Quote Of The Day: On McCain’s Ad On Obama And The Troops

If inexperienced Obama cannot stand up to criticism now, he's gonna have a hellof a time if he makes it to the Oval Office somehow. He'll be in the fetal position within two weeks.

Sil,
Obama stood up to baseless attacks from your favorite candidate and ended up trouncing her at the polls.

Joe,
Glad to see other reasonable people are as pissed off about McCain's latest attack as I am.

I'm not angry at McCain; there is no reason to be so. I just find his dysfunctional campaign to be pathetic when not comical. And in some fairness to McCain, he has plenty of company, namely other Republicans. The whole GOP is dysfunctional these days.

If McCAin stayed as Mr. Nice guy incompetent geezer he will lose by double digits. If he goes negatives, he loses by 5-8 points. Since he loses either way, it does not really matter. However, I guess worrying about the irrelevant Republican campaign does mean that Joe does not have to reconcile Senator Obama's avid support for racial quotas and racial set aside programs. I doubt if anyone at The Moderate Voice will worry about how such an unpopular policy stance will affect swing voters. I guess that means that there really are not that many swing voters and that many people who claim to be moderate swing voters are really left of center Democratic Party supporters.

Joe does not have to reconcile Senator Obama's avid support for racial quotas and racial set aside programs

OMG, Obama is gonna give all our money to black folk!!! Get the pitchforks!

How come no one on the right is nearly as concerned about the government giving all of our money to Saudi princes, oil CEOs and defense contractors?

ChrisWWW,

If you can find a quote where McCain said he wanted to give money to Sauid Princes, you might have a case. However, Senator Obama this week stated that he fully supports quotas. http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/107...

Once again, I doubt I will find a single processive blogger who will bother to reconcile the constitutionality of quotas with Senator Obama legal education. Or how he supports a porposals that only about a third of Americans support.

SD,
McCain I didn't mention, but our country's energy policy (crafted by Republican Dick Cheney) relies on oil. Our President, also a Republican, has gone to Saudi Arabia and BEGGED them to increase production.

As for quotas, you're just using the word to try to scare people. Just like Republicans use the word "entitlements."

"The whole GOP is dysfunctional these days"

*******

Nah, don't count on it. Looks can sometimes be deceiving. Powerholders who are as entrenched as GOP/BigOil are rarely flounder and falter. They're affecting a limp.

Now why would they want to do that? ; )

Think.....

Silhouette,
You give the Republicans far too much credit. Systematically alienating every voter in the country is not a plan. It's suicide.

Joe said: "It seemed to have the tone and accuracy of the kind of ad Karl Rove would have used against McCain in South Carolina in 2000."

This is very true. However, as McCain knows only TOO WELL, Rove's SC strategy worked!

The pro-Obama media and blogs will go negative on McCain (NYT front-page above-the-fold innuendoes about extramarital affairs...AMERICAblog's smears that McCain was a traitor while a POW) so Obama need not get his hands dirty.

McCain is supposed to fight clean against a clean Obama -- who enjoys the advantages of his allies tossing the sh*t against McCain...and allowing Obama to play "good cop" testifying to McCain's patriotism and service...while progressives in the media and blogosphere tear it apart.

So I am not too concerned about this at all. McCain needs to fight to win.

Otherwise he will end up Bob Dole Lite.

Marlow,
So it's okay for McCain to be outright hypocritical and fabricate controversies so he can beat Obama?

"As for quotas, you're just using the word to try to scare people. Just like Republicans use the word 'entitlements.'"

You are factually wrong in both cases here.

* * *

"McCain needs to fight to win.

Otherwise he will end up Bob Dole Lite."

The problem is, he's doing a lousy job of fighting so far. I stand also by my earlier remark about the rest of the GOP being dysfunctional as well.

Joe, Rove is advising McCain's campaign. I think the thing here is that many of Bush's old campaign staff is working for McCain but, unlike 2000 and 04, the mood and atmosphere has changed dramatically and the old tricks do not work anymore.
They are playing to the old divide and smear to score and that simply does not reach voters this election.
It worked before because people were not worried about being homeless and starving and with out jobs like now. This is not an election that plays well to the wedge, to the attack and people want some serious answers.
That is something the republicans don't have. They have nothing to run on this time and trying to distract just doesn't work.
Also, McCain has a personal dislike Obama. Obama gets under McCain's skin like he did with Hillary. Both McCain and Hillary are people who take themselves and their belief in their own abilities way too seriously and feel they have been good soliders and waited for 'their turn'. along comes Obama who they feel has not been a good solider and waited his turn. And they feel they are far more qualified then anyone else and yet this young guy is beating them. This causes both to over react and lash out.
and that caused serious missteps for Hillary and is again with McCain.

keep on dreaming, sil. Keep on dreaming.
Just like you kept dreaming Hillary would be coronated queen of the world.
boo hoo

:The word 'churlish' (from the article) resonated with me. It sums up how McCain (not just his ads) have appeared in numerous interviews and public statements.
While it's been most evident over the past week, it reminded me of what I didn't like about his campaign against Romney.

I think more about McCain's character was revealed than just a momentary lashing out when frustrated. Losing one's temper momentrily is one thing. What repels me is the way anger and frunstration were put to use in a sustained cold-blooded and calculating way.

"That is something the republicans don't have. They have nothing to run on this time and trying to distract just doesn't work."

Not distract, but attack Obama, and so far this doesn't work.

I've seen an alarmist pamphlet as of a few days ago, "THE NEXT PRESIDENT WILL TAX YOU INTO OBLIVION" (followed by elitism or socialism references; I didn't read the whole thing in detail) that makes readers like me just laugh.

My previous posting was not about McCain campaign literature but was about more conservative or alarmist literature. (Obama's face was shown grinning; sorry, no turban.)

* * *

"feel they have been good soliders and waited for 'their turn'. along comes Obama who they feel has not been a good solider and waited his turn. And they feel they are far more qualified then anyone else and yet this young guy is beating them."

See the New Yorker article about Obama ("Making It") and his days in Springfield.

Recently the Tax Policy Center published an analysis of the Obama and McCain tax plans. The LA Times provided a review. The bottom line: Obama's plan -- cuts targeted to middle- and low-income Americans and increases for the wealthy -- would increase the national debt by an estimated $3.4 trillion in the next decade, the center said. Under a similar analysis, McCain's plan -- largely a continuation of Bush's tax reductions -- would add $5 trillion. The deficit is now $9.5 trillion.

Neither's great, huh Ricorun, but at least one is slightly better.

I want to echo that I too was alienated by this ad. I know I was largely already in the Obama camp, but I do sometimes vote for Republicans. If McCain wants to convince people like me in the next 3 months that I need to switch, this was NOT the way to do it.

To tackle some of the issues in comments, both sides have their resident schmucks, both in blogs and in large media. The left has KOS and AmericaBlog who will happily attack character at times, and the right has Michelle Malkin and ilk and, even more, the gigantic talk radio network insinuating that everyone left of them are at best corrupt idiots who want to steal your puppy dogs from you and quite possibly traitors to the nation. For mainstream media, the NY Times will run poorly sourced affair articles and Fox News will run poorly sourced "Obama was indoctrinated in Muslim schools in Indonesia" items. One would have to do actual research to see which camp has the most jerks, and we've all seen how productive those discussions about the media have been here on TMV.

In the end, each candidate and each campaign is primarily responsible for their own behavior. In this case, McCain took what's only a slightly debatable issue (whether or not a hospital visit was appropriate) and turned it into a character slam, deliberately leaving out facts and distorting the case (such as how often Obama has repeatedly visiting military hospitals privately with no cameras in tow).

What's more annoying is that I do NOT believe the McCain camp is bankrupt of legitimate, important ideas that will resonate with Americans. Virtually everyone respects his personal history. Many Americans will support his drilling policy, particularly if he sells it as a "drill or get $10 gas" line. He can talk about economic hardship and then ask if we should follow Obama's risky tax increases. He could even run ads suggesting that Obama only did the overseas trip for publicity, but doesn't have the real long-term experience of McCain. I don't agree with these arguments, but they are all fine, possibly persuasive issues with many Americans.

Instead, we get insinuations that Obama's sold out his country for power in one speech, and then deliberate distortions of a barely issue. If I'm suppose to choose McCain for his demonstrated character, then this new character from McCain screams to me, "I'll distort situations to win." McCain's ad is self-defeating.

Dang, I kill conversations. I'm going to start insulting large groups of people more.

Conserva-wackos are destroying America and, um, I have evidence that Obama has Al Qaeda underoos. And I'm going to write in Pee Wee Herman for President. Anyone who disagrees is clearly stupid and in the thrall of corporate communist French-loving gun toters.