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McCain Campaign On Obama Speech: "Premature Victory Lap"
Perhaps not surprisingly, the McCain camp took a whack at Obama's Berlin speech by suggesting it's presumptuous for him to be speaking abroad in presidential tones while still a candidate.
From McCain spokesperson Tucker Bounds:
"While Barack Obama took a premature victory lap today in the heart of Berlin, proclaiming himself a 'citizen of the world,' John McCain continued to make his case to the American citizens who will decide this election. Barack Obama offered eloquent praise for this country, but the contrast is clear. John McCain has dedicated his life to serving, improving and protecting America. Barack Obama spent an afternoon talking about it."
Complete with a swipe at Obama's internationalism and an obligatory (if slightly more subtle than usual) allusion to McCain's war service.
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Sad.
July 24, 2008 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sad, and once again, over the top. "Victory lap"?
And this:
is just hyperbole.I'm really looking forward to when Obama and his campaign can respond directly to this twaddle put out by the McCain campaign.
July 24, 2008 4:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Especially since McCain himself has been speaking outside of the country. What hypocrisy, check it out:
http://strategy08.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/is-canada-not-another-country/
July 24, 2008 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
YES!!! Looks like McCain took a premature victory lap in south America. I am wondering what happened to McCain's ability to think these days. By making those statements, he calls into question the reason HE went to south America.
July 26, 2008 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anybody else noticing that a lot of McCain's arguments against Obama lately seem to reduce to "Obama is winning!" Portraying your opponent as taking a "victory lap" implies the idea your opponent has reached victory. Complaining about the media or whoever "loving" Obama involves pointing out people really do love Obama. And so on...
I wonder if "Obama is winning!" is really a good message for McCain to be broadcasting right now...
July 24, 2008 4:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, it is probably the only things that McCain says that can be authenticated. His exaggerations are not very beguiling to his constituents. One of my daughters, married to an ex military man says that her husband, a staunch Republican is sick of the McCain whine and he objects to the really stupid campaign McCain runs. This whine of McCain's simply displays the worst of the McCain traits. Sad to see this happen in this man with such a great story. It may be the result of his aging, I am not sure.
July 26, 2008 5:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Grumpy.
July 24, 2008 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
New title for this article/thread:
-- ARG
July 24, 2008 4:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think that pretty much every time I see or hear Mccain now.
July 24, 2008 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
MSM's he said/she said gets pretty ridiculous and even then McPain complains that he doesn't get enough! You could run a sock puppet against Obama right now and the polls would show 51%-48%!
July 24, 2008 8:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Our latest polls show the Sock Puppet making gains in the heartland! Is Obama out of touch with common folks?
July 25, 2008 1:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Did he say it in that sneering tone he almost always uses?
I think it we could just get voters to think about which candidate they'd rather put up with seeing on TV for the next four years, it'd be a slam dunk. Even if you agree with what McCain says, he still must be damned annoying.
July 24, 2008 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Waaahhhhh!
wahh,wah, wah, slobber, slobber, waaaaaaahhhhhh!!!
What a bunch of whiny little slugs. They whine Obama doesn't go overseas enough, so Obama goes overseas, then they whine because Obama is overseas and not at home courting votes.
The entire McCain campaign needs to drink a bottle of surge, change its diapers, and take a nap.
July 24, 2008 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
The entire McCain campaign needs to drink a bottle of surge, change its diapers, and take a nap.
Laughing out loud!!!
July 24, 2008 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Check it out! McCain just released his own special commentary on the Obama foreign trip.
You won't believe it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwAXcR6wRuQ
July 24, 2008 4:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Vote for me because I crashed down a plane and was held captive for five years- anyone with fewer stories to tell is disqualified to be a President, because he ain't American. In fact, he is a traitor. I'm John McCain, vote for me.
Contrast, a speech of hope, unity against cynical, dividing statement.
Way to run a campaign.
July 24, 2008 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Graceless fuckers.
July 24, 2008 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Word.
July 24, 2008 4:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
That too. Graceless indeed.
July 24, 2008 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
John McCain continued to make his case to the American citizens
Oh, come on, Tucker, all you've done this week is attack Obama.
July 24, 2008 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rhymes with "Tucker".
July 24, 2008 4:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ass Pucker? Sucker? Campaign_down_on_its_Lucker?
No, I got it: Dumb Fucker!
July 24, 2008 4:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Continues to make his case to the American citizens who will decide this election."
What case would that be?
July 24, 2008 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
EXACTLY the point. He has no case, so he wastes our time asking his spokesmen to issue smart-aleck statements.
My head hurts. I can't wait until November 4.
July 24, 2008 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
That is *such* bucketful craptacular campaign speak. Sheesh.
More of that old meme of Obama as a talking suit.
July 24, 2008 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
McLame once again proving he is the Lamest of the Lame by again shooting himself in the foot!
July 24, 2008 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
While grimacing and grinning...
July 24, 2008 4:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
to McCain camp- Jealous much?
July 24, 2008 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
right, who'd want a president that people around the world would want to hear give a speech.
July 24, 2008 4:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
This kind of self-righteousness is insulting not only to Obama, but also to the voters and is truly gaggifying
July 24, 2008 4:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
All Obama did was give a speech in front of thousands of people. He did not give a premature victory speech.
Unfortunately, Obama cannot help but sound Presidential. Is that his fault?
I suppose that it is also Obama's fault that McCain doesn't sound POTUS-ish.
July 24, 2008 4:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Make that hundreds of thousands of people.
July 24, 2008 4:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sure you're right. I saw a number somewhere saying over 200,000 people. However in the absence of an official estimate, I wanted to post on the side of caution, lest I add to the hyperbole of this GE campaign.
July 24, 2008 4:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
I believe the 200,000 number was a German police estimate.
July 24, 2008 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain also made another HUGE gaffe on the issue of foreign policy during that same CBS video. Cenk Uygur goes into great detail on this gaffe here, where McCain says that Iraq was the first major conflict since 9/11.
Uh.....what about Afghanistan?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/another-john-mccain-gaffe_b_114797.html
July 24, 2008 4:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice catch there...an amazing candidate w/ full command of all of 17 neurons in his fuckin head!
July 24, 2008 4:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
CBS edited this out as well.
July 24, 2008 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCranium!
July 24, 2008 10:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't recall McCain ever making his case. I recall him attacking Obama ceaselessly. But nothing about why he's a better candidate or has a better vision for America. That would be nice to hear instead of this whiny bullshit.
July 24, 2008 4:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can we start calling him the Presumptive President yet?
July 24, 2008 4:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is what happens when you use Surge after the expiration date....
July 24, 2008 4:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOL!
July 24, 2008 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Can we start calling him the Presumptive President yet?"
Call him what you want, just make you sure to spell his name right..
July 24, 2008 4:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain Campaign: Premature Implosion.
He can take Viagra for that, right?
July 24, 2008 4:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
"McCain Campaign: Premature Implosion"
Too Funny. I think I'm going to title my habit of clumsily thrusting on top of my girlfriend as "The Premature Surge" in honor of the McCain Campaign.
July 24, 2008 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
"The Pre-Surge"
July 24, 2008 4:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
You had to know McCainCo was going to attack the "Citizen of the World" remark, and push McCain as "America First".
Secondly, you can bet McCainCo had had two press release attacks ready today regarding Obama visiting the troop hospital in Germany. If he decided to go it would have been "Obama exploiting the troops for a photo-op" but since he decided not to go it's "Visiting wounded troops is never inappropriate"...
Finally you can expect an attack tomorrow on Obama's use of "Choosing the devil you know over the devil you don't know" remark in tonight's interview with Brian Williams. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/24/obama-on-election-choice_n_114791.html
July 24, 2008 4:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
so john mccain doesn't think america is a part of the world?
i don't understand why they take that line of attack.
you can be both a citizen of AMerica, and (seeing as how america is part of the world) a citizen of the world.
is this rationale too complicated for republicans to understand?
July 24, 2008 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
unfortunately, for many it is.
July 24, 2008 5:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, the "devil you know" line was a poor choice of words on Obama's part considering the absurd climate of this election. Get ready for t-shirts with horns sprouting from the Democrat's head. But all that will do is entertain the Republican faithful and keep them from doing their work.
July 24, 2008 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Do you really worry about this?
I honestly am not worried about anything they say about Obama. We knew it would be a smear campaign - mainly because the Repugs don't have anything else to run on. Nada.
But I sure don't worry about what they come up with next.
July 24, 2008 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
i only worry about it because i'm afraid that most voters aren't as tuned in as i am.
if they were, why is john mccain rising in the polls after a week of blunders, gaffes, screw ups and mistakes on the one issue he's supposed to be an "expert" on?
July 24, 2008 4:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Because the media is busy questioning Obama's legitimacy and readiness. Nary a word about his opponent. I suggest we start a write in campaign that McCain receive equal coverage and scrutiny. Just not fair that Obama is hogging all of their inane questions and vapid analysis....
July 24, 2008 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jonze. Thanks for the link. I saw the video and wasn't concerned. He differentiated the "devils" by playing devil's advocate quite well.
One thing I like about Obama's candidacy is that he isn't afraid to talk to about reality while rest of the field was pandering to whatever the fickle voters wanted to hear. He has always addressed the voters as adults and it is up to the voters to behave like one.
July 24, 2008 4:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Does McCain have anything positive about his own campaign?
Nope.
July 24, 2008 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
And I know this has been remarked upon before, but it sure is nice to have a presidential candidate who can properly pronounce "nuclear".
July 24, 2008 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, it might have happened earlier, but I think the first President to pronounce it "nucular" was Jimmy Carter, who had a degree in nuclear physics from the Naval Academy.
July 24, 2008 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perfect timing for Obama to have gone and done the international thing. It puts plenty of pictures of him with world leaders looking presidential into the public's stream of consciousness early enough to cut against the Repubs' not CIC material mem.
He also has baited the Repubs into spending a bunch of their war chest now on media, and now has the luxury of time and money to respond appropriately. And, with the focus on the economy and enviroment here in the US, that is a discussion that will take place on Dem terms, making his cutting off the Obambi bullshit with regard to foreign policy all the more important.
In the next month before the convention, I would now like to see Obama's team get aggressive and take McCain on over oil, environment, infrastructure, and the economy and finish boxing him in. I like the way the calander is set up for Obama at this point, and am thrilled that he has gotten this trip out of the way at this juncture, and that it was so successful.
It has been a good week.
July 24, 2008 4:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain evidently stands for nothing but defeating Obama. His campaign couldn't be less enthusiastic about their own candidate...it's all about Obama, Obama, Obama. They act like they are as obsessed with Obama as they say the media is. Seems like a strange strategy to talk about Obama all the time.
July 24, 2008 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just because someone throws you a ball, it doesn't mean that you have to catch it.
July 24, 2008 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess the next attack is that it's been almost a week since Obama spoke to the American people. Why doesn't Obama love America?
Which, of course, will then be repeated endless by talking heads on every channel....
July 24, 2008 4:34 PM | Reply |