Friday’s campaign round-up

August 1, 2008

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

* So far, the media narratives haven’t quite reached the public: “37% think Obama is arrogant (34% think McCain is arrogant.); 63% do not think Obama is arrogant. 44% think he’s acting as if he’s already won the election; 56% don’t. 72% think Obama cares about military veterans.”

* A platform push: “As her chances of becoming vice president recede, some of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s supporters are pushing for the Democratic Party’s new platform to state that the primary elections ‘exposed pervasive gender bias in the media’ and to call on party leaders to take ‘immediate and public steps’ to condemn future perceived instances of bias.”

* Rasmussen shows McCain leading Obama in Texas by nine, 50% to 41%.

* Rasmussen shows McCain leading Obama in Kentucky by 10, 49% to 39%.

* Rasmussen shows McCain leading Obama in Montana by one, 45% to 44%.

* Research 2000 shows McCain leading Obama in Idaho by 16, 53% to 37%.

* After being indicted this week, Sen. Ted Stevens’ (R-Alaska) support has dropped even further — he trails Mark Begich by 13 in the latest Rasmussen poll, 50% to 37%.

* For the second time, Sen. Gordon Smith, the Republican incumbent in Oregon, has highlighted his ties to Barack Obama in a television ad.

* And Jesse Ventura will attend Ron Paul’s convention.

And Jesse Ventura will attend Ron Paul’s convention.

They might have to get a bigger phone booth

  • * Research 2000 shows McCain leading Obama in Idaho by 16, 53% to 37%.

    Which means we’re due for three weeks of nonstop media coverage about Obama’s problem with “hard-working, white potato farmers.”

  • Re #1)

    The Target Center is a pretty big phone booth 🙂 I have a feeling they will draw a pretty big crowd as Paul has a decent following here in Minneapolis and Jesse will attack people no matter where he goes in the state.

  • “…some of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s supporters are pushing for the Democratic Party’s new platform to state that the primary elections ‘exposed pervasive gender bias in the media’ and to call on party leaders to take ‘immediate and public steps’ to condemn future perceived instances of bias.”

    I have no problem with that. Mentions of cleavage, pantsuits, “pimping one’s daughter”, etcetera have no place in the media.

  • I think it is time for Obama to run a commercial something like this — npt an attack on McCain, but an attempt to shame him:
    “Sen. McCain, in the time I have been in Washington I had come to know you. While we rarely agreed, I had come to respect you as one person who could put principle above politics, who could even challenge the President of his own party when he thought he was wrong. Because of this, and because of the many serious problems facing this nation, when I knew you would be the nominee of the Republican Party, I had looked forward to the sort of campaign the American people deserve, one focussed on the issues, one where they could choose between our differing solutions to those problems.

    On many of them we would have disagreed, on others, we might have found ourselves closer than our party labels would predict. But we could have put forth our positions and debated them.

    Instead, so far, your campaign has been based on trivialities, on matters of style, and too often you have, simply, misstated the facts even when you have suggested solutions. Recently a newspaper supporting you even spent over a thousand words discussing whether I was *laugh* too skinny to be President.

    You are better than this. You have positions on the issues, positions we can debate — but instead you compare me to Paris Hilton. Sen. McCain, isn’t it your campaign which is representing the same triviality as she does?

    I suggested to the reporters that they should concentrate more on what you were in favor of than what you are against, but you have to make that possible.

    Please, Senator, let’s stop the silly name-calling and get back to the problems we must deal with together as a nation. The American people who will choose between us deserve that.

    ———-
    I know it gives McCain ‘too much credit’ but it makes the point, and this is one that should deserve a major ‘media buy’ and soon — not just in small markets but across the country — and across the spectrum of political venues.

  • Hey Frank,

    “Jesse will attack people no matter where he goes in the state” a slip of the truth?

  • If Clinton’s campaign did nothing else, it certainly highlighted the continuing sexism in this country. And the misogyny of pundits like Maureen Dowd and Chris Matthews.

  • Geez Purp…You want Obama to tell voters what a good man McCain used to be but some how now has changed??? It would result in McCain campaign only quoting the compliments from Obama. McCain is a gutter politician through and through. He literally has no integrity and deserves no respect. When I think of McCain I think of Lieberman, Lindsey Graham, Cheney and Bush. It’s enough to make you want to throw up. I do agree….McCain should be shamed…because he’s shameful and deserves it. Petty, small, virtually incoherent lacking any and all presidential stature. I don’t think Obama should make ads saying “Please don’t pick on me like that…you’re better than that, You are a good man…please”. Fuck that. Obama should point a finger at McCain and start laughing and apoligize fior having to be in a race with such a petty angry substance free little man. Your fellow senators were right…you don’t have the temperament to be president. ( I joke)

    I would like to see more of I say this…this is what McCain says. and end with …this is also what Bush says. We haven’t heard much about Bush lately and are losing site of the fact that McCain IS Bush. Do you really want more of this???…and highlight the Bush disaster…Bush & McCain…they’re really the same. (It could have played better on specifics if only Obama hadn’t supported FISA like McCain and all the rest of the Bush enabling administration did)

  • …and Jesse will attack people no matter where he goes in the state. -Frank

    Probably because he used to be a pro wrestler. Some habits are hard to shake.

  • Prup,

    If Obama went with your ad, it would be political suicide. The news cycle for the next 80 days would be nothing but:

    Even Obama says McCain puts principle above politics and should be respected.

    They’d never ever play the end of that commercial.

    I think the problem is you’re starting from the assumption that McCain and his cohorts understand and can feel shame. They don’t and can’t, so why give them an inch?

  • Joey, doubtful:
    This is why I said this should be a nationwide buy. I am not trying to reach the people who already watch CNN or MSNBC — do you know how small a number that is? I want this on, oh, CSI or Sunday Night Baseball — when I had the free trial of MLB Extra Innings I saw Obama commercials on local ball games which had ten times the audience of the news.

    Political suicide — no, that’s what the sort of attack ad so many of you are begging for would be. Again, the first time Obama does that — and he won’t — it legitimizes the attacks he’s getting.

    Did the two of you read to the end, or stop after the opening? (Did you even realize why I made the change, to bring the two of them on a level as Senators?) Did you see that it calls McCain a liar, that it throws the Hilton ad back in his face, that it makes him a fool.

    And this idea that the only thing people would be quoting is the opening is part and parcel of the same paranoia that — usually after quoting a newspaper article or tv piece blasting McCain, still thinks they only give him a bye. (The survey that people quoted showing that Obama gets more negative press than McCain mentioned that 54% of the McCain coverage was negative.)

    Actually, I expect to see just this sort of ad being rolled out. Because Obama knows how to very politely and intelligently skewer his opponent and serve him up with tomatoes and peppers.

  • “As her chances of becoming vice president recede, some of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s supporters are pushing for the Democratic Party’s new platform to state that the primary elections ‘exposed pervasive gender bias in the media’ and to call on party leaders to take ‘immediate and public steps’ to condemn future perceived instances of bias.”

    Now *this* I can get behind. I was getting repeatedly annoyed by Hillary supporters falsely whining about Obama engaging in sexism, but there was definitely a lot of it in the media. As CJ @ #5 said, all those people focusing on her appearance, that infamous “pimping out” comment about Chelsea, and so on, it was all sexism at its most blatant.

    Seriously, the media are part of the problem. Democrats need to start getting tough with them and making it clear that they (the democrats) won’t just lie down and take the media’s grief.

  • I am wondering where this story is and why McCain is not being asked about it in lieu of his unprecedented support of “the troops?” Or is that trollups?
    And, how about Obama’s take on this? I have always felt that the nature of war and the role military naturally lends itself to unrestrained violence and anti-feminism. This is one more proof of that belief.
    Sexual assault in military ‘jaw-dropping,’ lawmaker says:
    http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/31/military.sexabuse/?iref=mpstoryview
    Rep. Jane Harman, D-California, spoke before a House panel investigating the way the military handles reports of sexual assault.

    Any comments on this story? Has it been on CSM, other than this CNN story online?
    I am committed Oneness through Justice and Transformation
    peace,
    st john

  • oops!
    …the nature of war and the role of the military naturally lends itself to unrestrained violence and anti-feminism.

    peace,
    st john

  • Political suicide — no, that’s what the sort of attack ad so many of you are begging for would be. Again, the first time Obama does that — and he won’t — it legitimizes the attacks he’s getting. -Prup

    To begin with, I’ve called for no particular ads. In fact, my advice is for all of us to stop playing armchair QB and let Axlerod and Obama run this show because they’re good at it. Honestly, I think they’re smart to be spending their time and money on organization and local offices in swing states, and that’s a better investment than national ad space.

    But I still think your ad idea is political suicide for the same reasons I stated before, and yes, I read your whole comment and follow up correction before I commented. And in it’s entirety, I still think it would be an unforced error.

    And this idea that the only thing people would be quoting is the opening is part and parcel of the same paranoia… -Prup

    I wasn’t talking about people, I specifically said the news cycle, and clearly meant the corporate media.

    Paranoia, really? Obama is quoted out of context all the time in the corporate media (recently to justify their claim of his arrogance). It would be even worse if he handed them the gift of overblown praise for his dim-witted and power hungry opponent. Assuming they would have a field day with it if Obama used your text isn’t paranoia. It’s common sense.

    ..usually after quoting a newspaper article or tv piece blasting McCain, still thinks they only give him a bye. -Prup

    I’m not going to argue the corporate media bias for McCain. Not in the face of the overwhelming and mounting supporting evidence. The assertion that the media isn’t giving him a bye is ridiculous. For every piece out there even remotely critical of McCain, there are hundreds of untrue criticisms of Obama, and it’s the untrue part that chafes me. Anything critical of McCain is grounded in fact; most of the criticism of Obama is ground in urban legend and lies.

    I’ll be open to the contrary if you can show me a news piece in a nationally recognized paper that questions McCain’s patriotism, Christianity, and whiteness. I don’t think FOX has ever even ‘accidentally’ misspelled McCain.

  • Prup, @6,

    Try and read your “ad”, out loud, in 30 seconds. Beyond the the doubts that doubtful has… Obama would come through as a boring motormouth…

  • i’m with you, jim benton. it’s difficult when the media continually presents obama as defending and mccain as attacking, but it is really time for the obama campaign to seriously start framing mccain.

    although commenters who suggest the right would make hay with any concession by obama to mccain being honorable in the past have a point, it is negligible. obama has already said such things and they have not become part of any ad or significant attack by mccain’s campaign that i have seen.

  • I understand that McLame tossed Wisconsin off the cliff when he announced:

    “There’s a lot of controversies that I have eagerly leapt into in my time. I’m not so dumb that I’m going to jump into that one.” — Republican John McCain, when asked at a town-hall meeting in Wisconsin if he could help resolve the Green Bay Packers’ problems with Brett Favre
    http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iNxTApa2sQRu0Xx99P3jt2bEXw7gD9293MNO2

    Some say they have never observed such cowardice.

  • IT would be nice to hear one of the surrogates or Obama himself, turn that Paris Hilton ad on its head by stating.

    Until recently McCain has been bragging about being a political celebrity on his website, with references to his appearances on SNL, Jay Leno, Letterman, John Stewart, and many other shows.. Now, all of a sudden, being a celebrity is a bad thing? What happened? Senator Obama has never hugged Paris Hilton, but you sure have been seen hugging some people who are far less popular in America. (Super impose McCain hugging Bush, Hagee, et al.

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