McCain "proud" his top foreign policy aide lobbied for foreign governments

McCain is proud that his top foreign policy aide has a massive conflict of interest pertaining to a current foreign policy crisis? McCain isn't even making sense any more. Read More......

Join us for an online chat with Cong. Diana DeGette (D-CO) tomorrow at 3pm

Tuesday at 3pm Eastern time, Joe and I will be hosting an online chat in our comment section with Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette about her new book, "Sex, Science, and Stem Cells.

In Sex, Science, and Stem Cells, Congress’s leading advocate of stem-cell research presents a blistering indictment of the politicization of science—and sex—by the Bush administration, the Republican leadership, and the religious right. Addressing not only stem-cell research but also birth control, HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns, abortion, and sex education, Congresswoman Diana DeGette dares to do what the Republican leadership can’t, or won’t—initiating a real discussion of human sexuality and reproduction and opening the door to responsible, fact-based legislation.

Feel free to join us tomorrow and ask the Congresswoman your questions about her book, the convention (which will be in her district, Denver), or about anything you like. Read More......

"The lack of any consistent lines of attack against McCain is becoming palpable"

John McCain again today basically accused Obama of treason. Within that attack is the usual Republican blood lie about Democrats - that they hate America, hate the troops, etc. - with a bit of subtle racism thrown in (playing on Obama's African heritage, and on the fact that some of his ancestor's were Muslim, all adding up to someone "less than American").

Today, Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo indicated his growing exasperation with the Obama campaign's response, or lack thereof, to these ongoing attacks:

With so many instances of corruption and influence-peddling around him and whatever problems with the candidate that are keeping the campaign from letting reporters interview him anymore, John McCain is now again charging Obama with what amounts to soft treason -- wanting to lose the war in Iraq in order to make himself president. The lack of any consistent lines of attack against McCain is becoming palpable.

When Josh exhibits this kind of frustration publicly, we take notice. Josh is one of the cooler heads in the blogosphere. He's not as prone to fits of temper as, well, I might be. And he has a solid background in journalism that gives him a certain gravitas that the corporate media respects. So when Josh starts to blow a gasket, even in his typically subdued way, it means something.

Joe and I know a lot of people in politics. A lot of them are very smart. They're not the people you hate, the Cokie Roberts' and the Mrs. Greenspan's of the world. They're the kind of people you like and you trust. And those people are now telling us that they fear we're going to lose the election. What Josh said today, and what Josh has written between the lines of a lot of posts on his blog of late, is something we're hearing a lot of from a lot of people. There is an incredible discontent out there with the way this campaign is being run. The fact that the discontent isn't being recognized, isn't being assuaged, is disturbing. People aren't worried about the election, they're becoming despondent about it. They're not motivated to work twice as hard, they instead feel as if they've had the wind knocked out of them. This is far beyond a healthy skepticism as to whether Obama can win. While Obama's attacks today on McCain are heartening, we need to see more of it. People need to see that Barack Obama has as big of balls as John McCain and, well, Hillary Clinton.

NOTE FROM JOE: Just to be clear, this isn't the kind of post we want to be writing right now. We'd much rather be beating the crap out of John McCain's hypocrisy and rebutting the Karl Rove attacks on Obama. Anyone who read this blog during the primaries knows how strongly we felt about nominating Obama. Our commitment can't be questioned. We really, really, really want a Democratic president. But, we're not getting much to work with from the Obama campaign, hence this post. As John wrote, this feeling is pervasive. For some reason, Obama's top advisers seem to be living in their own bubble and this campaign, which we all thought would be different, is starting to feel like Democratic campaigns of the past. There's plenty of time to fix this. The blogs are poised to help (should the campaign ever decide to truly engage us). Not to be corny, but this campaign isn't about Barack Obama or his campaign staff or his media consultants or his Internet team. It's bigger than all of them and they need to realize that. This really is about our nation's future. We have to win and the Obama campaign needs to let us all help him win. Read More......

Krugman: "John McCain should be getting hammered on economics"

Must read Krugman today:

So Mr. McCain would seem to offer a target a mile wide: a die-hard supporter of failed economic policies who takes his advice from people completely out of touch with the lives of working Americans.

But while polls continue to show that the public, by a large margin, trusts Democrats more than Republicans to handle the economy, recent polling shows that Barack Obama has at best a small edge over Mr. McCain on the issue — four points in a recent Time magazine poll, and he is one point behind according to Rasmussen Reports, which does automated polling. And Mr. Obama’s failure to achieve a decisive edge on economic policy is central to his failure to open up a big lead in overall polling.

Why isn’t the Obama campaign getting more traction on economic issues?

Better message. Better ads.

Yesterday, Obama had a tough, new economic message lumping Bush and McCain together. He needs to it keep -- and repeat it over and over and over. Read More......

Former Vietnam POW, why I won't vote for John McCain

Graduate of the US Naval Academy, and co-POW with McCain in Vietnam (Butler was there longer). Not very happy with McCain, and he's known McCain since they were cadets. Let's see Mrs. Greenspan and the McCain machine try to demonize this guy:

I furthermore believe that having been a POW is no special qualification for being President of the United States. The two jobs are not the same, and POW experience is not, in my opinion, something I would look for in a presidential candidate.

Most of us who survived that experience are now in our late 60's and 70's. Sadly, we have died and are dying off at a greater rate than our non-POW contemporaries. We experienced injuries and malnutrition that are coming home to roost. So I believe John's age (73) and survival expectation are not good for being elected to serve as our President for 4 or more years.

I can verify that John has an infamous reputation for being a hot head. He has a quick and explosive temper that many have experienced first hand. Folks, quite honestly that is not the finger I want next to that red button.

Read More......

McCain says you're "rich" when you make $5m a year

Weird. Though Obama said it's when you make $250,000 a year. I'd posit another definition. Look at people's personal wealth - income from all sources, money saved for retirement, value of their home and other assets, debts, cost of living where they live - then decide if they're rich. It's simply phony to compare someone who lives in NY or DC to someone who lives in Topeka, and only look at their salaries. It's even phonier to look at someone who put themselves through 8 or more years of university and is paying that debt off for 15 years, and not count their debt against their richesse. It's just as phony to not count someone's $1 million dollar house when determining if they're rich. Democrats need a new way of defining wealth because it's getting old being told you're rich when you live in an expensive urban area, you're worrying about how much money is coming in each month, and you rent a studio, pay your own retirement without an employer kicking in, pay for your own health care, and are trying to save to buy your first place. Democrats often ignore the "rich middle class" and they need to stop it. Read More......

Why didn't McCain cite"cross story" until 1999? 25 years AFTER his captivity

Andrew Sullivan notes (via Jed) that it's a bit odd that McCain's story about the prison guard drawing a cross in the sand doesn't appear in McCain's detailed account of his captivity, circa 1973. The first time that I've been able to find McCain mentioning this story is 1999, a full quarter of a century after he was released. If it was such a pivotal story in his life, why did we not hear about it until McCain had decided to run for president? And before we get the typical bluster from the McCain camp, and the Republicans, and the media, please just stop it. Andrew is a conservative and a devout Christian, if he is asking this question, I dare anyone to claim that it's partisan or sacrilegious or whatever. Unless the new standard of journalism is that politicians don't ever lie - or even that former POWs don't lie - then we have the right, and the media has the duty, to ask the question. Read More......

Another Bush-Mccain soldier neglect story

And the Democrats let people like McCain and Bush dare to question their patriotism, dare to suggest that we don't care about the troops. What has John McCain for these folks? What has George Bush done? I mean, yes, John McCain makes tv commercials talking about how much he cares about the troops and Barack Obama doesn't - so what has McCain done for these guys?

Mold infests the barracks that were set up here a year ago for wounded soldiers after poor conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center triggered a systemwide overhaul, soldiers say.

Twenty soldiers, who spoke to USA TODAY early last week, said their complaints about mold and other problems went unheeded for months. They also said they had been ordered not speak about the conditions at Fort Sill.

Oh, and while walking around Paris today, I came across this seeming-castle in the 5th arrondissement. I asked my friend what it was.



It's Val-de-Grâce. It's not a castle. It's a military hospital. And the treatment is impeccable. They're treated like kings. We treat our service members like dogs, and the Republicans have done nothing about it. Read More......

McCain accuses Obama (again) of treason

Will Obama respond? Ever? Read More......

“The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous"

In fact, the "former prisoner of war," after his release, cheated on his wife, and cheated during the Keating Five Scandal. I know, it's not "nice" to mention these things, but where does the McCain campaign come off claiming that John McCain's POW status makes him exempt from "cheating" when he has cheated repeatedly since the time of his POW experience? Is this what we have to look forward to for the next 3 months? Every time someone has a tough question for John McCain, he's going to invoke his POW years to effectively shut down the question, even when the question has nothing to do with national security? And will the corporate media call McCain on this? Read More......

"Cone of silence" controvery grows - McCain refusing to directly answer the question. More from ABC

As you'll recall, Evangelical leader Rick Warren claimed last night that while Barack Obama was answering questions about his religious beliefs at the evangelical forum last night, John McCain was supposedly in a "cone of silence" where he couldn't hear, or be given, the questions in advance. In fact, this was a lie. McCain hadn't even arrived yet, and while McCain claims he didn't himself directly listen to the Obama (in order to find out the questions in advance), McCain isn't claiming yet that no one briefed him or in any way told him what Obama was asked. Like they didn't.

Jake Tapper at ABC, along with Ben Smith at Politico, has been some of the few journalists willing to ask obvious questions that the corporate media so often don't ask. Tapper is on the trail of the phony "cone of silence" from yesterday's religious forum, and the McCain campaign is looking increasingly shifty. Here's what Jake has to report:

Regarding the revelation that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was not in a "cone of silence" after all while Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, answered questions from Pastor Rick Warren, a couple points….

1) The McCain campaign's vitriol against NBC's Andrea Mitchell is odder still when you consider that the McCain campaign's blogger Michael Goldfarb was quoting her very same reporting approvingly as evidence that the Obama campaign was a bunch of whiners.

2) The McCain campaign's responses so far are entirely focused on McCain's geography and whether or not he himself could hear and see Obama being questioned.

To wit: McCain adviser Charlie Black told CNN, "We were in motorcade until 5:30 p.m. ET; then a holding room in another building with no TV."

Nothing that I've seen so far from the McCain campaign touches on whether or not any aides with McCain were getting reports on their Blackberries or cell phones on the questions Obama was getting and then sharing them with McCain.

- jpt

UPDATE: ABC News' Ron Claiborne, traveling with the McCain campaign, reports that McCain senior adviser Charlie Black would not say whether people around McCain while he was en route to Rick Warren's forum had access to blackberries and cell phones from which they could have tipped off Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., about the questions.

"There's no reason we would do that," was all Black would say, though quite obviously there is a reason.

NOTE FROM ROB: Let's not forget that CNN is carried on satellite radio as well. Both Sirius and XM broadcast the live CNN TV audio. In addition to receivers in cars and homes, there are also mobile (iPod sized) receivers. I can't imagine that a campaign wouldn't have a device like this for media monitoring on the go. Read More......

John McCain's hissy fit over Georgia

Andrew nails it (via Jed). McCain sounds like a drama queen:

McCain [on Georgia]:

My friends, we have reached a crisis, the first probably serious crisis internationally since the end of the Cold War. This is an act of aggression.

Not the invasion of Kuwait? Or the first Gulf War? Or the Afghan war? Or the second Iraq war? Or Darfur? Or Bosnia? Or 9/11? It's this kind of emotional hyperbole that should worry people about McCain in the White House. He's a drama queen on these issues. With a finger on the trigger.

Remember, according to John McCain "we are all Georgians." Uh huh. Sure we are, big guy. Read More......

Are any SuperDs really voting for Hillary?

That strikes me as mighty dumb. I can't believe we're still being forced to debate which way the SuperDelegates will vote. Great, go for it. Vote for Hillary and if Obama becomes president, good luck to you. Just incredibly idiotic that Hillary is even putting her supporters in this kind of awkward position. There is no reason at all that we should be taking about Hillary Clinton at this point in the election, other than incredible hubris. I really want to her like. But damn she makes it hard. Read More......

Facing impeachment, Musharraf quits

The possibility of impeachment has forced the resignation of Pakistan's president:

Under pressure over impending impeachment charges, President Pervez Musharraf announced he would resign Monday, ending nearly nine years as one of the United States’ most important allies in the campaign against terrorism.

Speaking on television from his presidential office here at 1 p.m., Mr. Musharraf, dressed in a gray suit and tie, said that after consulting with his aides, “I have decided to resign today.” He said he was putting national interest above “personal bravado.”

“Whether I win or lose the impeachment, the nation will lose,” he said, adding that he was not prepared to put the office of the presidency through the impeachment process.

I'm sure we'll hear endless chatter about what this means for the U.S. presidential election. Read More......

So Rick Warren lied, and Andrea Mitchell again is a tool

So we now know that Evangelical leader Rick Warren is a liar. Warren said that McCain was in an isolated room so that he couldn't hear Obama's questions. In fact, McCain wasn't in the building at all. He hadn't even arrived yet. That means that McCain and his staff were listening to Obama in order to prepare. McCain denies it. Well, then McCain really has lost his senses if he thinks that any politician running for office, if given the chance, wouldn't tune into the other guy answering the same questions he's about to get.

Oh but the most outrageous, and hysterical, outburst of the entire presidential race so far came from McCain's spokeswoman in response to whether he listened to, or got brief on, the questions being asked of Obama:

Nicolle Wallace, a spokeswoman for Mr. McCain, said on Sunday night that Mr. McCain had not heard the broadcast of the event while in his motorcade and heard none of the questions.

“The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous,” Ms. Wallace said.

Wow. Yes let's talk about outrageous. Using McCain's prisoner of war status to now claim that he can never be called on a lie? To suggest that former POWs don't lie about anything, so don't you dare ask them? That is simply a bizarre thing to reference, McCain's POW days, when asked whether McCain was prepped for a debate. It feels awfully desperate. And a little bit crass too.

I'm imagining Ms. Wallace after McCain visits the dentist:

"The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, didn't floss daily is outrageous!"

The even bigger tool is NBC's Andrea Mitchell, aka Mrs. Alan Greenspan, McCain supporter. Yes, when people pointed out that McCain didn't seen to be in an isolation room, as Warren promised, that McCain's answers were far more lucid than he normally is now capable, what did Mrs. Greenspan say? Did she say "well, maybe we need to ask Rick Warren if McCain was in an isolation room?" No, Mrs. Greenspan told millions of Americans that this was a sign that Obama must have lost the debate, because his people are so desperately trying to find a reason to explain McCain's clarity of mind.

No, Mrs. Greenspan, we now know that the critics were right and you didn't bother doing your job, in the process mislead millions of Americans who follow your network for "news." And what a coincidence, you again screwed up in a way that benefited John McCain. Who could have predicted that. Read More......

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

One week from today, the Democratic convention begins in Denver. The clock is ticking for Obama to pick his running mate. Has everyone signed up for the text message announcement? Text VP to 62262.

I'm still a little stunned that we were all misled about McCain being in the "cone of silence" on Saturday night. I mean, it was at a church. Pastor Rick Warren has some explaining to do. Isn't there actually a commandment about bearing false witness against one's neighbors? McCain and his crew bear false witness against Obama all the time. But to actually lie about about a church-related event seems pretty low.

Let's get this week started...it should be interesting... Read More......