Pathetic, even by GOP and McCain campaign standards:
Sen. John McCain’s top campaign aides convened a conference call today to complain of being called “liars.” They pressed the media to scrutinize specific elements of Sen. Barack Obama’s record.
But the call was so rife with simple, often inexplicable misstatements of fact that it may have had the opposite effect: to deepen the perception, dangerous to McCain, that he and his aides have little regard for factual accuracy.
The errors in McCain strategist Steve Schmidt’s charges against Obama and Sen. Joe Biden were particularly notable because they seemed unnecessary. Schmidt repeatedly gilded the lily: He exaggerated the Biden family’s already problematic ties to the credit card industry; Obama’s embarrassing relationship with a 1960s radical; and an Obama supporter’s over-the-top attack on Sarah Palin when — in each case — the truth would have been damaging enough.
At some point it is going to settle in with the media that when the Republicans said they were making their own reality,what they really meant was that they were going to lie about everything.
*** Update ***
As I have repeatedly said, the McCain campaign is being run by wingnut bloggers:
“Whatever the New York Times once was, it is not today by any standard a journalistic organization,” Schmidt said. “It is a pro-Obama organization that every day attacks Senator McCain, attacks Governor Palin, and excuses Senator Obama.”
Smith should start referring to Obama as “Nobama” and end every future phone conference call with “Heh, indeed.”
Cris
Why can’t people learn this simple lesson? It’s my recurring complaint against Michael Moore. When you can attack your adversary on the facts, don’t exaggerate the facts. It makes you look like a liar and undermines your entire attack.
demkat620
Show me a campaign attacking the press, and that’s a losing campaign.
Nation of whiners, kiss my big, fat, white, ass, Baldy.
jake
Too. Fricking. Funny.
At least Schmidt doesn’t sound at all like a guy who forgot his glasses and is having trouble reading the script.
Shey
This is about where I stand on the whole deal right now. The idea of a $700B bailout with caps on golden parachutes is only slightly more palatable than without. And the whole deal tastes like shit, and thats being kind.
Incertus
Is it really possible that the press has grown the semblance of a spine in the last couple of weeks? I know everyone has a point beyond which they can’t be bullied, but I figured the press still had a lot of road to go down before getting there. Or maybe, just maybe, the voices from the intertubes are having the effect we’ve been wanting, namely, that we’re getting the press to do its job better. I doubt it will last.
Just Some Fuckhead
So what’s for dinner, John? I made a fuckton of chicken and sausage gumbo last night. Prolly gonna heat that up and have it. Only thing better than gumbo is gumbo, day two.
demkat620
I get the feeling there was something more going on behind the scenes. The BBQ good feelings wore off. Maybe they got lied to once too often but more likely, Schmidt and company used members of the press in some fashion and they didn’t like it.
Also Schmidt, is keeping them from speaking to St. BBQ so it could just be they are punishing Schmidt for keeping them from the one they love. Take your pick.
demkat620
Italian chicken tenders, twice baked potatoes, fresh green beans, salad and a very nice Pinot Grigio.
Jon H
Dude has one hell of a pointy head.
Warren Terra
I don’t agree that in each case the truth would have been bad enough. Andrew Sullivan, some Kos Diarist (and not one on the masthead), and some finance board member we’ve heard of are not exactly sending out their thoughts about Palin’s family on official Obama Campaign Stationary.
Dennis - SGMM
I took a poodle with the ol’ Louisville Slugger. After I roast it over a fire made of old cardboard boxes I’ll garnish it with some crabgrass and wash the whole thing down with dirty water.
Figured it’d be good to know how it all tastes in advance.
Jake
It’s hard to watch all this and not get the sense that PANIC has set in for Team McCain. They look absolutely, completely fucking lost, like the gramps in the woods at the beginning of On Golden Pond.
Warren Terra
A slight correction: I assumed the complaints were identical to the ones TPM reported on earlier today, when in fact the Palin criticism was about Wexler, who has some standing as an Obama surrogate, responding to Pat Buchanan’s claims that Palin was a supporter of his. Though that was easily the worst of Schmidt’s lies, as Wexler was simply commenting on the truth as it was transiently accepted to be.
Chris Andersen
I don’t know if the press has grown a spine so much as they have just soured on McCain in a way I have not seen in my lifetime. I thought the turn on Bush was pretty harsh once his star faded. But McCain’s karma account is really coming due.
If I didn’t think these guys deserved it I wouldn’t think it was fair either.
Mike
Actually, for none of these is the truth particularly damaging, except by Politico standards.
Stooleo
I think the pundit class has lost a shit load of their own money in the few weeks and they are starting to get pissed about it.
wingnuts to iraq
i was unaware that McCain was a POW until I saw the tag on this post… who knew?!?!?
Jake
John McCain has FALLEN, and he CAN’T GET UP.
Jake
Jesus fucking Christ. Anyone catch this? Rush said Obama’s not an African American, because he’s from the “Arab parts of Africa”?
MAJOR ASSHOLIO.
Martin
I don’t think that any experienced team would think this is a winning direction. My guess is that McCain blew up on the bus over how the media was dishonoring him and told them to get on it. Turning the media into the enemy is good to secure the GOP base, but that won’t turn them around in the polls. At best it’ll stem the bleeding at some point.
t jasper parnell
McCain is going to be on Letterman, I suspect this is a mistake on McCain’s part.
Joshau Norton
Pissed Off Wanker.
nepat
So the Republican platform is amended to include not just the Right to Life, but the Right to Lie.
And if you call us on it, we’ll lie some more. It’s an entire team of flaming pants.
Jon H
“It’s hard to watch all this and not get the sense that PANIC has set in for Team McCain. ”
I can’t help but think McCain’s economic advisor guy intentionally did the absurd “invented the Blackberry” thing, after seeing the markets going into the shitter. His greatest fear must be that he’ll be responsible for cleaning that up.
I think their strategy now is to just get the base out in order to help reduce the damage down ticket. Has anyone compared McCain/Palin’s campaign stops to a list of GOP states and districts that are in jeopardy? I bet there’s a correlation.
pillsy
That video wasn’t big, and it wasn’t clever, and I loved every goddamned minute of it.
Stuck in the Fun House
It’s soup bean night at the Funhouse, The Working Man’s Caviar.
Tom65
Go fuck yourself, Mr. Schmidt. That little tirade may have just sealed the deal.
cleek
grilled pork tenderloin marinaded in lime + oregano + garlic (very Greek), dill & garlic angel hair, garlic Brussels sprouts.
garlic.
and beer, lots of beer, ‘neath he starry skies above. time to go choke my neighbor’s incessantly barking dog, then play Super Mario galaxy.
Jake
CNN.com headline right now: “GOP takes brunt of blame on economy, poll says”
No shit Sherlock.
dj spellchecka
“Whatever the New York Times once was, it is not today by any standard a journalistic organization,” Schmidt said. “It is a pro-Obama organization that every day attacks Senator McCain, attacks Governor Palin, and excuses Senator Obama.”
That would be true, if we were discussing FOX-FACTS.. but the poor old Times has to play with the reality it’s dealt….reality with a stubborn liberal bias…..
w vincentz
Dinner:
Roadkilled muskrat with foraged cattail roots.
Slow cooked over raked up maple leaves.
Burdock root and agaricus (fly agaric) mushrooms as a side.
Beverage- blood tea.
zuzu's petals
Excellent!
And I especially love the Obama folks’ instant response to the Schmidt complaint about the NYT:
But I will believe the press has grown a spine when Palin’s refusal to be available to the media is run on the front page of every paper every day until she holds a press conference.
Just Some Fuckhead
I hate you, Cleek.
No bailout for you.
Shouting at the Rain
Dinner:
Maryland Crabcakes w/ Saltines
Green beans fried in lemon/Italian breadcrumbs
Baked brown rice
Mass quantities of Widmer Hefeweizen
Orange sherbit w/ fresh strawberrys
MobiusKlein
Was this the product of the Obama Rope-a-Dope?
Let the McCain camp send out enough lies and attacks, get the pundit class noticing the slime, and thus controlling the narrative?
(With an assist from the blogger class to pressure the media about stuff, not let things slide by uncontested. )
cleek
…oh and i forgot the apple pie i made last night. if i leave any room… after all the delicious beer.
tBone
Jesus Christ, not one of you is having arugula? Turn in your liberal elitist cards at the door, you fucking posers.
I think it’s important that Americans be reminded over and over again that this election is between a POW and an Afro-Arabic jihadist sleeper candidate. Rush is doing God’s work here.
I loved that too. The Obama campaign appears to have invested in one of Dennis-SGMM’s junk-seeking boots.
Robert Johnston
Fixed. I, for one, would be shocked if McCain doesn’t pay hookers to piss on him while he wanks. And if he doesn’t he should probably start doing so, because maybe if McCain could work out his corrupt wierdo fetishes in his sex life then they wouldn’t so dominate his policy preferences.
Dreggas
Hamburger Helper, literally. Figure I may as well enjoy poor food.
cleek
Petulant Old Whiner
jcricket
Speaking of nothing, here’s another epic fail from the Bush administration’s “GWOT”.
Based on my rough estimate, our “conviction” to false imprisonment/eventual freeing ration (from Gitmo and the rest of our Gulag Archipeligo) is about 1:1000. Not that is a justification, but are these the fucktards we want to be handing anything to? The economy? The military? Government agencies? IRS? There is nothing they touch they don’t fuck up in a way worse than I could have imagined.
jcricket
Excuse the outrage – lead to double posting.
DougJ
I bet it works, though.
nicethugbert
I think Schmidt says theses things to secure a position with Drudge. Guys got to make a living somehow after the election.
As for the Media not loving McCain, it’s because his ratings suck. Simon says so.
yet another jeff
It’s like the McCAAAIIINNN!!! campaign is Old Yeller, and the press is Travis Coates. I think they’re starting to see their beloved old dog has gone made. It’s sad, but they’re seeing through the tears that they’re going to have to do the right thing.
jcricket
On a more serious note – this event highlights one of the key differences between liberals and conservatives regarding criticism of the press. Liberals, mostly, want the press to actually function – have skepticism, report on facts, don’t use “false balance” because you’re afraid of appearing “biased”.
Conservatives want the press to turn into the PR arm of the Republican party. Any fact checking or push-back is evidence of liberal bias.
These are very different critiques.
skippy
imo, it happened when mcmuffin hired the sleaze squad from the bush campaign. heretofore the press had seen mcmuffin (correctly or incorrectly) as a man of integrity.
the press seemed to be quite aghast that mcmuffin would do anything to win, forgetting, apparently, that he’s a repubbblican.
Montysano
Krugman was on KO tonight and hit on something: whatever possessed Paulson or his people to write something like this?
So arrogant, so in-your-face. Well, whatever they were thinking, let me say “Thanks”, because it really seems to have galvanized people.
Krugman said Paulson’s demeanor was sending the message “All your decisions are belong to me”. Really.
PeterJ
They wrote it so that the democrats then would add the oversight and then vote for it. The Republicans will then use their vote to hit them over the head and win the election.
HRA
The McCain camp has turned up the heat to erase the headlines on the economy and go back to “personalities”.
I was home today nursing a sinus infection that had me on the couch all day watching the McCain surrogates eat up the time allotted for the opposing views in too many different segments on too many TV stations.
Bottom line: They need to get tha attention away from Gramps’s gaffes and direct it to the Palin popularity.
yet another jeff
Palin’s not doing so well in the popularity department. Maybe too many flagged molecules, or negative ions, or scrubbing bubbles that do so much extra work. She’s a brick. And the McCAAAIIINNN!!! campaign has gone Old Yeller on the press.
With the Chinese floating our notes, they gave us the curse of living in interesting times.
jeff -14
Yes, I propose a rating to go with the plus whatever…minus is how many drinks you think you need before whatever it is will stop you from going all Lewis Black, ranting and doing that thing with your fingers.
Robert Fredson
You people mocking John McCain for his service are exactly what America is sick of–and exactly why Obama will lose.
(That and his dual loyalty to islam.)
Martin
Yep, because when the financial markets are imploding, we’re staring down a 3rd simultaneous war, and americans are falling further and further behind, what really matters is what a bunch of jackasses in east blogistan are saying while +5.
Vote McCain, because while you might be living in your car and eating your cat, at least you stood up for someone a few people were staying mean things about.
jcricket
While McCain was a POW he didn’t even have cat food. He had to survive on GOP talking points alone.
jcricket
I support that idea. Hitch your ride to Palin’s popularity.
Hitch your ride to a woman who’s following Nixon’s playbook from Watergate on a matter that could have been resolved without incident were she not a vindictive, paranoid asshat. To someone who can barely string together a sentence when not near a teleprompter. Who makes women pay for their own rape kits. Who thinks being able to theoretically see Russia (remember, she’s never been to that island) makes her a foreign policy expert.
McCain can ride his Magical Palin Pony all the way into the fucking ground while the GOP burns.
nicethugbert
jcricket for Prez!
TenguPhule
He wrecked four planes and surrendered to the enemy.
But don’t call it torture.
Is it too late to return him to the Vietnamese and get a replacement?
jcricket
I’m not actually interested in disparaging McCain’s military service. And 4 years in a POW camp must be absolute hell. That said:
Given that summary of the “facts” it’s hard to believe Kerry was the one on the receiving end of Purple bandaids and Swift Boaters.
*fist:palm*
yet another jeff
And one year, at Christmas, one of his captors wrote GOP talking points in the sand….
John PM
Poodle is so elitist. Real Americans will be eating pitbull (w/o the lipstick).
I will take a pass on the beverage. With your menu, I think that warm piss would be a better drink.