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McCain Shake-Up Off to Shaky Start
week, he didn't shake hard enough. Even in a turtle-orgy-slow news cycle, McCain is managing to do damage to himself through inept campaigning, while failing to leave a scratch on opponent Barack Obama. The biggest disaster, from a campaign standpoint, is McCain's sloppy and poorly-received new economic plan, but the latest is a complete dismantling of McCain's most recent Spanish-language radio ad by Factcheck.org:
McCain's new radio ad, in Spanish, aims to show Florida would benefit from the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, which he supports. But every number in the ad is wrong, except one, a prediction of job gains taken from a group favoring the trade deal. And even that number is rounded upward so generously as to flunk third-grade arithmetic.I also noticed, the fact that McCain's new economic plan contains a proposal for a gas tax holiday to begin on Memorial Day, 2008. I initially chalked that up to McCain simply wanting to score those points regardless of the fact that it is July now. Upon reflection, I'm starting to think it was more sloppiness than anything else. The McCain campaign admitted that there was really nothing new here, and that this was a repackaging. I think they forgot to check the expiration date.
The McCain campaign also fumbled the Wesley clark story badly. Whatever you thought of Clark's remarks, there were a finite number of points to be gained there, as Clark is not connected to the Obama campaign, and actually does have standing to talk about military service.
Instead of just letting the mainstream media attack Clark, and forcing Obama to defend McCain, the McCain campaign sounded the alarm, scheduling multiple press conferences, forming a "Truth Squad" with a member of infamous smear-merchants "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" on board, and ending with McCain himself, who should have stayed above this, demanding that Clark be "cut loose."
At best, this becomes a wash for McCain, but I think it hurts him. I think he played the victim here a little too hard, and made himself look bad.
Finally, today he released an ad in which he declares the economy to be "in shambles," when just yesterday, it was easing into a "slowdown."
With this race as tight as it is, and with dwindling opportunities to open up some daylight between him and Obama, John McCain can't afford to have a campaign team that allows these types of easy mistakes. He had better hope this is just residual, pre-shake-up incompetence, because he needs to make some inroads before the conventions, where Obama is sure to get a huge bounce.
Recent Comments
(Page 1 of 5)Vote To Save Beer5:14PMJul 8th 2008
John McCain said "I will use the veto as needed. I will veto every single beer — bill with earmarks," he said, as rumblings from the crowd could be heard. "And every single bill that we have come across my desk I will make them famous. I will veto them, you will know their names."
Vote for the right to drink beer - vote Obama
Vote To Save Beer5:30PMJul 8th 2008
John McCain said "I will use the veto as needed. I will veto every single beer - bill with earmarks," he said, as rumblings from the crowd could be heard. "And every single bill that we have come across my desk I will make them famous. I will veto them, you will know their
names."
Vote for the right to drink beer - vote Obama
Nan5:31PMJul 8th 2008
Has the FBI started to check who sabotaged Obama's plane?
I keep thinking about Hillarie's prediction that Obama could be assassinated!
By the way has anyone seen James Carville?
David S.5:36PMJul 8th 2008
McCain is learning the hard way there is a world of difference between being a Senator and running for president. McCain not only faced token opposition every six years for his Senate seat, the press left him alone for most of his 22 Senate years. McCain seems to be running with the mindset of a Senator running for re-election, not a president. McCain ran a much more aggressive campaign in 2000 in the primary. Too bad he was swift boated by the Bush clan. The last 8 years might have been very different.
Kwaayesnama5:39PMJul 8th 2008
OhReally4:51PMJul 8th 2008
Election 2008
Gallup Daily: Obama 46%, McCain 44%
You would think that the rock star Messiah would be doing better than that with his millions and well organized campaign Could it be people are figuring out he is nothing but hot air and kool aid?
Sure hope so.
Hillary/McCain 2008
Stuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuupid!
Now help me understand this.
John McCain has been in the senate for over 30 years.
Hillary has all that experience and the great honorable American name.
Obama is a first term senator.
Why the hell is McCain the best that the Republican Party could do not wiping the kids butt?
Why did your candidate loose?
Maybe the American people are sick of politics as usual.
Grow up you lost!
Angel For Obama5:46PMJul 8th 2008
Oh!
Get real!
Do you really think that when it push comes to shove the American people will vote for four more years of Bush/Mccain?
Scary thought!
We will be in Iraq or Iran depending on how his mind is working that day.
The Sunnis or Sheits will be our enemy, terrifying isn't it!
We will spend all our social security funds fighting a 100-year war.
The rich will become richer and the poor poorer.
There will no longer be a middle class.
A man with the worst temper in the Senate will have his finger on the nuclear button
This nation will belong to the Chinese And Arabs because they already own this country.
That is why this white Republican woman from Arizona is voting for Obama.
(¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
OhReally5:47PMJul 8th 2008
The Obama Boy will need a parachute to land when his "hot air" balloon capsizes under the weight of
accusations that he is a muslim, ultra-liberal, black-radical, white-hating, anti-american, terroist-loving,
CORRUPT and inexperienced puppy of the most corrupt Political Machine in the country.
http://www.blueherald.com/uploads/Batocchio/RW_Cartoons/2007/11_11_07/Varvel_11_2_07_Obama.jpg
Menu: Denver Convention
Hot Air and Kool-Aid
You might want to bring a sack lunch.
http://savagepolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/2002754218988689798_
Hi Tommy5:47PMJul 8th 2008
You know what us very sad Tommy?
Some misguided Clinton supporters will do anything in their bitterness to punish the Democratic Party. If they were to succeed they would destroy all of our accomplishments. All that would accomplish is that the Democratic establishment would shun Hillary and Bill forever.
OhReally get some help5:59PMJul 8th 2008
OhReally:
You must be the stupidest jerk in the USA.
No the stupidest jerk in the world!
I think you should get some psychiatric help before you hurt yourself.
Ruby6:23PMJul 8th 2008
What does Barack Obama have in common with George W. Bush?
Cocaine
.................................................
McCain 2008
OhReally6:36PMJul 8th 2008
My My the truth hurts? ROFL
hd6:57PMJul 8th 2008
The DNC was really happy a couple of days ago when they "fixed" the plane Obama was on, unfortunately the Pilot was too well trained.
In Montana, Osama knew he couldn't go on the parade route due to "safety" reasons ... more he didn't want the crowd to BOO and flip him the bird. If Obama was in a parade in the Popemobile, so much crap would be thrown at it that everyoone would know just how much the VOTERS HATE OBAMA. This isn't a RACE issue, its not PARTY issue, AMERICAN VOTERS see this UNPATRIOTIC ARROGANT A*S FOR WHAT HE IS and WE DO NOT LIKE HIM PERIOD.
The only hope for the DNC in November is to either have Obama resign before August, when he is indicted on all of the kickbacks he and his wife have pocketed from Rezco, Treetop, The University of Illinois, and General Dynamics, He dies in an "accident", or Hillary has the DOWN LOW sex tapes of Obama and Steadman.
Obamakins (better known as the modern followers of Jim Jones) if you research to know who Obama's chair of finance is and was you will realize it was convicted FELON Slumlord Tony Rezco when he was in local office and now its the BILLIONAIRE owner of GENERAL DYNAMICS, the company he gave an 8 million pece of pork to for a 200K kickback. You do not get a 200,000 dollar BONUS if you earn 100,000. (Unless you get your husband and Senator to give your employer a cool million ... THESE ARE DIRTY KICKBACKS FOLKS AND OBAMA IS FILTHY. BUT DRINK YOUR KOOL-AID FOOLS. HILLARY DEMOCRATS will VOTE for MCCAI in NOVEMBER because WE HATE OBAMA
Robert Alexander6:57PMJul 8th 2008
McCain does not remember who he is or how he voted on the issues. Just yesterday the economy was not that bad and now it is a shambles. On five different occassions he forgot who the Sunnis and Shiites were in the Iraq conflict. He voted against almost everything he now claims in his ads to be for. McCain said he was above Swift Boat politics but that is the mainstay of his supporters. Barack Obama replaces insult with respect and has the intelligence to lead the nation to a new vitality. Yes, we can make a difference in how things are done in Washington one vote at a time for Barack.
OhReally8:17PMJul 8th 2008
ACCOMPLISHMENTS???? Did I miss something? Tell me quick
AMERICAN-COWBOY!8:40PMJul 8th 2008
You don’t have to agree with everything President Bush says or does --- you don’t even have to like him --- BUT MY PRESIDENT IS A “COWBOY”!
CAIRO - A U.S. ultimatum telling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to quit now or face war is a throwback to the Wild West where might made right, Arabs said on Tuesday.
THEY CALL MY PRESIDENT A “COWBOY”!
It used to tick me off when the Muslim detractors in the Middle East, or the socialist detractors in Europe, Hollywood and other cesspools of America called my President a cowboy, but the more I think about it, the more glad I am that he is.
When I was a kid, cowboys were my heroes. Well, I mean the ones in the white hats, not the black hats, who were the bad guys.
There was Tom Mix, B u c k Jones, Johnny Mack Brown, Hopalong Cassidy, Red Ryder, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, then later Marshall Matt Dillon, and others. Personally, I think Roy Rogers could beat ‘em all up, and then sing a song afterward to his girl friend. He was my favorite.
What were common attributes of these legendary cowboys? Here are a few:
1. They were never looking for trouble.
2. But when it came, they faced it with courage.
3. They were always on the side of right.
4. They defended good people against bad people.
5. They had high morals.
6. They had good manners.
7. They were honest.
8. They spoke their minds and they spoke the truth, regardless of what people thought or “political correctness,” which no one had ever heard of back then.
9. They were a beacon of integrity in the wild, wild West.
10. They were respected. When they walked into a saloon (where they usually drank only sarsaparilla), the place became quiet, and the bad guys kept their distance.
11. If in a gunfight, they could outdraw anyone. If in a fist fight, they could beat up anyone.
12. They always won. They always got their man. In victory, they rode off into the sunset.
Those were the days when there was such a thing as right and wrong, something blurred in our modern world, and denied by many. Those were the days when women were respected and treated as ladies, because they acted like ladies.
Now as a senior citizen, I still like cowboys. They represent something good — something pure that America has been missing.
Ronald Reagan was a cowboy. I like Ronald Reagan, who was brave, positive, and who gave us hope. He wore a white hat. To the consternation of his liberal critics, he had the courage to call a spade a spade and call the former Soviet Union what it was — the evil empire. Liberals hated Ronald Reagan.
They also hate President Bush because he distinguishes between good and evil He calls a spade a spade, and after 9-11 called evil “evil,” without mincing any words, to the shock of the liberal establishment. That’s what cowboys do, you know. He also told the French to “put their cards on the table” (old West talk), which they did, exposing their cowardice and greed.
The Arabs are wrong. In the old West, might did not make right. Right made right.
Cowboys in white hats were always on the side of right, and that was their might.
I AM GLAD MY PRESIDENT IS A “COWBOY!” HE WILL GET HIS MAN --- COWBOYS DO --- YOU KNOW!!!!!!!!! (author unknown)
__________________________________
NO ONE CAN SAY IT BETTER --- AND MY COWGIRL HAT IS OFF TO YOU! THANK YOU PRESIDENT BUSH FOR KEEPING TERRORISTS OFF OUR SOIL SINCE 9/11!
NO-OBAMA8:41PMJul 8th 2008
This is a video someone posted of Gaddafi supporting Obama. He talks
a bout campaign contributions.
NO WONDER OBAMA DIDN’T WANT “PUBLIC FINANCING”.
The entire tape is very interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSemkPChvHo
Gaddafi basically says OBAMA is lying through his teeth. Nothing he
says it true. All of it is to get elected. Oops, getting called a
liar by a ruthless dictator. That is just a reflection of how bad
Obama is.
JOHN McCAIN IN 2008.
Tommy Christopher8:51PMJul 8th 2008
Hi Tommy,
love the name! But now I feel really weird replying. It's kind of fittng, though, because those Clinton dead-enders do have me talking to myself sometimes.
Keep your eyes peeled, I'll be doing a Dream Ticket update soon. The Dream Ticket would take care of most of them.
OhReally9:50PMJul 8th 2008
Tommy, honey, you don't get it yet...No dream ticket unless it is Hillary/Unknown. Although Obama is running out of choices because everyone is turning him down..LOL
OhReally10:02PMJul 8th 2008
Think Bush Has Low Approval Ratings?
By Christopher Weber
Jul 8th 2008 6:52PM
Filed Under:eSenate, House, Polls
At least he's in double digits. Rasmussen is out with a poll that finds just 9% -- NINE percent! -- of voters think Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Not surprisingly, a number that low is unprecedented. It's the first time that rating has fallen to single digits since Rasmussen started polling.
And the people of this country can thank Dean, Pelosi and Reid who are doing such a wonderful job..It must be getting crowded in George Soros pocket.
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OhReally4:44PMJul 8th 2008
No matter what he does, there is an overwhelming reason to VOTE MCCAIN
He is NOT the OBAMA BOY