Had Hillary Clinton merely lost the nomination, she’d still have a sterling reputation among Democrats and within the black community. Unfortunately, she didn’t content herself with a gracious loss, but started talking about her appeal to ‘white, working-class Americans, real Americans.’ Damage done. Senators can come back from a fall from grace. Teddy Kennedy revived his reputation after Chappaquidick by putting his nose to the grindstone and working for the next 40 years to help the poor and the middle class. John McCain recovered enough from the Keating 5 scandal to win his party’s nomination. He did it by pushing for campaign finance reform. But, the best course is not to cover yourself in shame in the first place. And, for McCain, he’s shaming himself anew.
The decision to unleash, or tolerate, racially-tinged and overtly racist attacks on Barack Obama is an act of desperation. It’s very, very unlikely to change the outcome of this election, but it will be the final death-knell to the idea that John McCain has honor, or that he is a different kind of Republican. Lose with grace, you stupid bastard.
Why lose with grace when you can win by being cheating, lying, sack of shit?
It’s the American way.
“And, for McCain, he’s shaming himself anew.”
The Virginia rep is singing from the same page of that GOP rep in the south west state (CO, NV? at a Rodeo gathering) who later apologized for saying if Obama won, the WH would have to be painted black.
The piece on Palin’s racially tinged attack is written by AP and, reprinted by the NYTimes. It’s an effort by the Times to CYA having given Palin the match to go gutter politics.
Imho
Since Palin noted her misleading claim, ” Obama pals around with terrorists is in The NYTimes,” then the Times should do an apology that their article made no such conclusion – that in fact the article stated Obama has no close association with Ayers.
“it will be the final death-knell to the idea that John McCain has honor,..
Long ago my grandpa said a review of McCain’s career, his character serves up a man without honor. He never made it to the line when honor was being handed down.
While McCain enjoys Cindy’s 13 cars, eight houses and private jet; look to McCain’s treatment of his first wife, the mother of his children?
McCain is a very callous man
So I’m not surprised McCain and Palin have punched through the bottom of the barrel looking for cutworms.
One more missed opportunity to stem the bleeding among Independents. ..and I may add moderate conservatives.
FWIW, maybe Rove has a trick up his sleeve…from Politico
Well, let us hope that Rove has The Math, just like he did in ’06.
Tim Dickinson Rollingstone agrees with grandpa
TPM provides the link
go take a read
So politically wrong.
Yes, it is an act of desperation. As inheritor of the Bush administration’s awful record, desperation is a given. No matter how…desperately…the McCains might try to wriggle out of that postion, they are damned well stuck with it.
So…what viable weapons remain to them? Weapons that stand a chance of turning a good portion of the undecided vote in their favor? Enough of the undecided vote that with the application of a little creative vote theft they might squeak through with an electoral college win as did the Bush II campaign in 200 and 2004?
Duh.
Racism is America’s original Sin.
That stain still lingers on the souls of a huge number of people in this country.
The Ratpublicans cannot effectively argue economics. On the standing evidence, on the evidence of every headline in the country that subject is essentially off the board. All they can do is defend on that front. Defend and deflect, just as Sarah Palin did in the debate.
They cannot argue military success…or international success on any level, for that matter. Also on the evidence.
What’s left?
Booga booga is left.
Obama’s black; he’s a secret Muslim; he’s a secret terrorist; his even more “black” wife hates America, and so on.
Dishonorable?
Sure.
Since when was “dishonorable” an obstacle to political success here?
Since Nixon?
Reagan?
Bush I + II?
Please. Your naivete is showing.
Very, very unlikely to change the outcome of this election?
I fear not.
Watch.
it ain’t over yet.
In fact, with Palin’s recent rehabilitation-by-media and installation as point woman on the attack side (And driver of the news…check out Google News for all you need to know about that idea. She is EVERYWHERE.) it not only ain’t over…it’s just getting started.
Watch.
It’s going to be a long month, and Obama is going to spend a great deal of it on the defensive unless he and his team come up with some damned good ideas.
Soon.
Like…yesterday.
Watch.
AG
“It’s going to be a long month, and Obama is going to spend a great deal of it on the defensive unless he and his team come up with some damned good ideas.”
Yeah. A very looooong month of grim economic news and maybe a forced vacation for all. Gives Obama the opportunity to continue on the offensive.
If McCain wants to win this election, he had best turn his attention to things economic.
Offering up three of the same Rove campaigns won’t be a charm.
I see so little offensive action coming from the Obama campaign, idredit.
Like Obama himself, the campaign is a defensive specialist. A counterpuncher at best. Afraid to give offense, afraid to take the shot. And when the shot IS taken, it’s from the outside, safely way from the basket where the real rough stuff happens.
I have had a great deal of personal experience with black men and women who have had some measure of success in the primarily white worlds of business and academia, and this tendency to not give offense if at all possible is common to almost all of them.
Quite understandably.
Always outnumbered and outgunned, always having to prove that they are not some sort of secret savage to their (consciously and/or unconsciously) racist co-workers and bosses, they tend to overcompensate and thus they largely lose their offensive, proactive capabilities.
But Obama is going to have to turn the tide here, and soon. He cannot always wait for the McCains to fuck up, cannot simply continue to point out the failures of the Butch administration. Plain pinned Biden in the debate with that one.
These are pros working on the other side, idredit. They will adjust; they will figure out both their own errors and yours as well. You cannot allow a pro to recover once you have him down. You have to be a finisher as well as a starter.
And so far? I see no finisher in Obama. No mean streak. Hillary Clinton would have gutted McCain and Palin weeks ago. Gutted ’em and hung them out to cure in the sun.
Obama? He’s too nice.
To nice by far.
This is a street fight, now.
But Obama is still fighting by Marquis of Queensbury rules.
If he’s not carefull, he’s gonna get shivved.
And if he does…so do we all.
Watch.
AG
They’ll attempt to steal this election too. They’ll not succeed.
The McCain-Palin’s best before date has expired. Obama still has the edge…they, including MSM that you rail against, will let Obama have it because Dems have always been seen ‘good for the economy.’
GOP really don’t want the mess that’s unfolding – though they own this financial disaster that will become observable, right on the kitchen table, over the next 4 weeks. This will seal the deal…(unless martial law is declared).
It’ll be 30 days before Paulson can put in place the $700 bln package, that’s hardly enough and it won’t work. In fact $700 billion may be only enough for ONE day.
It’s one hour at a time. Let’s watch LIBOR. All eyes should be on LIBOR.
On things economic, McCain is like a fish out of water. McCain’s little eractic stunt lost him credibility among the PowersThatBe.
Desperation is ugly.
yes, but usually backfires..I was watching Palin on MSNBC, it appears the audience was booing her for saying Obama was hanging out with terrorist. Because, if you watch more of the speech they didn’t boo anything else.
Are you kidding? What on earth would suggest they were booing her and not Obama? Certainly booing Obama would be 100% consistent with the behaviour of the kind of crowd that would go to see her, and booing her would be very odd indeed under the circumstances.
nope, not kidding. 1 Boo during her speech, I believe they were booing her, for making the charge. I say they were booing her for being some much of a nut…
hark! the sound of oft used braincells coming to life in a Palin crowd?
Not likely!
I think so, or else there would have been more boos. It’s like watching the Kansas City Chiefs play football, you have to boo, when they run the ball on 3 and 20. Your booing the bad call, that is how i see.
Sorry, but I remain utterly unconvinced. I just can’t imagine the kind of people who would go to a Palin rally booing her for ANYTHING.
And by the way, back 8 months or so ago (seems longer ago than that now) when Larry started posting that kind of bullshit – and worse! – on No Quarter – you know, trying to connect Obama to terrorists via a very tenuous connection to Ayres, and to Saddam Hussein via Rezko, the traffic on his site shot up, and all kinds of people started crawling out of the woodwork, and from under rocks, and they weren’t booing, believe me.
From the NYT link:
“Obama isn’t above attacking McCain with loaded words, releasing an ad on Sunday that calls the Arizona Republican ”erratic” — a hard-to miss suggestion that McCain’s age, 71, might be an issue.“
Hard to miss suggestion about McCain’s age?! WTF?! What has the word “erratic” have to do with McCain’s age, please? 1) It appears to me that it is a very accurate description of he behaviour, 2) to the extent that erratic behaviour is associated with age, it is generally considered more characteristic of youth, and is generally seen as something that changes with age and experience.
Now, if the Obama ad had used terms like decrepit, or dementia, for example, or suggested that McCain wants to paint the White House grey, then OK, I could see the connection with his age, but erratic? They had to really reach for that one!
Steve Benen at Washington Monthly is on it:
Smart. Very.
Soooooo – ummmmmmm – where is there any suggestion in that about McCain’s age?! Not there, is it?
Sometimes, almost out of nowhere comes a message beautifully profound that marks the glaring difference between McCain’s dogged small mindedness and Obama’s bigger tent.
This YouTube is stronger than all the recklessly small minded attacks McCain can ever toss out.
Oh yeah – Just what I want, for sure! Another U.S. President who is 100% committed to Israel’s “security”!
OK, that ad clinches it. Obama will not get my vote, not this time, not ever. I will be voting against McCain, but I sure as hell will not vote for Obama.
Ideally, America would be 100% committed to everyone’s security. Obviously, that’s not fully possible, but there is nothing inherently wrong with being committed to another nation’s security.
Come on, Booman, let’s not play games here! We know exactly what 100% commitment to Israel’s security means and has always meant. All that “sweetness and light” is just lovely and nice, unless you happen to be an Arab, or a Muslim, or – heaven forbid, a Palestinian, or a Lebanese, or a Syrian, or an Iranian.
What is so “beautiful” or “profound” about this message? Nothing at all. It is just more pandering to an immoral scofflaw state with a shameful human rights record and no regard for the rules of correct human behaviour, let alone international law.
I would be inspired by an ad that suggested that Obama intends to finally force Israel to stop acting like a rogue nation, stop constantly threatening the security of the region and start complying with international law, humanitarian principles, and its own treaties and agreements. THAT would inspire me not only to vote for Obama, but to work like hell for him. THIS supposed “beautiful, profound” message makes me feel sick to my stomach.
I’m pretty sure you could find quotes of Jimmy Carter promising to a 100% commitment to Israel’s security back when was running for office and when he was president. Those words are actually almost devoid of meaning for the very reason that they are necessary for an American president to say in any case. You might as well take offense at Obama’s promise to protect seniors or McCain’s promise to provide adequately for Vets. What they say means little. It’s what they do.
Still…Obama will protect Israel’s security, as he should. Will that mean his interpretation of protecting their security looks more like Olmert’s recent statements or Sharon’s legacy? Time will tell.
Oh, right! So now you haul out the “oh, they don’t really mean it, it’s all just talk” argument. Spare me this, BooMan. What it really means is either they are lying now, which is really, really bad, or they are NOT lying now, which in the case of Obama’s shameless pandering to AIPAC and other Israel interests is worse.
As for Olmert’s recent top-of-his-voice rendition of “Amazing Grace”, actions are what matter. I don’t give a damn what kind of silly crap spews out of his mouth, I care what he has done and continues to do as long as he retains his position of power. And do tell me, since Olmert has seen the light, exactly how much ACTION has Olmert taken to reverse or even cease all the horrific ACTIONS he has taken while he was in office. Is there news there in the last day or so, because the last time I checked all the unspeakable abuses have continued apace. I haven’t heard a word about reparations for his crimes in Lebanon. My friends in Gaza, two of whom have babies less than a year old, have reported that nothing has changed for the better. The theft of Palestinian land continues, the colonization of what is left of Palestine continues.
And no, Obama should NOT protect Israel’s security. He should demand that Israel comply with international law and start acting like a decent member of the world community, or he should do what the United States should have done decades ago, and cut Israel loose.
And at the very least, Obama should acknowledge the crimes that Israel has committed, and continues to commit every single day against the Palestinians, against Lebanon and Lebanese, and against Syria and the Syrians who are the legitimate inhabitants of the Golan Heights.
There isn’t time to decry the crimes committed by the governments and anti-government organizations of that region. Assad, Saddam, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, EIJ, Hizbollah, Israel, Mubarak, the Saudi Regime, al-Qaeda, etc. I get pretty bored with calls for people on only side to suddenly comply with international law. I’m not in the game of recriminations. My only interest is in a solution and an agreement. Weighing blame won’t promote that one iota. Olmert recognized the problem, which is a start. I’d like to see someone on the other side make the same concessions.
You ought to know enough about American politics to know that protecting Israel’s security 100% is a prerequisite for consideration for higher office. Any and all politicians will say that. Does Obama mean it? Yes. But that doesn’t mean his interpretation of what will protect Israel is like Bush’s or not like Carter’s. You make any prediction you want. I’m hopeful, but fully aware of the history here.
Hurria, look at what happened to Jimmy Carter when he went down and visited the Palestinians and had some talks. He specifically stated that he was not a representative of the US government and was acting as a private citizen. He was loudly roasted by many here in the US, Obama included.
Booman is right. In order to attain high office, a politician must hew to the pro-Israel party line. The political climate is poisoned well against anything else, regardless of how right or just it is to take Israel to task. And boy, they do deserve it.
On the flip side, who on the Palestinians’ side would or could make an admission that Olmert did and have the same weight? Could you fill us in on someone of Olmert’s stature who could or has made such a statement?
Oh, come on, BooMan! I get more than a little bit sick and tired of the pretense that the Palestinians can even remotely be equated with the Israelis. This is not a simple fight over the same plot of land on the part of two equally equipped, equally entitled parties. There is a clearly overwhelmingly stronger criminal and a clearly weaker victim here. There is clearly one party that is violating the rights of a second party, which is fighting tooth and nail for its existence. And contrary to all the propaganda it is not and never has been Israel that is under existential threat. Or would you also claim that the American Indians bore as much responsibility as the white colonizers did?
And I REALLY get tired of people trying to let Israel off the hook by invoking the names of Saddam Hussein, the Saudi regime, etc.. It absolutely is not that simple, and by the way, what makes you think that I and others like me do not rail against the Saud family, Mubarak, et al.?
I have no reason to believe, based on Obama’s record, his conduct, and his statements, that he means anything different when he speaks of Israel’s “security” than anyone else means. I see no reason to be more hopeful that Obama will do the right thing (which would be to tell Israel to clean up its act or it will be cut loose, and then to follow through) than anyone else, including the saintly Jimmy Carter (who has done little but pay lip service, to that too late to have any real effect) has done.
you’re entitled to your opinion.
I long ago decided to forego arguments that establish a hierarchy of blame. I am not interested in theoretical or historical disputes in the Middle East, but only in people that are for a peaceful settlement.
I advocate that Israel just about precisely what Olmert suggested, and I have been advocating that for about 26 years now.
Who was it who said this?
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but everyone is NOT entitled to his own facts.
So, if you are not interested in a “hierarchy of blame”, I suppose you would take the same position in the case of a rape victim who fights back against her attacker, and injures him?
And ignore the history of a dispute at your peril, because unless the history is understood, acknowledged, and addressed, there can be no real resolution ever.
What Olmert has suggested is a good beginning. What a bloody shame he cannot quite bring himself to act on it even now in his last few months in office. Talk is so very, very cheap, particularly from the lips of someone who has committed so many crimes, and who continues to commit them even after singing a rousing chorus of Amazing Grace.
I know the history. I just have no interest in debating the history. There is a difference.
I no longer care to defend or accuse rapists, terrorists, freedom-fighters, or policemen. I know what needs to be done. And I am only interested in talking to people that are ready to get it done.
Do you really know what needs to be done, or are you simply insisting that the affected parties have to satisfy your notion of what needs to be done regardless of what they see as being in their own best interests?
You may be overidentifying Jews here. If you’ll take a sec you’ll see that the people there are not the hawks. They’re representing the larger ground of the culture, personally the ones I’d like to hear more from.
This has nothing to do with Jews, so get that straight right now.
This is about supporting the “security” of a state that has zero respect for the rights and security of others. It is about supporting the “security” of a state whose raison d’etre required and continues to require ethnic cleansing. It is about supporting the “security” of a state whose version of “peace” is grabbing as much land as it can from the land’s rightful inhabitants, either violently or by transparent subterfuge, and trying to squeeze the legitimate inhabitants off of what land is left, and make their lives so miserable that they will be forced to leave.
It is about 100% support for the “security” of a state that has and continues to refuse to declare its own borders.
It is about 100% support for the “security” of a state that, for “security” reasons constructs a huge barrier, not on the internationally recognized boundary of its territory, but cutting deeply into Palestinian land, taking even more land for Israel from what is left of Palestine, and dividing farmers from their fields workers from their jobs, and even cutting towns and neighborhoods into discontinuous pieces.
This is about 100% support for the “security” of a state that thinks its “security” includes the right to systematically and intentionally deprive about 1.5 million people, some of whom are close and dear friends of mine, of the most fundamental, basic requirements of life.
It is about 100% support for the “security” of a state whose “security” means violently killing hundreds of children and babies, and systematically and intentionally depriving them of clean water, food, electricity, working sewage systems, education, medical care, and even the freedom to go outside their houses, or EVEN safely stand at a window inside their houses.
It is not about Jews, so don’t EVEN try to go there with me.
May not have been what you were talking about but it was about what I was talking about.
OK, I believe that you believed that video was all about Jews, and not Israel. I still don’t see what is beautiful and profound about a bunch of Jew or Christian or Muslim or Buddhist or Sikh or whateveryouwill making a political ad claiming this or that candidate will take care of their interests, but that is very much in the eye of the beholder, I guess.
However, Jews are not synonymous with Israel, despite the fact that many want to pretend it is so. Watch the video again. It is not about Jews, it is about Israel, and how great Obama is for Israel, Israel’s “security”, Israel’s twisted, unjust version of “peace”. Not a bloody syllable about peace and security for Israel’s victims there, is there? Why, based on that ad a person would think that Israel was the white-as-driven-snow innocent, and that there was no other side to the story.
Put all that together with Obama’s headlong rush as soon as he knew he had the nomination to be the first to kiss AIPAC’s ass, and to kiss it harder than anyone has before or since. Remember his promise to do “everything necessary – and that means EVERYTHING necessary – got that? I said EVERYTHING NECESSARY” to stop Iran (OK I am not quoting him exactly, but he repeated it THREE TIMES with greater emphasis each time). Remember his promise about Jerusalem – something no other American panderer-to-AIPAC – uh, excuse me, politician – has promised, and which he was later forced to retract? And then, remember his lovely trip to the region during which he spent most of his time shamelessly brown nosing the the criminal Israeli government, visiting Yad Vashem, praying at the Western Wall, and making numerous bellicose statements toward Iran, while giving the Palestinians no more than a token “hello, goodbye, gotohell”.
Sorry for losing my cool in your direction. It wasn’t about you, and you did not deserve it. It was about the issue that ad brought up.
I’m always more inclined to appreciate clips and/or rhetoric that shows the layers of people, from wherever they are rather than single dimensioned attacks that McCain has been using on his ads.
That was my point – that the McCain attack ads are shells with no depth of understanding nor are they asking for the reader to understand that we’re always talking about real human beings.
McCain culls life down to attack or be attacked vs getting that it’s about the people so, as BooMan titled this piece he will always be on the stupid bastard end of the stick.
I get your thinking, I agree with it in a general sense, but unfortunately, I just cannot relate to it in the context in which you presented it. That context is just too fraught for me. Again, sorry my explosion went in your direction. It wasn’t aimed at you, and now that the smoke has cleared somewhat I get the point you were making.
What I saw was what was left out, and what is ALWAYS left out of that particular story – i.e. the victims. It is always as if they do not exist, or worse as if they and not Israel are the problem – and in fact, there are those who even today with all the information that is available would tell you they do not exist at all.
Well, I know they exist because I have seen them, I have met them, I have seen what they are subjected to by Israel every minute of every day. Some of them are dear friends of mine of long standing, and those dear friends are kind, intelligent, well educated professional people (physicians, computer scientists, engineers, artists, professors) who are struggling to survive. And I am deeply frustrated because there is nothing at all I can do to alleviate the horrors they are living through every hour of every day. I used to be able at least to listen, but by now they are so worn down by the routine of horror and systematic, intentional deprivation that they are permanently depressed, and tired of talking about it.
Two of my dearest friends, a physician and a computer scientist, had baby daughters last year. My physician friend is one of the intrinsically kindest people I know – you can see the kindness emanating from his face and his body language. His wife is a beautiful, sweet, intelligent, and thoughtful lady. They are two of the best people I know. And they are like prisoners in a prison called hell from which they are not even allowed to escape for any reason, even when they have some place to go. They are not allowed to leave, they are not allowed to live anywhere else. Their beautiful baby daughter is often not permitted even the normal level of well baby care, let alone the kind of enriched environment that is taken for granted in most parts of the world.
The other is a handsome, animated young man in his early 30’s, a computer scientist I have known since he was a teenager. I wish I could tell you everything I know about him so you could see who he is, his sadness when he thinkgs of his mother who died when he was a child, his deep love for and devotion to his elderly father, his dedication to his family. I wish I could share with you are conversations over the years each time a friend or family member was killed or abused by the Israelis. I wish I could share with you his maturation as he came slowly to understand that, despite what his lifetime of experiences with Israeli soldiers and settlers showed him, not all Jews, and even not all Jewish Israelis are evil, and that some are very fine people indeed whose lives are dedicated to trying to expose and make right the wrongs that Israel has done. I wish I could share with you his reaction over the murder by an Israeli soldier of the American Rachael Corey who used to visit the internet cafe where he worked.
And I wish you could share our conversations as he fell in love over the internet with a girl in the next town, and even more deeply in love after he met her in person, the roller coaster ride of their growing love, and their spats and misunderstandings, and the time he deleted her phone number from his mobile. And his years of despair that he would never be able to marry her, and how finally, by working hard, saving as much as possible, and with the help of his brothers, he was able to marry. And how last year they had a baby girl who is the absolute center of his life, and whom he cannot always give even the basic things a baby needs because those things simply are simply not allowed to be available in his world.
And there are hundreds of thousands of Palestinians just like my friends whose lives are made into a grinding daily hell to support Israel’s so-callled “security” (in fact, in the current instance these people are being collectively punished for the sin of exercising their right to vote as they wished instead of as Israel and the United States wished them to vote – and have you heard what Joe Biden has to say about that? He did not want to allow them to vote because he KNEW they would not choose the corrupt collaborators that Israel and the United States wanted, and now he boasts that he was right – they should have been denied the right to vote unless they would elect the “right” people).
These are the people that I think of whenever I hear talk about Israel’s version of “security”, and these are the people whose lives come to mind. And what bubbles to the surface is an absolute helpless rage that I can do nothing that will help their situation, that no one really gives a damn about them, and that the candidates for top offices in the United States, including Obama, and especially Joe Biden, see them as nothing but objects in a game – objects to be granted or denied basic human rights as the United States and Israel see fit.
They are human beings, damn it, not pawns in a game.
End of rant – for now.
And though I stumbled to it, that was the exact meaning I was trying to convey.
Well apologies to those who want to stay OT, I find the well documented stupidity of John McCain and our current excuse for a POTUS somewhat fascinating. Why do the Republicans court disaster by offering up such intellectual lightweights? Why do the grades of executive and technical job applicants matter to Republican owned companies, but G W Bush’s C- average at Yale and McCain’s rank of 894th out of 899 graduates at Annapolis don’t matter at all?
I believe the Repub kingmakers regard stupid Presidents
and Governors with favor because instead of looking their lobbyists in the eye and saying ‘that is BS and here’s why’ the dumb President or Governor will say something like, ‘I know you are the expert, so write up the bill and send it to the party leader in Congress/state legislature and I’ll back it till it passes’. Then the public suffers the consequences of greedy-stupid lobbyists leading the lazy-stupid politicians to disasters like the Iraq War and the credit default swap meltdown.