September 15, 2008

9/15: Pants On Fire

Liberal bloggers continue to assail John McCain for distorting the truth in his recent statements and ads. The netroots are pleased that several news organizations are treating McCain's repeated falsehoods as a story in itself. Lefty bloggers are hopeful that a narrative is developing about McCain's willingness to make false claims, just as a similar narrative emerged about Al Gore (unfairly, in their view) during the 2000 presidential race. But will this message stick, or is McCain's "straight talk" image too deeply ingrained in the public consciousness?

MCCAIN: A Pathological Liar?

Liberal bloggers continue to call McCain a liar due to his campaign's repeated distortions of the truth:

• Atrios: "[McCain is a] liar. And the lies will continue until the bobbleheads start repeating over and over again that John McCain is a liar, has a trouble with the truth, doesn't care who he deceives, etc."
• TPM's Josh Marshall: "How can we trust a liar as big as John McCain? I'm using the L-word. So that may come across as a slashing blog remark. But let's slow down and look at the facts that are not being disputed. John McCain is telling lie after lie. Not off the cuff remarks that can be excused as accidents or flubs but the same lies consistently and many of them. Serial liars are never trustworthy people -- that is a truism. But it also demonstrates a deeper character flaw. A normal job applicant would be disregarded out of hand after such a record became clear."
• Ezra Klein: "McCain has truly given up every last shred of his honor, every last whisper of his dignity, to win this election. He's reached a point where he could win the office he's been seeking for a decade, but have lost everything he once recognized and admired in himself."
• Balloon Juice's John Cole: "Put aside the avalanche of lies from Sarah Palin and John McCain the past few weeks, and answer this for me: 'How do they do it?' How do people lie so easily and effortlessly? [...] At least when Pat Buchanan is lying and he gets caught, he laughs and you know he is just bullshitting. But folks like Palin, who lie repeatedly about the Bridge to Nowhere (and conveniently drop the lie when in Alaska and people will know better) just shock the shit out of me."
• TPMCafe's Reed Hundt: "In 2000 Al Gore was pilloried by the mainstream media ('MSM') for his alleged untruths or exaggerations -- Love Canal, Love Story, Internet, Who he visited in Texas. In every instance, at the very most he had chosen the wrong word or failed to clarify the misunderstandings of others. Now in 2008 the McCain-Palin ticket revels in inaccuracy, wallows in whoppers, lies like a pair of rugs, buys ad time to tell still more lies. So tell me why the MSM doesn't talk about their dishonesty endlessly, turning them from celebrity stars into pathological figures?"
• AMERICAblog's Joe Sudbay: "There was a time (I never believed it, but there was a time) when McCain was considered a 'straight talker.' He's abandoned all pretense of the old John McCain to become the next George Bush. We've already had eight years of a president who thought so little of the American people that he lied to us repeatedly. McCain is has proven he can match Bush on lying and distorting the truth."
• TAPPED's Adam Serwer: "John McCain simply has no trouble lying to people's faces about his record or his opponent's record. None at all. McCain is comfortable lying blatantly to the American people. This is not what most people are looking for after eight years of George W. Bush. The ease with which this man engages in deceit is downright disturbing."

The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan: "I'm in two minds whether John McCain has lost his mind or never had a soul. But I have to say I am surprised by the barrage of lies and distractions his campaign is throwing out. The farce of the Palin candidacy is one such distraction -- but the lies about sex education, the lies about Palin's pork record, the lies about 'tiny' Iran, the lies about the lipstick-pig nonsense, the lies about the bridge to nowhere, the lies about the oil pipeline...I mean, what is going on? Some believe this is just GOP hardball. But it actually isn't. They're usually not this stupid. If you are going to broadcast a series of outrageous, demonstrable lies to smear your opponent, you tend to to that in the last two weeks of a campaign, so the lies can actually stick before they are debunked. But in September?"

MCCAIN II: When Dishonesty Is The Story

Liberal bloggers have been hoping that the McCain camp's repeated distortions of the truth would provoke a media backlash, and now they believe that it's beginning to happen. Lefty bloggers are pointing to several recent news articles as evidence of a developing narrative about McCain's willingness to make false claims:

• Daily Kos' Hunter: "Blowback is beginning...in the form of numerous articles like this one. Media figures, like all of the rest of us, do not like being lied to, and knowing that this is conscious strategy makes it all the more infuriating. This is, truly, a test for the press: if a candidate is knowingly lying, repeatedly, and everyone knows it -- what, if anything, can be done about it?"
• MyDD's Jonathan Singer: "Back in 2000, one of the real drags on the Gore campaign was the perception pushed forward by the establishment media that the Democratic nominee was less than truthful. Interestingly enough, it's looking increasingly possible that John McCain may be being tagged with the label of 'liar', which might cause some real headaches for his candidacy going forward."
• Mark Kleiman: "McCain's rather fraught relationship with the truth is finally becoming a central issue in this campaign, as it deserves to be. 'Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.' Great God, do I miss Pat Moynihan just about now!"
• The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen: "There's just something breathtaking about John McCain's 2008 campaign, and it's not just because he's running in part on his reputation for candor and integrity. We're talking about a candidate who's been lying about everything -- his record, his running mate, his opponent, his agenda, his past, and his policies. He'll lie, get caught, and then repeat the same lie. He'll lie, get caught, and then lie about lying. [...] It's reassuring to know others have noticed the same thing, especially over the last 24 hours. [...] John McCain has a problem telling the truth. There's no reason this shouldn't be just as big a campaign narrative as Gore's so-called 'exaggerations,' or [John] Kerry's so-called 'flip-flops.'"

Along that same vein, liberal bloggers are buzzing about Karl Rove's admission that McCain had "gone one step too far, and [was] sort of attributing to [Barack] Obama things that are, you know, beyond the 100 percent truth test":

• Singer: "You know it's rough times when even Rove says a Republican candidate isn't being truthful enough."
• Atrios: "When Rove says you're a liar, maybe you have a wee problem."
• Oliver Willis: "Karl Rove says John McCain is lying in his ads. This is a little like a crack dealer saying you ought to lay off the crack a little bit."
• dday: "....Even Rove said that McCain went a bit too far in some of his ads this week about Obama. That's really scraping the bottom of the barrel when Rove is critiquing your fact pattern."

MCCAIN III: Stay Classy, Obama Team

Conservative bloggers are assailing a new ad by the Obama camp which mocks McCain because he "can't send an email." Several righty bloggers are pointing to a 2000 Boston Globe article asserting that "McCain's severe war injuries prevent him from...typing on a keyboard":

• Jeff Emanuel: "That's right. John McCain doesn't use computers or type emails because the injuries inflicted on him by his Vietnamese captors over thirty years ago rendered him permanently unable to type. Does that still seem like a great line of attack, Team Obama? Especially since you're already so sensitive about being called anti-military and unpatriotic?"
• Townhall's Carol Platt Liebau: "Think of it this way, Barack: McCain's willingness to risk that injury you've tried to ridicule is what gave you the freedom to serve as a 'community organizer.'"
• RedState's Pejman Yousefzadeh: "McCain's decision to stay away from the computer is necessitated by his war injuries. Yes indeedy. The Obama campaign went to the Land of Let's Mock The Veteran For Having Suffered For His Country. I hope that they get their just desserts for the journey."
• Hot Air's Ed Morrissey: "Making fun of a war hero's severe injuries -- smooth move, Team O. Talk about computer illiteracy! Doesn't anyone on the Obama campaign know what they're doing? Didn't it ever occur to them that a man who can't raise his arms above his head might have a physical barrier to using a computer? If this is what happens when they takes the gloves off, maybe they should just keep them on in the future."
• NRO's Jonah Goldberg: "Lord knows I think the chicken-hawk arguments are stupid. And I don't think the fact that Obama never served in the military should count against him in and of itself. But how stupid is it for the Obama campaign to claim that McCain is unqualified to be president because he can't grasp cyber-security issues based on the fact he has never sent an email when the McCain campaign can just as easily say Obama can't understand first order national security issues because he's never fired a rife, flown a plane, commanded men in battle, or faced an enemy? I mean which prepares someone to be commander in chief better, hitting 'send' on AOL or fighting a war?"
• Hot Air's Allahpundit: "What's especially stupid about the spot is that it's a line of attack with a lot more downside than upside: No one outside of The One's core nutroots constituency is going to be offended at the thought of McCain relying on one of his thousand aides or secretaries to answer messages, but there may be some offense taken by the 20 percent of Americans who don't use e-mail themselves -- many of whom are no doubt senior citizens. And senior citizens are known for high turnout, aren't they, Barry?"
• Power Line's John Hinderaker: "I've always thought that Barack Obama is unqualified for the office of President -- he isn't qualified to be a Senator, either -- but I've never thought he was particularly mean-spirited. Until now."

MCCAIN IV: The POW Defense Won't Work This Time

Several liberal bloggers are pointing out that there is considerable evidence that McCain is physically able to use electronics, contrary to the Boston Globe's assertion that "McCain's severe war injuries prevent him from...typing on a keyboard":

• The Huffington Post's Nico Pitney: "The Drudge Report and several conservative blogs are working themselves into a lather over the new Obama ad noting that John McCain doesn't know how to use a computer. Their claim is that McCain is simply unable to use a computer because of his POW injuries, citing a March 2000 article in the Boston Globe that states, with no supporting evidence. [...] Of course, this directly contradicts what McCain and his campaign manager have said. McCain told the New York Times in July. [...] Campaign manager Rick Davis said in June that McCain would grab Blackberrys from reporters and tool around on the internet. [...] And in a Politico interview, McCain said again that he uses a blackberry and plans to go online."
• AMERICAblog's John Aravosis: "McCain can't use a computer because...he's a former POW! No one could have guessed that was coming! Yeah, unfortunately John McCain already admitted that he's trying to learn how to use a computer, there was no mention of war injuries stopping him prior to today (and Huff Post has a nice photo of him using those itty bitty buttons on a cell phone). Good try, though."
• Willis: "See! John McCain operate a Blackberry! Watch! John McCain use a cellphone! You see, there is no physical impediment to John McCain using these tools of the now, he's just intellectually uncurious across the board and makes the active decision even with his vast fortune and position of power within our government, to be uneducated in the basics of the 21st century."

PALIN: Gibson Screwed Up, Not Her!

Conservative bloggers are promoting Charles Krauthammer's column as evidence that the definition of the Bush Doctrine is ambiguous and that Palin's apparent lack of familiarity with the term is understandable:

• Michelle Malkin: "Charles Krauthammer, the man who coined the phrase 'Bush doctrine,' turns the table on the condescending Charlie Gibson. Take off your smart glasses, Charlie. Because you've been schooled."
• Morrissey: "During his interview/college boards with Sarah Palin, Charles Gibson demanded that Sarah Palin explain the Bush Doctrine. However, according to the man who coined the phrase, Gibson doesn't know what it means, and ABC apparently didn't bother doing any research on the topic before posing the question."
• Yousefzadeh: "Charlie Gibson and ABC flubbed it. Royally. And now they have the nerve to sit idly by while other people claim that it was Sarah Palin who flubbed the interview. Gibson and ABC knew what questions they were out to ask, had the opportunity to do the research and failed completely at the task. The ridicule that should follow for this incompetence will come soon, won't it?"
• The Next Right's Soren Dayton: "There is no 'Bush Doctrine.' At best it is a squishy idea. That may be the grounds for a critique in its own right. But not of Sarah Palin."

Other conservative bloggers are less forgiving of Palin:

• AmSpec Blog's James Antle: "This is a fascinating discussion of the Bush Doctrine by Charles Krauthammer, but it doesn't change the fact that Palin seemed utterly unfamiliar with the term. I'm not sure saying the Bush Doctrine is unknowable is the best defense."
• NRO's Rich Lowry: "[Palin] somehow bluffed her way through the Bush doctrine question. Gibson apparently didn't want to go into full 'gotcha' territory by asking flat-out if she knew what it is. And then he muddled things further with his dubious definition of it, so she was never truly nailed and there was enough ambiguity there for conservatives to defend her. The fact still remains that she very likely didn't know any of the possible definitions of the Bush doctrine. I can't imagine if Obama had picked Gov. Tim Kaine and he had had a similar moment, conservatives would have rushed to say that the Bush doctrine is just too amorphous and complicated for him to know anything about it."

On the left side of the blogosphere, Salon's Glenn Greenwald disputes the argument that Palin's confusion is understandable: "Before it became clear that Sarah Palin had never heard of it, nobody -- including the presidential candidates themselves -- ever had difficulty answering questions about what they believed about the Bush Doctrine, nor ever suggested that this Doctrine was some amorphous, impossible-to-understand, abstract irrelevancy. [...] It's certainly reasonable to argue that, in some respects, the Bush Doctrine has no precise meaning and is subject to debate, and Gibson provided some vague definitional parameters when asking the presidential candidates about it. None of that negates that Palin appeared quite clearly never to have even heard of the term 'The Bush Doctrine' before ('His world view?'), leading one to wonder if she has paid any attention at all to the central foreign policy debates over the last eight years and whether she even watched or was vaguely aware of the presidential debates this year and many of the most critical expressed differences between the candidates -- including the one with whom she's running."

PALIN II: Morally Unfit To Be President?

Liberal bloggers are buzzing about Saturday's New York Times article detailing how Palin "pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and blurred the line between government and personal grievance" throughout her political career:

• Daily Kos' BarbinMD: "When John McCain and Sarah Palin aren't busy lying about their own records or about Barack Obama, they spend most of their time trying to convince voters that only they can bring change to Washington. But as an article in today's New York Times makes clear, Sarah Palin represents a small town version of the worst kind of backroom, good old boy politics that we've gotten from the Bush/Cheney administration for the past eight years."
• Marshall: "I've been meaning for a while to write a post explaining just why Trooper-Gate matters -- a lot. And I will. But for now read this piece just out from the Times on Palin's governing style. In a different way it tells the same story -- a small-minded person who populates her administration with cronies and grade-school friends, fires those who dare to criticize her and uses the power of her office to pursue personal vendettas. In other words, someone in the habit of abusing official power who should not be let within a mile of being president."
• Benen: "Palin's political style is more than a little frightening. She attacks critics, pursues petty vendettas, ignores mayors and state lawmakers, blurs the line between government business and personal grievances, demands strict secrecy in all matters, refuses to engage in policy matters in any real depth, tries to fire state employees who dare to challenge her demands, and insists on surrounding herself with childhood friends and church members, appointing unqualified allies to key government posts. [...] Reading the piece, and realizing that Sarah Palin may very well be one heartbeat from the presidency in just three months, is nothing short of chilling. It's hard not to think Palin would be a poor choice to help lead a convenience store, worse yet the executive branch of the United States government."
• Kleiman: "Remember, the issue here isn't Palin. It's not her fault she was nominated to a position she is intellectually and morally unfit to fill. The issue here is the character, judgment, and commitment to the national interest of the man who chose her."

Conservative blogger Hinderaker accuses the authors of the Times article of bias: "The Obama campaign has a long article about Sarah Palin in today's New York Times. Jo Becker, Peter S. Goodman and Michael Powell wrote it for them. The Times reporters evidently scoured Alaska, looking for people who don't like Governor Palin, and pieced together every negative quote they could come up with in the form -- more or less -- of a newspaper article. Remarkably enough, the reporters/Obama campaign staff couldn't find room for a single good word about Governor Palin. Thus, while they acknowledge that Palin currently has an approval rating of 80% (86%, actually), making her perhaps the most popular politician in the country, the reader is left to puzzle as to what her constituents could possibly like about her."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Are The Netroots Being Played?

Andrew Sullivan posts an email from a reader who thinks the netroots "are being played" by the GOP:

"...It also occurs to me that in a way McCain and Rove have actually simply taken over the liberal blogosphere in some way. They are being played. Just a few examples -- yesterday Obama gave a fantastic interview at the Service Forum. Did the liberal blogs even cover this? No. He gave a great speech on the trail. Are his town halls even posted or excerpted? No. [...] The liberal bloggers have become McCain central. They make people click on his ads, make the world spin around him instead of focusing on our candidate and what he is trying to do. There is ZERO coverage of what Obama is actually doing every day talking tough on the issues."

Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas responds:

"Let me get this straight -- if we all sat around and talking about how great Obama's speech was, then things would be much better for him? Really? People believe this tripe? I'll give Sullivan a pass. He was a winger not too long ago, so he hasn't seen, first hand like many of us have, just how effective 'ignoring the other side' has worked. Just ask Kerry and the Swift Boat Vets. [...]

To all the concerned people emailing me about 'being played', don't waste your time. I'm not about to revert to writing puff pieces about Obama thinking that his magic 'new politics' bullshit will carry us to victory. He may or may not believe that crap, but I don't. We're going to win this thing the way campaigns are won -- by playing hardball. Politics is a blood sport. Republicans understand this and never flinch from flinging the shit. We won't win until we learn to fight back in kind. And I'm more than happy to get down in the mud with our friends on the Right so Obama doesn't have to."

LEST WE FORGET: McCain's Energy Plan Emphasizes Elbow Grease, Sleeve-Rolling-Up

"HOUSTON -- While campaigning in Texas Monday, Sen. John McCain delivered a speech outlining his personal energy policy, a plan that offsets rising gas prices and dependence on foreign oil with a 38 percent increase in the national get-up-and-go. 'Developing an intelligent energy policy is not only an environmental concern, but a national security concern as well, which is why I have developed a comprehensive plan to make hay while the sun's still shining,' said the Republican presidential nominee, pulling out a dustpan. 'If we are going to stave off another energy crisis, it is essential for all Americans to put your shoulders into it, wipe the sand out of your eyes, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil by 20 percent over the next five years.' Sen. McCain said he has no doubt his energy plan will be successful, as he enacted a similar strategy in October when he had to clean out his garage."

Posted by Ian Faerstein at September 15, 2008 01:43 PM