McCain Decries Lack Of Bipartisanship In Speech Moments Before Releasing Ad Attacking Dems
In public remarks a little while ago, John McCain professed his disappointment with the "lack of bipartisan good will" in dealing with the financial crisis, and called for everyone to "come together in a bipartisan way" in order to chart the way forward.
At around the same time, his campaign released a new ad directly attacking Democrats and Obama and blaming them for the meltdown.
"I am disappointed at the lack of resolve and bipartisan good will among members of both parties to fix this problem," McCain said today in Des Moines, Iowa. "Bipartisanship is a tough thing; never more so when you're trying to take necessary but publicly unpopular action. But inaction is not an option."
"I call on everyone in Washington to come together in a bipartisan way to address this crisis," McCain later said.
A few minutes later, the McCain campaign released this spot attacking Dems and Obama for the meltdown:
The ad suggests that Fannie and Freddie are largely to blame for the crisis, and says that McCain pushed for stronger regulation of the mortgage giants, "while Mr. Obama was notably silent."
"Democrats blocked the reforms," the spot continues, and invokes Bill Clinton's criticism of Dems on this front.
McCain made his remarks calling for bipartisanship at around 11:10 this morning. The McCain campaign sent out the ad attacking Dems and Obama at 11:26.
So it only took 16 minutes for the McCain campaign to drop its principal's bipartisan pretenses. Which is actually an improvement over yesterday, when McCain managed to attack Obama over the crisis and then call for no finger-pointing in the space of only two sentences.
McCain is lurching from one story line to the next. He and his campaign are in dissaray.
Barack "No Drama" Obama.
John "Norma Desmond" McCain.
September 30, 2008 12:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Norma Desmond! LOL
Ironically, John McLame is also Joe Gillis, the gigolo floating face-down in the pool.
September 30, 2008 12:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
O. My. God.
that's perfect.
September 30, 2008 12:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, he's a floater, alright.
September 30, 2008 4:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course, it's comical to listen to the righties spin this. I work with a hardcore Republican who came in absolutely raving this morning about how it's the "do nothing" Dems' fault, etc., etc.
I won't go into all the details, but the funniest was when he said: "You know what we need to jumpstart this economy? A new war. We've always done great when there's been a war going on. And not a war started by Democrats, because we only win when it's started by Republicans. Vietnam? Started by a Democrat. Afghanistan? Started by a Democrat."
I guess it's revisionist history now with Afghanistan, and the bangup victory in Iraq is a already booked (mission accomplished, after all), oh and that little war ... you know, WWII. That one should be overlooked. It wasn't FDR's war. It was Truman's.
Not that I'm advocating war AT ALL. I just find it funny how not even McCain's cheerleaders can find a coherent message, and the first thing out of their pieholes is to start another fucking war. As if we're not stretched thin enough by this travesty of an outgoing administration.
Total. Disarray.
September 30, 2008 12:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
What the fuck is he talking about? In addition, what about WWI and WWII...as I recall, those turned out okay for us. What a nitwit.
September 30, 2008 12:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Seems like the last war with, you know, a real country that a Republican started and won was the Spanish-American War. Good job, President McKinley. Way to kickstart American imperialism abroad.
September 30, 2008 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
On behalf of Michelle Malkin, why do you hate America. Besides, Jefferson founded the Democrats and the war with Spain when he failed to buy Florida and Cuba in the same deal where he picked up Louisiana and Alaska. McCAin knows that. It is why he won't meet with Viva Zapateros.
September 30, 2008 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh my!!!!! Start a new war to jump start the economy. That sounds sooooooooooooo GW-Republicanish, doesn't it? But the reality of these two war fronts we are fighting now is that we could declare victory and still lose the war because quitting shooting is not winning the war. It is the Bush planning that has lost the war. Bush moved the troops to Iraq instead of fighting it out in Afghanistan where we could have gotten Bin Ladin. Now, both of these countries are high class Bush messes and only God knows how this will turn out.
October 7, 2008 12:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
My thought exactly. Someone should do a mashup of all conflicting narratives coming from McCain on this.
September 30, 2008 12:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Conflicting mashup? Isn't that what McCain's doing all on his own?
September 30, 2008 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hardly the first time that observation has been made!
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/08/new_mccain_ad_congratulates_ob.php#comment-3056138
September 30, 2008 7:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
lol. Thanks
October 1, 2008 8:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
can we please remove bill clinton from the teevee
September 30, 2008 12:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's a free country and Bill is going to go out there and take what spotlight he can (hoping to repair the damage he did to his standing during the primaries). So Obama might as well keep him as close and content as possible.
September 30, 2008 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
he is so damaging to Obama. Have you watched any of his interviews within the last few weeks? Praising McCain, admiring Sarah, and ending with a lukewarm endorsement for Obama, without mentioning his name?
I am with the other guy...is there anyway to get Bill off of the "teevee"?
...keep your enemies closer???? Any closer any he will be able to give Obama a colonoscopy without the smile.
October 1, 2008 8:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe he'll have a heart attack or a stroke. Would someone please send him some pizzas and cheeseburgers?
September 30, 2008 4:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice to know how terrible their message discipline still is
September 30, 2008 12:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Much of their attack strategy is to go after Freddie and Fannie. But I think most Americans see this is a "Wall Street thing," so the attack is kind of weak. And I think the media finds this strand of the story a tad boring because they seem to just jump to the next question when ever the surrogates bring it up. But since it is his only real push for regulation rather than deregulation he really doesn't have much of a choice.
September 30, 2008 12:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just as Clinton kept going on and on with his Keynote Address at the 1988 Dem Convention, admitting later he was improvising trying to win back the restless crowd, now he keeps sticking himself into the spotlight trying to seize the narrative and win back the many people who've given up on him.
Didn't work in '88, ain't workin' now.
September 30, 2008 12:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Didn't they realize the typing Obama to Freddie/Fannie was a bad play when Rick Davis' connection came back to bite them on the butt? I remember an anonymous McCain staffer quoted to that point.
Have they forgotten the lessons of last week already?
September 30, 2008 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
And never mind that in 2005 the republican controlled house passed a bill to tighten regulation of Fannie and Freddie with bipartisan support. After a Bush Veto threat, John McCain and friends let it die in the Senate.
"Reasoning" from the Bush Admin behind the veto threat: "Those GSEs shouldn't exist at all, so we're not going to waste our time regulating them." But the ideologically driven response was just a smokescreen over Bush's use of the GSEs to increase homeownership, the one clear success of his administration at that time.
September 30, 2008 12:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
The bill that passed was not McCain's bill, which I believe never made it out of committee (if it was even ever considered. So apparently his colleagues didn't think much of his effort.
Last weekend, (I think it was on CNN) Goolsbee and Hotlz-Eakin were debating the crisis, and Goolsbee's take was that McCain's 2005 bill was intended to put burdens on F&F so that the non-govt. sponsored entities who operate with even fewer regulations, if any at all, would take over the market.
Maybe someone can research this since pretty much that is the only substantive claim they have.
September 30, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I forget who it was, but last night, I heard a pundit refer to his as "wildly swinging" McCain. This guy is about 0 for his last 25 with 18 strikeouts.
September 30, 2008 12:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
His problem is, he's now swinging at pickoff attempts to first base.
September 30, 2008 12:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now that's funny!
September 30, 2008 12:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Even a blindfolded 3 year old can hit a pinata for God's sake.
September 30, 2008 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm now viewing mcShame as a kind of "suicide bomber" of the electoral process. He keeps destroying himself in the process of trying to destroy Obama. And as he destroys himself over and over, he's taking his party with him, the nation with him, and the world.
McSuicideBomber.
September 30, 2008 1:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
The double talk express. McCain likes to talk out both sides of his crusty mouth.
September 30, 2008 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain pushed for "stronger regulation"? When was that?
September 30, 2008 12:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
That was when he was talking about not letting Sarah talk with NBC or CBS any more... He's totally for stronger regulation in that one area.
Wall St. not so much.
September 30, 2008 12:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Send him to CERN where he can talk about his experiences in quantum superposition.
September 30, 2008 12:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
First of all, it is hard to get bipartisan good will, when you can't face the other side and LOOK in their eyes.
September 30, 2008 12:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well lo and behold. I think he would be better served if appealed to his base and asked for their pity.
September 30, 2008 12:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
There is simply zero correlation between anything they say and reality.
The marbles have been lost. The integrity is gone. The sanity has vanished.
When you stand for nothing (except yourself), you will say absolutely anything.
September 30, 2008 12:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain is willing to reach across the aisle, but his arms are too short.
September 30, 2008 12:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
The last time he reached across the aisle was to snatch the last bottle of bar-b-que sauce from some little old lady at the SafeWay in Sedona.
September 30, 2008 12:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain's antics were very entertaining for a while, but now they are just getting tiresome! I am a little sick of seeing his disingenuous pronouncements, while the media grabs for his every word, without calling him on his lies!
September 30, 2008 12:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
If I were to choose an adjective starting with T I'd opt for treasonous over tiresome.
September 30, 2008 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
"..inaction is not an option." Interesting quote, because McCain is actually getting to look more and more like an excited Chihuahua. He's festinating around the country making completely contradictory statements, careening through D.C. only long enough to upset bipartisan negotiations, and goin' up on two wheels as he tries to "pivot" from one mendacious assertion to another.
September 30, 2008 12:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Blah blah blah bipartisanship blah blah blah
Nobody in the country can miss McCain's lack of leadership or even decisiveness on the economic issue of the day. He runs around claiming that he's solving the crisis while not taking a strong stand for or against the bailout package, or suggesting any improvements.
He looks like a confused old man.
September 30, 2008 12:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
WTF is going on with ARG?
McWar ahead by 3 in NC, NV and VA?
Any takers?
September 30, 2008 12:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
ARG has a moderately crappy record and a Republican house effect. If they say its within their margin of error in those three states, its good news.
September 30, 2008 12:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ditto what the redoubtable NCSteve just said. Also, I would note that in the case of NC and NV those results are improvements over the last ARG results from those states, so even these particular results (dubious though they may be) are more good news than bad.
September 30, 2008 12:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
When is that 40% block of McCain/Palin voters going to realize that their candidates have devolved into Grandpa Simpson and one of Kim Kardashian's dead-behind-the-eyes sisters? His rambling along about some story or another during the debate, combined with her glassy staring at Katie Couric, can only lead any viewer with a pulse to recognized that they've turned into cartoon characters.
September 30, 2008 12:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
We'll still take that over TheMessiah and Schecky Green.
September 30, 2008 12:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who's the Messiah? I thought that was Superhero McBailout sailing into DC to save us all from ourselves?
But I wouldn't expect any Republicans to view reality through anything other than their kaleidoscope of crazy.
September 30, 2008 12:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bush and Cheney? ; /
September 30, 2008 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is what you come up with, given the current suituation, and your candidate's epic crash and burn over the past week.
Oh, man, you are hurtin' right now.
September 30, 2008 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
08/30/08 RCP Averages= Obama 47.7 McCain 43.8
2 Conventions, VP selections, 1 debate, economic crisis...
09/30/08 RCP Averages= Obama 48 McCain 43.1.
You're right...the world has come to an end...there's no hope...
I may get concerned on 10/30/08...until then...
September 30, 2008 12:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Reeling I tell you.
September 30, 2008 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ok...there's obviously not going to be an "appropriate" thread for this one, so I'll suck up the complaints. If you expressed concern over the "Bible Camp" video...what's up with this creepy shit?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW9b0xr06qA
September 30, 2008 12:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know you are allowed to create a blog thread in the Cafe if you like? You do not have to wait for Mssrs Sargent or Kleefeld to give you the right thread. Perhaps if you started such a blog folks would offer their opinions there. I think that in the context of the present thread the appropriate response here is "nice attempt to change the subject."
September 30, 2008 12:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's what the "SFC" does best...
September 30, 2008 12:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Most of our more "trollish" commenters have given up here and have taken it over to the Readers' Posts, which I think is a hoot.
Pussies.
September 30, 2008 12:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
In the words of Jimmy V..."Don't give up, don't ever give up."
September 30, 2008 1:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
You should exit with his grace and dignity. Sooner rather than later.
September 30, 2008 4:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Definitely not my cuppa - but do you have any idea how many hockey moms will get weepy-eyed seeing this and vote for Obama?
September 30, 2008 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
im see you got your marching orders from drudge. you are guilty of that to which you try to make fun of.
September 30, 2008 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
"...you are guilty of that to which you try to make fun of."
...and that would be?
September 30, 2008 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
People excited over a candidate, oh the fucking horror.
September 30, 2008 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Seriously, John McCain's blatant soul-selling lies and doublespeak have become quite unprecedented and beyond ridiculous.
I mean how stupid does he think we are? Any American who isn't brain-dead should be offended.
September 30, 2008 12:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Whatever. The obama camp definitely has to come up with their own ad to counter those charges. Those charges sound pretty powerful (backed by the serious music) to those who don't know much about what's going on.
Thanks, Bill Clinton, for providing ammunition to your friend, John McCain. With friends like you, who needs foes?
September 30, 2008 12:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh come on now. Nobody believed this shit in the debate and nobody's going to give it the time of day coming from an ad. Norma's act has worn really, really thin.
September 30, 2008 12:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes indeed,
Clinton brought this upon himself, going about praising McSame this past week. What's he gonna do now? unpraise him? That was dumb on Clinton's part. He now has to go campaigning hard for Obama to redeem himself.
September 30, 2008 1:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think the rapid daily shifting of the InTrade graph describes the dawning realization on the part of many Americans that John McCain is no longer fully in his right mind.
September 30, 2008 12:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can we please stop blaming McCain for the actions of his campaign. McCain decried the lack of partisanship, his campaign attacked the Dems. They are, apparently, two separate and distinct enitities. Just ask David Brooks.
September 30, 2008 12:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
. . . or the lack of bipartisanship. Freud.
September 30, 2008 12:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Have we all forgotten that he was a POW. For five years McCain had no narratives to gainsay, so more than most Americans he understands the precious right to contradict every d@#n thing that comes out of one's mouth in the space of just two short breaths.
September 30, 2008 12:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
The quotes from "The Washington Post" in the ad are from an editorial.
It also includes this paragraph:
September 30, 2008 12:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Without that boxing regulation, the wall street meltdown would have been far worse. Brokers could have gotten seriously hurt during the sell off.
September 30, 2008 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's your proof. If the #&!%& Dems had gotten behind his initiative to regulate boxing, we wouldn't be in this mess today.
September 30, 2008 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Someone should start talking about how of all the areas of the economy that need responsible and sensible regulation, the only one McCain ever led on was professional boxing.
I think it is a perfect example of where his priorities lie.
September 30, 2008 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh my God, they've brainwashed the children!!!!!
The horror!
September 30, 2008 12:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Apologies. This of course, was meant in reply to SFC's youtube clip, above.
September 30, 2008 12:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Markets calming.
Stock market rebounding.
Congress takes a breather.
Thursday will see a more cooperative House.
Friday a tentative agreement ill be reached.
Friday night Sarah Palin will crow about McCain's success in achieving a better solution than the Dems favored.
Biden will say that FDR chopped down a cherry tree.
September 30, 2008 12:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
You need to move your predictions all back a day, champ. The VP debate is Thursday.
September 30, 2008 12:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, what can I say but that if that is the narrative that takes root on Friday, I will be mightily impressed. On the other hand, if we tally up your accuracy rate in these CW predictions so far, you are batting around .050, so I guess that am not really worried that we are about to lose this particular PR battle on Friday.
September 30, 2008 12:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Biden will say that FDR chopped down a cherry tree."
LMAO!
September 30, 2008 12:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
To be very fair to Fogu2, I will agree with you that this final quip was fairly witty. It was the one marginally worthwhile part of an otherwise typically fatuous Fogu post.
September 30, 2008 12:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
And of course you simplistic view that it is just about the stock market going up or down(which globabally was mixed). What is actually more critical right now is the flow of credit which is still frozen. Unless the credit get unfrozen, people will begin to lose their jobs rather quickly as payroll expenditures will not be able to met.
September 30, 2008 12:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Biden will say that FDR chopped down a cherry tree."
..he uttered as troll jizz flowed out of each side of fogu's mouth.
September 30, 2008 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
You need to move your predictions all back a day, champ. The VP Debate is Thursday.
September 30, 2008 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, Greg. Server not quite all the way there yet...
September 30, 2008 12:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
For cryin out loud, John, I just posted on your history of contradictions on the economy at the Cafe, and before the paint has even dried, you're off another one. Slow down! You know that I can't edit my post, so you're going to have to wait for the next one. Don't be so eager next time. It's better to space these things out.
September 30, 2008 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Couple of things:
McCain thinks that Hugo Chavez is from the middle east:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMVonhkN0yQ&
Unannounced Obama ad about healthcare (sorry for bad quality):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnk8minM3Qg
September 30, 2008 12:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Vintage McGaffer! LOL!
September 30, 2008 12:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, he thinks Spain is in in Latin America, so I guess it all kind of balances out.
September 30, 2008 1:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
And apparently he thinks Venezuela is in the Middle East.
Small world huh?
September 30, 2008 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wonder where he thinks Czechoslovakia is these days?
BTW, I am not crazy about the Obama health care ad. But that's because I don't like keeping insurance companies in the mix. Taking out my subjective views on the subject it is a good ad.
September 30, 2008 8:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain using Clinton and trying to pin this on Clinton might finally get Big Dog off the fence. Does he want to get Hillary another kick at the can or does he want to defend his legacy?
September 30, 2008 12:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know. It's a bit silly and saccharine, but I'm not sure it deserves much more than an eye roll.
September 30, 2008 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
This comment belongs to the thread introduced by SFCWallace above.
September 30, 2008 12:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
The complex message in this ad has been cultivated for a couple of weeks now on several fronts: I've seen it laid out in YouTube ads (especially the scary Burning Down the House ad), TV ads, TV news commentary, op-eds, and McCain's debate language. I expect it to be pushed hard and relentlessly until the public buys it. I expect it to make an appearance in Sarah Palin's debate language.
It would be nice if more progressives began tracking it and putting the pieces together, rather than dismissing it. It's a coordinated, orchestrated effort to trash the Congressional Dems along with Obama, and connect them all to Bill Clinton's policies rather than to Bush's policies.
Wake up, people.
September 30, 2008 12:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
We're tracking it, it's just so improbable a storyline it's hard to imagine anyone who's not already a hardcore Republican taking it seriously. It's like blaming LBJ or Nixon -- Bill Clinton is just part of the past to most people.
Also, its contradictory to the Repugs' other effort to distance themselves from Bush.
September 30, 2008 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Improbable" never stopped Republicans from pushing a storyline, did it? Take it seriously.
I have yet to see anyone debunk the storyline in its entirety. I have yet to see anyone, incuding here at TPM, connect all the dots in the first place. Yet I keep seeing it getting repeated in one form or another for weeks now.
So I won't be at all surprised when the outcome of the Wall Street bailout legislation ties up all the loose ends.
September 30, 2008 1:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
To John McCain, using former Democratic leaders like Bill Clinton and Joe Lieberman to viciously smear current Democrats IS bipartisanship. It's more mavericky than just attacking them with Republicans.
September 30, 2008 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
McShame/Barbie: Fingerpointing You Can Believe In
September 30, 2008 12:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
As if the stock market was simple.
As simple-minded as fogu.
Obviously fogu has no investments.
September 30, 2008 1:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well the reply to this whole smear is simple - it's two words:
Rick Davis.
September 30, 2008 1:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bingo! They should make Davis McShame's co-running mate.
September 30, 2008 1:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. WTF?
September 30, 2008 1:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's a response, but not all. It just muddies the water.
McCain's entire stance, that he and he alone could have stopped this thing misrepresents the fact that the purpose of the bill he "co-sponsored (with Graham and Lieberman I think and I other)was to put Fannie and Freddie out of business so the totally unregulated sector could dominate the market.
The "regulation" of F& F was aimed at creating a market with fewer regulations. I doubt if he even knows what is in that bill. If he didn't bother reading Paulson's 3 pager, I'm pretty sire he never bothered with that.
September 30, 2008 2:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
For those of you who entered the theatre late, the film we're screening is "2008: A Presidential Race Odyssey". The omnipotent "John" has just suffered a meltdown and-- Oooooo! Listen..he's singing 'Daisy'. My favorite line of lyric is coming up. "...I'm...half...crazzzzyyy...."
September 30, 2008 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
By next week, McCain will accelerated his campaign and begin pre-contradicting himself.
September 30, 2008 1:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I propose we no longer refer to McCain as McShame. Instead: McNoShame
September 30, 2008 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Senator Two-Face?
September 30, 2008 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's a good video on McCain's flipflopping on deregulation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4egXbhSOhk
September 30, 2008 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
machlis--
Thanks for the link. Very good video.
September 30, 2008 2:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
What has amazed me is the total inability of McCain to get his campaign well enough organized to even present the image of coherence. But then as I watched the debate Friday night, it became clear. That's the way McCain thinks.
McCain knows a little about the military, a little about Iraq, and a (very) little about Afghanistan and Pakistan, yet when discussing foreign policy he was unable to string a thread of coherence between them. It was "We'll win in Iraq before the troops come home." yet no recognition that the real battle now is Afghanistan and Pakistan and that fighting the real battle will require taking troops out of Iraq.
Then Obama's clear recognition that the cost of fighting the occupation of Iraq was a core element of the economic problem that has Wall Street tied up in knots simply jumped right over McCain's head.
McCain focuses on one issue at a time, when that is finished, he moves on to another, and he has no clear strategic vision that connects the major problems America (or his own campaign) faces.
When you are looking for strategic vision coupled with management ability, it becomes very clear that McCain has neither. That's why his campaign is so incoherent. In a relatively small operation like his campaign McCain could have delegated the management function to his campaign chair, but that would have meant that the campaign chair or a chief of staff would have to be given the power to veto McCain's own actions when he decided to play "maverick." McCain won't give anyone that much authority over himself.
September 30, 2008 3:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
What does this ad even mean? I don't get it.
September 30, 2008 5:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't get it either!
Bill Clinton: "I think that the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was President to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."
Did he mean that Repubs & he were trying "to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac" and that the Dems' were resisting those efforts?
Or did he mean that Dems should have resisted "efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by [him] when [he] was President",/i> in order "to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac" [kinda like this]? They didn't ... and that therein lay their responsibility for what is happening now?
I don't get it!
September 30, 2008 8:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think the ad is boring and ineffective. Bill's words certainly don't make the republicans look good, and I doubt that most people even understand it. Sometimes I wonder how they pick these clips and even more why they put them together the way they do.
September 30, 2008 8:33 PM | Reply | Permalink