Running out of time? Don’t want to talk about the economy? No problem! Try smears!
13 comments October 7th, 2008
Archive for October 7th, 2008
If I were John McCain, here’s what I would do at tonight’s debate with Barack Obama
16 comments October 7th, 2008
The conventional political wisdom is that John McCain, trailing in the polls with just four weeks left in the presidential campaign, has to make a BREAKTHROUGH in tonight’s debate if he’s going to turn the race around.
My advice to him if I were on his payroll would be to violate one or two of the RULES contained in the 31-page agreement between the two camps on how the debate is to be conducted.
For example, the candidates are forbidden to wander outside their respective “designated areas” on the stage or to ask each other direct questions.
McCain could score points, methinks, if he walked over to Obama and asked him to sign a written pledge of some kind calculated to embarrass the Democratic nominee.
The gesture might throw Obama off balance and doubtless would invite a rebuke from moderator Tom Brokaw.
With this single stroke, McCain could burnish his maverick credentials by defying a media titan, flouting the excessively restrictive rules (no matter that his campaign helped draft them) and challenging Obama to do something he wasn’t prepared to do.
The Republican base would love it, and Sarah Palin would have something other than Bill Ayers to talk about for the next few days.
Don’t be surprised if this sort of thing actually happens. McCain and his people read this blog religiously.
A sampling of state and national polls
7 comments October 7th, 2008
(Hat-tip to FiveThirtyEight.com)
Why do the media treat Sarah Palin differently from Hillary Clinton?
2 comments October 7th, 2008
Richard Cohen SAYS the media generally give Sarah Palin a pass on stuff for which they would savage Hillary Clinton.
Here’s how McCain’s brand, one of the best in American politics, was ruined
21 comments October 7th, 2008
Veteran journalist John Heilemann EXPLAINS the transformation of John McCain from admirable maverick to cranky codger.
The change, argues Heilemann, might well cost McCain the presidential election.
Does Osama bin Laden want McCain to win?
4 comments October 7th, 2008
Former Bush administration counterterrorism coordinator Richard Clarke SAYS there is good reason to suspect that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network wouldn’t like it if the United States had a president who is popular in Europe and the Middle East.
Clarke also notes that Barack Obama has “overwhelming popular support” in those parts of the world.
Connecting the dots – and recalling that bin Laden released a provocative audio tape on the eve of the 2004 presidential election — Clarke worries that al-Qaeda might try to influence this year’s election in John McCain’s favor.
None of this, of course, is intended to suggest that McCain holds any favor for al Qaeda. So, I don’t want to hear any nonsense about me trying to impugn Mr. Straight Talk’s patriotism.
(But then, I recall Fox News trying to SMEAR Obama with indications that Hamas, the Palestinian paramilitary organization, endorsed him. I also recall the McCain camp using the SAME STUFF in a fundraising effort. And then there’s the execrable rhetoric of late from McCain and his running mate suggesting that Obama is soft on terrorism.)
I’m just passing along speculation from Richard Clarke, an expert on counterterrorism and a man familiar with the activities of bin Laden and al-Qaeda.