McCain Campaign's Muddled, Self-Contradictory Message On Ayers
It would be nice if the McCain campaign explained precisely what it is they are objecting to about Obama's relationship with William Ayers. Their message on Ayers is muddled, confused, and self-contradictory -- all over the map.
Last night, a senior McCain adviser claimed that the campaign doesn't care specifically about who Ayers is per se, arguing that McCain's team is only concerned with Obama's alleged dishonesty about his relationship with the former Weatherman.
Yet this morning, only 12 hours later, the McCain campaign blasted out a statement from one John Murtagh, who says he was nine years old when the Weathermen firebombed his house. In other words, half a day after saying Ayers himself isn't the issue, the McCain team directly attacked Ayers, with a detailed recital of his crimes -- an obvious effort to insinuate that Obama is in league with terrorists.
Last night's statement claiming that the McCain team isn't concerned with Ayers himself came from McCain adviser Nicole Wallace. "[N]obody in America sitting around the kitchen table trying to figure out if they're gonna be able to make the mortgage or worried about the price of groceries or price of gas, nobody cares about Mr. Ayers," Wallace told Fox News. "Neither do we...What we care about is that Barack Obama described him as a guy in his neighborhood."
The reason for Wallace's statement seems obvious: She's claiming that the campaign is not trying to imply that Obama is in league with terrorists, as a way of deflecting the Obama camp's counter-argument that the McCain team is indulging in dirty negative attacks as a way of distracting voters from a discussion about the economy.
Yet this morning, the McCain team's statement from Murtagh said: "When I was 9 years-old the Weather Underground, the terrorist group founded by Barack Obama's friend William Ayers, firebombed my house. Barack Obama has dismissed concerns about his relationship with Ayers by noting that he was only a child when Ayers was planting bombs at the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol. But Ayers has never apologized for his crimes, he has reveled in them, expressing regret only for the fact that he didn't do more."
So which is it? Is the McCain team only concerned with Obama's alleged dishonesty over Ayers, or are they attacking Ayers himself in order to make the slimy terrorist association at a time when voters want solutions to the economic crisis? They can't seem to decide.
Late Update: Here's another data point on just how muddled and confused the McCain team is over Ayers. As I noted below, Politico quoted McCain aides this morning saying that going forward, McCain "wouldn't focus on the former domestic terrorist." Later in the morning the McCain campaign sent out the statement from Murtagh. So maybe the candidate is taking Ayers off the table but the candidate's own campaign isn't?
"McCain Campaign's Muddled, Self-Contradictory Message On Everything"
October 8, 2008 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Heh. Reminds me of McSame's response last night:
Q. Brokaw: Prioritize, please?
A. McSame: Everything first!
October 8, 2008 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
*zing*
Nice. McCain's answer to that question was to basically dodge it. When someone asks you to prioritize, you don't say, "I'll get 'em all done."
Ugh.
http://thepajamapundit.com/
October 8, 2008 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think what really impressed me in that case was Obama's ability to avoid the politician answer. He managed to answer the question without opening himself up to the "OBAMA DOESN'T CARE ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY!" meme.
What was pretty hilarious then was McCain getting pissed off that Obama did this, popping off with his line that "We're not rifles, we're people!" It was a decent line of attack within the context of the debate, but his seething delivery did nothing to help it. He just sounded pissed off.
October 8, 2008 2:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, ya see, he was responding to the so-two-weeks-ago hit on him about a president having to be able to do more than one thing at a time.
But, so now, being muddled, it isn't merely more than one thing at a time; it's everything at the same time. Presumably even stuff that needn't be done at the same time.
There: that should unmuddlify the maverickiness for those who aren't sufficiently mavericky to understand the cost to the economy of putting polar bears on the endangered oil spigots list.
October 9, 2008 10:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
They aren't concerned with Ayers in the same sense that they suspended their campaign two weeks back.
October 8, 2008 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bingo!
October 8, 2008 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just imagine if Ayers was a former member of the Panthers. And I don't mean the Pink Panthers.
PEACE
October 8, 2008 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's been pretty obvious from the beginning, that's what they're trying to suggest. Associate Obama with a 60's radical, and provide little enough information that people will assume on their own that it was a black radical (and therefore that Obama is one, too.)
October 8, 2008 2:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
You mean, of course, that the campaign is both suspended and unsuspended. On the suspended side of it Ayers doesn't matter. But on the unsuspended side he does.
So McSchzio is showing he can do more than one thing at a time by talking simultaneously out of both sides of his mouth.
It's that "mavericky" thing again, though it does begin to look like the confusion manifested by the senile.
October 9, 2008 10:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
And they suffer from cognitive dissonance as shown by this posting from Time's Swampland:
October 8, 2008 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
yep, that's really something
October 8, 2008 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
If people like Murtagh are so outraged by domestic terror, perhaps they should read Naomi Wolf's article and refocus their attacks on President Bush, who struck down Posse Comitatus. I am not trivializing any child's house being bombed, but this has the potential to be just as bad.
At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, something smells very wrong about all this. For one ~ why now?
October 8, 2008 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe you should "trivialize" Mr. Murtaugh's letter, in its entirety.
His implied impartiality is doomed, by the time he hits word # 9 of his statement, and makes damned sure that everyone reading it knows that Ayers is Barack Obama's "friend". Oh, he IS? Has that ever been established? And what does this have to do with a child, supposedly so traumatized by violence that he had to denounce Ayers? Sounds like politics, not justice.
You'd have to be a drooling Special Ed. type, not to see the hand of the McCain campaign in the formulation of Murtaugh's statement.
October 8, 2008 3:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
O for heaven's sake -
Well I said yesterday that Walter Annenberg was hardly a leftist -
October 8, 2008 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow- I haven't seen such a great rebuttal to the whole Ayers thing until this.
McCain- you sat on a board with a terrorist.
Obama- you brag about a supporter who gave money to that "terrorist" to pass out as that "terrorist" deemed fit.
October 8, 2008 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, you know how we went about gettin' rid of them terrists... we gotta cut off their funding!
October 8, 2008 2:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Or redirect it to terrorists we SUPPORT!
How much is Palin getting out of this bucket of money?
October 9, 2008 10:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's fabulous! Good for you for digging that up!
The McCain campaign is so incompetent. You almost, but quite, have to feel sorry for them.
October 8, 2008 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just to be precise, (1) neither Obama nor Ayers were on any sort of national board of the Annenberg Challenge, (2) Obama was chairman of the Board of Directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which looked after financial affairs of the CAC (and which included the publisher of the Chicago Tribune, the President of the Field Museum and the President of the University of Illinois, among others)and (3) Ayers was not a member of the Board of Directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, rather he was chair of the other arm of the CAC, the Chicago Reform Collaborative, which "had an important, if ambiguous role in the Chicago Challenge" which mostly ended up being "continuing the conversation among the [education] advocates" which had been part of the 73-member Working Group that obtained the Annenberg grant.
October 8, 2008 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
So, Ayers was part of an off-shoot group?
Bummer.
October 8, 2008 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not exactly. Ayers was one of the three authors of the grant application, and those three put together the 73-person Working Group, which was mostly education advocate types, the ones who wanted to set the agenda about how the money was used. The Collaborative and the Board were set up as separate parts of the CAC structure early on. Mostly it seems that the Collaborative was trying to figure out the programmatic objectives, while the Board was doing a usual Board function of overseeing the finances (including the process by which grants were awarded) and hiring the executive director.
From reading the reports, it appears that maybe earlier on they thought the CAC might undertake programs on its own, but eventually the CAC really became essentially a foundation operation where it awarded grant applications to other groups who were running the programs. BTW, all grants required 2:1 matching funding and/or in-kind contributions.
October 8, 2008 3:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Ayers was one of the three authors of the grant application, and those three put together the 73-person Working Group, which was mostly education advocate types..."
Someone needs to come to Ayers' defense, when the time is right..
Sounds like more of a social philanthropist than a terrorist, these days...
I would guess the Obama campaign won't "go there" at this fragile moment in our fragile history, but if you read between the lines, Bill Ayers is by all accounts a hard working, socially accepted All-American activist, in the spirit of Thomas Jefferson. And from reading between those lnes, I get the feeling he's managed to channel his activism much more constructively than he did in his youthful years.
In a nation where second chances are so often included in the American Dream, even the most rabid nationalists have to admit that Ayers has made more of his life than his yourthful indescretions planning domestic mischief.
And as one of those boomers from that 60's-70's generation of anti-war protesters, I suggest that, one day in the future, Ayers won't be considered the villain that these desperate Republicans are posing him as.
Forget the Evangelicals...that military-industrial-congressinal complex machine Ayers protested and acted against back then is McCain's REAL base. Msybe this election actually represents something akin to a final resolution that conflict within our own divided culture.
October 8, 2008 4:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds complicated, which probably means that the MSM won't bother with it.
I agree with JEP07 that it would be good if the story got out to the mainstream there, somehow but that the Obama campaign is not the one to do it.
October 8, 2008 4:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Terrorist + Hussein = ZOMG!
I think that's the math we're working with.
http://pufferfish.typepad.com/
October 8, 2008 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's drowning - he's grabbing onto any piece of flotsam and jetsam he can to try to save himself.
Alternatively, he's drowning and he's determined to see to it that Obama drowns with him. Or at least goes under a bit.
October 8, 2008 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unwarranted editorial opinion. That assumes they're at all bothered by self-contradititon. They're not.
They have decided. It's both.
October 8, 2008 1:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah. Greg seems to be operating from some rational, reality-based world. Obviously disqualifies him from understanding the McCain campaign.
October 8, 2008 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
So true. There's no neat way to throw shit. You just gather up a big heap and fling it every which way.
October 8, 2008 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
More wild swinging from a desperate campaign during its death throes. If McCain wants to consolidate the Republicans I say "know yourself out"; he'll only drive more true independents to Obama.
October 8, 2008 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ugh..."knock yourself out".
October 8, 2008 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now, that's an insurgency whose last throes Dick Cheney can believe in!
October 8, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Huh?
What is this supposed to mean, anyway? Regardless of whether it's consistent with the campaign's message, WTF does this mean?
October 8, 2008 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's breathtaking, innit?
October 8, 2008 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
C'mon CT! You're telling me that you don't know the entire personal history of every person in your neighborhood? Chaaa...riiight...Terrorist!
October 8, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have some suspicions about the 76 year old grandpa down the street, to tell you the truth....
October 8, 2008 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm suspicious of EVERYONE* in my neighborhood -- which is why I keep my door locked.
______
*Except of myself.
October 9, 2008 10:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
They are suggesting that Obama lied about his associations, hence, "just a guy in my neighborhood" is an attempt by Obama to cover up his "shadowy friends".
Boogah boogah!
October 8, 2008 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is deeply irresponsible of Obama not to have known the identity of every person who was a 60's radical, and I don't care if Ayers was thoroughly mainstream by the time Obama met him as a peer on the board of a foundation that got its money from a well-known conservative organization.
This is why I order background checks on and employ PI's to check into the history of every person I meet.
/snark
October 8, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sigh..... There goes my chance at being President someday..... I lived next door to a gin-you-wine card-carrying communist for 6 months when I was in college, who taught me to appreciate "Finnegan's Wake" by reading it aloud with an Irish accent. For all that I've had no contact with the gentleman for well over 30 years, I'm sure somebody would dig him up as soon as I started to look politically dangerous.
October 8, 2008 3:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hell, my ol' lady's family was investigated by the FBI... tailed, tapped and everything... back in the days of the witch hunt, on the suspicion of being "Communists"...
... and they BRAG about it, to this day! :-)
October 8, 2008 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Their point, I am pretty sure, is that Obama is downplaying his relationship with Ayers by suggesting that he is just a guy that he used to live near. While it is not literally true that Ayers was just some guy he barely knew, its pretty clear that the two men don't really have much of a relationship. The McCain campaign wants to seize on Obama's description as a moment of horrible dishonesty when he was really just using shorthand to give a relatively accurate description of their relationship. Classic politics. Nothing to see here.
October 8, 2008 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Again, just to be precise, Obama didn't even say this is "just" a guy who lives in his neighborhood. He said:
What crap that they're trying to make something of this.
October 8, 2008 3:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think the basic rule of thumb regarding the McCain campaign at this point is this - believe nothing that they say and watch what they do.
October 8, 2008 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I too was nine years old when those apartheid bastards bombed Sergeant Murtagh's house. But I don't see what that has to do with Obama's campaign.
October 8, 2008 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
heh, following McCain's campaign's logic is like playing connect the dots blindfolded.
October 8, 2008 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, you know, he's blahck.
October 8, 2008 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it's clear that they want to associate Obama was Ayers' TERRORISM as if he condoned or even supported it. They don't give a shit how Obama himself characterized the relationship. If they did, they'd obviously realize that there's nothing there to pin on Obama and they'd move on to Rev. Wright, Brittany Spears, 200,000 Germans or whatever other undesirable that by some twisted logic reflects badly on Obama's character and patriotism.
October 8, 2008 2:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
All the campaign said was that McCain wasn't going to be talking about it. Which is probably true.
This has nothing to with Ayers. The Ayers argument simply will not resonate with most undecided voters. Just listen to their comments after last night's debate. They want to hear the issues. The Ayers/Rezko/Wright stuff is to keep the right fired up in the longshot hope to boost turnout and pray that Obama voters don't show up or will be prevented from voting somehow.
What I've learned from nearly a hundred jury trials, is that once a juror has reached a judgment about a witness's credibility it will take a massive effort to undo that conclusion, and it is rarely successful. To a great extent Obama has passed the voters' credibility test. After all who said last night that he will kill bin Laden and crush Al Qaeda? That one did.
October 8, 2008 2:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oooh, outstanding snark alert!
I tend to agree with you. I also think the same process applies, only on a shorter time scale, with the debates. The opinions people form at the beginning tend to shape how the rest of the debate is perceived, and it takes a lot (falling off a stool, drooling, speaking in tongues) to change those opinions.
Speaking of stools, why on earth did the McCain campaign agree to them? McCain looked like his feet couldn't reach the ground. One of my students just told me that he looked like a really old little kid. Ouch.
October 8, 2008 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
More to the point, why was McCain constantly clutching his stool? It looked like he could barely hold himself up. The stooped, feeble posture combined with the droopy eyelids and the cranky voice had me coming away thinking, "that dude is way too old for the job."
October 8, 2008 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, someone in one of my classes asked "How old is he, anyway?" and when I replied "72", there was an audible gasp around the room.
I piled on my adding, "And that's a really old 72, too".
October 8, 2008 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
My daughter has taken to calling him Voldemort, and our cats hiss and arch their backs when they hear his voice.
October 8, 2008 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cats know.
October 8, 2008 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep. Just like they know, in a roomful of people, who doesn't really like cats. And why they spend their time lurking around such people.
Cats rule.
October 8, 2008 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Co-sign both comments above.
October 8, 2008 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
One of my cats is named Crookshanks, and I caught him trying to claw through the screen the other night while I was watching Hardball. I didn't make the connection at the time, but now you've got me thinking...
October 8, 2008 2:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOL!!!
Although....I'm thinking Wormtale is a bit of a closer fit...
Ever notice how Putin looks like Dobby the house elf in "Chamber of Secrets"?
And indeed, cats know....
October 8, 2008 3:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah. It looked like he was running out of steam last night.
October 8, 2008 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
speaking of stools...McCain.
yeah, that flows better.
October 8, 2008 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's true. Obama managed to out-hawk superhawk McLame.
Scared me, and I'm not named Osama bin Laden. And I'm not a Muslim. And I'm not Pahkistahni.
October 9, 2008 10:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe it is because the 527's are in port this year, but whatever the reason, the McStain gang isn't the Same as Bush when it comes to deploying the swift boats.
October 8, 2008 2:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
And the statement leaves out one of McLame's endorsee Leonore Annenberg, the de facto president and chairman of the Annenberg Foundation and its sister project Annenberg Challenge Project, which Obama and Ayers served for and crossed paths only 6 times.
October 8, 2008 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why do you call the Weathermen apartheid bastards? I'm curious - I never heard anything like that but that doesn't mean there isn't something there - I really don't know.
October 8, 2008 2:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hate to have to explain a reference, but I was making an allusion to the film "Lethal Weapon."
October 8, 2008 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Barack Obama drowned my girlfriend!
October 8, 2008 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Snake! What are you doing here? I heard you were dead.
October 8, 2008 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry I'm so dim-witted.
LOL!
October 8, 2008 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lethal Weapon II, actually.
I'm not saying I can't not watch one of those movies if I happen upon it while channel surfing. Not at all. I can stop anytime I want.
October 8, 2008 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's referring to Lethal Weapon 2 (I think that was the one with the apartheid bastards as the villains)
October 8, 2008 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
This morning McCain's campaign in Iowa admitted that personal attacks are the only way they can win the state.
http://iowaindependent.com/6718/mccains-hail-mary-pass-in-iowa
It's desperate and sickening, but this race is only going to get uglier as we get closer to Nov. 4.
October 8, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
"My friends, whenever you look up ugly in the dictionary, you're going to find my 2008 presidential campaign strategy playbook listed as a reference." -- John S. McCain
October 8, 2008 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/10/08/mccain-palling-around-with-militant-antiabortion-activists
McCain is actual friends with an anti-abortion murder.
October 8, 2008 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't see the angle here.
The people McCain is courting would favorably view his association with such activity.
October 8, 2008 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm watching the CNN stream of the McCain/Palin rally in Bethlehem Pa. It was supposed to start over half an hour ago but nothing happening yet. By bet - John and Sarah are having their first fight over getting down and nasty, John sees that it isn't working, Sarah wants to rile up the base for 2012.
October 8, 2008 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for taking this painful hit for us.
October 8, 2008 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've been watching some of the Bethlehem rally. Palin really is vile, but the dead-enders all came out in force to chant "drill, Baby, drill" for her.
Now McNasty's up and he's just as disgusting.
The crowd seems to have sort of a foaming-at-the-mouth mob sound to it. Lots of angry shouting and jeering. Scary. McCain really has no control of the mob.
They're chanting "NoBama, NoBama..."
I keep expecting the camera to pan around and show a crowd of people in white sheets, wielding torches and pitchforks.
October 8, 2008 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well that's their demographic.
October 8, 2008 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
The ugly underbelly rear their heads wherever Sarah Palin goes.
October 8, 2008 3:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
So they checked the internals, and they were losing badly, so they decided to "turn the page" and talk about Obama's character. But then, they checked the internals of the internals and they found that they only thing the public currently liked less than the economic situation was negative campaigning...So, with that in mind, McCain made sure not to bring those issues up last night. Then of course, they checked the polls AGAIN, and saw that yes, they actually are losing in about 8 States they need to win to even hold the Bush states and squeak out a win. So, they went back to the character issues.
The McCain campaign is like a dog chasing its tail at this point.
October 8, 2008 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
The most awesome thing here is that, after all the blustery talk of McCain and Palin being the REAL change, they're back to re-fighting Vietnam... AGAIN.
Given Obama's age, I really didn't think they'd be able to do it this time, yet somehow, they've found a way.
"Howard, you've done it again!" /hands over money bags.
October 8, 2008 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/10/08/mccain-palling-around-with-militant-antiabortion-activists
McCain is actual friends with a doctor-murdering terrorist.
October 8, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Noun. Verb. Terrorist.
October 8, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Noun. Verb. Turd.
October 8, 2008 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
when called out for it: P.O.W.
October 8, 2008 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
What do you expect from a man who is campaigning in a state today (PA) that he lost for good long ago?
October 8, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Quite obviously, Mccain doesn't speak for the McCain campaign.
October 8, 2008 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe Senator McCain should debate Campaign Manager McCain and Presidential Candidate McCain.
October 8, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of course it's muddled. There's nothing there but insinuations. It's the "repeat Saddam Hussein and Al Queda in the same sentence until they're connected in people's mind" routine all over again. They're "connected". They're "connected" to Kevin Bacon, too.
October 8, 2008 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
After seeing "Footloose", I knew Kevin Bacon was a terrorist!
October 8, 2008 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Could This be the reason for the "New Muddling"
John McCain's campaign released a list of 100 former ambassadors endorsing the GOP presidential nominee.
Second on the list, though her name is misspelled, is Leonore Annenberg, currently the president and chairman of the Annenberg Foundation and widow of ambassador and philanthropist Walter Annenberg. Ms. Annenberg was herself the "chief of protocol" at the State Department under President Reagan.
If the last name sounds familiar, it's because it also graces the name of the Chicago education board where Barack Obama and William Ayers sat in the room six times together.
In recent days, the McCain-Palin ticket (and particularly Palin) has faulted Obama for having served on that board with Ayers, who was a founding member of the radical 60's Weather Underground group when Obama was in grade school.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/08/mccains-trumpets-endorsem_n_132954.html
October 8, 2008 2:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
There was a recurring character in Law and Order Criminal Intent named Nichole Wallace. She was a psychopathic (psychopathetic?) serial killer. Coincidence? I think not!
October 8, 2008 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
I forgot about her.
I have to honest: bring back THE CAT.
October 8, 2008 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
That should be: I have to be honest.
I good write can.
October 8, 2008 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your wish is my command!
The Avitar Server(tm) seems a bit befuddled these days. I changed it yesterday and it seems to periodically revert to the old one then back. We'll see how fast the new Cat propagates...
October 8, 2008 2:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent!
October 8, 2008 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
That was the best multi-episode story arc on L&O:CI.
The scenes in which she and Bobby sparred over their insights into each others' darker motives were riveting. So well written.
I miss her whenever I read about this pale imitation.
October 8, 2008 2:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is no different from his messages on the economy (Government sucks! We need more regulation!) to his behavior over the bailout (the suspension than never was). It looks like a pinball shooting off every which way, but I think it's really just McShame's duplicity -- trying to have it both ways all the time.
October 8, 2008 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
There is no method to their madness. All over the place. Good news: They have manage to desensatize, detoxicate the word terrorist. It's not the scary boogeyman anymore, they have thrown the name around like Santa during christmas.
October 8, 2008 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I would have said, "Jesus during Christmas," but I take your point.
October 8, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm too lazy to google so does anybody know if Ayers and Co. actually did plant bombs (that obviously didn't go off) or just PLAN to plant bombs?
Palin and McCain are deliberately phrasing this Ayers crap to make it sound like Ayers actually did blow the Capitol and the Pentagon to smithereens, all evidence to the contrary.
Yeah, I know, they don't care about the facts, but I'd surrounded by wingnuts here and I'd like to throw this in their faces.
October 8, 2008 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
From Wikipedia:
October 8, 2008 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hate when that happens - I post something based on my faulty memory and somebody else googles.
;P
October 8, 2008 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
So this Murtagh is saying his house was directly firebombed? Maybe I haven't studied the Weathermen (including an interview with Ayers) enough, but I swear I haven't seen any account of them bombing anyone's home. At least, not on purpose.
October 8, 2008 2:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
this is in fact the most important question in this whole discussion... Who is murtagh? and was there in fact a bombing of a house? I do not recall any news of the weatherman bombing any house. Their cause, as I recall dealt with the government not the citizens of the state.
October 8, 2008 3:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is Murtagh's story:
http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon0430jm.html
October 8, 2008 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
If I am to take what Murtaugh writes as honorable, it would be perfectly reasonable for him to condemn Ayers and the Weathermen, and even SUPPORT Obama.
This article was about sliming Obama; NOT denouncing Ayers. Obama was the agenda here. And if his father was the notorious Judge Murtaugh, and John's a City Councilman in Yonkers, chances are he's to the right of Godzilla.
I'd take this guy's comments with a truckload of salt.
October 8, 2008 4:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent! Not what I was hoping for, but thanks!
October 8, 2008 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
SEe there's the rub - so far as I know, Ayers was never charged with anything.
Never. It as all talked about but beyond that - I'm not sure what happened.
The Weathermen were not the only group in the 60s blowing shit up.
The FBI blew a couple of houses up - one spectacular mass murder in Philadelphia.
October 8, 2008 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Charges were dropped, ostensibly due to an illegal wiretap that was used. The Weather Underground did set off several bombs, and they did engage in an armed robbery that resulted in 3 deaths - 2 police and a guard. Ayers admits he was involved in the bombings. He was the founder of the group, and as such planned their actions. He is unrepentant today, and wishes they had 'done more'.
October 8, 2008 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually the Philly incident happened in 1985, but hey there was still a lot of neo-'60s retro-pop in the airwaves at that time so maybe it kinda counts.
October 9, 2008 10:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Check out the following wikipedia entries for just the facts:
Bill Ayers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Ayers
Weathermen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weatherman_(organization)
October 8, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
And the Pentagon thing was just a stunt, a small pipe bomb, just to show they could do it, Ayers told me.
October 8, 2008 2:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's what I thought.
Most of that shit in the 60s didn't amount to much - except the government shit - the government is who shot a student at Ohio State, blew up a house full of people in Phillie and generally was pretty fucking fascist about the whole thing.
The riots were real. The radicals were only sort of real.
October 8, 2008 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Kent State.
That's how long ago all this shit was, now.
Jesus. It's ridiculous to rehash the 60s like this over and over.
Enough please - I'm tired of hearing about "my generation."
October 8, 2008 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Second. It's almost 40 years later. Can we get over this, please?
October 8, 2008 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Another McCain-Palin Introducer Declares "Barack Hussein Obama"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/08/another-mccain-palin-intr_n_132996.html
The McCain campaign is now playing a nasty and very dangerous game. No way is it a coincidence that now two people who have introduced them at rallies have played up the muslim fear card stressing Barack Hussein Obama.This is planned. They are disgusting. Reporters really need to start calling them out for this race baiting and fear mongering they are playing up now without even attempting to do so in a subtle manner.
October 8, 2008 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your "Late Update" is even more disturbing than the original piece. What it says is that McCain has no control over the actions of his own campaign. What does that say about his ability to govern?
October 8, 2008 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
reminds you of a possible Reagan administration, no?
"what about this covert op funded by illegal arms deals?? We've got to have someone sign off on this!"
"Can't wake the President from his nap! Just go with it!"
Naturally this leads to situations where the President truly does have 'plausible deniability' since it's very plausible that even if they woke him from his nap and told him he'd probably not remember it!
"No, that's alright Grandpa...er, I mean Mr. President, you were a great American Hero! Would you like some more tapioca pudding before your nap?"
October 8, 2008 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
The McShame/Failin campaign is a train wreck, pure and simple.
October 8, 2008 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yesterday's post on TPM re: Mike Allen's post in Politico (McCain's crocodile tears about how it just rips him up inside to be forced to resort to sleaze in this campaign), and now this story, raise an important question: if McCain can't control his own campaign, how can he run the country?
October 8, 2008 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can't even get a majority of the House Republicans to support the bailout. What a leader! Yet Obama was able to increase the Dem vote!
Yeah a real leader, that former Maverick that is now a Bum Steer!
October 8, 2008 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
If McSame can't control himself, how can he run his campaign?
October 8, 2008 3:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe they're just "suspending" the Ayers campaign to focus on the issues. Who cares?
I'm voting for "that one."
October 8, 2008 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
The bitch did not mention "Ayers and terrorist" at Bethlehem, PA. Does this mean they gonna do sleazy smearing only through their campaign statements and surrogates?
October 8, 2008 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Train wrecks should be offended at the comparison to the McShakey/Failin' campaign.
October 8, 2008 2:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOL!
October 8, 2008 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
is any one watching mccain andpalin right now
warning turn down the volume...but look at palin she loiiks in pain trying to figure out what mccain is reading
October 8, 2008 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Turn up the volume and listen to that riled up mob.
October 8, 2008 2:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
WTF... is anyone surprised by this? I thought we were talking about this earlier in the morning. They want McCain back in his Saint McCain role with the MSM, while his surrogate keep working this on all sorts of angles. They'll be push polling this all weekend and Monday before the election.
As I said in another thread, think "suspended".
John
October 8, 2008 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
HusseinTenaX....
I have been trying to figure out who to confess this to....
You're my favorite poster here at TPM....and I need to repent a sin that I committed last night. While watching coverage of Sarah Palin in Florida....I said "Fuck! I hate that C*NT!"
I am harboring a great deal of guilt as I abhor that word! But it just FLEW out of my mouth.
Please forgive me.
October 8, 2008 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good googly moogly, Dave - why are you confessing that to me?
I am not offended - although I take issue with one thing - Sarah isn't a cunt, John McCain is a cunt.
Sarah is a bitch on wheels.
October 8, 2008 2:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Sarah isn't a cunt, John McCain is a cunt."
Tena, for that you're my fav poster now too!
October 8, 2008 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
They want to fight the '60s all over again...you know the "beautify America..get a hair cut" or "America, love it or leave it", "My country right or wrong" crowd.
They forget how the country was deeply divided over the industrial military complex sending kids off just to test weapons and make money.
They forget that to a very large group Ayers was not the terrorist, our military leaders were. They forget that the Gulf of Tonkin affair was a compete LIE used to get us into a war claiming we were attacked when later we learned that it was our own military attacking itself and blaming it on the Viet Namese. The hide the complete LIE that got over 50,000 of us killed
October 8, 2008 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, they want to lose that culture war all over again I guess.
October 8, 2008 3:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
...and my recollection is that anybody with half a brain opposed the war by 1968, and was actively engaged in that effort, whereas the Young Americans for Freedom crowd produced such ooze as Rove. Granted, the Weather Underground was a far-extreme and ultimately criminal expression of counterculture anti-war sentiment, but in the end they were philosophically on the correct side, despite their criminality. They were delusional in a kind of poignant way. They honestly believed that the government had been hijacked by criminals who were engaging in inhuman crimes (wait, I'm having a deja vu), and their violence was a reaction to that. I recommend that people Netflix the documentary, "The Weather Underground."
October 9, 2008 10:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Aw christ... the old man has gone around the bend:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/222883.php
John
October 8, 2008 3:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
The GOP has used The Sixties against every opponent since around 1972. They hate the changes that happened in that decade - Civil Rights, the defeat of Goldwater in '64, the Great Society programs, anti war movements, the increased popularity of marijuana and LSD, and most of all, the sexual revolution.
October 8, 2008 3:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Then, in Obama-Biden Administration, we will probably need a "Specialcare Education" program to fix these loonies. They have been embarassment for America and its standing in the world.
October 8, 2008 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know you're just talking.
I hope you're just talking.
As a liberal, I have real problems with the idea of "re-education camps."
;)
October 8, 2008 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Word.
October 8, 2008 3:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nobody has dealt with the Ayers issue better than Robert Gibbs did with Hannity!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/08/robert-gibbs-confronts-ha_n_132842.html
October 8, 2008 3:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mixed messages? The McCain campaign? Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again!
Didja catch the debate bit last night where McCain slammed Obama's supposed opposition to nuclear power because, quote, "Senator Obama says it has to be safe and disposable or something like that."
Can you believe the chutzpah of those elitist libruls who will only accept nuclear power reactors that are safe?
October 8, 2008 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why has everyone dropped McCain's membership on the board of directors of the Council for World Freedom, an organization that, in the 1980s, was associated with right-wing death squads, racism, and anti-Semitism while McCain's name was still on the group's letterhead? Why are we allowing him and his pet harpy to inflate the bogus Ayers association but not challenge them on McCain's own far more direct guilt by association? I don't get it.
October 8, 2008 4:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
This post highlights a powerful example of dog whistle racism in today's politics (in this case, Obama as "terrorist"). And there are so many more!
We're tracking political race baiting at www.stopdogwhistleracism.com. We find the good, bad and ugly across the political aisle about race in the race. Visit us today for a non-partisan take on the race card, and the race card card, in today's politics.
Hope to see you at StopDog!
October 8, 2008 6:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cindy McCain calls Obama's the "dirtiest campain in history".
Obama may have bought a $3 million projector.
But McCain is married to a $100 million projector.
Now...
Let us reflect on the gift that Sarah Palin has given us all:
http://thetruthburns.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/maybe-i-aint-no-genius-but-is-sure-is-smartern-her/
October 9, 2008 6:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
This like many of the stories circulating from McCain in an atttempt to alienate Obama are merely strong signals of pure desperation. I no longer waste time to fret but remain totally disgusted and disappointed that supposedly intelligent people behave in this manner. all
October 9, 2008 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink