend his campaign again to personally lead an investigation into Obama’s life and acquaintances.
That would certainly get people’s attention, wouldn’t it? And canceling all those hostility-fueled rallies and insinuation-filled ads would have its own benefits for the rest of us. So it seems like a win-win all around.
(* — h/t Balrog in comments)
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That pretty much sums up McCain’s latest campaign ’strategy.’
Swine investigator.
Will John McCain Suspend His Campaign to Investigate Barack Obama’s Past?
Coulda sworn he’s already done that.
Ahhh, what a Maverick…
John, does your dog bite? Do you have a proper lisaunce for that menkee?
The bipartisan Legislative Council went into executive session to discuss the report from former Anchorage prosecutor Stephen Branchflower before its scheduled release. But state Senate President Lyda Green told reporters outside the meeting room, “It’s going to be hours.”
”Barack Obama’s attacks on Americans who support John McCain reveal far more about him than they do about John McCain. It is clear that Barack Obama just doesn’t understand regular people and the issues they care about. He dismisses hardworking middle class Americans as clinging to guns and religion, while at the same time attacking average Americans at McCain rallies who are angry at Washington, Wall Street and the status quo,” reads a statement from spokesman Brian Rogers.
No but he might suspend his champagne…
h/t satirical political.
I’m having trouble deciding if the McCain campaign is shameful or shameless. It would seem, semantically at least, that one couldn’t be both – and yet the evidence is before us.
Just one more example of Mccain being out of touch.
In poll after poll ,voters stated, that they want to hear what the candidates are going to do to help them.
This kind of campaigning turns people off, and can only hurt McNasty and Co. in the long run.
Rick Davis had a bizarro statement on McShame’s perceptions
http://wonkette.com/403439/ric…..g-take-894
I swear the spokespeople are reading articles with their search and replace function. Search for McCain’s name, replace with Obama. That’s how those quotes read to me.
shamelessly shameful
you mean it’s bullshit?
Will any sane person (Republican) claim in public they will vote for McLiar? The ’straight moran express’ is running on an invisible track stretched between two invisible mountains. All the Republicans have left for support are cheerleading fascists yelling K I L L H I M kill him! Is McShame insane or is McShame the ligit leader of the new Neo-fascist Party of Amerika?
Easy solution. We pitch in and buy McCain a “go back machine”. McCain, Sherman and Mr. Peabody can go back in time to the democratic primary and re-live the Ayers saga. Problem solved.
No…I think it’s true…of McCain.
I think he is just appealling to the hate wing of the rethug party
This kind of campaigning turns people off, and can only hurt McNasty and Co. in the long run.
It’s Bush’s fault. Since that p***y won’t start another war, Gramps is looking to start another civil war.
“And my friends, I *know* how to win a civil war.”
Does your bite? Every Xmas for years, my 6 siblings and I would go see the newest Pink Panther movie. hehehehe
Oh, and fuck Cindy McPharmaceuticals.
Anyone heard anything definite as to whether Alaska is going to release the TROOPERGATE report this afternoon?
Does your *dog* bite?
I swear, some days…
Mr Peabody and Sherman travelled in a” Way Back Machine”
Palin’s base, the evangelicals, are driven by hate. A bit more hate is throwing red meat at the crowd.
If this clown has all the answers ,why hasn’t he been doing it all along!
Or is he gonna solve the problems only if he’s elected?
McCain’s solution is that carefully selected people will be probably be awarded the duty to wear yellow stars.
Or catch bullets in their teeth.
In the absolute simplest terms.
Sarah Palin is an ASSHOLE!!!!!!
he’d like a room to get that pet monkey off his back.
I wish someone would do a story on McShames past associations with convicted felons starting with jim Hensley.
McScum comes out with a really disgusting ad, Josh has it.
Are they creating the perfect environment whereby martial law can be declared?
Just ran “Tucker Bounds” through an anagram generator, and voila!
Crudest Bunko
Funny. I’ve been calling it the Hate-Talk Express.
I am curious how history will judge John McCain.
I have to go along with the reader Josh quotes:
Hence my reference to him as McScum.
LOL I like it!
Has anyone else here received the e-mail about Sean Hannity to be on Fox News Sunday night, 9:00 (Central Time)? Hannity is “going to air a very important documentary about Barack Obama.
I’d rather not publish the disgusting contents of the e-mail, but will do so here if anyone requests that I do so. The Obama Campaign needs to be alerted to this. Does anyone here have their ear?
You mean AFTER it assesses George W. Bu$h?
It might take awhile …
Also depends (hah!) on whether Mc$ame/Palinator ‘wins’.
Hey! Billy!
That’s much better. I’ll have to edit the post.
That’s really accurate.
Excellent!
Bet that makes the ‘big time’, Balrog!
I was just thinking…. What if we all got together and started calling McCain’s campaign office or even his senate offices and asked “Does Senator McCain condone the remarks of people attending his campaign rallies when they yell out that Senator Obama is a terrorist or that he should be killed?”
I’m assuming the person on the other end of the phone would say “Of course not!”
And then we could say, “Well he must condone that type of behavior because neither he nor Gov. Palin renounce such remarks/behavior so they must condone it.”
I wonder if we all started calling, how quickly (hopefully) the two of them would change their tune? I mean, there’s a lot of us out there that are appalled at this and actually a little scared, and since the media won’t ask those question, maybe we should. Especially since the real radicals are starting to make posts on craiglist.org.
Check out this link from AmericaBlog – Link
“Also depends (hah!) on whether Mc$ame/Palinator ‘wins’.”
Don’t even want to think of that possibility !!
PS – if you’re so inclined to call – here are the phone numbers
Campaign – (703) 418-2008
Senate office in DC -
Phone: (202) 224-2235
Fax: (202) 228-2862
Senate office in AZ -
Phone: (602) 952-2410
Fax: (602) 952-8702
Apparently Hannnity is doing an hour long extravaganza on Obama’s background. Sunday I think. I got it in an email to a friend who I promptly told to take me off his list & I deleted it, but it is still in my recently deleted file, so here it is (sorry for all caps; it’s the way I got it):
Sarah McPalin now starring as Auntie Maim.
Is there an organization we can donate to, like Planned Parenthood in Sarah’s name, that we can donate in McCain’s name, that will call him every time they get a donation?
Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency
eCAHNomics – I honestly have no idea but I wish there was such a thing.
I think it’s time for Media Matters to get on this.
Something has to be done. I’m genuinely afraid and there will be blood on the hands of McCain and Palin should this really go too far.
This is all just really appalling.
Someone really needs to pinhole Lieberman on this crap.
“Senator Lieberman, you were Obama’s mentor for the first year in the Senate…did you ever hear him talking about terrorism? Do YOU think that Senator Obama is a terrorist? Do you think that there is some question about that?”
Q2: If he says “Yes”. Then Senator, why didn’t you raise this issue while you were in the Senate? Do you have any documentation about this concern? Why were you friendly and amiable with Senator Obama? Are you typically friendly with persons you consider terrorists?”
“Senator, why don’t you condemn Sen. McCain’s encouragement of the behaviors of his crowds…and why don’t you advise him that, as other Republicans have done, that his actions and statements – and those of Sarah Palin- actually are fanning such hatred?”
Sarah must have misheard the nickname “Caribou Barbie”…
…she thought it was “Klaus Barbie”.
ouch.
God Bless!
you betcha!
***
anyone else super freaked out right about now, because I know I am. :[
This culture of hate is certainly not isolated to just the McCain campaign. Todd Gallinger, an anglo american muslim convert, is running for a city council seat in Irvine (Orange County, CA). He has recieved a death threat from a caller who threatened to “cut of his head like all Muslims deserve” after his opponent, Steven Choi warned voters at a forum that the Council On American-Islamic Relations was a “dangerous and islamic organization.” Gallinger has represented CAIR in some civil rights suits in the past, but is not employed or a regular member of the organization.. This guilty by association thing is growing more and more dangerous by the day. These “frustrated and angry” voters everyone keeps talking about are the same folks that have garages full of guns at home.
My kids went to school in Oregon and now in CA.
In the Oregon public schools they have a program called Peace Builders and even a song that goes with it to teach kids tolerance of others, etc.
In the CA schools they have assemblies to teach kids to tolerate other’s differences and to avoid putdowns, etc.
Even in the corporate world there are the many diversity initiatives given the current population make-up.
Some now what do I tell my kids if they heard McSame shoveling this crap?
I called McCain’s office in Arizona and spoke to one of his staffers and asked if McCain condones the hate speech yelled out at his campaign rallies. His staffer said what I expected, which was, “Of course he doesn’t condone it” so I asked for him to give me a specific example of where and when McCain said he’s against it. He couldn’t and wouldn’t and I pressed him, saying that McCain then MUST condone the hate speech because I have yet to hear him say one thing to the media or stop in the middle of one of his campaign speeches to renounce the horrible things yelled out from the crowd. So the staffer then said – “Well, it’s common sense.” So I said it’s not just common sense and that I’d really like for him to cite one single instance, direct me to one specific place where I can read McCain’s quote against the hate speech. The staffer said, “I’ll be sure to pass your message on to the Senator.” and I said, “Yes, I’m sure you will”
I also called Harry Reid’s office asking his staffer to please have Senator Reid come out against the fear-mongering and hate-speech and she politely said she didn’t know at this time if Sen. Reid had anything prepared but she would gladly pass on the message and the concern.
Please everyone, please make these calls – I am sincerely fearful of the worst and would hate to have it happen and done not even the smallest thing I could to stop it.
Again, here are the numbers to phone:
Senator McCain
Campaign – (703) 418-2008
Senate office in DC -
Phone: (202) 224-2235
Fax: (202) 228-2862
Senate office in AZ -
Phone: (602) 952-2410
Fax: (602) 952-8702
Also – it’s not a bad idea to phone Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and ask them to come out against such abhorrent behavior.
You can contact them here:
Nancy Pelosi -
Washington, D.C. Office:
Phone: (202) 225-4965
Fax: (202) 225-8259
San Francisco Office:
Phone: (415) 556-4862
Fax: (415) 861-1670
Harry Reid:
Washington, D.C. Office:
Phone: (202) 224-3542
Fax: (202) 224-7327
Las Vegas Office:
Phone: (702) 388-5020
Fax: (702) 388-5030
You tell them that a cornered dog bites.
thank you j.cro.
Just for the staffer’s education, here’s a lookup
So you are correct that John McCain IS condoning this awful behavior. The only time McCain has admonished someone is when they ask him if he really did call his wife the c word, which he didn’t deny but pointed out that some folks might be offended by the use of that word.
For eCahn:
Possible charities:
Tolerance.org
Gambler’s Anonymous
ACLU
One can go to http://www.justgive.org and donate online and drop in his name and email address…
It makes me sick to my stomach
If you knew someone was out willfully spreading drug-resistant TB, you’d keep your kids away, and teach them to leave when the person came near.
I think the same applies to hate-mongers like McCain.
Gamblers anon sounds good. But it should be one that calls or sends a note to the person in whose name he donation is being made. Otherwise, McCain won’t be aware of it.
I vote for the Tolerance one because a. it’s online, b. the justgive site will send a note. and c. it’s the least snarky and most positive message we can send right now. I thought of the Peace Corps but that was a little too broadreaching. Tolerance is really the right note. I also thought of the ACLU and NAACP but thought that could go sideways as well.
Justgive has other ideas.
PS I don’t think GA was on the just give site….but that was my first thought. :}
Me too. Horrible. We know what can happen. I pray it doesn’t.
Did you check out the graphics on their front page? Teaching Tolerance with all 4 candidates on a Mt Rushmore type setting? Seems like they have no command of the obvious.
Besides, it won’t do any good if just a couple of us do it. It must go viral. For that to happen it must be a clever pick. That’s why the PP thing worked so well with Palin.
Sorry to be just critiquing instead of also adding my own ideas, but I’m not good at this kind of thing, so don’t have any ideas of my own.
Such a good analogy: Ingraham and Hannity cannot shut up about Ayres…calling Obama unamerican. I cannot recall such dangerously tacky stuff. Maybe there will be a hugh backlash to such insults against a US Senator.
And he apparently has been happy to condone Cindy’s remarks about Obama carrying on the dirtiest campaign ever, I think she said. Guess she is not noticing her Liar-Palin team. She must know his style fairly well, however.
It truly amazes me how foul the comments on here are. The very things you accuse republicans of doing you all do and worse. You are all cowards to find out about Obama and who he is. Obviously Obama condones the actions of Ayers, J. Wright, ACORN, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Rezko the list goes on and on and you blindly follow Obama who is going to cause more financial trouble if he is elected. The hatred that is spewed forth on this site, not to mention juvenile behavior at best, would disgust any normal person, republican or democrat. I’m sure most of you will have many stupid comments in return to this but I won’t care. Left wing ultra liberals cackling like those hens on the view. Hope I don’t have to pay for all those social programs you all are going to depend on to support you. Gotta go get back to work you know earn a living to pay my own bills.
Thank you for your thoughtful comment. Surely it will help some of those crazy Obamatrons to see the errors in their ways, as it did for me. Please share some alternative news sources where I can find some more of that common sense, that is if you can find time on a lunch break, or when going from one job to the next. I, for one, would truly appreciate it.