« The Limits of Local Action | Main | Dot Connection » Pants on Fire II30 Jul 2008 03:16 pm NBC News: "McCain and his campaign repeated at least two lines of attack against Obama, which when first said in early July, were called 'bogus,' 'wrong,' 'inflated' and 'misleading' by independent fact checkers." It looks like the McCain campaign's strategy of relying on frequent lying may be getting their candidate something of a reputation as a liar. Comments (27)
The strange dynamic is that this stuff is coming directly from the McCain campaign or -- in a couple of cases -- indisputable surrogates. The campaign has eschewed the deniability that seemed to be an important component of the Bush primary run in 2000 and the Bush reelection campaign in 2004. It's not as though the prohibition against "coordination" has historically been much of a hurdle. If anything, the law encourages campaigns to do a better job of wiping down their fingerprints. It's also being done early. My guess is, the McCain campaign panicked. Not just because of the poll numbers, but also because -- looking ahead -- the Dem convention stands to be more exciting, and even the Dem VP pick is more likely to be newsworthy and interesting. (Romeny or Pawlenty? Aka What or Who?)
.....this report is in First Read. It SHOULD be a headlling story, both on msnbc.com, and on the Nightly News. Yeah right.
.....this report is in First Read. It SHOULD be a headlline story, both on msnbc.com, and on the Nightly News. I'm not holding my breath.
I think they are intentionally lowering the bar to prepare for the really ugly 527 stuff to come. With the bar lowered, the really outrageous stuff won't look quite so outrageous. Once the public is inoculated, they won't be shocked. Then the ugly stuff will just work on the lizard brain.
"The campaign has eschewed the deniability that seemed to be an important component of the Bush primary run in 2000 and the Bush reelection campaign in 2004. " You need to have rich freinds to launch surrogate attacks. McCain doesn't have many friends.
The Obama campaign needs to hit a lot harder when it comes to their response from John McCain's misleading attack ads. Over at http://strategy08.wordpress.com/ our contributing writers are focusing today on the Obama teams rapid response, and how it can improve. Stop on by and let us know what you think.
It looks like the McCain campaign's strategy of relying on frequent lying may be getting their candidate something of a reputation as a liar. Mission accomplished!
I forget where it was - this blog or Sullivan's - but there was an article about how voters really aren't typically objective even if they claim to be independents. They tend to have a strong disposition towards one party or the other, and use things like flag pins to justify their anger and angst towards a candidate. Sometimes though, you have to make shit up. And I think that's what this behavior by McCain is. It's simply something to agitate people that are already in his camp. It has the advantage of being believable because of the impressive work the Limbaughs of the world have done with the phrase "tax-and-spend liberal."
Like voters really notice what a campaign said months ago. The McCain campaign is catching needed fire for their negative shift, but certainly not enough to make them stop. http://www.political-buzz.com/
But there are lots of responsible news organizations in this country that are not so eager to risk annoying 40% of their viewership. Yet they seem perfectly content to annoy 60% of their viewership. Strange, ain't it? The odds of the media pointing out the McCain camp is a bunch of lying sacks of crap are about as good as me starting at QB for the Patriots this year.
I think the McCain folks have given the Obama team a HUGE stick to beat them with. I've been watching his town halls today and he has said "that's the honest solution America really needs" more than a few times to great applause. While I'm disgusted by the Rove style adds and tenor of McCain I love the fact that he jumped out early with his true colors.
I think the McCain folks have given the Obama team a HUGE stick to beat them with. I've been watching his town halls today and he has said "that's the honest solution America really needs" more than a few times to great applause. While I'm disgusted by the Rove style adds and tenor of McCain I love the fact that he jumped out early with his true colors.
I think the McCain folks have given the Obama team a HUGE stick to beat them with. I've been watching his town halls today and he has said "that's the honest solution America really needs" more than a few times to great applause. While I'm disgusted by the Rove style adds and tenor of McCain I love the fact that he jumped out early with his true colors.
I think the McCain folks have given the Obama team a HUGE stick to beat them with. I've been watching his town halls today and he has said "that's the honest solution America really needs" more than a few times to great applause. While I'm disgusted by the Rove style adds and tenor of McCain I love the fact that he jumped out early with his true colors.
whoa sry bout the spam, not sure how that happened...:P
Hi, Mike, welcome to Matthew Ygelesias. Hi, MIke, welcome to Matthew Yglesias. Hi, Mike,... Good point.
McCain is like a Saul Tigh who lies all of the time.
I don't think lying per se is a deal-breaker. At least not with a majority of voters. After all, lots of Republicans told me in 2000 during the long count that Bush's best warrant to be declared the winner of the election is that he cared enough to steal it, while Gore, Christopher and Co. were trying to play by the rules. Apparently the latter wouldn't have been the kind of ruthless chief executive we need. That, and democracy is for pussies.
Barack Hits Back: Ad Says McCain Taking Low Road http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/30/barack-hits-back-ad-says_n_115960.html
And the press backlash grows.
I think the Ambinder post to which you recently linked http://tinyurl.com/5o5pxv might actually have a causal role (might be causing more frankness at MSNBC, NBC and the Washington Post). In particular Ambinder reported that McCain's aids are counting on a double standard Concerns about whether McCain is coming off too mean, they say, are irrelevant. The media, they believe, has created double standard that allows them to view Obama's contempt for McCain as in-bounds and McCain's attempts to draw contrasts with Obama as out-of-bounds Now that was certainly meant to be background and Ambinder's going with it is a major sign of a backlash. Also, I assume that reporters don't like to be played for fools, and really really don't like the people who are playing them to laugh at them behind their backs. If I were a reporter, I would be very strongly tempted to convince whatever McCain aids were sharing their very frank thoughts with Ambinder that they were totally wrong. If I could do that by actually reporting facts for a change, that would be nice too. Sad to say, I suspect that pique has as much to do with the worm turning than a desire to inform the public.
>not so eager to risk annoying 40% of their viewership. 40% of their viewership AND their top brass. In 2004, the CEO of Viacom (which owns CBS) said that he votes for Viacom, and that media companies fare better under a Republican administration than a Democratic one. (Sorry, I don't know how to make a quote block.)
Being a straight shooter had been McCain's greatest asset, and the basis of the MSM's man crush. Now what? Liar vs. messiah?
You guys still don't get it. McCain is going to be President. He could bugger Bush's daughters on the White House lawn - and he would still be President. Between the war in Iran and some significant vote fraud in the important states, McCain is going to win. He can say anything he wants. Nobody's going to call him on it and if someone does, it will be forgotten within 24 hours. Meanwhile, every little thing Obama does will be - negative - headlines for days.
"voters really aren't typically objective even if they claim to be independents" Wow, Sully said that? Talk about specializing in the bleedin' obvious. Independent = douchebag who doesn't want to admit to voting republican every time.
Comments closed August 13, 2008. |
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Heads in the Sand
Don't rush to conclusions, Matt. NBC's been calling him on this shit, sure. But there are lots of responsible news organizations in this country that are not so eager to risk annoying 40% of their viewership.
If they know what's good for em, they'll report that McCain's sorry-ass lies are "controversial statements."
Posted by Ted | July 30, 2008 3:22 PM