Weak!

Mmmm...if desperation were an alternative energy I'd start believing President McCain could actually solve the energy crisis.

It's too bad we just can't harness it...

TRUE! The best is yet to come. Reverend Wright, we're looking forward to your "best of."
Poor Barry Hussein supporters, always crying... the rose has faded and by November, it will be President John McCain!

Clinton supporters will vote McCain!

McCain/Clinton 2008!

In the words of Eric Cartman, "Weak!"

It's weak as hell, but the bought and paid for MSM will run with it.

They are trying to make it a housing issue attack, when it was a "He's out of touch" attack. Most who cared to know, have known about McCain's many houses for awhile now - nobody ran on that story because that isn't the story.

Obama should just keep firing away, and don't even acknowledge this.

Obama's counterattack ad;

Obama: "I'll see your house and raise, um, er, I can't raise, I have only the one house."

That's all they could come up with? Next, please.

Isn't this like their sixth response today? I bet they are panicking. Good.

Oh and guess what? The network news didn't even air the dumb ad they only aired Obama's. Ha!

Marginal Player.

This is a site for Democrats. If you want to post your points I suggest you go to Little Green Footballs or some other conservative site.

Of course, you can post your comments here, but you'd probably be happier with your kind over there.

Cheerio...

John McCain's staff says Cindy owns all the homes, McCain is a homeless vet! Feel bad for him!

Wow, they really did hit a sore spot. This ad is practically incomprehensible and terribly off-key.

"Barack Obama knows a lot about housing problems."

Yeah, that's why he's polling way ahead on the economy.

"Now that's a housing problem."

No, in fact, that has nothing to do with the housing crisis, but it does show that you're a lot more interested in tearing down your opponent than in solving people's problems.

Please run this ad as much as possible. During the Olympics, even.

The housing thing is really getting to McCain. He never would have responded so quickly and forcefully, with an actual ad, if it didn't hit a chord.

So I say this to Obama: CONTINUE TO ATTACK MCCAIN JUST LIKE THIS! It's working. It's getting to him. He's on the defensive. Now keep him there.

Oddly enough, the ad then ends on some cheery music, and the disclaimer from John McCain that he approved this message.

The audio equivalent of the creepy smile...

Hmmm. They seemed to have the Rezko material all ready to go. Strange. I wonder why?

Okay -- but, sigh, there are going to be a whole bunch of people hearing this for the first time and buying it. And I work with a bunch of them!! Is there a good 'neutral' source for solid information to rebut THIS pile of crap?? Haven't checked Factcheck.com yet -- any place better?

Trust me, there are a lot of people just now tuning in who DO NOT WANT TO THINK about this election or the state our country is in. They listen to Fox News which tells them "don't bother, folks, we'll do your thinking for you." These people have a positive impression of their familiar 'hero' John McCain and they think the new guy looks and sounds sort of strange -- SO they are going to buy, going to want to buy, any good reason to not get into the mess: "Don't worry about the details - the guy you know is good, the guy you don't know is bad. Go back to your everyday activities and just remember to get out on Nov. 4th and vote for the good guy."

So when I hear -- as I assure you I will -- "he's an interesting young man but he's all tangled up with that crook Rezko," what do I pass along to make them at least wait for the *next* good reason not to pay attention to this election or consider the new guy?

This obviously lacks the punch of the Obama spot from earlier today, because it doesn't add anything new. Rezko got brought up a fair bit in the primaries, but essentially failed to stick. Same with Ayers. Wright did stick, and caused Obama a ton of heartache, but if he hasn't completely inoculated himself against further damage on that, he's at least gotten pretty close by denouncing Wright and leaving the church.

I mean, I don't blame the McCain for trying, but if they want an ad that really stings and gets them some earned media, they'll have to do better than something that generated a collective yawn during the primary season.

The housing thing hurts because they've got McCain himself making the stupid remark. That alone is powerful and NBC used it perfectly.

It's also terribly misleading. They show a headline saying "Obama raised in Rezko trial" as if Obama was somehow involved. Pretty weak tea, if they can't even stick to the facts.

"John McCain is lying about me again. I guess he can't help himself, but maybe he can't remember promising to run a civil campaign? Heck if he can't remember how many houses he owns, who knows?"

Just curious, but Obama is speaking live right now in Virginia, and he was at it earlier today, so where's McCain? taking a nap and staying away from reporters? Right now Obama is totally dominanting the airwaves and intertubes.

Hothead blew his load early...

Talk about showing off his love for preemptive war.

This is what desperation looks like. McCain stepped in it yesterday and his campaign has no idea how to fix it....

Hardball lineup:

VP speculation
How important Hillary is
McCain's houses story (but in the context of "why is Obama so weak?")
Other crap

It's amazing. It really is.

All the local Virginia news organizations, ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX all aired Obama's framing McCain as out of touch at the Virginia rally and also showed clips of his commercial....nice

I think the perfect response, if any be made, is to point out the McCain campaign's "honesty problem". Such as pretending that something where Obama got a clean bill of ethical health by all investigators is a "scandal" while failing to mention McCain's own censure by the Senate in the Keating 5 scandal. Or in pretending that liking a certain type of vegetable indicates "elitism" while only ordinary folks own 10 houses, have $100 million and private planes and wear $500 shoes. It's "elitist" to have a good education, but not elitist to classify only those making over $5 million a year as "rich".

Et cetera.

Cockpunch them some more - go full steam ahead to tearning down the "straight talk" bullshit.

The Keating Five issue cost the tax payers $160 BILLION, The Rezko deal cost the tax payers exactly $0.00.

Not that combating this on the merits is the right tactic, but Rezko and his partner only got $855,000 in developer fees out of organizing a $14 million public development project in Chicago. In no conceivable way is "Rezko got $14 million" true, and he certainly didn't get it "from Obama." The ad's script goes: "From Obama, Rezko got political favors including $14 million from taxpayers." This is flatly false, and there's a reason that Clinton stuck to the vague guilt-by-association game with Rezko instead of pointing to this particular real estate development (and Obama's advocacy of it).

McCain really stepped in it, didn't he? Yesterday, his campaign was on top of the world. They felt like they really put Obama in his place and had taken the wind out of his sails. Then today, his handlers mishandled him and put them in a situation where they are really flailing. First, it's the fancy lettuce and the pointy head professor, then it's POW, then their Cindy's houses and you can't go after Cindy, now it's "Obama asked for it by pointing this out and he can't do that." Pathetic.

What the fuck - triple post?

Whoa- typecast is either drunk or high.

typecast? I meant typepad.

Don't mind me, I am high.

:)

Maybe Obama should air an ad where he gives a toll-free number and website address and says:

We believe that all Americans deserve to know the truth, especially before they decide something as important as who will be their next president.

Please call this number anytime or visit this website to get answers to anything you have heard about Barack Obama or John McCain.

We stand behind the truth and encourage you to do the same.

God, I was just listening to a die hard puma on hardball and it was pathetic. Totally delusional and I am sooooo sick of the sour grapes. The stuff they make up is mindboggling. Now they are claiming voter fraud in the dem primaries????? The clintons are soooo republican and full of garbage. All pumas please shut up and vote for mcbush. Oh, now she is threatening to break up the party and start their own party, all 12 of them. Who cares?

LOL... whatever. At least Obama can remember how many houses he owns.

Either McCain has so many he can't keep track, or he's losing his marbles and can't remember.

Don't respond. Response only echoes. Let Rezko play out a day, long enough so they can't use it again without appearing desperate/repetitive, but render it inert soon enough...Obama advantage: announce VP late Friday/Saturday.

During convention: Create new attack. (McCain supports draft.) & etc. Air that clip during convetion.

Keep them on defensive up to GOP convention. Pivot, pivot, pivot. New attack, followed by new attack, followed by...

During GOP convention, BREAK UP/SCRAMBLE THEIR MESSAGE. Show McCain 1.0 vs. McCain 2.0 comercials. "What has replaced the good guy?" Show McCain is Bush commercials. Show of Buchanan saying McCain makes Cheney look like a lamb. Juxtapose mounting war costs against failing economy. Repeat McCain draft commmercials, 100 years in Iraq commercials, Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran commercials. Announce potential cabinet, Richard Clarke, Webb etc. Show the terrorist fighting machine in middle of GOP convention. Break up any coherency in their convention. Scramble and interfere.

I hate stats, but the candidate with the greatest post-convention bounce has won the election how many times?

Keep charging/changing/pivoting the attacks but keep maintaining a consistent underlying message: McCain is out of touch with you (the US voter).

Don't overplay any new confidence. Try to pull their AYERS/WRIGHT attacks sooner than later. Right now, they'll play Wright the last two weeks of October, try to make them play it earlier.

Debates. Pat down McCain and look for microphones. I have a cochlear implant, and given all the ear-technology I've seen and tried, I know firsthand how easy it is to radio-feed an idiot with temporary internal measures. Clean his ears out.

Any big event (Georgia, or credit bank collapsing) get in front. Respond quicker than McCain, in six word max SOUND BITES.

Ground game all the way through. We're the majority, never forget.

obama ought to keep hitting away at this, the timing couldn't be better because any responses, especially weak ones like this will get lost with the VP and Convention news in the next few days.

Ok I actually watched the ad. Obama has a "million dollar mansion"? Give me a break. I wish they would use a proper picture of the house, it really isn't a "manison" or that big. My house is probably bigger and I'm not a millionaire. Totally pathetic and a shame. Obama is probably the closest to a middle class president that we have ever had. He is not dripping with wealth by any means and was still paying off his student loans until a couple of years ago. It really pisses me off when they claim that he is rolling in dough and an elitist. It's a blatant gd lie.

to those who are saying obama needs to take the opportunity of the rezko charge to throw keating five in mccain's face, i agree. i'm only writing this comment to toot my own horn for having written about it at TPMCafe before the rezko ad even came out, but no one read it...

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/caveman/

sorry, i'm a bit shameless.

Obama shouldn't back down on this Ad; this is a Christmas gift from McCain. The media are ready to do the house bidding. Obama should not back down

McCain's ad is WEAK.

Obama's ad is hits HARDER IMO.

Weak.

It goes well beyond the Keating Five

When considering John McCain’s history of unethical behavior, the list usually starts (and ends) with the Keating Five scandal in the 1980s, for which McCain was rebuked by the Senate Ethics Committee for having shown, at a minimum, poor judgment. In the aftermath, McCain helped improve his public image, and bury the scandal, by becoming an advocate of campaign-finance reform.

But the notion that McCain cleaned up his act may not be entirely true. Take, for example, Donald Diamond, a wealthy Arizona real estate developer and generous McCain contributor, who wanted some coastal land in California freed up by an Army base closing.

When Mr. Diamond wanted to buy land at the base, Fort Ord, Mr. McCain assigned an aide who set up a meeting at the Pentagon and later stepped in again to help speed up the sale, according to people involved and a deposition Mr. Diamond gave for a related lawsuit. When he appealed to a nearby city for the right to develop other property at the former base, Mr. Diamond submitted Mr. McCain’s endorsement as “a close personal friend.”

Writing to officials in the city, Seaside, Calif., the senator said, “You will find him as honorable and committed as I have.”

Courting local officials and potential partners, Mr. Diamond’s team promised that he could “help get through some of the red tape in dealing with the Department of the Army” because Mr. Diamond “has been very active with Senator McCain,” a partner said in a deposition.

For Mr. McCain, the Arizona Republican who has staked two presidential campaigns on pledges to avoid even the appearance of dispensing an official favor for a donor, Mr. Diamond is the kind of friend who can pose a test.

Ya think? The closer one looks at this, the worse it appears.

In California, the McCain aide’s assistance with the Army helped Mr. Diamond complete a purchase in 1999 that he soon turned over for a $20 million profit. And Mr. McCain’s letter of recommendation reinforced Mr. Diamond’s selling point about his McCain connections as he pursued — and won in 2005 — a potentially much more lucrative deal to develop a resort hotel and luxury housing.

In Arizona, Mr. McCain has helped Mr. Diamond with matters as small as forwarding a complaint in a regulatory skirmish over the endangered pygmy owl, and as large as introducing legislation remapping public lands. In 1991 and 1994, Mr. McCain sponsored two laws sought by Mr. Diamond that resulted in providing him millions of dollars and thousands of acres in exchange for adding some of his properties to national parks. The Arizona senator co-sponsored a third similar bill now before the Senate. […]

For the California projects, the campaign said the McCain aide arranged the introduction to an Army official for Mr. Diamond’s team as “a constituent matter.”

Oh, is that what the kids are calling it these days?

McCain helped a wealthy and generous donor buy land from the Army — complete with special water rights — for a quarter of a million dollars, which McCain’s buddy then sold two years later for $20 million. There’s a term for this — it’s called “influence peddling,” and it’s exactly the kind of thing McCain swears he never gets involved with.

If the Rezko story was considered a big deal by campaign reporters, the Donald Diamond issue should be huge. Why the New York Times ran this the day of the Pennsylvania primary, when it’s likely to get lost in the shuffle, is a mystery to me. If this same story ran on Thursday morning, it would have become the talk of the political world in a hurry.

Been there, done that, already debunked. But I'm sure McCain will find a way to tell us all that there is some way, some how that he isn't responsible for what he says or does 'cause he's a POW ya know. His whole campaign should just get buttons that say, He's a POW. It would save us all a lot of unnecessary speaking. They use it day and night lately. I bet the rest of America is beginning to catch on that he's using it as a catchall crutch. Ugh! Talk about low class. POWs have an honor thing about that. They don't do it. McCain's the only one who has tried to use it to gain power and celebrity. I bet his grandpa and dad would be real proud.

It's hardly a mansion. But since they've brought Rezco into it, they need to remind voters that McCain is one of the original Keating five. That's the way this game is played. They also need to saturate the market and build on McCain's housing flap. They're worried because it hits McCain on two fronts - his great wealth and his failing memory.

What's the bet that the envelope-with-"white-powder" scare at the McCain offices was courtesy of Karl Rove.

The fire department says there was no "white powder" in them after all.

Hail Mary smoke screen to cover the how-many-houses gaffe?

Wouldn't put it past them ...

Nice touch giving Obama the "OJ on the cover of Time" treatment. No accident...

McCain has bad timing. This won't get traction. Not the day before Obama announces his VP pick.

Every time McNasty opens his mouth and smiles, it reminds me of a former employer of mine. Said employer lived in a multimillion dollar pad on the beach and associated with multimillionaires and gawd, did he ever have halitosis. If he'd get within ten feet of you, your skin would crawl. He smelled like he'd been frenching elephants in his spare time!

The American Dental Association will be very happy if McMajorShit gets into the White House.

Just in case Obama's campaign reads these comments I just want to plead that nobody at the convention praise John McCain. We have all heard it enough from Obama and his surrogates. We aren't donating money to hear constant praise of McCain's service in the 1970s.
Frankly, I loved Reid's comment today, "I can't stand McCain." That's the message that we need to get across to the people in this country--McCain is an arrogant, reactionary, senile jerk who can't be trusted with our children's safety. And the Democratic Congress will find him as impossible as Bush to work with--he is NOT the bipartisan candidate he is trying to claim to be.

Regarding the issue of Cindy and all of her square footage, let's step back and look at it parametrically. 'Cause you gotta know that James Dobson is asking himself how many whips, vibrators and dildoes she keeps hidden away in all of those McMansions. And if the wing-nuts take a hike, there goes the whole ball of wax, Max.

obama should stop being cool and sardonic and start being passionate. people will respond to passion (but not crazy like dean was in 2004).

I'm sorry guys, no matter who you look at it: they are right. The "Seven" ad is a mistake.

Well, since we are talking about connections to felons. Besides John McCain's felon buddies Charles Keating and Abramoff, the entire Cindy McCain fortune is based on a criminal enterprise.

The father of Cindy McCain, James Hensley, was convicted by a federal jury in U.S. District Court of Arizona in March 1948 on seven counts of filing false liquor records. Hensley also was charged with conspiracy to hide from federal authorities the names of persons involved in a liquor industry racket with two companies he managed, United Sales Company in Phoenix and United Distributors in Tucson.

The umbrella company, United Liquor, at that time held a monopoly in Arizona, organized and managed by Kemper Marley, who was accused of mob ties by a reporter who was murdered in 1977.

Let's see an ad on that!