Tag: McCain

  • McCain’s Unscrupulous Start in Politics

    From the beginning, John McCain traded heavily on his “heroism” in Vietnam to make his way as a politician. Now, we’re are being asked to not only look past the defects of this deeply flawed and corrupt man, but actually elect him president because of his past. If only he were running against a Republican.…

  • ‘Distortion, Innuendo, and Outright Slander’

    That’s how New York Magazine describes the latest phase of John McCain’s campaign against Sen. Barack Obama for the presidency. McCain’s campaign has devolved into a childish, name-calling, wallow in the mud series of taunts. Some in the media will now say that this is not the John McCain they know, that he is doing…

  • A Modest Proposal on Offshore Drilling for Oil

    Obama Shifts, Says He May Back Offshore Drilling by MIKE GLOVER, , August 1, 2008 (AP Photo/Mike Carlson: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. answers an audience member’s question, Friday, Aug. 1, 2008, during a town hall meeting in St. Petersburg, Fla.) ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday he…

  • Here it Comes.

    According to Time’s Mark Halperin, Sen. McCain’s campaign has just released a statement accusing Sen. Obama of playing “the race card:” “Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.” This is apparently a reference to Obama’s comments in Missouri Wednesday…

  • Why Britney and Paris?

    Today’s post from Newsday’s John Riley is a must-read. He wonders why Sen. McCain chose to use Britney Spears and Paris Hilton in his latest attack ad on Sen. Obama, and he’s got some data to support his answer. It’s also worth remembering that the McCain campaign has hired Terry Nelson, the ad man behind…

  • New York Times on McCain’s Slime

    Editorial  Low-Road Express Well, that certainly didn’t take long. On July 3, news reports said Senator John McCain, worried that he might lose the election before it truly started, opened his doors to disciples of Karl Rove from the 2004 campaign and the Bush White House. Less than a month later, the results are on…

  • Same Old Politics

    “Same Old Politics” Take a look at Sen. Obama’s latest response to Sen. McCain’s negative ad blaming Obama for rising gas prices. It’s brilliant. The ad begins with a clip from McCain’s ad rolling on a TV screen. Then a pallid-looking photo of McCain’s face appears next to the TV screen and the words “The…

  • Conditions on the Ground

    The big political news of the last week has been Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s embrace of Sen. Barack Obama’s position on the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Sen. John McCain’s subsequent embrace of Maliki’s position on withdrawal. As Josh Marshall observes, “Sen. McCain has gone from predicting a decades long presence of…

  • Bob Herbert: What about McCain

    Senator McCain crossed a line that he shouldn’t have this week when he said that Mr. Obama “would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.” It was a lousy comment, tantamount to calling Mr. Obama a traitor, and Senator McCain should apologize for it. But what we’ve learned over the years…

  • Frank Rich: 'How Obama Became Acting President'

    IT almost seems like a gag worthy of “Borat”: A smooth-talking rookie senator with an exotic name passes himself off as the incumbent American president to credulous foreigners. But to dismiss Barack Obama’s magical mystery tour through old Europe and two war zones as a media-made fairy tale would be to underestimate the ingenious politics…