Blogging on Meds

Where were you when Barack Obama was elected president?

On a day called historic by all and which inspired spontaneous joy across the country and world, I spent Election day and night with the Obama group in my hometown San Diego, first at their headquarters in a closed business on Euclid Ave. then downtown in the San Diego Concourse Center’s Golden Hall. People have gathered there every year since I was a kid to watch local results come in.

I was interviewing an Obama volunteer a few seconds before it was announced. After the room of volunteers and their families exchanged hugs and shows of jubilation, they grabbed a banner and hit the Golden Hall floor with TV news crews and thousands of people.

As soon as they reached the floor, the group of about 30 people’s chants of “O-ba-ma!” was mum over the crowd’s murmur. But almost immediately the crowd would echo them then ratchet up the whistles and clapping.

Here also are interviews with Idris “Chad” Hameed, Abdirahim Abdirahman and Levi Thomas, three black men I asked about their involvement in the Barack Obama campaign.

Levi Thomas is a truck driver and church deacon who spent his Nov. 4 morning making phone calls to prospective voters and encourage them to vote.

“How am I going to stay involved? By becoming a better citizen. By becoming a better steward of what God has left us with.”

Idris goes as Chad and is 14-years-old. His parents run the San Diego regional field office. He wants to be a journalist covering war and international conflict.

“We came from shackles and all that stuff to running for the president and everything.”

Abdirahim grew up in San Diego’s Lincoln Park neighborhood and is a 20-year-old student at City College of San Diego. He was born in Somalia and came here when he was five. He is very proud of Obama’s accomplishment especially but not only because they are from the same part of east Africa. Both Chad and Abdirahim made trips to knock on doors in Las Vegas last month.

“It means a dream come true making it happen, making the dream of Martin Luther King happen.”

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Oh, John McCain…it’s a sad day when your campaign’s entire playbook meets despicably-low expectations by being reduced to a few half-jokey comments made by your opponent two months ago.

Sigh.

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The McCain campaign has decided to go all out with a negative campaign down the home stretch. Palin was quoted as saying that Obama was “palling around with terrorists.” Cindy McCain wrongly accused Obama of cutting off funding for the troops. A GOP leader, William Platt, twice referred to Obama as “Barrack Hussein Obama,” an obvious attempt to paint Obama as a Muslim terrorist, while introducing McCain and Palin at a rally. That’s something that McCain himself has condemned in the past. Other McCain surrogates have also leveled disgusting attacks at Obama, and it’s clearly the campaign’s strategy at this point.

Not surprisingly, these wrongful and vile accusations have riled up McCain’s crowds, with some in the audience yelling things like “traitor,” and “kill him!” Others have turned on the press, thanks to Palin constantly putting down the “mainstream media” (I guess she wasn’t too happy with her performance on Gibson’s or Couric’s show), and one guy yelled “Sit down, boy!” at a black sound man working for a network. Lovely.

Obviously, McCain’s camp will say that they don’t condone these sorts of things, but they’re the ones inciting these people. They’re giving them the cover they need to yell these things out at their rallies, and they certainly aren’t doing anything to stop them. Why didn’t Palin or McCain pause and point out that the sort of comments these people made were unacceptable? Because they’re thriving in this kind of environment, and they see it as a way to stoke up their base.

Unfortunately, the way that McCain is running his campaign now reminds me of the horrible murders in July,  when Jim Adkisson killed two people and wounded six others in a Tennessee church. He said he targeted the church

because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country’s hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of media outlets. Inside the house, officers found “Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder” by radio talk show host Michael Savage, “Let Freedom Ring” by talk show host Sean Hannity, and “The O’Reilly Factor,” by television talk show host Bill O’Reilly.

As I said back in July, Hannity, O’Reilly, and Savage did not kill those people. Adkisson was responsible for killing those people. But, at what point does their hatred for liberals, comparing them to terrorists and nazis who are destroying America, and their ability to espouse those views on air go from free speech to hate speech? While Hannity and Co. weren’t directly responsible, their extreme views incited even more hatred in a man who was willing to kill for those views. McCain and Palin are inciting their crowds now, and what we’re seeing in terms of the reactions of some in the crowd are directly related to the hate they’re preaching.

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So, most pundits think that Obama beat McCain in last night’s debate. That clearly didn’t sit well with the McCain campaign, so they unleashed Cindy McCain, who could be the future First Lady. Here’s a gem from her speech today:

I’m proud of my sons, but let me tell you, the day that Senator Obama decided to cast a vote to not fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body.

I’m curious to know if Cindy felt that same chill when her husband also voted not to fund the troops. From CNN:

The vote Mrs. McCain is referencing came in May of 2007, when Obama was one of 14 senators who voted against a war-spending plan that would have provided emergency funds for American troops overseas. He, like many Democrats, was pushing for an end to the war in Iraq, and the legislation included no provisions for that. Before that vote, Obama did support and vote for a funding proposal that included a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq — a troop funding bill McCain opposed.

This line of attack from the McCain campaign is getting ridiculous, mostly because they’ve been called out on it so many times. The point is a simple one: Obama voted against one funding bill that didn’t have a timeline, and McCain voted against one that had a timeline. Period. Neither guy opposes funding the troops. Their disagreement was over the timeline. Of course, with Obama surging in the polls, don’t expect to hear McCain ditch his dishonest statements on this topic.

McCain loves to talk about how he’s going to take care of veterans and he knows how to do that because of his service. Well, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America released a report yesterday grading members of Congress, including McCain and Obama, on how they voted on 22 key Veterans issues that the IAVA supported. McCain got a “D,” while Obama and Biden both got a “B.”

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The snap polls are out: The CNN poll has Obama winning 54%-30%, and the CBS poll gives it to Obama 40%-26%.

Overall, I think both McCain and Obama did fine, but I’d give it to Obama because McCain needed a convincing win after falling behind noticeably in the polls in recent weeks, including in many of the swing states. McCain’s campaign has turned decidedly negative, and it’ll stay that way for the next four weeks, as he tries to question Obama’s patriotism and character. I’m not sure McCain can go back to the well a second time on this stuff, and it makes him look even smaller when people are worried about the economy and their retirement savings. Tonight, though, McCain didn’t delve into character attacks, but he did have a weird moment when he referred to Obama as “that one.” Is that a continuation of the contempt he showed for Obama in the first debate?

McCain was clearly more comfortable on foreign policy than on the domestic issues, and he continued to lie about Obama’s tax and health care plans. McCain rambled and was all over the map on the domestic portion, and that’s not a good thing when most people rate the economy as their number one issue. McCain also needs to cut out the jokes. He’s just not funny, as evidenced by this exchange with Brokaw:

Brokaw asks who could be the next Hank Paulson. Who would the candidates choose as Treasury Secretary? McCain takes a weird swipe: “Not you, Tom.” Awkward, uncomprehending laughter.

Obama had one big gaffe tonight, and that was when he talked about health care. He was explaining how McCain’s plan of letting people cross state lines to get the cheapest plan wasn’t a solution, because insurance companies would just move to the state that had the fewest regulations and consumer protections. Then, he said this:

That’s how in banking it works. Everybody goes to Delaware, because they’ve got very — pretty loose laws when it comes to things like credit cards. And in that situation, what happens is, is that the protections you have, the consumer protections that you need, you’re not going to have available to you.

Whoops. Did he forget that Biden’s his running mate?

Other than that, I thought Obama was calm, cool, and collected, similar to the first debate. McCain was better than in the first debate, but he needed a win to turn the tide of opinion, and he wasn’t able to do that tonight.

There’s still plenty of time left, of course, so expect McCain to ratchet up the negative attacks. Oh, and McCain’s plan to buy up mortgages? Well, the FHA has a $300 billion program to refinance troubled mortgages, although it’s an option for the lender and not the borrower, and something very similar is in the TARP legislation that just passed Congress, so this isn’t really anything new…unless McCain is saying that he’d order the Treasury Secretary to buy up bad mortgages, in which case I can’t imagine his base will like it.

Mark Humphrey/AP

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John McCain’s brother, Joe McCain, made some news during an event in Virginia today, where he said this:

I’ve lived here for at least 10 years and before that about every third duty I was in either Arlington or Alexandria, up in communist country.

The McCain campaign said that he just made a bad joke, and Joe McCain later apologized. Campaign staffers and surrogates will sometimes make off the cuff remarks that aren’t exactly helpful (see Holtz-Eakin, Douglas), but this one was especially stupid. McCain needs Virginia, and the last thing his campaign wants to do is alienate his supporters or get Obama’s supporters in the state fired up. Tim Craig pointed out the funniest thing about Joe McCain’s comment:

John McCain owns a condominium in Arlington County. The McCain campaign’s national and Virginia headquarters are also located in Arlington County.

Oops.

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I guess John McCain’s contempt for Barack Obama during the first Presidential debate is carrying over to the media. In an interview session with the Des Moines Register’s editorial board, McCain was often testy and sarcastic, i.e. not very Presidential, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed. It brings the issue of his famous temperament back into play, although I doubt that the Obama camp will start running ads about it. The damage has been done given the amount of press McCain’s interview has gotten, so my guess is that they’ll laugh to themselves and move on.

Meanwhile, the Register’s board thought that McCain was “deliberate and crisp.” Weird, but I guess they must be in the tank for McCain (that was a joke).

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Conservative bloggers are up in arms about the fact that Gwen Ifill, who will be moderating tomorrow night’s VP debate, has a book coming out on January 20th, 2009 called The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.

Considering that the book was mentioned in an article on July 23, 2008 in the conservative Washington Times (the article dealt with Tavis Smiley, the PBS host), and that McCain’s campaign agreed to having Ifill as the moderator a couple of weeks after that Washington Times article, conservatives’ uproar seems misplaced. According to the Washington Times:

However, the book’s release was publicized in a Washington Post profile of Miss Ifill, along with an Associated Press article published in hundreds of newspapers nationwide, including The Washington Times and Mr. McCain’s hometown paper in Arizona. The AP article came out long before the debate negotiations were finalized and moderators approved.

Moreover, Ifill says that she hasn’t even written the chapter on Obama yet, and the book is described this way by the publisher:

Doubleday says that Ifill “surveys the American political landscape, shedding new light on the impact of Barack Obama’s stunning presidential campaign and introducing the emerging young African American politicians forging a bold new path to political power.” [...]

Ifill said Obama’s story, which she has yet to write, is only a small part of the book, which discusses how politics in the black community have changed since the civil rights era. Among those subjects is Colin Powell, secretary of state in the Bush administration.

So, what did the McCain camp have to say:

The McCain campaign found out about Ifill’s book in the last day or so, a spokesman said.

I guess it’s better to basically say that your research team is absolutely shit than to admit that Ifill has a long track record as an impartial journalist, with no evidence that she’ll treat Palin unfairly. You could argue that conservatives are coming up for a defense for Palin, in case she flops tomorrow night (personally, I think she’ll be fine). Meanwhile, McCain had this to say:

“I think that Gwen Ifill is a professional, and I think she will do a totally objective job because she is a highly-respected professional,” McCain said. “Does this help that if she has written a book that’s favorable to Sen. Obama?” McCain asked. “Probably not.”

Needless to say, the McCain campaign, with an assist from conservative bloggers, is trying to “work the ref.” Once again, the McCain campaign prefers a sideshow to discussing actual issues.

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By now, you’ve probably heard or read about Sarah Palin’s disastrous CBS interview, where she gave a rambling answer as to how Alaska’s being next to Russia gives her foreign policy experience. Well, it turns out that there might be another gaffe on the way from that series of CBS interviews with Katie Couric:

Of concern to McCain’s campaign, however, is a remaining and still-undisclosed clip from Palin’s interview with Couric last week that has the political world buzzing.

The Palin aide, after first noting how “infuriating” it was for CBS to purportedly leak word about the gaffe, revealed that it came in response to a question about Supreme Court decisions.

After noting Roe vs. Wade, Palin was apparently unable to discuss any major court cases.

There was no verbal fumbling with this particular question as there was with some others, the aide said, but rather silence.

You’d expect Palin to know Roe vs. Wade given that she’s an ardent pro-lifer, but she can’t name another single Supreme Court case in recent memory? Does Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld ring a bell? No? Ok, that was two years ago. It was kind of important, but whatever. How about Boumediene vs. Bush, which was decided this year? Still nothing? Well, I figured that maybe she’d know about D.C. vs. Heller, since the Court held that the 2nd amendment protects an individual’s right to own a gun, and she’s a long-time member of the NRA. I guess not.

But hey, she knows about Roe vs. Wade, which means that she’s probably qualified to be on the Supreme Court.

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In a 228-205 vote, the House defeated Paulson’s bailout bill. Let’s be clear about why this bill failed: House Republicans, already facing difficult election prospects, decided that they couldn’t afford another noose around their necks in November. 140 Democrats voted to pass the bill, and 133 Republicans voted against it.

The House GOP held up the initial bill a few days ago because they wanted some sort of insurance program in the language, as well as greater oversight. Well, they negotiated with the Democrats and got the insurance language in the bill, but apparently that still wasn’t enough to sway them.

The Democrats delivered 60% of their caucus for the votes, while the House GOP managed a paltry 33%. And that’s why the bill was defeated, because of House Republicans. Their canard about how Pelosi’s “partisan” speech before the vote was the reason why more Republicans didn’t vote for the bill is a pathetic attempt to steer the blame. Are they really arguing that they were insulted by Pelosi’s speech and decided to put their pride above the needs of the country? That’s not “country first,” my friends. That’s “Republicans first.” It’s as simple as that.

Oh, and good work John McCain. I’m glad you “suspended” your campaign to head back to DC to bring the House GOP along. As McCain’s chief campaign strategist, Steve Schmidt, said on Meet The Press:

What Senator McCain was able to do was to help bring all of the
parties to the table, including the House Republicans, whose votes were
needed to pass this.

I think you spoke too soon, Steve. Your guy “phoned it in.”

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For my money, Obama narrowly won this debate, although McCain was a little sharper than I’d expected and certainly scored some points. McCain is the guy who’s had a brutal two weeks, and it only got worse after his stunt where he said he was “suspending” his campaign and suggested the debate should be postponed, and in the polls, and a draw doesn’t do him any good. It is especially damaging to McCain when you consider that the foreign policy largely took center stage last night, and this is an issue that goes to the heart of McCain’s campaign. He’s painted himself as the foreign policy expert and the experienced hand, and he had to clearly demonstrate that he was superior to Obama in this regard. He did no such thing. Obama went toe-to-toe with McCain on all the foreign policy questions, and he hammered McCain on Iraq very effectively. In my mind, McCain scored some points when he lambasted Obama for agreeing to sit down with the Iranian president, but overall, McCain couldn’t separate himself from Obama on the issues of Russia, Georgia, Afghanistan, or Pakistan. McCain’s fumbling of the Pakistani president’s name (he called him Qadari but it’s Zardari) maybe wasn’t the biggest deal, but he claimed that Musharraf took over in 1999 when Pakistan was a “failed state.” That’s simply false. I thought Obama did a great job explaining why the more important fight was in Afghanistan. Overall, Obama showed the voters who are uncomfortable with his grasp of foreign policy that he knows his stuff and would do what it took to protect America. McCain needed a clear win on his central issue of foreign policy, and he didn’t get it.

Obama let the economic debate center too much around earmarks and spending, but he still outclassed McCain on those topics. Most voters rate the economy as their number one issue, and I think Obama was clear about his tax cuts for the middle class and how he planned to make sure everyone had health care, and he slammed McCain for his tax cut plan for the wealthiest and for his giveaways to the oil companies. The economic portion was a clear win for Obama, in my opinion. Both candidates fumbled the ball a bit on the financial crisis, so that was a wash.

So, what did everyone else think? The snap polls of undecided voters following the debate gave Obama a clear win, but it’s usually best to let things settle for a few days and then look at the polls. A lot of people noticed McCain wouldn’t look Obama in the eye and was dismissive of him, and I don’t think that will sit well with people.

The next debate will be on domestic issues, and the final debate will be on the economy, so we’re now moving on to Obama’s turf, which is not good news for McCain.

Pool Photo By Chip Somodevilla

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So this is the caliber of discourse that we’ve come to expect from our Vice Presidential candidate, huh?  Yikes.

Watch that and tell me that you don’t experience all of the following:

a) Shock and awe that that woman might soon represent you to the world.

b) A curiosity as to when Couric hosted SNL, and how they made Fey look so convincing.

c) A strange new appreciation of George W’s eloquence.

But hey, hats off to McCain for managing to make her seem a viable candidate.  Of course, he’s had to shield her from the media almost entirely (3 interviews — if you include the new CBS interview — to Biden’s ~80 since being named VP candidate)…and they certainly fought hard and won to change the format of the VP debates so she can stick to the script.

But whatever, McCain’s been able to play the media effectively for years.  More recently, think back to how effortlessly he pandered and parlayed the impending disaster of Gustav into a non-photo op with George W at the opening of the Republican National Convention. Think I’m being too harsh?  Consider his relative non-response to the far more devastating Ike (sure, we got a couple press releases, but I didn’t see/hear of any preparation-assessment roadtrips before ol’ Ike came to Texas…).

Or how he half-succeeded this week in attempting to cancel the first presidential debate to “Put Country First” and fix the economy (nevermind that it wasn’t close to broken as far as McCain was concerned as recently as last week).

Oh, right — but he did it so he could rush back to help “break the deadlock” in Congress.  Except there wasn’t any deadlock…and no one asked for/wanted/needed his help.  I mean, what could they need from the guy who’s missed so many damn senate votes anyway?

Or wait…maybe he’s just not ready for the debate itself?

What’s important here is that McCain has taken a time out.  Kinda.  Sure, his surrogates are still out there bashing Obama (…time out?).  But this move attempts three things:

1) McCain “looks” like a leader.  Sort of.  Actually, as far as I’m concerned, he looks like a confused old man taking orders from his handlers.  But, hey, that’s just me.

2) McCain further shields Palin.  As David Letterman ranted about last night (brilliant video below), the campaign shouldn’t just stop…administrations can’t just call time out.  What should be happening here is that Palin should be out pounding the trail while McCain attends to business.  But nope — this distraction even lessens the amount of time they’ll have to keep her away from the press between now and the election.

3) McCain saves the “Foreign Policy” debate for later.  It’s clear at this point that McCain is perceived (however incorrectly) as the foreign policy guy, and Obama is the economy guy — at least according to the polls.  So, what’s bad for the foreign policy guy?  Having the foreign policy debate during an economic crisis so massive that no one cares about much else at the moment.  So, this move saves that point for later.

But, whatever — it’s all nonsense.  What Americans need right now are two things: the democratic process and leaders.

The debates are part of the democratic process.  That’s something we don’t suspend, and we don’t cancel.  Democracy first.  If not, what’s next?  Suspend the election?  Just push it back a bit?  Nope.  Remember when “not shopping” was “letting the terrorists win”…?  Right…so who wins if we “suspend our democratic process”…?

And leaders.  Not figureheads — leaders. We need people we can believe in and trust to go out and offset a national crisis like this.  Not with band aids or promises to be broken at a later date, but with real solutions that come from honest — even sometimes unattractive — answers.  That’s why Obama’s push to debate is not only the right move, it’s the patriotic one too.  In times of trouble, we need our government to stand before us and take the heat — to present solutions and to take action, but all within the context of openness and transparency.  Even if it means taking a couple hours away from the closed-door sessions.  Now more than ever, accountability matters — McCain wants none of it…and Obama, on the other hand, is ready to deliver.

Consider this: McCain’s attitude towards the debates is clear…he finds them superfluous.  He cast aside national discourse — the two candidates first chance to spar on the most important issues of our day — as though it were the finale of American Idol.  Fitting, given his American Idol running mate, but nonetheless insulting, and cynical.

In fact, McCain’s posturing proves him to be exactly what he so desperately tries to convince everyone he hasn’t become — a power-hungry figurehead who considers an active, participatory democracy just a cheap popularity contest.

That’s un-American, my friends.

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You can’t make this stuff up. McCain said today that he was suspending his campaign. He says he’s going to Washington to make sure that there’s a resolution on the Wall Street bailout bill. Nice of him to notice that hearings have been going on all week. I guess it wasn’t that important to go to those. Oh yeah, and he’ll still give a speech at Clinton’s Global Initiative meeting Thursday morning before he flies to DC. Priorities, naturally.

It’s laughable that McCain thinks he is so important that his appearance will suddenly lead to a resolution. All he’s going for is strategic timing, because he knows Congress is supposed to recess on Friday and needs to pass something at the latest by this weekend. He’s hoping he can take credit in case something passes, although no one knows how he will vote or what the bill will look like.

Anyway, since he’s trying to look like a leader who can work across party lines, he’s suspending his campaign, and he wants the first Presidential debate, which is this Friday, postponed if there’s no bailout deal by Friday.  Obama said “thanks but no thanks” to postponing the debate, and he said that he was still planning to debate on Friday, because it was more important than ever for the public to know what the next president’s plans are. The Presidential Debate Commission agrees with him.

Well, McCain decided to up the ante tonight. He suggested that if there’s no bailout deal, then he wouldn’t show on Friday, and he suggested that they move the first presidential debate to Oct. 2nd, which would mean that the VP debate on Oct. 2nd would be postponed. He doesn’t seem to have offered up an alternative date for the VP debate, but presumably, never would be good, since his camp clearly doesn’t want anyone to ask Palin any questions about anything.

So, not only does McCain not want to debate Obama on the ridiculous pretense that he is needed in Washington, where he hasn’t attended a single hearing this week on the financial crisis, but he doesn’t want Palin to debate Biden either. Unreal. I think McCain has officially jumped the shark now. McCain can manage to be in DC tomorrow and then in Mississippi on Friday night, unless he’s telling us he can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. Anyway, if McCain doesn’t show, then Obama can take the stage alone and do a town-hall style meeting, where the focus is on him, and who knows, maybe it’ll put Mississippi in play for him.

If McCain is willing to sit out a debate in order to look important, that’s his prerogative. It’s idiotic, but whatever. I’ve gotten used to the McCain campaign doing ridiculous stupid things at this point, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t show on Friday.

Oh yeah, McCain also canceled his appearance on Letterman tonight. Letterman was not too pleased.

In case you’re curious about the McCain camp’s talking points on this, they accidentally sent them to reporters (hat tip: Thinkprogress):

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So, John McCain has been running an ad suggesting that Barack Obama takes advice from Franklin Raines, the former CEO of Fannie Mae. McCain’s ad is basically trying to tie Obama to the financial crisis. Both Raines, who is not a part of Obama’s campaign, and Obama deny the charges. Well, looks like McCain should have been a little more careful before bringing up the issue of who has ties to the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who are at the center of the mortgage crisis and were recently taken over by the government.

The NYT reports that the lobbying firm run by Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, got $15,000 per month in lobbying fees from Freddie Mac from the end of 2005 through this August. This directly contradicts McCain’s assertion on Sunday that Davis hadn’t been involved in any way with the mortgage giants for several years. When the issue was brought up, McCain said that Davis

has had nothing to do with it since, and I’ll be glad to have his record examined by anybody who wants to look at it.

He should have thought twice before saying that, because the NYT decided to examine that record a little more closely. They found that Freddie and Fannie set up an advocacy coalition and put Davis in charge. And what exactly did this coalition do?

From 2000 to the end of 2005, Mr. Davis received nearly $2 million as president of the coalition, the Homeownership Alliance, which the companies created to help them oppose new regulations and protect their status as federally chartered companies with implicit government backing. That status let them borrow cheaply, helping to fuel rapid growth but also their increased purchases of the risky mortgage securities that proved to be their downfall. (emphasis mine)

McCain’s campaign tried to play it off by saying that Davis stopped receiving a salary from Davis Manafort, his lobbying company, in late 2006, but as the NYT notes:

Mr. Davis took a leave from Davis Manafort for the presidential campaign, but as an equity holder continues to benefit from its income. No one at Davis Manafort other than Mr. Davis was involved in efforts on Freddie Mac’s behalf, the people familiar with the arrangement said. (emphasis mine)

I guess this whole thing probably shouldn’t have come as a big surprise, given that McCain’s campaign is being run by lobbyists. Given how important economic/financial issues are to the voters right now, the question is whether McCain will fire Davis. If not, it will look like he’s been lying about Davis’s ties to Freddie Mac (I’m sure the media will insist that St. McCain didn’t know). It will directly tie his camp to Freddie Mac, which is just not a position you want to be in right now. Of course, McCain’s campaign has been blatantly lying about a lot of things recently, but since the press started calling them out on it, they’ve gotten extremely flustered. So, will they just continue to mock journalistic organizations, specifically the NYT, or will McCain come under pressure to get rid of Davis? Your call, Senator.

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According to the NYT, John McCain’s campaign insisted on a shorter question-and-answer session for the VP debate, seemingly in part to shield Palin from head-on exchanges with Joe Biden.

McCain advisers said they had been concerned that a loose format could leave Ms. Palin, a relatively inexperienced debater, at a disadvantage and largely on the defensive.

And there’s also this:

On Wednesday, the commission unanimously rejected a proposal sought by advisers to Ms. Palin and Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican presidential nominee, to have the moderator ask questions and the candidates answer, with no time for unfettered exchanges. (emphasis mine)

This is pretty stunning, because it seems like a clear attempt to protect Palin during the VP debate. The McCain camp might as well have come out and said that Palin is inexperienced on the issues and that they’re worried that she won’t look good in exchanges with Biden. McCain’s camp tried to defend the decision this way:

McCain advisers said they were only somewhat concerned about Ms. Palin’s debating skills compared with those of Mr. Biden, who has served six terms in the Senate, or about his chances of tripping her up. Instead, they say, they wanted Ms. Palin to have opportunities to present Mr. McCain’s positions, rather than spending time talking about her experience or playing defense.

So, McCain’s camp doesn’t want Palin to talk about her experience, the same executive experience that they’ve been touting for weeks. And they don’t want her to play defense. Well, she’d only have to play defense if she wasn’t prepared for an actual debate!

What McCain’s camp is basically saying is that they want Palin and Biden to respond to a question and move on, because they’re fearful that if she gets into an actual debate with Biden, she might come across looking inexperienced and not ready to be a heartbeat from the Presidency.

Now, Palin could be fine in debates. I really have no idea. But, if her recent interviews with Gibson and Hannity are any indication, she still has a lot of brushing up to do on the actual issues. I don’t think repeating that joke about the difference between a pitbull and a hockey mom, or about how she put that jet on ebay, or how she said “thanks, but no thanks” on the bridge to nowhere is going to fly in the VP debate, which will probably be closely watched given the intense interest in Palin.

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Fox News just referred to McCain campaign actions as “highly inappropriate, among other things” (disdain AND ambiguity?  nice) via a cease-and-desist letter over Major Garrett’s voice being used in a McCain campaign commercial.

Are the rats jumping ship?  …my sources say no.  Are they developing a self-awareness that breeds journalistic integrity?  …outlook not so good.  How about fighting to save face in an economy of opinion that is (finally, blissfully) turning against them?  …most likely.  And is this funny?  …as I see it, yes.

Read the letter (PDF) here

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This has been getting a lot of attention today. In a radio interview, McCain floundered when asked whether he would meet with Spanish PM Zapatero. The question came after he was asked about Chavez, Raul Castro, and Morales. At first, it seemed like McCain didn’t quite understand the question about Spain. But, the questioner said she was talking about Spain, but McCain said the following:

All I can tell you is that I have a clear record of working with leaders in the Hemisphere that are friends with us and standing up to those who are not. And that’s judged on the basis of the importance of our relationship with Latin America and the entire region.

The questioner again clarified:

“But what about Europe? I’m talking about the President of Spain.”

McCain: “What about me, what?

“Are you willing to meet with him if you’re elected president?”

McCain: “I am wiling to meet with any leader who is dedicated to the same principles and philosophy that we are for humans rights, democracy and freedom. And I will stand up to those who do not.”

Now, the charitable interpretation here is that McCain had some trouble understanding the questioner at first, perhaps because of her accent. But, instead of asking her exactly what she was talking about, he went off about how he’d meet with leaders who are for human rights and democracy, as if the Spanish PM is against human rights and Spain isn’t a democracy. He also kept talking about Latin America, and Spain isn’t exactly in Latin America. Even if you think McCain didn’t understand her (again, that’s charitable), it still shows that McCain would rather come up with some bogus answer than admit that he wasn’t sure what her question was about. Well, McCain’s camp cleared up the confusion. His chief foreign policy adviser, Randy Sheunemann, emailed this statement to reporters:

The questioner asked several times about Senator McCain’s willingness to meet Zapatero (and id’d him in the question so there is no doubt Senator McCain knew exactly to whom the question referred). Senator McCain refused to commit to a White House meeting with President Zapatero in this interview.

Of course, if McCain knew exactly who the questioner was talking about, then why exactly did he start talking about Latin America and take such a sharp tone with a NATO ally?  So, either McCain didn’t know what he was talking about and confused Spain with Latin America, not exactly coming off too well, or he knew exactly what he was saying, and he and his campaign just wanted the Spanish PM to know that he blows. That’s exactly the kind of foreign policy we need…telling our allies to suck it.

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Yesterday I kvetched about the mind-blowing lack of honesty exhibited by the McCain-Palin campaign, culminating recently in McCain’s own epic flip-flop on government regulation and the American economy.  In my lament, I pondered the likelihood that the mainstream media would do its job in highlighting the disgrace…and, admittedly, had my doubts.

I stand corrected.

It’s a passing victory for journalism in this country, at best — but I’ll award the point where it’s due.

Well played, Charles Gibson, well played.

*edit: Thanks to you too, Joe Klein/Time Magazine

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From an article, aptly titled McCain Embraces Regulation After Many Years of Opposition, in the Washington Post today:

A decade ago, Sen. John McCain embraced legislation to broadly deregulate the banking and insurance industries, helping to sweep aside a thicket of rules established over decades in favor of a less restricted financial marketplace that proponents said would result in greater economic growth.

Now, as the Bush administration scrambles to prevent the collapse of the American International Group (AIG), the nation’s largest insurance company, and stabilize a tumultuous Wall Street, the Republican presidential nominee is scrambling to recast himself as a champion of regulation to end “reckless conduct, corruption and unbridled greed” on Wall Street.

“Government has a clear responsibility to act in defense of the public interest, and that’s exactly what I intend to do,” a fiery McCain said at a rally in Tampa yesterday. “In my administration, we’re going to hold people on Wall Street responsible. And we’re going to enact and enforce reforms to make sure that these outrages never happen in the first place.”

I wonder if the mass media will pick up on this.  On one of the two most important issues of our time (economy + war = America today), John McCain is not just flip-flopping in position, he’s fucking pole vaulting across the field.  The man is practically blaming himself (without actually implicating himself, of course — just the general lack of oversight that created the issue…you know, that stuff he, and all his Republican conservative friends, voted for), while simultaneously claiming that only he (and the Republicans) will be able to fix the problem.

It’s unprecedented dishonesty (especially insane, given that his campaign — from stories about Palin’s background to comments on Obama’s voting record — is by-and-large rooted in dishonesty at this point)…absolute head-spinning, mind-blowing, bullshit-raining disingenuousness.

And it is tarnishing what’s left of McCain’s vaulted position in American politics beyond repair — all in pursuit of the Presidency as apparently nothing more than a status symbol, he’s willing to sell out everything he claims to believe in.  For, what’s left of a leader if he is willing to uproot every single one of his values and principles?

John McCain doesn’t have any real ideas — good, new, or otherwise — other than “keep doing what we’re doing” and “keep people good and scared on everything from taxes to faith to war.”  And he certainly isn’t called to lead out of an honest desire for change, or common good, or peace, or equality, or anything else a Democratic, shining-light-of-the-free-world nation should strive for.

I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that, however skewed his world view, his heart was in the right place.  But, hey, the more this campaign rolls on, the more I’m becoming certain that the guy is just power-hungry.  Truth and consequence be damned.  Awesome.

That said, this is brilliant.

*edit: Here’s to Frank Rich at the New York Times — he nailed it in his op-ed a few days back.

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