McCain Decries Partisanship And Attacks Obama In Same Sentence
And now for a little Friday happy hour entertainment. John McCain, in a statement just out on the passage of the bailout bill, shatters all his previous "do as I say, not as I do" records:
"Washington is still on the wrong track, and we face a stark choice in this election. We can go backwards with job-killing tax hikes, the same old broken partisanship, and out of control spending as Senator Obama would have us do or we can bring real reform to Washington."
Decrying partisanship and attacking Obama in the same sentence -- that surpasses McCain's previous achievement, where he blamed Obama and Dems for the initial bailout collapse while calling for an end to all the finger-pointing in the space of two sentences.
Meanwhile, on the trail today, Obama hailed the passage of the bill, and took credit for his role in getting some Dems on board.
Obama's comments, and McCain's full statement, after the jump.
"There were a number of members of Congress who had voted no that I talked to. And I think more than anything what they wanted was some assurance of was that this was not $700 billion going to a few banks but that in fact that it is designed to ensure that the credit markets are working for Main Street, that we don't have a collapse."They also I think wanted to hear from me, as potentially the next president who's going to be implementing some of these policies after January 20th and wanted some assurance that in fact -- on the foreclosure provisions, preventing foreclosure, on assuring that homeowners are helped and that taxpayers are getting their money back -- that I felt comfortable that this would not prevent me from being able to do those important tasks. OK? Alright, where are my flowers at?
McCain statement:
"I commend the House of Representatives for coming together to pass the economic rescue bill today. I'm glad I suspended my campaign to go back to Washington to help bring the House Republicans to the table. I believe that the taxpayer protections that have been added have improved the bill."This rescue bill is not perfect, and it is an outrage that it's even necessary. But we must stop the damage to our economy done by corrupt and incompetent practices on Wall Street and in Washington.
"The action Congress took today is a tourniquet, not a permanent solution. Our economy is still hurting and further action is needed, and it should not take a crisis to get this Congress to act.
"Washington is still on the wrong track, and we face a stark choice in this election. We can go backwards with job-killing tax hikes, the same old broken partisanship, and out of control spending as Senator Obama would have us do or we can bring real reform to Washington.
"My focus is to reform Washington and put government back on the side of working families with tax relief, modern job training, energy independence, more affordable health care, and policies that get spending under control.
"That's how we're going to get America moving again, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. Thank you and again, I commend the House Republicans for acting in the best interest of our nation."
I do not think that word means what he thinks it means.
October 3, 2008 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm reminded that Ron Burgundy, in the movie Anchorman, believes that "diversity" is an "old wooden ship."
October 3, 2008 5:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm... Could be his Achilles Heel. (smirk)
October 3, 2008 6:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Would you say he's made a "plethora" of contradictions?
October 3, 2008 6:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
What an asshole. Seriously.
With every day that goes by where he pulls this crap, I'm hoping more and more for a 50-state blowout that'll shut his pie hole once and for all.
October 3, 2008 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain's now entered that phase wherein he's fully become a parody of himself.
October 3, 2008 5:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Palin is already a parody of Tina Fey parodying Palin.
She finally reached a kind of palindrome status of parody.
October 3, 2008 5:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
She's very postmodern. I a home-spun way.
October 3, 2008 5:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Edit: "In"
October 3, 2008 5:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Almost neo-retro, in fact!
October 3, 2008 6:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Avant Garden-variety
October 3, 2008 6:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now Snake, that's a phase I can believe in.
October 3, 2008 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nov.5 it will be revealed that the McCain-Palin campaign was actually a performance art piece put together by an artist collective from Berkeley, CA.
October 3, 2008 5:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sadly for us, if this was 1968, that would be totally believable.
October 3, 2008 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wouldn't be surprised at all. I think we are on the same wavelength.
Maybe entitled, "Up Jumped the Snark"
October 3, 2008 5:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know this is becoming a very old joke, but I swear, each day a remake of SYBIL should be made starring John McCain!!
How many split personalities does this guy have??
October 3, 2008 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Unfortunately, while my opponent was playing politics with this issue, I was suspending my campaign and returning to Washington to single-handedly solve the crisis and save the country from disaster, even though the economy is fundamentally sound."
October 3, 2008 5:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Also funny that according to McCain, Obama is to blame for ALL things the Democratic Party does, even if it occurred before Obama was born!
Hey John, was Obama to blame for the Stock Market Crash in '29??? IDIOT!!
My friends, last night someone took a shit in Row 14, Seat B of the Straight Talk Air - no, no...it wasn't one of Governor Palin's young ruffians. I betcha it was Obama and his Democrats, though!"
October 3, 2008 5:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
And we hear Henry Paulson blaming future administrations for being part of the financial-fiasco problem.
October 3, 2008 6:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I will not feel sorry for this faltering old man.
I will not feel sorry for this faltering old man.
I will not feel sorry for this faltering old man.
I will not feel sorry for this faltering old man.
October 3, 2008 5:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Did he really "commend the House Republicans" and take credit for "bringing them to the table"? Does he not realize that a majority of House Republicans voted AGAINST the bill that he called "in the best interest of the nation"? Will no one ever call him on this rank hypocrisy?
October 3, 2008 5:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
MPC, "farting old man" is more like it.
October 3, 2008 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, you're giving flatulence a bad smell!
October 3, 2008 5:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
remember he hired Phartanhouer!
October 3, 2008 5:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
(ACK!)
I care not a Fart-hing.
October 3, 2008 5:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey TPM. Get that horrible picture of Senator Obama, which has been intentionally darkened, off of your front page now. You better not pull one of your previous Friday night tricks, by leaving that picture up all weekend. Why are you using a McCain campaign doctored picture.
Take it down at once. It is intended to racialize the election. Are you guys really this clueless, that you can not see that is what the Republicans want you to post.
October 3, 2008 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
HOLY FUCK, OBAMA IS BLACK?!?!?!?!!
October 3, 2008 6:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
With the pending troopergate investigation to be wrapped up next week, the only way for McCain to avoid a train wreck on his campaign would be for Palin to resign as governor. That would stop it dead in its tracks and not affect his bid for the White House. Expect to hear in next week otherwise it will be too much baggage for him to carry to November.
Just saying.
October 3, 2008 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
There are probably perjery and obstruction charges in the actual scandel. But Troopergate has an ugly skin, in that the Alaska legislature will have to respond to the refusal to cooperate with a legal summons under the direction of the AG.
The chances are much better she will be impeached if she remains gov, and I believe this strengthens your thesis.
October 3, 2008 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Liam,
Looks like a painting more than a photo, but you're 100% correct - it should be taken off!
October 3, 2008 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
From the Mulhberg tracking poll in PA. Don't think they believe you John.
October 3, 2008 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain's problem with this question is that a fair number of folks, especially Republicans hate the idea - so if he's for the bailout, half will dislike it and if he's against it the other half will dislike it.
October 3, 2008 6:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
The flowers comment?
Was Obama referring to the actual flowers he was waiting for while being photographed today for Michelle on their wedding anniversary?
October 3, 2008 5:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wolf Blitzer one of his Stoopid Situation Room Segments....dem/gop talking heads discussing the prospect of holdovers (gates, Paulson) in an Obama admin
Alex Catellanos was close to speaking of McPalin in the past tense
October 3, 2008 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gates may very well be a holdover. Paulson though? GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE.
October 3, 2008 6:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Alaska has one GOP rep, AZ has four
None voted yes first time around and only Shadegg switched
Forget the House GOP caucus, McPalin can't even bring their homestate comrades along
October 3, 2008 5:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
One only wishes that McCain took credit for saving the country from economic ruin with the bill. The odds are high that he would have to eat that between now and the election:
Krugman: Edge of the Abyss
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/opinion/03krugman.html
Roubini: Financial and Corporate System is in Cardiac Arrest: The Risk of the Mother of All Bank Runs
http://www.rgemonitor.com/roubini-monitor/253853/financial_and_corporate_system_is_in_cardiac_arrest_the_risk_of_the_mother_of_all_bank_runs
Of course St. John will likely blame the coming fury on all the Pork that got added to the bill.
John
October 3, 2008 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know, it really gets me that the left of the left is still screaming that that bill was a sham and con job. Every goddamn economist I respect said we had to do something. I wasn't at all prepared to see our entire credit base crumble and start a cascade of failure all over the world.
motherfucker! Get over yourself, lefties! Some of you have the financial acumen of Bulgarian shoe salesmen.
I'm making myself get up and run errands. Lata -
October 3, 2008 6:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Aye, the Disenchanted back in MI are grumbling about Clinton's affect on Fannie and Freddy.
Of course, they have a blind spot for the last 8 years. Because of the zealotry, the phsychological cost of facing the real truth of it assures the denial will remain for quite some time to come.
October 3, 2008 6:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
We have to do Something. This is Something. Therefor, we must do this.
Sigh. Just... sigh. "motherfucking lefties", indeed.
October 3, 2008 6:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's not what I said and you should reread if that's what you think I said.
There was an exclamation point before I said lefties get over yourselves - That ends an expression.
October 3, 2008 7:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Tweety is thoroughly unimpressed with Palin, Bush, the GOP, and now McCain.
"The airplane has hit turbulence and the passangers crack open the door to an empty cockpit."
October 3, 2008 5:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wonder, to get the votes switched, if in later October if we'll see Obama stumping with some House Dems in states either solid red or solid blue. Of course, by then Obama will probably have it pretty much sewn up he can afford a few days here and there away from the swing states.
October 3, 2008 5:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Viva La Barracuda?"
I have no words.
October 3, 2008 6:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm confused. First off, in this case it was Republican partisanship that held back the bill, wasn't it? But we overcame that partisanship, because Senate Republicans got on board and in the House we brought more people on board from both sides of the aisle until a substantial majority of Democrats supported it and nearly half of Republicans supported it. But that makes John's statement even more confusing-- he goes on from an example of overcoming partisanship to suddenly talking about how Washington is overcome by partisanship and on the wrong track? Is the idea that the bill that we just passed is putting us on the wrong track? Wouldn't that be an example of washington being too nonpartisan and on the wrong track, not too partisan and on the wrong track? Meh, maybe I'm asking too much...
October 3, 2008 6:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now, now, you are attempting to focus the lens on an extra-dimensional being. His irrational shifts of rhetoric -- now in the same sentence -- defy any accurate accounting.
Like that poor sap over at Slate that tried to diagram Sarah Palin's sentences. Had this dear heart been a computer, the magic blue smoke would be rolling out of his ears.
The only calculus that works here is Buggery, as in against anyone not named John McCain.
ps. Lovers of English will be glad to know Marioth's Typist has, at long last, found the spellchecker.
October 3, 2008 6:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Please insert (if you will) the word "Unsolicited" before "Buggery," as not to disavow any consensual pairings thus.
October 3, 2008 6:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was just getting yelled at on the phone by a friend of mine who is basically the world's most cynical anarchist about it.
I finally just said - I am not prepared to sit here and watch our bond rating fall any further when we're in debt up to our eyebrows now!
Oy!
October 3, 2008 6:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Folks,
Flood TPM with demands that they take this picture off of their front page. If they do not get the message, they will leave it up all weekend. They should never have posted it, in the first place.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/images/obama-who-large.png
October 3, 2008 6:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it's kinda funny hanging up there, honestly. McCain's camp just went so over the top with that one that it just makes them look ridiculous.
October 3, 2008 6:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Chicago Joe - You may have hit on something, there. Torture could cause a split personality; that was the premise in SYBIL....
October 3, 2008 6:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yesterday McCain said he voted for the bail out bill in the senate but it was loaded up with pork and he wanted the president to veto the bill???
October 3, 2008 6:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
It used to take years or months for John McCain to carry out his hypocrisies. Earlier this campaign, we saw him do it in the scope of a single interview. He's now narrowed that scope to a single sentence. His next experiment will be to be hypocritical in a single word, then a single LETTER.
Beyond that -- and this is completely theoretical -- his arguments and behavior enter a state of rhetorical inversion, in which hypocrisy becomes consistency. That, or the universe explodes.
October 3, 2008 6:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Are any of the polls still tracking Bob Barr? I wonder if a noticable amount of the Repug Ultras will consider voting libertarian over the bailout.
October 3, 2008 6:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Eight Years Republican President, Eight Years Republican Congress, Eight Years Republican Ideology
Fri Oct 3, 2008
* U.S. House of Representatives approves bailout
* Jobs fall the most in 5-1/2 years
* S&P 500, Nasdaq have worst week since Sept 2001
* Dow has worst week since July 2002
John McCain - His Perfect Storm
October 4, 2008 2:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
John McCain's Anger-His seething anger is the result of being put in the same position as Bob Dole was in 1996. This is his time and after being left for dead in the primary race earlier this year, he has clawed his way back to the top of the Republican ticket and his success should make the job easier for him but it hasn't. His stumbles and his inability to solidify his conservative base without bowing to their whims have left him in a state of rage which he doesn't seem to handle well. I can't help but think that the words, "Why is this happening to me?", keep popping into his head.
The only thing that is "maverick" that has survived is his belief that the rules don't apply to him. He can say things that are not true but those who would question him don't have the standing to doubt his stature and virtue. It is an affront to him what happened in the editorial meeting at The Des Moines Register. He was forced to sit in a meeting of those who were clearly not his equal and ask him questions that reflected on his character.
Boy, would I like to have been in the room with the McCain campaign when the newspaper announced their choice of Obama as the best candidate for president.
This man, as President of the United States, would be "armed and dangerous".
October 4, 2008 4:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
"For Sarah Palin, Thursday's night’s debate was an open-book exam. She spent much of the evening methodically reading and rehearsing answers from “carefully scripted talking points.” Palin’s notes were largely hidden from plain view, resting behind the lectern where she stood. Because the cable and network television stations did not show a split screen of the debate, most viewers could not see that, during Joe Biden’s answers, Palin spent almost all her time looking down and studiously reading her notes. But viewers did see that when Palin delivered her answers, she would repeatedly glance down to check her talking points. ThinkProgress has compiled a video documenting some of the instances where it was clear to the audience that Palin was propped up by written responses. Watch a video compilation."
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/03/palin-can-read/
October 4, 2008 8:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hypocricy in action:
First,the House would not have come together and passed the bill if Obama hadn't spoken to them and reassured tham that homeowners would be protected and that taxpayers would get their money back.
And second, Sen. Lookwhatidid, your suspending your campaign delayed the rescue bill resulting in volatile financial markets for a week.
October 4, 2008 9:58 AM | Reply | Permalink