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GOP Senator Runs Anti-War Ad After Obama's Speech
GOP Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon has found yet another way to tie himself to Barack Obama as he seeks re-election in this blue state, the Oregonian reports.
Smith has been running this ad for a while, replaying news footage of his dramatic turn against the Iraq War from right after the 2006 election:
It turns out his campaign bought ad time with local cable providers for it to run on CNN last night, at the first commercial break right after Barack Obama's acceptance speech.
Smith has previously run ads linking himself to Barack Obama and John Kerry, but this whole pattern seems to be getting even more ridiculous by the day.
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I've made a couple of donations to Simth's Dem opponent, Jeff Merkley. But I'm not very optimistic about it, even in the blue state of Oregon. Smith knows his electorate.
August 30, 2008 12:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
As, an independent, I really wish I could vote for Gordon Smith...In fact I wish I lived in Oregon rather then Boring michigan
Sarah Palin Supported Pat Buchanan 4 President
August 30, 2008 1:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Heh. Funny you should capitalize Boring.
A dear friend of mine lives in an Oregon town about 20 minutes east of Portland. It's called Boring, OR 97009. I shit you not!
There's a small hamlet nearby called Damascus. They're not big enough to have their own post office, so they get their mail through Boring, and that's what it says on their mailing addresses. I remember driving by and seeing a big sign on one of the businesses proclaiming, "Damascus is NOT Boring!"
August 30, 2008 12:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
El Gordo likes to pander about once every six years. He's still a Bush Republican who voted FOR the war in Iraq. Merkley will be a much better more representative Senator for us Oregonians and all of the lying ads of crapitude won't change that.
August 30, 2008 1:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
is it working? what do the polls say?
August 30, 2008 1:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
I still remember smith's disgusting display in the senate after the republicans got beat in 06. Pathetic. I hope the lying panderer gets smacked. Disgusting. Gee, all of a sudden he sees that he may lose in his reelection bid in 08 and he has a "change of heart." I hope he rots in hell.
August 30, 2008 1:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thank goodness you don't live here; you'd be stuck with old senator "I never met an issue I won't flipflop on" Smith. Actually, we were kind of hoping McCain would pick him for VP - just to get rid of him - heck, we'll even put him in a dress if it will help! Trust me, with Smith's ambition, he do it.
August 30, 2008 2:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Call it ridiculous all you want, it's an extremely shrewd strategy. If he holds onto his Senate seat, we'll know why.
August 30, 2008 2:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Unfortunately, Merkly also supported a resolution praising Bush's invasion. And he was imposed on Oregon by Chuck Schumer, who together with Feinstein, were the main enablers of AG Mukasy.
August 30, 2008 4:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Chuck Schumer is one of those Dems who make Gordon Smith look good.
As a New Yorker, I would gladly trade Schumer for Smith. Unfortunately, Schumer's not up for reelection until 2012.
August 30, 2008 8:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm an Oregonian. I live in the valley and I'm a fairly mainstream Portland liberal.
Unfortunately, it looks to me that Smith is going to kick Merkley's butt all across the state. Smith is running some very effective TV ads. Merkley hasn't been doing much of anything. Merkley either doesn't have any money or is playing a very good game of rope-a-dope. I can't see any way that Obama can get enough votes to carry this mistake of a candidate. Poor guy will be lucky to carry Eugene.
August 30, 2008 5:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Greg and Eric, can you please run a thread about Karl Rove's hypocrisy over the VP pick?
He said Obama would chose someone for strictly political reasons (like appealing to a group or from a swing state) and said Kaine was from a small town and only had a few years in position.
Now he says Palin is a great pick. This deserves attention.
August 30, 2008 9:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Like this: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/30/politics/animal/main4400716.shtml
August 30, 2008 9:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Everyone has to realize that she is one mooseburger away from the presidency.
August 30, 2008 10:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
New Obama ad responding to Palin's choice.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/nochange_ad/
August 30, 2008 9:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good stuff.
August 30, 2008 9:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly the right way to respond! Gov. Palin has numerous flaws (not least, her policy positions) and will self-destruct soon enough. The rules of the game at this point:
1) Keep after McCain on the issues and his temperment
2) Do not raise visibility, lower expectations, or create sympathy for Gov. Palin
3) Wait patiently for the moment to hit Palin, if that even becomes necessary (though I suspect she'll be thoroughly discredited by mid-October)
August 30, 2008 9:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Absolutely correct. They should basically ignore her. By the way, the other day I was praising the pick as being outside the box and shrewd based on her bio. Well, I finally heard her acceptance speech and it was plain awful. What was the media saying that it was good???? Give me a break, it was awful and she sounded awful. Mcbush is going down in flames. Obama just has to not make any mistakes and do well in the debates and obama will crush mcbush in November.
August 30, 2008 9:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think she will be discredited by the time the sunday shows are over.
August 30, 2008 10:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oooh. I hate watching those Sunday tongue-waggers. I count on TPM to fill me in on anything newsworthy.
However, this week I am tempted...
August 30, 2008 12:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
The pick of Sarah Palin makes me realize how little prepared Oilbama is to be President. Oilbama started running for President 135 days after becoming the Freshman Senator from Illinois.
He did nothing during his time there except to Vote for Dick Cheney's Energy Bill.
Sarah Palin has run a fishing boat, a Town, and a State, while Oilbama has run nothing but his big fat mouth while being in the pocket of Big Oil.
August 30, 2008 9:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, at least his claim to fame wasn't voting to give the king a blank check to start a war that killed hundreds of thousands of people, like clinton.
August 30, 2008 9:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Obama is in the pocket of Big oil? He is advocating oil independence!!
Palin is OPENLY supportive of big oil!
August 30, 2008 10:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
The pick of Sarah Palin makes me realize how little prepared Oilbama is to be President. Oilbama started running for President 135 days after becoming the Freshman Senator from Illinois.
He did nothing during his time there except to Vote for Dick Cheney's Energy Bill.
Sarah Palin has run a fishing boat, a Town, and a State, while Oilbama has run nothing but his big fat mouth while being in the pocket of Big Oil.
August 30, 2008 9:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nice try Republican troll.
Obama's experience is limited, and thus he brought along someone in Biden who has YEARS of experience and can guide Obama's vision for the country.
McCain, the warmonger and with a few heartbeats left, put the entire country in jeopardy by having his next-in-line to be someone with zero experience outside of a state where the moose population exceeds the human.
August 30, 2008 10:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
O my god! She's exactly what we need! Let's sign her up to be empress, what do you say?
Never mind that 4 month old Downs Syndrome baby she brags about not aborting and then walks out on to run for Veep.
August 30, 2008 10:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Goddam it TPM. When are you going to fix your server problems. Yesterday was pathetic, and today is not much better. It is clear that you can not handle the traffic at key points in the election process. Also, WTF is up with your server system being run from Australia?
Here is what is still going on. Shape up.
Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, domains@stinson.com.au and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
Apache/2.0.52 (Red Hat) Server at tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com Port 80
August 30, 2008 11:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Probably when enough of us pony up donations to cover the cost of increased server capacity :-)
Their server isn't "broken" per se. They don't do anything to "fix" it. They just cross their fingers and hope the user-load abates.
Practical hint: When you get that "500 Internal Server Error" message, your comment probably has been accepted. But it may take a few minutes to appear. Try going back to the page and reading for a while, then reload and see if your comment is there.
I blame the TPM editorial staff. If their postings weren't so wildly popular, we/they wouldn't be in this mess!
August 30, 2008 12:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
If Gordon Smith wants to be affiliated with Obama and Kerry he should become a Democrat.
I hope Oregon voters can see through his charade and they will elect a Democratic US Senator in November.
August 30, 2008 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have a very dear friend who lives in Portland (actually Beaverton now) who says that Oregon is actually Crimson, but is offset by the Portland liberals.
August 30, 2008 8:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Demographcs show that Oregon is not a 'Blue' state but it is a almost neutral state that votes towards personal freedoms.
Gordon is a right wing hack who lies really effectively to his folk. Go to http://www.progressivepunch.org and drill down on his voting record a bit. Gordon is not a kneejerk bushie but he is a solidly recessivist bastard.
Merkley should be able to kick Gordon to the curb but he has as much game as Bush42.
August 30, 2008 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
The establishment Democrats pushed for Merkley over activist lawyer Steve Novick, just as they did for Lieberman in Connecticut against Ned Lamont. The Oregon Democratic Party poured much money into Merkley's campaign and he barely beat Novick. Novick would have given Smith fits, but Merkley is such a milquetoast I don't have much hope. Why do Democrats do this time and again? I'm beginning to think the Powers of the Democratic Party truly don't want to win. Maybe it's too profitable to be on the outside looking in, whining about it and crying for donations. I for one am tapped out for the Democrats. Until they start acting like an opposition party with backbone, my wallet is closed.
August 30, 2008 9:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Every time ol' Salmonkiller Smith puts up one of his 'look, I'm almost a Democrat, myself" ads, the DSCC responds. Their current gem points out (at least twice in the ad) that Smith supported Bush's positions for 1518 days. A couple of quotes from his bald-faced hawk speeches seal the deal.
August 31, 2008 12:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
I mean come on Gordon, if you want to be a Democrat just say so. I am guessing he will go right into the GOP line when the time comes.
August 31, 2008 1:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here in Oregon the redneck descendants of the KKK will vote for the white guy with the cute chick. There is a local billboard saying "Anybody but Hillary." Many immigrants from California who vote here at their second, third, or fourth home addresses, bless their hearts, will vote for anyone who looks like Ronnie.
But even so, the vote counting machines are not made by Diebold and the liberal community spans age groups throughout the valley and the coast. We need organization. Steve Novick would have rallied the communities well, making this an interesting race. Merkley votes ok but is not feisty enough, too quiet.
August 31, 2008 1:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
dont forget this story:
McCain & Veterans' Health Care
McCain Has Repeatedly Voted Against Increasing Funding for Veterans Healthcare to Keep Tax Cuts for the Rich. John McCain has repeatedly voted to keep intact tax cuts for the rich, rather than provide American veterans with adequate healthcare. 2006: McCain Voted Against Eliminating Increased Fees And Co-Payments For Veterans Health Care Program By Closing Corporate Tax Loopholes. McCain Stood Out in Opposing Veterans' Healthcare Funding. McCain Puts Politics Over Vets; Would Rather Be Out Campaigning Than Supporting Our Troops. McCain missed an important vote this year that supported the funding of the troops in Iraq and guaranteed them adequate medical care upon returning home. [2007 Senate Vote #76, 3/15/07]
Busy McCain expresses views on Rumsfeld, immigration, Iraq war
Paul Giblin, Tribune
August 31, 2008 5:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
mccain has also been
flip-flopping,
or I would call it fibbing to our troops.
This has been all about the money he can make,
not about the men and women in Iraq.
double talking mccain..
I dont think it is not actually is his fault, but remember what happened to that other fellow randal cunningham?
follow the money..
August 31, 2008 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I found the funniest website on the internet the other day. www.congressionaltraitors.com It was a real treat to see those big boys getting their due including Senator Gordon Smith
September 7, 2008 10:16 AM | Reply | Permalink