John Sydney McCain III had his coming out party last night. He tried his best to make one thing perfectly clear: “Senator Obama, I am not President Bush” (at least he called Obama by his name instead of “that one”). That, combined with all the talk about plumbers, had me drifting back some 35 years to an angry, beleaguered Richard Nixon looking me right in the eye (in black and white) and affirming that “people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”JSM3 is no more not President Bush than Nixon wasn’t a crook.
No longer the centrist Republican of four years ago, running against the neocon ideologues, he’s been transformed by the campaign into some weird neo-caricature. One thing was clear last night. He wasn’t talking to anyone but his narrow base of Palinoids. I mean, this was a guy who just handed over $850 billion to Wall Street telling us that he is anti-government and against any and all tax increases; for an “across-the-board spending freeze; who’s response to every problem from autism to public education is “don’t throw money at it” and who’s for cuts in education spending, but likes NCLB.
Obama responded appropriately:
“The fact of the matter is that if I occasionally mistake your policies for George Bush’s policies, it’s because on the core economic issues that matter to the American people — on tax policy, on energy policy, on spending priorities — you have been a vigorous supporter of President Bush.”
On Ayers
Didn’t it seem that Obama had to actually rope Maverick into saying the words, Bill Ayers. Ayers had been the centerpiece, the only piece of the campaign for the past two months. Yet, Obama kept waiting, waiting, waiting for his chance to put the great diversion to rest. Finally Mav took the bait and Obama did.
The only question now is, what will McCain/Palin do to keep busy for the next 20 days? I predict they will shift their attacks away from Ayers to ACORN. Yup, that’ll work. You betcha.
The Plumber's relative
Could it be true? Is Joe "The Plumber" Wurzelbacher actually related to Charles Keating (yes that Charles Keating)? C'mon Steve Schmidt. Get your act together or they'll call the whole thing off because of the slaughter rule.
Apparently it's been confirmed by sources inside the McCain campaign.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.eisenstadtgroup.com/
The Ayers issue is not put aside. Obama has never explained the relationship, he is avoiding the question at all cost. Why?
ReplyDelete"He's just a guy in the neighborhood" proved to be false. Why is the Obama camp so desperate about hiding the fact that they worked close together for 7 years spending $100 million. How many times did the meet, talk and plan their projects?
What is Obama hiding? On his website he referr to AP, NYT and bloggers but won't say a word about it himself.
Peter,
ReplyDeleteI actually hope you are right. Every time McCain and you wing-nuts mention Bill Ayers' name, McCain drops another point in the polls. So part of me says, "keep the slime coming." But really, Pete. McCain had better come up with something new. How about attacking community organizing and ACORN for the next 20 days. That might work. No?
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteYou and the McCain sources were wrong. No Keating connection. But it's even worse. His name isn't Joe. He's not a certified plumber. He a tax delinquent. He was only posing as an "undecided" voter. Being related to Keating would have been a step up for McCain's poster boy for the wing-nut anti-tax movement.