CLEVELAND, June 30, 2008
GOP Sharpens Attacks On Obama
Washington Post: Allies Of McCain Casting Democratic Candidate As Unprincipled, Opportunistic
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Play CBS Video Video Lieberman Praises McCain's Policy Sen. Joe Lieberman talks to Bob Schieffer about his support for John McCain, saying that McCain's foreign policy will make the United States' enemies weak and allies strong.
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Video Where Do Obama, McCain Stand? Katie Couric speaks with CBS News senior political correspondent Jeff Greenfield about the latest developments in the campaigns of presumptive presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama.
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Video Retired General Backs Obama Retired general Wesley Clark tells Bob Schieffer that although John McCain has experience in the military, he lacks the diplomacy and strategy of Barack Obama.
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There has been an abrupt shift in tone among John McCain's paid staff members, volunteer surrogates and others, reports the Washington Post. (AP/LM Otero, Alex Brandon)
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Photo Essay John McCain Some call him a hero, some a maverick. Will Americans call him Mr. President?
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Photo Essay Barack Obama A look at the life and meteoric rise of the president-elect.
From Our Partner:
Sen. John McCain's allies have seized on a new and aggressive line of attack against Sen. Barack Obama, casting the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee as an opportunistic and self-obsessed politician who will do and say anything to get elected.
McCain typically leaves the sharpened criticism to others, in the hope of being able to claim the high ground of conducting a "respectful" campaign. But the abrupt shift in tone among his paid staff members, volunteer surrogates and other Republican staples of the cable news circuit is unmistakable, and it resembles the unified message the GOP used to paint the 2004 Democratic candidate, Sen. John F. Kerry, as a flip-flopper.
It also reflects a growing belief among McCain's strategists that the campaign for the White House will be won or lost based on voters' view of Obama's character. In a strategy memo released Thursday, McCain's top political adviser accused Obama of "self-serving partisanship."
"In his time on the national stage, he has consistently put his party and his self-interest first," McCain strategist Steve Schmidt said in the memo. "We have seen Barack Obama forced to choose between principle and the interests of himself and his party. He has always chosen the latter."
Schmidt said in an interview that the campaign intends to point out "every day" that Obama broke his promise to accept public financing for his campaign, and that he has not made good on his pledge to debate his Republican opponent anytime and anywhere.
"It's a statement of fact that he discards people, and he discards positions when they become inconvenient for him," Schmidt said Friday. "When politicians say one thing and then do another, like Senator Obama has done, voters wonder about the steadfastness of the character of the person sitting in the Oval Office."
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said he is not surprised by the sharp attacks from McCain's surrogates: "It's our view that's exactly the politics that the American people are sick and tired of. The only ideas they have to promote are the failed ones for the last eight years."
Targeting a politician's character flaws is a time-tested strategy, but it is a complicated argument for McCain, who has also shifted his positions in the course of the campaign. This month, with gasoline prices soaring, the Republican reversed his position on offshore oil drilling.
The aggressive rhetoric aimed at Obama began to emerge June 22, when Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, a national co-chairman of the McCain campaign, appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press." The normally collegial senator from South Carolina took direct aim at Obama's integrity.
"He's a calculating politician," Graham said. "The bottom line about Barack Obama, whatever the position -- whether it be Iraq, campaign finance reform, public financing -- he's going to take a tack that allows him to win. He wants to win beyond anything else, even more than keeping his word."
That theme was repeated Thursday in a conference call with reporters about the Supreme Court's decision to affirm the Second Amendment right to own a gun. McCain adviser Randy Scheunemann complained about hat he called Obama's constantly changing positions.
"What's becoming clear in this campaign," he said, is that Obama "has demonstrated that there is no position he holds that isn't negotiable. He will say or do anything if it furthers his political purposes."
And Karl Rove, the former political adviser to President Bush who is quietly consulting with McCain's top strategists, offered this piece of advice in his column in the Wall Street Journal.
Quote
"Mr. McCain will be helped if he uses Mr. Obama's actions to paint his opponent as someone driven by an all-powerful instinct to look out only for himself," Rove wrote Thursday. "In a contest over who is willing to put principle above personal ambition and self-interest, John McCain, a war hero and a former POW, wins hands down."If these things were simply about character, then the two war heroes the GOP nominated in 1992 and 1996 would have beaten the draft-dodging, pot-smoking womanizer.
GOP consultant Craig ShirleyMark Rozell, a professor of political science at George Mason University, said the similarity of the attacks suggests a concerted effort to "build a picture" about Obama's character before the political newcomer has a chance to convince people of the truth of his rhetoric.
"These things are always orchestrated," Rozell said. "I have no doubt there has been a running conversation within Republican circles about what the theme should be in going after Obama and how that theme could be reinforced."
The new Republican theme moves the campaign argument away from policy disagreements -- of which there are many -- to the realm of character, where McCain aides think their candidate is untouchable. But the tactic has potential risks for McCain, who has said repeatedly over the past several months that he will run a "respectful" campaign that does not engage in the politics of personal destruction.
Two days ago, McCain repeated that promise as he rode his Straight Talk Express bus across Ohio.
"Look, I respect and admire Senator Obama, and if I have ever treated him in a disrespectful way I don't know of it," he said. "Americans want a respectful debate. They don't want us to finger-point and question each other's character and integrity."
In a news conference with reporters Friday, McCain decried "gotcha" politics and said, "The lesson I have from traveling around this state and around this nation is they say, why don't you guys stop fighting with each other?"
But on Saturday he told a group of donors, "You know, this election is about trust and trusting people's word. And unfortunately, apparently on several items Senator Obama's word cannot be trusted."
Obama supporters have offered questions of their own about McCain's integrity, adding to the sniping on both sides of the political aisle. Schmidt said McCain has been "maligned and insulted and called names" by Obama supporters.
A radio talk show host called McCain a "warmonger," an accusation with which McCain's camp took particular umbrage, given his history as a prisoner of war and his oft-repeated statement that he "hates" war.
Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), an Obama surrogate, even cited McCain's service as a fighter pilot as evidence that he does not care about people.
McCain "dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet," he said earlier this year. "He was long gone when they hit. What happened when [the missiles] get to the ground? He doesn't know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues." Rockefeller later apologized for the comments.
Republican strategists said it is not as clear that attacks on Obama's chracter will work this year, when voters have said in surveys that they are tired of political vitriol.
Craig Shirley, a GOP consultant and biographer based in Virginia, said substantive issues are sometimes more powerful during a campaign than a focus on character.
"Bush tried the same thing in 1992 and Dole tried the same thing in 1996 -- trying to make the election a character issue -- both failing, of course," Shirley said of George H.W. Bush and Robert J. Dole. "If these things were simply about character, then the two war heroes the GOP nominated in 1992 and 1996 would have beaten the draft-dodging, pot-smoking womanizer."
By Michael D. Shear
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 103 Commentsposted by ianlou at 11:56 AM : Jul 02, 2008
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Also because General Motors and a couple of other major corportations closed all their plants to go overseas, as the race to the bottom continues.
They basically deserted the workers who had invested most of their lives toiling for them.
But Republicans think that people should be happy to be slaves for them and if there is a chance they can stuff their pockets they got no problem slamming the door on entire cities!
%u201CI didn%u2019t really love America until I was deprived of her company.%u201D
See the video for yourself at:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/06/22/mccains-unpatriotic-words-caught-on-tape/
Now, we see that Michelle Obama is just as patriotic as John McCain. Anyone who denies this after seeing it with their own eyes is denying reality.
Do you have any troubles seeing your keyboard through those little holes cut in the pillow case on your head?
Posted by S_Temper
Like many of our cities, Detroit is a toilet because of White Flight, not Black Mayors. what a bunch of Bigots you are.
Unprincipled, Opportunistic;
Look these two word up in the dictionary and you will see pictures of Bush and Cheney.
Attack the man, not his message or the issues.
Apparently the media is trying to keep this race close, kinda like a referee helping the losing side stay close. I''m sure it is better for their ratings.
I prefer to look at the facts and the issues...but if you want a little bit of dirt, try this:
The media is reporting today that Americans do not know much about Cindy McCain.
There are two salient facts, in my view:
Cindy McCain was a drug addict who stole a massive amount of drugs from her medical charity. She was caught by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), plead guilty and was placed into a diversion and rehabilitation program. That is a program for rich women break the law when they are married to a U. S. Senator who. Cindy was a thief and a drug addict.
If a hospital nurse or doctor stole drugs to feed a habit, they would still be in prison.
Second, Cindy had a steamy affair with John McCain while he was still married to his first wife and the three children who had waited loyally for McCain to return from Vietnam.
When Cindy agreed to marry McCain, he tossed out the old wife and kids and married Cindy McCain 3 months later.
This is not only McCain%u2019s biggest flip-flop, it is the greatest stain on his character.
If a man will not keep his word and protect his honor with his family, then how can anyone trust him?
And what does this say about the woman?
McCain is still a maverick but maverick light until after the election when he will be able to work in a more bi-partisan way.
Vitter, Craig sponsor Federal Marriage Amendment
By: Steve Benen @ 6:00 PM - PDT
Just this week, a group of Republican senators re-introduced the Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution, which, as we know, would ban gay marriage.
This isn%u2019t especially surprising. Republicans are looking at the political landscape, and they%u2019re feeling awfully discouraged. The polls look bad, the base looks depressed, and fundraising looks iffy. Rallying the far-right troops with an anti-gay amendment to the Constitution %u2014 even though it has no chance at even getting so much as a hearing %u2014 might be helpful to the conservative movement.
But the funny part is looking over the list of the 10 original sponsors. Most of the names are predictable %u2014 Brownback and Inhofe, for example %u2014 but there are two others whose names stand out: Sens. David Vitter (R-La.) and Larry Craig (R-Idaho).
Yes, two of the principal sponsors of a constitutional amendment to %u201Cprotect%u201D marriage include one far-right Republican who hired prostitutes and another far-right Republican who was arrested for soliciting gay *** in an airport men%u2019s room.
As my friend Kyle put it, these two are %u201Cnot exactly the poster boys of the family values crowd or particularly upstanding examples of the supposed sanctity of the %u2018union of a man and a woman.%u201D%u2018
Your commen about mccain not beig a good pilot because he was shot down. This would only be relevant if he had helped shoot himself down. As for his standing at Anapolis, anyone graudating from there should be recognized. Just grauduating from there is an honor. I was an average student thru high school, but i graduated college with honors.
He doesn''t have one to bash.
Nuf'' said.
Keep prancing around like the nice little brainwashed lemmings you Liberals are.
The three monkey show you are putting on with Obama, The Do-Nothing Democrat Congress, and the 3 stooges (Pelosi, Reid and Murtha) is fun to watch.
Posted by mudrose at 12:28 PM : Jul 01, 2008
Secret US plans for Iraq''s oil
The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq''s oil before the 9/11 attacks, sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil, BBC''s Newsnight has revealed.
Two years ago today - when President George Bush announced US, British and Allied forces would begin to bomb Baghdad - protesters claimed the US had a secret plan for Iraq''s oil once Saddam had been conquered.
In fact there were two conflicting plans, setting off a hidden policy war between neo-conservatives at the Pentagon, on one side, versus a combination of "Big Oil" executives and US State Department "pragmatists".
"Big Oil" appears to have won. The latest plan, obtained by Newsnight from the US State Department was, we learned, drafted with the help of American oil industry consultants.
Insiders told Newsnight that planning began "within weeks" of Bush''s first taking office in 2001, long before the September 11th attack on the US.
He graduated at Annapolis, but for the son and grandson of 4-star admirals to finish so near the bottom of his class means either laziness or below average intellect and we have seen the energy he devotes to work. He''s not lazy. His record as a pilot isn''t outstanding either. Most pilots flew more missions without being shot down, so his ability as a pilot seems below average.
I respect him for his service but his military service record doesn''t qualify him to be commander-in chief. After 7 years of a low-C presidency, it''s time we had a smarter than average president.
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