Why did Obama, Biden, campaign spokespeople, and bloggers all decide last week to taunt John McCain over his lack of courage in the last debate? It’s a variation on the old Brer Rabbit fairy tale about the Briar Patch. “Oh, please, Sen. McCain, say whatever you will, but please do not fling me in that briar patch.”
Simply put, we want John McCain to bring up William Ayers in the next debate. We’re dying to have him show the American people that he is a nasty, malicious, dishonorable, and out-of-touch old man, who is stuck in the amber of the 1960’s and 1970’s. McCain hates nothing more than to have his honor and his courage questioned. For example, he got ruffled when Charlie Gibson asked him why he didn’t bring up William Ayers in the last debate.
MCCAIN: Again, two things I’ve never been accused of lacking. And one is passion, and the other is courage. I mean, I can accept a lot of the other criticisms.
But he can’t accept a critique of his honor or his courage, which is precisely why we made those critiques. We’re trying to get John McCain to blow his top and we’re goading him into defending his honor in the next debate. And, it has worked (audio). Here is what John McCain just told a St. Louis radio audience:
“I was astonished to hear him say that he was surprised I didn’t have the guts” to talk about Ayers last week.
That pretty much locks John McCain in. He must bring up William Ayers in the debate now, and that is precisely what we want. Not only have polls shown that this line attack backfired, and not only does it make John McCain seem old and out-of-touch, but PolitiFact has thoroughly debunked the charges. As McCain should know by now, winning a debate is not only a matter of scoring points during the 90-minutes of questions and answers, but a matter of winning the post-debate spin. Bringing up a thoroughly debunked charge is not a good idea. It’s a particularly bad idea when you have already declared war on the press, and the press is angling to establish a good working relationship and access to the next (Obama) administration. The pundits will have a field-day deconstructing the false-charges and they’ll tie it to you like an anvil.
So, yes, please, John McCain. Please defend your honor and bring up William Ayers in the debate. Throw your telegraphed haymaker and watch Barack Obama’s short, stiff counterpunch drop you like a sack of potatoes. Pretty please.
I can’t help but believe that Obama has been waiting for this moment for a long, long time. McCain has painted himself into a box where there is no good move. My guess is that he is scared shitless about how this is going to play out. He could very well end up looking like the fool of the century.
OT, I just saw this today courtesy of Oliver Willis. I had no idea my Senator, Sherrod Brown, was such a comedian.
Hope to see you all there at a quarter before midnight on November 4. It’s channel 360 on my DirecTV. I’ll bring the whiskey….the good stuff.
Fool of the Century? He has a lot of catching up to do with a certain outgoing president.
But he is in a box of his own making. I actually don’t think he’ll go ugly tomorrow. That will only please those who are already voting for him and scare those who are still undecided.
I don’t think he will go there during the debate, either. I read a posting on another blog just a little bit ago that said this about the whole sleaze line of attack.
Does anyone think this will be true with anyone outside of the minority who are going to have this view regardless of anything that is said? Like the lady at the rally who, even after being told by McCain himself that she was wrong, still believed Obama was an Arab terrorist. I know the only rational reason for continuing this failed effort, at least from a Rovian perspective, is to try and delegitimize and hamstring as much as possible an incoming Obama administration. But how much impact will it really have on the effectiveness once he is in office? Especially if there is a significant increase in the Democratic majority in Congress. I think that, like the reflexive Clinton haters, it might not matter too much at all what is said or done. There are a number of people who are just going to hate him, no matter what.
I pray to all the big Gods and small gods that McCain brings up Bill Ayers in tomorrow’s debate. PLEASE.
Andrew Sullivan reminds:
So what does Obama do? Does he defend his “relationship” with Ayers – conservative founded board, anybody who wants to impact education must deal with Ayers, blah, blah, blah. Or does he go on the offensive, mentioning the Keating scandal, G. Gordon Liddy, and the Alaska secessionist movement?
Or is there another tack, with Obama doing a combination of defend and turning the argument onto the economy? If this is what Obama plans, it doesn’t ring with the taunting.
If I had to guess, I would say that Obama puts McCain on his heels with a full-bore offensive that is all-inclusive.
How do you read the tea leaves?
I expect if attacked he will say something like public service requires working with an imperfect public. None of us are perfect but we can all imagine a more perfect nation if we cooperate.
I would also expect him to say that his relationship with Ayers is well documented for those really willing to look, was minimal, and on par with countless other people any public servant deals with in the course of normal events.
I think it is a really bad idea to try in a soundbite to explain what his relationship really was. And I think it is a mistake to defend Ayers in any way. Its just too complicated to get out cleanly.
I could see Obama making a veiled threat of counter attack such as “perhaps we want to talk about the McCain supporters who also were on that board, but I think the American people are interested in matters of greater importance”
I agree about dodging any real explanation of Ayers because those attacking him do not really care anyway and neither do the American people so why bother? I think Barry O should roll with his perfected mocking style. Take McCain’s line of low attack. “Do you want me to go there John because I can?” Finish it off with the American people want something different.
The public will eat it up.
With luck, McCain will start to tic and spasm under the tension and mixture of drugs.
Obama and the moderator can appear solicitous of the failing health and wits… showing them as concerned gentlemen. McCain will just dissolve into nasty snarls the more they ask after his health. Someone pursuing command can not show weakness and get respect.
Americans need to know that McCain can’t survive a Presidency. Palin the Ambitious will ensure that… if he even lives through the inauguration.
He is already wandering mentally. If he is forced to sit next to a man he loathes, the pressure will build. The better Obama does, the more pressure McCain will be under.
One thing I hope Schieffer does bring up is this matter of McCain’s Presidential Transition Chief being a Saddam lobbyist and oil speculator. 45 million dollars for under the table deals will sting with people trying to make monthly bills. Oil contracts will remind them of this bloody war for false pretences. And Timmons is so much of a corrupt insider that it betrays the “maverick” meme. How is this domestic? Well, doesn’t a transition chief supervise the vetting of staff for the government offices and agencies? Who are his buddies? More corrupt oil speculators and lobbyists and people who deal under the table with tyrants and enemies of the state!!!
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/102975/exposed:_mccain%27s_presidential_transition_chief_aided_sa
ddam_hussein/
We can ask him directly about honor when he has surrounded himself with dishonorable men.