March 31, 2008

3/31: Strange Bedfellows

The political blogosphere is a weird place these days. First, we have conservative blogger Hugh Hewitt (a John McCain supporter) and liberal blogger Jeralyn Merritt (a Hillary Clinton supporter) promoting the same Clinton press release about "[Barack] Obama's Record of Exaggerations & Misstatements." Next, we have conservative blogger Glenn Reynolds repeatedly linking to anti-Obama blog posts from the liberal blog TalkLeft. Finally, we have various conservative bloggers buzzing about a controversial anti-Obama ad that combines Jeremiah Wright's sermons with graphic images of the 9/11 attacks. The kicker? This ad was disseminated by a pro-Clinton diarist at the liberal blog MyDD.

It's highly unlikely that pro-Clinton bloggers and pro-McCain bloggers are coordinating their attacks on Obama. Still, this phenomenon has to be disconcerting for Obama's netroots supporters, which is probably why so many of them are calling on the uncommitted superdelegates to endorse Obama and end the race.

CLINTON: Can't Stop, Won't Stop

Most liberal bloggers reacted negatively to Clinton's Washington Post interview, in which she vowed to stay in the race until the convention if FL and MI aren't "resolved" before then:

"I know there are some people who want to shut this down and I think they are wrong. I have no intention of stopping until we finish what we started and until we see what happens in the next 10 contests and until we resolve Florida and Michigan. And if we don't resolve it, we'll resolve it at the convention -- that's what credentials committees are for."

• The Atlantic's Matthew Yglesias: "One thing to note about Hillary Clinton's Florida and Michigan strategy is the utter selfishness of it. Her best shot at getting her way on this issue is to keep observing, in a meta kind of way, that if the DNC disses Florida and Michigan by not seating their delegates, that this could hurt Democratic fortunes in Florida and Michigan in November. There are, however, any number of solutions to this problem. One, if Clinton dropped out and endorsed Obama, the delegates could be seated no problem. Two, 50-50 delegations could be seated without controversy, again removing the concern about MI and FL lacking representation. Three, leaders of the Democratic Party from all factions could reiterate that everybody knew the rules going in and the voters of Michigan and Florida have nobody to blame but their own state party leaders for creating this situation. But instead Clinton has chosen path four of deliberately setting up a train wreck, hoping that by credibly committing to the idea that she's happy to sink the party's fortunes in FL and MI if she doesn't get her way, she can thereby get her way."


• AMERICAblog's Joe Sudbay: "It's bizarre, disturbing and, yet, weirdly fascinating to watch Clinton in action these days. She continues to make up new rules and new realities. And, the fact that she will destroy not just the Democratic nominee, but the Democratic party becomes more obvious every day."


• TPM's Josh Marshall thinks Clinton is playing for time: "What is this new gambit for her about? Is she really serious about taking her case to the convention's credentials committee -- which seems almost certain to have a majority of Obama supporters -- and trying to get them to seat the Florida and Michigan delegates on her terms? [...] I don't think whether Hillary means it or doesn't mean it is even really the point. In a sense, I suspect both are true. Like her earlier gambits along these lines, the point is to play for time. [...] From my view, saying she's in it till August isn't about August. It's not even about June. It's about stamping out doubts about her viability and determination to stay in so she can still be in the game in April and May."

CLINTON II: Leave Hillary Alone!

Pro-Clinton bloggers are pushing back against the calls for Clinton to drop out:

• MyDD's Todd Beeton: "Does anyone think that these folks would be calling on Hillary Clinton to drop out if there was a string of primaries or even one that it looked like Barack Obama would win in the next 30 days? Of course not. [...] If Democrats who are concerned that Clinton will take this all the way to the convention really want to make sure this ends before July 1, as Howard Dean has now called for, they'll urge Barack Obama to back remedies for Michigan and Florida. The idea that Barack Obama can claim a clear win without two states that early in the process would have gone handily to Senator Clinton is absurd. This IS her rationale for taking this to the convention, so anyone who would like to avoid that eventuality should get behind an alternative for those states."
• TalkLeft's Big Tent Democrat: "It is quickly being proven that the Obama network (NBC), the Obama pundits (the NBC pundits, Ed Schultz, etc.), the Obama blogs, the Obama endorsers ([Pat] Leahy, [Chris] Dodd, [Bob] Casey) and the Obama campaign do not know how to close the deal in this race...The way NOT to do it is to attack Hillary Clinton at every turn. It does not exude inevitability. It exudes fear. It alienates the Clinton supporters who would have to accept and support Obama as the nominee. It is harmful and divisive. And more pragmatically, it STRENGTHENS Clinton. [...] What these Obama supporters, from [Keith] Olbermann on down, need to learn is that Obama needs to beat Clinton, not have it handed to him. What they suggest would be the absolute worst result for Obama."
• Taylor Marsh: "If the elite DC Dems keep trying to push Clinton from this race, Hillary's supporters will sit the November election out or worse, protest the party's actions by voting for John McCain."

OBAMA: The Wright Albatross

Conservative bloggers continue to hammer Obama over his relationship with Jeremiah Wright:

• Power Line's John Hinderaker: "In Dreams of My Father, Obama describes the very first time he attended Trinity and heard Wright preach. What was Wright's theme? A racist attack on white people. [...] By his own account, Obama wasn't repelled by Wright's racism, it was the very quality that drew Obama to Wright's church! It strikes me that Barack Obama is uniquely unfit to be President, or, for that matter, to serve in the Senate."
• RedState's absentee: "Twenty years ago, young Barack Obama was inspired by a message. That message is the same message the Wright Reverend has preached ever since, and its thematic elements are evident in all other aspects of the Senator's life. Senator Obama can't lead us to a more perfect union or bridge the racial divide. He doesn't repudiate or condemn Reverend Wright's divisive worldview. He has spent twenty years staking a claim to it, and figuring out pretty packages with which to deliver it to the White House."
• Power Line's Paul Mirengoff: "It's pretty clear that no form of Christianity other than black liberation theology had any chance of attracting Obama. Wright's sophomoric ranting was a perfect fit for Obama. It made him feel authentically black (see Shelby Steele on this subject), it fit the anti-American narrative Obama had picked up in the Ivy League, and it was the best church around for advancing Obama's career in Chicago politics."
• Townhall's Amanda Carpenter has a question for Obama: "With which elements, if any, of black liberation theology -- as represented by Reverend Wright and Trinity United Church of Christ -- do you strongly disagree? Do you think any of the core tenets of black liberation theology are racist? Are they consistent with, or fundamentally at odds with, your expressed desire to end racial divisions in this country?"
• NRO's Victor Davis Hanson: "Barack Obama is on his way to a [George] McGovern candidacy."

On the left, The Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum is spooked by the conservative blogosphere's preoccupation with Wright: "I'd be lying if I didn't admit that the Jeremiah Wright controversy has shaken my confidence [in Obama] a bit. This has nothing to do with the substance of the thing, which I think has been wildly overblown, but by the conservative reaction to it. Go scan The Corner and you'll find Mark Steyn and Victor Davis Hanson and the rest of the gang still in an absolute lather over Wright. Ditto for other conservative sites. They have no intention of allowing this to die, and I have no doubt that it will resurface with a vengeance in every last swing state this fall. When Obama continues to fail to denounce Wright thoroughly enough -- and believe me, no denunciation will ever be enough with this crowd -- then eventually the crossover Republicans who were singing Obama's praises after Super Tuesday will, sadly but inevitably, use this as an excuse to switch their support to McCain. [...] I think Hillary's folks are wrong to believe that Obama is doomed, but I'm not sure I think they're delusional any more. There's every sign that we have an ugly campaign ahead of us."

OBAMA II: I Only Did This To Show You What They're Gonna Do!

Conservative bloggers are buzzing about an anti-Obama ad that combines Jeremiah Wright's sermons with graphic images of the 9/11 attacks. Interestingly, the ad was disseminated by a liberal blogger, MyDD diarist Universal, who claims to have found the ad on the pro-Clinton website Hillaryis44:

• Hot Air's Ed Morrissey: "Apparent Hillary Clinton supporter Universal at MyDD wants the Democrats to realize the predicament they face in November if Barack Obama wins the nomination. He thinks the Republicans will create unfair and devastating advertising that will appeal to fear, using 9/11 imagery to derail Obama. Universal wants to protect the Democrats from this fate -- so he cranked out an ad to kneecap Obama first. [...] It's interesting to note that MyDD employed 9/11 footage that even the networks haven't used for years -- namely, the people jumping to their deaths in the minutes before the collapse. We finally get to see that again, and only in the context of one Democratic blogger attacking a Democratic candidate. [...] The 'GOP will use it' argument simply serves as a dodge for an attack on Obama over the Wright Stuff. Universal wants Obama out of the race, and has served up some fear mongering to suit that purpose."
• NRO's Jim Geraghty: "Like the web video that mixed Wright with Malcolm X and the Black Panthers, I think it's gilding the lily. Wright, coupled with Michelle Obama's statement that she's only now proud of her country, and Obama's pledges to limit defense spending, are damaging enough. Footage of the 9/11 attacks is, in this context, a distraction at best and irredeemably exploitative and tasteless to most viewers. But the MyDD poster is left with in a strange role, using the most shocking images of the decade to try to warn the Democratic party not to buy into the idea that the Jeremiah Wright matter has come and gone with minimal damage to Obama."
• RedState's Moe Lane: "I am not going to say 'Thank You,' MyDD, for confusing what you'd do if you were us for what we'll do; particularly when it comes to using graphic 9/11 imagery to get John McCain elected. While I think that the footage from that day should be more public, it's not so that my Party can win elections. It's so that my country is reminded who we're currently at war with. Save your contempt for your bathroom mirror."
• Glenn Reynolds: "[This video] doesn't quite ring true to me, but I suspect it will create a stir among Democrats."

MCCAIN: An American President For Americans Who Love America

Liberal bloggers are very critical of McCain's new TV ad:

• Ezra Klein: "Note...the odd tagline, 'John McCain: The American President Americans Have Been Waiting For.' This is, presumably, in contrast to Barack Obama, 'the Kenyan Muslim President Whom Al-Qaeda Has been Waiting For.' Classy, classy."
• TAPPED's Kate Sheppard: "And so it begins. John McCain launches his first national television ad for the general election today, which in a single minute manages to refer to the U.S. as a 'she' that must be protected in that creepy-uncle kind of way, suggest that one must serve in the armed forces to be a true patriot, and insinuate that other presidential candidates are less 'American.' Soaring to new heights of class, that John McCain."

Some liberal bloggers think McCain is making a mistake by making his Vietnam experience a central part of this ad (and, presumably, his candidacy):

• Open Left's Matt Stoller: "McCain is obviously hinging his whole campaign on his POW time in Vietnam, with this spot closing with 'An American President Americans Have Been Waiting for'. This is a frequent tool he deploys when he speaks with the press, saying things like 'I haven't been questioned this hard since Hanoi'. I can't help but think that it's a foolish narrative. 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 all saw the candidate without military service elected over the candidate who had served, in several cases heroically."
• MyDD's J Ro: "It is doubtful John McCain's status as a 'war hero' will significantly boost his campaign. While America is indeed involved in a very bloody war in Iraq, I don't think many Americans feel a deep connection with it -- especially a positive one. Iraq is very unpopular, and on top of that, by and large Americans have not been asked to sacrifice for the war effort like they were during WWII and Vietnam. So, recently, while many Presidential candidates are veterans, they don't seem to get elected more often over their non-veterans opponents. For the American people these days, it's less about a candidate's war biography than their policies and how they run their races -- and that bodes ill for the old, unstable, and out-of-touch John McCain."

MCCAIN II: So When's The Next Barbecue?

Liberal bloggers continue to decry what they perceive to be the media's pro-McCain bias:

• Digby: "The 'special relationship' between John McCain and the press is particularly dangerous in one respect: he is not held accountable for his words on the stump, (while Democrats' are used against them as if they'd carved them in stone from Mt Rushmore) and he's not held liable for his gross and obvious panders and policy shifts. I'm not sure I've ever seen a politician have this kind of industrial strength teflon before. [...] When [McCain] gets 'angry' at lobbyists or rightwing ministers he's telling the truth. When he cozies up to lobbyists and seeks the endorsement of rightwing ministers, it's because he *has* to, (and he really, really hates doing it.) John McCain's heart, you see, is always in the right place, and oddly enough, everyone believes it's in the same place as is their own. I can't conceive of a greater advantage for a politician."
• Firedoglake's Jane Hamsher: "In the junior high popularity contest that this election has become, McCain is the Once and Future Prom King. On the other hand, the media have locked their sights on Obama, and he can look forward to more and more constant video repetition shitstorms of the Jeremiah Wright variety. Unless someone starts pushing the media to apply some equivalent skepticism to McCain, the slog to November will be one long foot massages for St. John the Divine."

Liberal bloggers are particularly angry that the media (in their view) isn't devoting sufficent coverage to McCain's FEC problems:

• Hamsher: "We all know that the New York Times would be having a full-on, head exploding meltdown if Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton were acting like complete hypocrites on their signature issue like McCain is here, and it would be on the front page for months. But nary a peep. So if you know any friends who you think might be interested in signing on too, please tell them by emailing them here. We'll be delivering signatures to the FEC on Monday."
• Sudbay: "McCain is a campaign finance criminal. [...] We'll see if McCain's pals in the traditional media can get this concept. They don't like to make McCain angry -- he's volatile. And, that might get them kicked off the bus."

MCCAIN III: A Hidden Advantage?

Yglesias thinks people are underestimating McCain's chances: "I heard a liberal Obama skeptic remark a couple of months ago that it would be a strange day in America when the correct answer to the question 'who's the most electable' was 'the black guy.' I think that's right, and it's a reminder that though the cliché is to say that Democrats are torn between two very strong candidates, in some ways we're torn between two very weak ones. At the end of the day, I do think 'the black guy' is the more electable of the two, because 'Bill Clinton's less-charismatic wife' is an almost uniquely poor choice to try to expand the Democratic Party's appeal at a time when George W. Bush has brought the GOP into discredit. But in a primary election, where Clinton has formidable strength, it would have been extremely difficult for anyone other than 'the black guy' to build a viable anti-Clinton coalition. Given the extreme strong underlying pro-Democrat fundamentals, it's very hard for me to imagine how a 'generic Democratic white dude' like Chris Dodd or John Edwards or, indeed, John Kerry would lose in this environment."

Open Left's Chris Bowers is worried: "It is very, very difficult for me to believe that John McCain can win this election, given the enormous structural advantages Democrats have this year (fundraising, partisan self-identification, the general mood for change). [...] However, another part of me also worries that what Matthew Yglesias wrote today is true, and that in terms of electability, we were always deluding ourselves that either a woman or an African-American were ever really all that 'electable' nationwide. [...] I don't know how likely it is, but the Rasmussen poll suggest that it is indeed possible that Obama does not hold a small lead over McCain, and instead actually faces a decently sized, 5-8% deficit at this point in the campaign. Might a live-interview 'Bradley effect' be inflating Obama's (and Clinton's) numbers outside of IVR polls? [...] It is certainly a possibility, and a worrying one to consider."

Open Left's Mike Lux still thinks the political environment favors Dems: "There is a trend I am increasingly noticing in focus groups where people perceive that Democrats are aligned with the future and Republicans with the past. McCain's age and irritability, Republican talking points which sound exactly the same as they have for a million years regardless of circumstances, Obama's age and multicultural background...all of it is adding up to a sense in voters that we are the future, and Republicans are the past. The future may feel a little scary, the past may feel more comfortable in some ways, but when they think about it, voters know the future is a better way to vote that the past. Now, the Presidential dynamics could still screw everything up, and drive the whole Democratic ticket down. My gut, though, is that the overall trends will weigh McCain down far more than McCain's advantages will allow him to change those trends."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Gory Prospects

NRO's Mark Levin:

"So, the Democrat party's answer to the split between Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama might be to nominate Al Gore, who hasn't run in any primary or caucus. If that happens then none of the votes cast by any of the Democrat voters counted. They will all have disenfranchised. And how does a Gore nomination address all the talk by the Obama supporters that the convention must deliver the nomination to Obama as he has received (or will have received) the most popular votes and secured the most delegates? Finally, what about all the excitement over the possibility of the first woman or first black president? That goes down the tubes with the nomination of Gore. It seems to me that a Gore nomination creates serious problems for the Democrat Party. So, I would encourage the Democrats to do it."

LEST WE FORGET: Ted Danson Totally Nails Tonight Show Interview

From The Onion:

"BURBANK, CA -- Despite his initial anxiety, actor Ted Danson reported Tuesday that he 'totally nailed' an important five-minute interview aired at 12:15 a.m. with Tonight Show host Jay Leno. 'I really thought I was going to blow it, that I wouldn't know how to answer any of Mr. Leno's questions, but I somehow lucked out and had an anecdote for just about every single one,' said Danson, who claimed that he gave Leno a firm handshake when he came out, made a reference to a bit from earlier in the program to showcase his familiarity with the show, and even made Leno laugh out loud a number of times. 'Mr. Leno seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say, and at the end of the interview, he asked me to stick around.' Danson added, 'I think they'll have me back.'"

Posted by Ian Faerstein at March 31, 2008 12:56 PM