RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events McCain in 08?

Karl Rove must have really gave the liberals a nut kick, whomod thinks he is McCain's campaign manager, he doesn't even realize he was Bush's campaign manager, and is now an analyst for Fox News.....

Mehlman, Rove boost McCain campaign

By DAVID PAUL KUHN | 3/8/08 7:08 AM EST

John McCain is getting much more than President Bush's endorsement and fundraising help for his campaign. He’s getting Bush's staff.

It’s no secret that Steve Schmidt, Bush’s attack dog in the 2004 election, and Mark McKinnon, the president’s media strategist, are performing similar functions for McCain now.

But other big-name Bushies are lining up to boost McCain, too.

Ken Mehlman, who ran Bush’s 2004 campaign, is now serving as an unpaid, outside adviser to the Arizona Republican. Karl Rove, the president’s top political hand since his Texas days, recently gave money to McCain and soon after had a private conversation with the senator. A top McCain adviser said both Mehlman and Rove are now informally advising the campaign. Rove refused to detail his conversation with McCain.

The list could grow longer. Dan Bartlett, formerly a top aide in the Bush White House, and Sara Taylor, the erstwhile Bush political adviser, said they are eager to provide any assistance and advice possible to McCain.

Rove explained that he and McCain “got to know each other during the 2004 campaign.” In a separate interview, Mehlman noted that “McCain was completely loyal to the president in 2004 and worked incredibly hard to help him get elected.” According to Taylor, “The Bush Republicans here in town are excited for John McCain.”

Despite the president’s low approval ratings, there are clear benefits to McCain for this cozy relationship with the Bush team. They are seasoned operatives with a track record of winning back-to-back national elections in tough political environments. But there are obvious drawbacks. First and foremost, any association with the Bush administration helps Democrats make their case that McCain represents a clear extension of an unpopular presidency.

One of those making that argument is Matt Dowd, Bush’s chief strategist in 2004.

“[McCain] has sided himself so closely to the administration, especially on Iraq, now having various Bush advisers — that doesn’t sit well with the public,” said Dowd, who has recently broken with the Bush inner circle. “The public wants the non-Bush candidate.”

Dowd also argued that he believes that the proximity of Bush’s advisers could lead McCain to a strategic mistake: refighting the 2004 campaign. “There is a real danger of that,” Dowd added. “And I think some of the things John McCain has done, and how he’s done it, has been a fight or a battle that’s gone. I don’t think this is going to be a terrorism election or a national security election.”

The McCain adviser said Dowd's concern is unwarranted, pointing to the campaign’s belief that the economy will play a far greater role in the 2008 race than it did in 2004.

He doesn't post, he spams. That's what he's always done. He's too cowardly to actually communicate with anyone here (send him a PM. He hates reading those). He spams all the liberal talking points for the week then runs away hoping no one challenges him on anything.

[quote=rex]He doesn't post, he spams. That's what he's always done. He's too cowardly to actually communicate with anyone here (send him a PM. He hates reading those). He spams all the liberal talking points for the week then runs away hoping no one challenges him on anything.

No, that's exactly what it means.

[quote]I just stop by here to wind you assholes up. It's great fun for me. And the usual responses and insults delight me as I know and see that once again, I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.

It's not about swaying you, y'know. It's about raising your ire.

[quote=whomod][quote=rex]He doesn't post, he spams. That's what he's always done. He's too cowardly to actually communicate with anyone here (send him a PM. He hates reading those). He spams all the liberal talking points for the week then runs away hoping no one challenges him on anything.

No, that's exactly what it means.



So coming here and making an ass out of yourself is "winding us up"? We all laugh at you. We all mock you. We all know you're a loser who hides behind other people's words.



You really are that homeless person on the corner, aren't you? The one yelling all his crazy ass theories, right? The one who thinks the louder and angrier he gets the more right he is? Is that you?

And then that G-Man. Are the Republicans really against teaching kids to know how to protect themselves against child predators? Anything to win, eh? Trying to turn something positive and prudent into 'Obama wants to teach small kids about sex"???

You Republicans are simply slimey assholes. You guys wouldn't mind 1000 Adam Walshes and Polly Klaases, just so long as you "win".

I do have a life y'know.

Wow. This is coming from the same guy who lauded him as one of the only admirable republicans out there.

McCain has backed away from some of those things that the left was lauding him for. Some of his biggest detractors back then are now his defenders.

like obama being honored to have rev, wright as his pastor and now ignoring him.

After all the times you've bitched about me reposting this quote (and similar) of yours:



One would think you wouldn't be so stupid and deceptive as to now try and claim you "never believed" that McCain was honest.

Now, run along and edit the above post so you can try and claim you never said it.

Having trouble working the quote brackets? Slow down. Take a deep breath. It's ok.

Um.. just because i don't give a flying fuck what you say doesn't mean I "run away" from you. I do have a life y'know.

I just stop by here to wind you assholes up. It's great fun for me. And the usual responses and insults delight me as I know and see that once again, I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.

It's not about swaying you, y'know. It's about raising your ire.

Rove: McCain Has Gone 'One Step Too Far'
By Robert Barnes
LOUDON, N.H. -- The Obama campaign was pleased today to introduce a new ally: Karl Rove.

Well, maybe that goes a bit far, and its manner of introduction was not exactly one President Bush's top political strategist might have chosen for himself.

Nonetheless, the campaign seized on Rove's comments on Fox News Sunday today to bolster its case that Republican presidential nominee John McCain has been lying about Obama's record in recent days. The Obama campaign has specifically decried two McCain ads: one that attempts to portray as an insult to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin Obama's contention that McCain's calls for change are putting "lipstick on a pig," and another Obama says misleads viewers about the purpose of a sex eduction bill he supported.

In response to a question, Rove said McCain "has similarly gone one step too far, attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the 100 percent truth test.''
...

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/14/rove-both-campaigns-ads-are-over-the-top/

Read the whole article Dude. He said both campaigns are over the top. I agree. And this whole thing could have been avoided if they took mCCain's suggestion and di town hall meetings twice a week. The whole tone of the election would be nicer and they would stick to the issues.

John McCain’s surge in the polls comes even as Barack Obama has inherited the most favorable Democratic environment since the Watergate era — an unpopular Republican president, an unpopular war and a flagging economy.

Suddenly, though, Democrats have found themselves in a world turned upside down, where Republicans have the momentum from running on change — and the latest wunderkind of presidential politics.

Below are five trends showing up in polling that help explain the change.

1. McCain as a 'change agent'

Eight in 10 Americans say they believe the country is on the wrong track. Obama has built his campaign on the perception that he is both the personification of change and the man to enact it.

Even though McCain has spent decades in Washington and a member of his party is in the White House, recent polling shows that he has managed to successfully portray himself as a change agent and erode Obama’s brand in the process.

The Democratic firm Democracy Corps found that the public prefers Obama to bring “the right kind of change” as president by a 50 to 44 percent — down from his 16-point edge in mid-August.

This week’s ABC News/Washington Post poll asked “who can bring about needed change to Washington.” The public favored Obama by 12 points — down from 32 points in June.

CBS News polling this week found that 46 percent of voters believe McCain can change Washington — up from 28 percent in July.

The Obama campaign has taken notice. His stump speech now rips McCain as a phony reformer, and yesterday he launched a TV ad campaign and website highlighting McCain’s ties to lobbyists.

2. The center shifts: Independents move to McCain

Independent voters, and particularly white independent men, have leaned Republican in presidential races since 1980. But before the Republican convention, Gallup polling showed just 40 percent of independents favoring McCain.

Post-convention, that rose to 52 percent — and the increase in support was slightly greater among men than among women, which appears to undercut the idea that Sarah Palin has benefited the ticket by drawing women to it.

Before the Democratic convention, white women favored McCain by 7 points. After it, they favored him by 6. Following the Republican convention, McCain was winning white women by 11 points — a 4-point gain.

Before the Democratic convention, white men favored McCain by 20 points. After it, that margin shrunk to 13 points. Following Denver, white men favored McCain by 25 points — a 5-point gain.

A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll found that 62 percent of men have a favorable view of Palin, while just 53 percent of women view her favorably.

Though no Democrat has won a majority of white voters since Lyndon Johnson in 1964, Obama cannot win unless he pulls back some of these white independent voters.



3. The economic gap narrows

James Carville, who coined the catchphrase “the economy, stupid” in 1992 while working as a strategist for Bill Clinton, frets that Obama is losing his ownership of the issue that has become voters’ foremost concern in recent months.

“I noticed the tightening on the economy,” Carville said. “And if it stays that way, I would be damn worried.”

When Democracy Corps asked voters last week which candidate would “do a better job” with the economy,” Obama had a 50 to 44 percent advantage—down from a 16-point edge in mid August.

Gallup this week shows a 3-point edge for Obama on the question of which candidate “can better handle the economy”—down from 16 points in August.

A recent internal Republican poll found that 30 percent of likely voters shop at Wal-Mart at least once a week. Obama retained a slim 45-42 edge with Wal-Mart women—but 64 percent of men in the group favored McCain against just 29 percent who preferred Obama.

4. Palin narrows the enthusiasm gap

The Republican base, once disenchanted, has returned with a vengeance since McCain’s surprise pick of the first-term Alaska governor as his running mate.

This week’s CBS News poll found that 53 percent of Obama voters said they were “enthusiastic” about Obama, up 5 points since before his party’s convention, and still better than the 42 percent of McCain supports who feel the same way. McCain’s support, though, is up 18 points since selecting Palin.

The NBC-Wall Street Journal poll found that only 12 percent of McCain’s supporters were “excited to be voting” for him in early August. This week 34 percent said they were excited — nearly a threefold increase.

Palin has played no small part in this GOP awakening. CBS found that fully 85 percent of McCain backers were “pleased” with the selection of Palin, compared to 65 percent of Obama supporters who said the same about his running mate, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden.

And among independents, 46 percent have a favorable view of Palin while only 31 percent say the same of Biden.

While Democrats have continued to hit at Palin’s inexperience, only 36 percent of likely voters believe Palin lacks the proper experience while 47 percent said the same of Obama.

5. Democrats voter ID edge dulls

Democrats have been relying on their newfound advantage in party identification all year. Party ID remains the best single indicator of voter support.

Republicans began losing voters prior to the 2006 midterm elections that gave Democrats a functional majority in the Senate. But those voters straying from the fold were mostly becoming independents, not Democrats.

Democratic voter enrollment began to grow in 2007, even as the drop in Republican enrollment leveled off. Now, though, the dynamic appears to have shifted.

The week before the Republican convention, just 39 percent of voters said they leaned toward or identified themselves as Republicans. Following the convention, that number rose dramatically to 47 percent. Meanwhile the percentage of voters leaning toward or identifying themselves as Democrats dropped from 53 to 47 percent. Gallup notes that party ID shifts are not unusual after a convention.

Gallup also reports that the double-digit Democratic lead among voters who are asked which party they’d generically prefer to control Congress has disappeared and that the two parties are now effectively tied.

McCain has backed away from some of those things that the left was lauding him for.

Some of his biggest detractors back then are now his defenders.

The media agree: McCain LIES!!!!!

St. Petersburg Times (Editorial) “Campaign of lies disgraces McCain” McCain's straight talk has become a toxic mix of lies and double-speak. It is leaving a permanent stain on his reputation for integrity, and it is a short-term strategy that eventually will backfire with the very types of independent-thinking voters that were so attracted to him.

Atlanta Journal Constitution (Jay Bookman) The volume and audacity of lies pouring from the McCain campaign is startling and even historic…That’s really something, lying straight out about a FactCheck group, knowing that you’re going to get caught but not giving a damn about it. With stuff like this, the McCain camp has cut any remaining tethers to reality and integrity and is now floating wherever the winds of illusion and whimsy may take them. It’s quite remarkable, and quite insulting to the intelligence of the American people.

Pittsburg Post Gazette (Tony Norman) Where have you gone, John McCain? You once said you'd rather lose an election than lose a war. Is it worth winning an election if it means forfeiting your soul on the altar of political expediency?...Where is the honor in reciting lies for something as transient as political advantage? What are we as voters supposed to make of political ads that accuse Barack Obama of advocating sex education for kindergartners?... Despite the intellectually dishonest maneuvering of your campaign, many Americans admire you, John McCain. Before you embraced the darkness, I was among those who disagreed with your politics, but considered you honorable. Now it's hard to look at you without seeing the scoundrels who made you what you are today.

Kansas City Star (Barb Shelly) McCain stoops to deception, distortion: Maybe you’ve seen it. The campaign ad cites the authoritative journal Education Week to claim that Democrat Barack Obama has been missing in action on education reform…Shamelessly misleading the public?...These are old tricks we’ve been seeing in local elections for years. Distort. Twist. Deceive. Damage. And the winning candidate drags a load of public contempt into office. I had hoped for better from McCain…John McCain may win the presidency this way, but he will lose the respect he has acquired over the years.

Boston Globe (Scot Lehigh) Pretzel logic from the McCain campaign: Here’s the question voters should be asking themselves this week: Just how stupid does the McCain-Palin campaign think I am? The answer: Dumb enough to hoodwink with charges so contrived and cynical they make your teeth ache…As the nonpartisan campaign watchdog FactCheck.org has made clear, this is a thoroughly dishonest ad [Kindergarten]. No matter. The McCain campaign has shown it's ready and willing to say preposterous things to win.

Washington Post (David Ignatius) Stopping at nothing to win: Thinking about the Palin choice, you begin to ponder other moves McCain has made on the road to winning the Republican nomination. McCain was right a few years ago to warn that Bush's tax cuts would have potentially ruinous fiscal consequences; now he favors extending the cuts that have produced a crisis of debt and deficit. Why did he switch his position, other than political opportunism?...In May 2006, after McCain had courted the Rev. Jerry Falwell in an effort to win conservative support, I asked him if he was bending his principles for the sake of winning. "I don't want it that badly," McCain answered. "I will continue to do what is right…If that means I can't get the Republican nomination, fine. I've had a happy life. The worst thing I can do is sell my soul to the devil." He was right.

Washington Post (Eugene Robinson) The Scream Machine: There was a time when Republicans campaigned on their ideas, programs and values. This year -- lacking ideas, programs or values -- John McCain and Sarah Palin are running for the White House on an elaborate fictional narrative of victimhood…Creating the false impression that Democrats and journalists are unfairly attacking Palin serves another purpose as well: It helps create the impression that legitimate and necessary questions about her record -- such as her one-time support for the Bridge to Nowhere or her history of seeking the congressional earmarks she now claims to reject -- are somehow out of bounds.

Chicago Tribune (Steve Chapman) To McCain the truth is expandable: McCain has concluded that a fact-based case about Obama isn't enough to prevail in November. So he has chosen to smear his opponent with ridiculous claims that he thinks the American people are gullible enough to believe. He has charged repeatedly that his opponent is willing to lose a war to win an election. What's McCain willing to lose to become president? Nothing so consequential as a war. Just his soul.

Chicago Tribune (Frank James) “McCain plays dirty on Obama & sex-ed” So the McCain ad, in the way it contorts the truth, is pretty shocking from a candidate who has promised to bring change and reform to Washington, a man who's urging Americans to live for a cause larger than themselves. This is an old-fashioned, unreconstructed politics whose goal, first and foremost, is to get the candidate elected, the truth be damned. McCain has said he'd rather lose a campaign than lose a war. But it appears from this ad he'd rather lose any purchase he has on straight-talk than lose this presidential election.

Chicago Tribune (Eric Zorn) `Sex ed' ad educates us on the character of John McCain: The surprise came at the end: I'm John McCain and I approved this message. With that infamous admission, McCain surrendered his integrity and signaled a willingness to say or do anything to get elected… We used to expect better from John McCain. No longer.

TIME (Joe Klein): A new rule here: Rather than do the McCain campaign's bidding by wasting space on Senator Honor's daily lies and bilge--his constant attempts to divert attention from substantive issues--I'm going to assume that others will spend more than enough time on the sewage that Steve Schmidt is shoveling and, from now on, try to stick to the issues.

TIME (Joe Klein) Apology Not Accepted: he is responsible for one of the sleaziest ads I've ever seen in presidential politics, so sleazy that I won't abet its spread by linking to it, but here's the McClatchy fact check.. I just can't wait for the moment when John McCain--contrite and suddenly honorable again in victory or defeat--talks about how things got a little out of control in the passion of the moment. Talk about putting lipstick on a pig.

TIME (Joe Klein)her McCain Flip Flop: Army Times, which is not--last time I checked--a radical left wing publication, takes John McCain to task for changing his position on the Future Combat Systems program. This is yet another example of how running for President has driven McCain off the deep end. In the past, he was one of the more consistent voices against foolish Pentagon weapon systems. Here's a program that McCain previously wanted to end. Then Obama says he wants to slow-walk it...and McCain--reflexively, it appears, and unable to recall that he previously opposed it--decides to support it.

New York Times (Paul Krugman) Blizzard of Lies: I’m talking, instead, about the relationship between the character of a campaign and that of the administration that follows. Thus, the deceptive and dishonest 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign provided an all-too-revealing preview of things to come…And now the team that hopes to form the next administration is running a campaign that makes Bush-Cheney 2000 look like something out of a civics class. What does that say about how that team would run the country? What it says, I’d argue, is that the Obama campaign is wrong to suggest that a McCain-Palin administration would just be a continuation of Bush-Cheney. If the way John McCain and Sarah Palin are campaigning is any indication, it would be much, much worse.

New York Times (Editorial): The most disheartening aspect of a scurrilous Republican ad falsely accusing Barack Obama of promoting sex education for kindergarten children is its closing line: “I’m John McCain, and I approved this message.” This from that straight-talker of yore, who fervidly denounced the 2004 Bush campaign’s Swift Boat character attacks on John Kerry’s military record. What a difference four years makes, especially after Mr. McCain secured the nomination by hiring some of the same low-blow artists from the Bush campaign.

New York Times (Larry Rohter): The advertisement [“Disrespectful”] is the latest in a number that resort to a dubious disregard for the facts. The nonpartisan political analysis group Factcheck.org has already criticized “Disrespectful” as “particularly egregious,” saying that it “goes down new paths of deception,” and is “peddling false quotes.”

New York Times (Michael Cooper and Jim Rutenberg) McCain Barbs Stirring Outcry as Distortions: Mr. McCain came into the race promoting himself as a truth teller and has long publicly deplored the kinds of negative tactics that helped sink his candidacy in the Republican primaries in 2000. But his strategy now reflects a calculation advisers made this summer — over the strenuous objections of some longtime hands who helped him build his “Straight Talk” image — to shift the campaign more toward disqualifying Mr. Obama in the eyes of voters.

ABC News-Political Punch (Jake Tapper): One can only imagine what the John McCain of 2004 – who called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads “dishonest and dishonorable” – would say about this ad… I suppose one could twist this stuff any way you want if your only point is to make an inflammatory charge. And win an election… The New York Times’ “Checkpoint” (“Ad on Sex Education Distorts Obama Policy “), Factcheck.org (“Obama, contrary to the ad's insinuation, does not support explicit sex education for kindergarteners”) and the Washington Post’s Fact Checker ("McCain's 'Education' Spot Is Dishonest, Deceptive") say the ad is a gross distortion. I agree -- in both senses of the word "gross."

AP (Charles Babington): The "Straight Talk Express" has detoured into doublespeak. Republican presidential nominee John McCain, a self-proclaimed tell-it-like-it-is maverick, keeps saying his running mate, Sarah Palin, killed the federally funded Bridge to Nowhere when, in fact, she pulled her support only after the project became a political embarrassment. He said Friday that Palin never asked for money for lawmakers' pet projects as Alaska governor, even though she has sought nearly $200 million in earmarks this year. He says Obama would raise nearly everyone's taxes, when independent groups say 80 percent of families would get tax cuts instead.

I read the whole article & agree that both campaigns are over the top but you still have McCain running some ads that even Rove is criticising. And I don't see how the town halls would have prevented McCain from running such an ad.

ahem


BIG trouble for the DNC.

"If we're going to ask questions about, you know, who has been promulgating negative ads that are completely unrelated to the issues at hand, I think I win that contest pretty handily," Obama said.

IT JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER!

OR, AT LEAST, BIGGER!!!

IT JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER!

THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!