There is a report in the blogosphere that there is a real division in the McCain camp about how hard to hit Obama. Keep in mind that the source for this is not solid, but there is at least some thought that there is a difference of opinion about how hard to hit Obama on this Ayers/Wright stuff. The thought is McCain is being his usual partisan self and wants to go easy on Obama, however Palin at least wants to go down fighting.
With his electoral prospects fading by the day, Senator John McCain has fallen out with his vice-presidential running mate about the direction of his White House campaign…
Mark Salter, McCain’s long-serving chief of staff, is understood to have told campaign insiders that he would prefer his boss, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, to suffer an “honourable defeat� rather than conduct a campaign that would be out of character – and likely to lose him the election.
Palin, 44, has led the character attacks on Obama in the belief that McCain may be throwing away the election and her chance of becoming vice-president. Her supporters think that if the Republican ticket loses on November 4, she should run for president in 2012…
A McCain official confirmed that there was dissension in the campaign. “There is always going to be a debate about the costs and benefits of any strategy,� he said.
So, the bloggish theory here is that Palin is trying to position herself for 2012 by seeming like the scrappy fighter. Heaven forbid that our presidential candidate actually fight for the election. Shout out to all you RINOs, when you nominate someone who puts partisanship over principals, this is what you get. Grow a set McCain and stick it to Obama, if you are going to go down, at least go down fighting, what do you have to loose?. The Dems never hesitate to throw out as much crap as they want to see what will stick, why in the world would you hesitate.
Personally, I don’t put much credence in this story, but who knows.
You can read more about it here.
October 11th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Oh come now. There is always dissension in the ranks especially when you are behind. McCain is using Palin to attack Obama like every presidential candidate uses every VP candidate. Biden is doing the same thing but nobody is listening. She is doing her job just fine.
October 11th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
I feel confident that there’s more to this story. There’s always a back story that we don’t know about. I’m quite sure McCain and Palin have a game plan and are working together as a team.
People are angry in a way I have never seen before and I was here in the 60s. This is different and it seems to be running deep and strong.
McCain – Biden? Has he been on the campaign trail again? I didn’t realize he was back.
October 11th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
I think these attacks on obama are a strategic mistake of the first order. They should simply show a vision of where america needs to go and an organized comprehensible plan to get there and a sense of how they would govern. People know what they want, and obama’s campaign is doing a little better in addressing that. For McCain to keep attacking obama with a street slug fest is a waste of time and makes him and his campagin look ugly frankly. America has vetted Obama and overall accepts what he presents as “good enough” overall as it will translate to votes. I don’t want an angry mob running the white house. The bush people are quietly angry from the start and McCain’s people are loudly angry at the start. Obama and the dems are a disappointing choice in many ways, but what McCain’s handlers are offering is a disaster and their inability to see this is a big let down.
October 11th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Brian – should the Obama campaign quit with their thuggish attacks on McCain and Palin? Or do those rules just apply to the Republicans?
Surely I don’t need to recap the ugly attacks on Palin and her family – and don’t say Obama didn’t attack her. Surrogates do that job and you well know it. He’s said as much or more than McCain has.
And what about those very nasty ads suggesting that McCain had cancer? I guess this is all about selective memory as to who has said what.
October 11th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Brian – its not the McCain people who are an angry mob. Its THE people. The PEOPLE are angry. Electing Obama isn’t going to do a thing for that wound. He’s a divisive figure and electing him will only create a deeper divide.
Americans won’t stand for living under communism. We won’t stand for our incomes being redistributed (worse than they already are).
Obama isn’t the ’savior’. He’s a symptom of the problem.
October 11th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
man, so angry. We all know there are some obamites doing crazy spooky stuff and that msnbc is the democratic national party. But in terms of the wider media I am picking up the McCain camp just losing it, while the Obama mainstreet is just ignoring them pretty much doing their own quiet organizing to “get out the vote”. They have a good focus there frankly to just quietyly go about picking up voters while at the same time dutifully but barely responding to the raw meat thrown at them by McCain’s handlers. I blame his handlers from what I have seen and learned about them and I think he’s gotten sidetracked from who he is in a faustian bargain to get the presidency. Obama did that early in his career, McCain late. Palin has barely been vetted and I say this as I could not tell you what she thinks about much of anything in a nutshell except maybe she’s like some of the working higherlevel suburban mom’s I have known. That is a mistake. An angry mccain campaign will turn off independents. It just will. He has assetts and should really go for the high road and I think he knows this but has so much pressure from his handlers pushing him the wrong way. Cindy is a great asset but to use her to angrily criticize obama is a mistake, instead let her talk about her humanitarian efforts in making a better world in a neighborly way. I just saw an interview with one of hyphenated named handlers who is supposed to be bright, and he was really grating and humiliating in the way he talked to a less aggressive obamite economist dismissively. Neither of these men have the perfect solution, but the countrys in no mood for an angry campaign. Disagree if you want, but its going to bear out in the weeks ahead.
October 11th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Beth our incomes have been stolen under the bush republican administration in all honesty. People are telling me their 401k’s are down 35-70 percent. Goodby a lot of retirement income which will reduce consumer expenditures and tax revenues forever from the baby boom group which is a huge cohort. We all know the dems have their problems, but I think the wieght of history on obama’s back will be so great he will probably take a more middle path as he’s cautious and not crazy. Obama is a mere beurocrat and yes a focal point for some extreme people. We really do need to deal with health care, social secuirity, medicare, medicaid, our aging infrastructures, our messed up familys, gangs, poverty, our falling behind in science and engineering, our incredibly high college tuitions, our stagnate wages and competition from abroad like never before. You need a team approach to do it. Not an icon, and I think obama has enough common sense to simply build a team and let them go at it. I feel something repressive in the mccain camp now that is scary. I feel disappointed we are stuck with obama.
October 11th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Folks,no way Obama governs from the far left. He’s way too smart for that. He’s going to govern from the center.
Here’s what Christopher Buckley (Wm. F’s son)said today in Sorry Dad But I’m voting for Obama:
But having a first-class temperament and a first-class intellect, President Obama will (I pray, secularly) surely understand that traditional left-politics aren’t going to get us out of this pit we’ve dug for ourselves. If he raises taxes and throws up tariff walls and opens the coffers of the DNC to bribe-money from the special interest groups against whom he has (somewhat disingenuously) railed during the campaign trail, then he will almost certainly reap a whirlwind that will make Katrina look like a balmy summer zephyr.
“Obama has in him—I think, despite his sometimes airy-fairy “We are the people we have been waiting forâ€? silly rhetoric—the potential to be a good, perhaps even great leader. He is, it seems clear enough, what the historical moment seems to be calling for.
So, I wish him all the best. We are all in this together. Necessity is the mother of bipartisanship. And so, for the first time in my life, I’ll be pulling the Democratic lever in November. As the saying goes, God save the United States of America.”
His article, which also highlights his and Kathleen Parker and David Brooks’ concerns with the Palin and erratic aspects of the ticket, is worth reading.
October 11th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
what an obama sales pitch. your working for them aren’t you? too pat.
October 11th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Beth how has Obama been thuggish? and Repubs started the Thug rules if he has been..
And this is second time I have heard Communism or inference too it .. and I get a good laugh.. I am not denying that Obama has Progressive beliefs (which stem from Euro socialism).. but totalitarian, collectivist and socialist society..and people call liberals conspiracy theorists “)
October 11th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Bryan.. there are unreliable sources on the internet?? lol.. I saw a huge caption from one of the liberal sites as well..
It is probably true, and McCain surragates have not done a good job keeping things in house either, His campaign has seemed uncoordinated at times.. Palin and McCain partially disagreed today about N. Korea being taken off terror list..(and I know it happens on Obama-Biden as well, so no need to point them out lol) The fact Palin seemd to hear about their campaign pulling out of Michigan through a newspaper, not McCain was odd as well.
October 11th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
MSNBC and FoX are equals in the party pitching aspect.. espcially in prime time.. However, Msnbc does a bette rjob during the daytime (as in being bi-partisian).. Fox had a picture of Ayers up in the corner for 4 straight days lol
October 11th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
The ugliest Palin attacks wer mainly from the crazy bloggers.. like us LOL.. I have read some nasty things on this site about Obama, and sites like this is where McCain and republicans got most of the nasty stuff from… Like I said I have read some nasty stuff on these blogs about Obama, but I do not think McCain is personally responsible… Palin was an unknown, and of course everyone was rushing to find out about her.. the fact that McCain has kept her bottled up did not help the situation.. if you do not let her talk to the media..BS is going to come out, because there was nowhere else to get information except through rumors..
October 11th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
As for ads about McCain having Cancer I have not seen them.. if that came from Obama I would be upset with them as well.. but I live in a Solid Red state, so I miss most of the cool ads that swing staters get to see lol
October 11th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
yes, hannity and colmbs are the worst offenders on fox, he is such a parrot repeating his talking points ad nauseum that even with an iq of 85 you know he’s just trying to sell you something. He is tone deaf. And colmbs is a mole really, as he talks over his liberal guests like they are all trash and gets all judgemental then shuts them down. He works in collusion with colmbs. I think O reilly, while an old fashioned right and wrong type is pretty liberal as long as that isn’t in play and is going to one day blow a gasket on tv and oh what a mess. Chris matthews is more traditional democrat, but he has an earnest curiosity about politics and is a wonk not a parrot. Obermann is a total parrot hatchet man. Its laughable. He is a smart guy but if I were him I would quit and go live in the desert for some self respect. The new one Rachel Maddin? is pretty annoying, smart at times, but sluggish at others but totally an obamaite.. There is no point even watching her for first source news or wonkishness as its anemic. but still msnbc is the democratic party and yes they pretend to have a few more neutral types, but I am not buying it.
October 11th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Beth–I agree with you that both candidate sare slinging plenty of mud. But I think the attacks of the last week are different in one very important way–effect on the listener.
This week we saw rallies where folks shouted out “Arab!” “Terrorist!” “Kill him!” “Off with his head!” and many other moblike noises.
The folks I saw on the clips feeding on this chum made low information voters look like Rhodes scholars.
Of course you have nutcases aplenty on the Obama side. But you don’t have them making threats of violence at the rallies.
This afternoon someone drove their car over my neighbor’s front yard and took out their Obama sign, leaving a long ripped up tire track across the front yard. Stuff like that just doesn’t happen on our street. Which is in a pretty blue state, although in a light red county.
Negative campaigning is bad, but when it brings out violent kooks (or violence in the kooks) we have to dial things down a bit.
October 11th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Brian–no I am not on the O man’s payroll. I take it you disagree with my post. Why?
October 11th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Brian-
He even kick Dick Morris off his program the first debate night because he said he thought Obama won the debate lol
Hannity may be have an IQ of 85.. but he is raking in 20-30 mil a year lol.. So it may be benificial being a hollow souled talking chin who spews hate, fear, and anger.
October 11th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Olberman is still trying to find his niche… he has had like 5 careers lol..smart but an egomaniac who eventually pisses off management..
Rach Maddow I like because she is smart, and shows it more on her radio show, but is clearly liberal and a Democrat.. She works for Air America..
October 11th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
I don’t find maddow offers anything fresh or clever or new, like say chris matthews who really analyses things and gives a pretty honest response, and admits he’s a dem. He use to be a capital police man of all things before moving into the dem political world. I think maddow is smart, but is she really gifted enough to light up an engaging news program. I will stop and watch matthews, even o’reilly on occasion, but pass on maddow. Her dem superiority bit is just too cloying, its a channel changer. olberman is like two shades form being creepy and his analysis isn’t first clss either. Hannity should get the boot as he is horrible. I don’t know why colmbs gets air time either. Why is that show even on? the only person the let talk is newt gingrich who seems light years smarter than pelosi.
October 11th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
I will only add that there are 2 different components to the all of the cable news networks. There are hard news people who have an obligation to present the news as is, and there are commentators like O’Reilly, Scarborough, Hannity, Mathews, Oberman that are paid to give their opinions. You have to be smart enough to distinguish between the two before you can start interpreting what someone on a cable network as being biased.
That being said, news personalities on the three networks are not supposed to have the luxury of injecting their opinions into the news, but thanks to Walter Cronkite that little detail is often overlooked.
October 11th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
well the news networks field these “personalities” during prime news time literally. So if you tune in to prime time national news your going to see Orielly, hann and colm, oberman, rach, with a few guests or people they can harangue. That is what passes for news on fox and msnbc. The other stations have different format, jim lehrers news hour is alittle more centered than say the mclaughlin report. But oberman presents the daily news in his format just like it is, so does Oreilly, even greta chimes in. Scarborough is more a pundit but he is trying for that hackneyed news hour space too. I think geraldo presents a more balanced piece than any of the above. So I have come to relie on Reuters, the Gaurdian, and to a lesser degree abc and cbs for my info. cnn is a mess.
October 11th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Brian-
I do not always watch matthews because he is always yelling it seems, but He took Eric “southern charmer” Cantor from VA, out behind the wood shed and beat him up with Teddy R’s. Big Stick a couple weeks ago lol.. I was LMAO because the Dem strategist in the split screen was just sitting there and had nothing to say becasue Cantor was getting a beat down by Matthews..
October 11th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
I saw that and cantor was an unrepentent talking points salesman. Here is my grievance. Why do these idiots talk such bs to the audience and interviewer rather than deal in real time with some integrity. If you belive in a cause you should be able to come up with some personal and sincere points and also respond the same way to even bad questions. Even bush says “I am not going to take that” when some reporter asks him an embarrassing question, and they all accept it. Cantor was pushed here at one point and he struck me as a soldjier type who was a night manager at a wallmart somewhere. Just unimpressive despite his good credentials and he is another lawyer. I don’t like disingenous people, or maybe he is genuinely out of it. Don’t know, but he’s not going to get any real following like that. He is just talking point vapors coming from someone who isn’t really here in real time.
October 12th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Bryan, call me cynical, but I don’t think this is a “dissention.” I think this is a calculated political move. Palin is the pitbull who will go after Obama on every little personal level.
McCain will stand above it and say, “No, ma’am.” The rest of the campaign will be like that rally. His staff and supporters will scream “terrorist” and “traitor” and “fraud” and McCain will calmly be above it all.
Tom, both sides have their nutjobs. The “fringe” of Obama had supporters putting up websites about Palin’s Downs Syndrome baby. Obama rightfully condemned them. And McCain is condeming the vicious people on his side as well.
October 12th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Bryan, after reading your comments in #22 I see that you still don’t get it. Those shows on the cable news networks that run during prime time are there because of ratings which determine the “value” of the airtime they sell to advertisers. Their newsworthiness has nothing to do with their time slots. Again, all those people you are talking about are commentators not journalists.
October 12th, 2008 at 11:07 am
they sell it as news, therefore it is. I suppose you are one of those people who believe magazines are just advertising platforms. but people think they are informational mags. Who is right? Just the ones with the dollar ledgers to prove some monetary value. A bit more complicated if you’re a multichannel processor.