Media actually doing its job this time around

Gregg over at Editor & Publisher says the media is actually doing it job this time around re: the new Swift Boating attempts against Barack Obama. Of course, it didn't hurt that the new Swift Boater seems to have a problem with Jews, and Catholics, and he thinks a government conspiracy is hiding the truth about 9/11. Then again, with this media, even hand feeding doesn't always work. Read More......

CNN asks if Obama is the anti-Christ -- just in time for Rev. Rick Warren's "Civil Forum"

9:56 PM UPDATE: This thing is over. My question for the night is who has the worst make up job? CNN's John King or John McCain?

9:37 PM UPDATE: Seems like Obama treated this like a discussion with Rev. Warren. McCain is treating this forum as just another opportunity to recite all of his campaign talking points -- even if not related to the questions asked. McCain thinks one has to make $5 million to be rich...and he wanted Congress back to deal with energy (despite missing all the energy votes himself). McCain really worked in every campaign talking point -- and Warren never challenged him. If anyone has any doubt that McCain is a hard-core, right wing Republican note his response on choice (He's vehemently anti-choice -- always has been, always will be) and, on the Supreme Court, he'd ding Ginsberg, Breyer, Souter and Stevens.

Here's video of the choice answer, via Jed:



9:00 PM UPDATE: Obama finished his session with Rev. Warren. Some typical questions on choice and marriage. I thought Obama finished very strongly. Be interesting to see how the McCain campaign and RNC try to twist Obama's words -- and what Rev. Rick will say about that. Onto McCain for the same exact questions.

UPDATE: Joe will be monitoring the Saddleback Civil Forum from Rev. Rick Warren's church with Obama and McCain, which is being broadcast live on CNN. If anything big comes up, we'll post and try to get the video. If you're watching it, comment away.

It's interesting that CNN thinks it's fine to discuss whether Obama is the anti-Christ, but a discussion about John McCain's adultery, something we actually know to be true, is taboo. Unless of course, CNN think the concept of the anti-Christ is funny and light and silly, so it's okay to talk about. In that case, there are quite a few million Christians who might disagree with CNN's flippant attitude towards Christianity. Read More......

McCain considering Phil "You're All Whiners" Gramm for Cabinet post

Well that didn't take long.

But associates say the senator still dials up former Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, who forfeited his title of campaign co-chairman after a controversy over his remarks that the United States is “a nation of whiners” and is merely in “a mental recession.”

Current and former advisers say they still consider Mr. Gramm, now UBS investment bank vice chairman, a top prospect for treasury secretary in a McCain administration.

Let's take a walk through memory lane:

Phil Gramm recently said that America is a “nation of whiners” going through a “mental recession.”

"‘You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession,’ he said, noting that growth has held up at about 1 percent despite all the publicity over losing jobs to India, China, illegal immigration, housing and credit problems and record oil prices... ‘We have sort of become a nation of whiners,’ he said.”

John McCain thinks the challenges facing our families are “psychological" - gee that sounds an awful lot like Phil Gramm. At a town hall in Florida McCain said of economic challenges facing American families “A lot of this is psychological. A lot of it’s psychological. Because I believe the fundamentals of our economy is still strong.”

More evidence of Gramm's influence - McCain thinks Americans are “better off” economically than they were eight years ago. At a January 30th CNN debate during the Republican primary John McCain was asked if he thought "Are Americans better off than they were eight years ago?" He responded:

"I think you could argue that Americans overall are better off, because we have had a pretty good prosperous time, with low unemployment and low inflation and a lot of good things have happened. A lot of jobs have been created… I think we are better off overall if you look at the entire eight-year period, when you look at the millions of jobs that have been created, the improvement in the economy, et cetera.”

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McCain to return gay donation

Gee, that only took far more days than it should have. I mean, someone who was really for "family values" wouldn't take a donation from a gay sex mogul in the first place. And once they found out about the donation, it wouldn't take them days to decide to return the money. Interesting to note as well that McCain announced on a Saturday afternoon that he's returning the donation. That means he doesn't he wants the story lost. Now, why would McCain want to kill this story? The same reason he refused to return the donation for days. He wants gay Republican votes. And still does. That's why he's now trying to bury the story. Amazing. McCain is bad on pretty much every single gay issue out there, save the constitutional amendment - and even there he says it's appropriate if the courts decide that we should have the right to marry. That means McCain is pretty much bad on everything, but he expects gay Republicans to support him. But even funnier, McCain also can't stand the religious right. He called Falwell and Robertson agents of intolerence back in 2000. And now, our little maverick, is trying to split the family values baby in half - and he's ticking off both sides. Read More......

McCain refusing to comment on why he's keeping large gay-sex donation

It's been several days now, and the McCain campaign has not only refused to comment on why they accepted a $2300 check from a gay-sex maven, but even more interesting, the campaign is keeping the money and they're not telling anyone why. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that John McCain is comfortable taking a maximum donation from a guy running a sex site called Manhunt (though many are now calling it McCainhunt). And it's even more laudable that McCain's money is coming from a gay sex site. I have nothing against either, in fact some of my best friends... well you know. I do, however, find it funnier than hell that McCain doesn't have a problem taking money earned quite literally from gay sodomy (though it's pretty clear that McCain does not want to lose gay Republicans, thus the reason he's keeping sex money over what I'm sure are the objections of Evangelicals - guess we're seeing how much McCain actually cares about James Dobson's values now!), and I'm simply astounded that the corporate media - save a very few people like Ben Smith and the Boston Herald - have given McCain a pass on this story. Unless the corporate media plans to never again do a story on controversial donors to campaigns, they need to explain why they're not covering this particular story. Or is it only news to the corporate media when a Democrat has a controversial donor? I don't plan on letting this story go any time soon. The longer McCain hangs on to the donation, the longer we'll be trumpeting McCain's embrace of gay sodomy. Not that there's anything wrong with this. Oh yeah, that's right, according to McCain and the Republican party there is. Read More......

GOP hack inadvertently criticizes McCain over Georgia

Basically, he attacked Obama's position, which is the exact same position McCain has. Watch it, it's funny - from Jed:

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Obama raised $51 million in July with 65,000 new donors

In the post below, I gave an update on the McCain/Bush campaign money. McCain's campaign alone raised $27 million in July so he's relying heavily on Bush's campaign cash to attack Obama. McCain and Bush/RNC combined raised $53 million in July.

Just got an email from Team Obama touting the July fundraising numbers:

Senator Barack Obama’s campaign announced today that more than 65,000 new donors contributed to the Obama campaign during the month of July, bringing the total raised for the month to over $51 million. More than 2 million people have now contributed to the campaign.

“The 65,000 new donors to the Obama campaign demonstrate just how strongly the American people are looking to fundamentally change business as usual in Washington. We are proud of the millions of volunteers and more than two million donors to the Obama campaign who will provide the backbone of our campaign to put America back on track and reject the old politics and failed Bush policies, which is all John McCain is offering,” said David Plouffe, campaign manager of Obama for America.

This doesn't include the DNC's totals. Just got an email update from the DNC, which raised $27.7 million in July outraising the RNC for the first time since October of 2004.

The DNC has $28.5 million cash on hand (The RNC has $75 million), while Obama has $65.8 million. At the end of July, the Democratic team had $94.3 million while McCain/Bush/RNC had $96 million. Read More......

Bush is funding McCain's campaign for Bush's third term

McCain has $96 million on hand to fund his negative campaign against Barack Obama. Over three quarters of that amount, $75 million, comes from the Republican National Committee, which means three quarters of McCain's money is coming via the fundraising prowess of George W. Bush.

Bush is making it happen for McCain:

President Bush's popularity has tanked, but boy can he still bring in the cash.

He's raked in close to a billion dollars, the political fundraiser in chief, during his White House tenure.

In all, Bush has personally raised more than $968 million for the Republican Party, GOP candidates and his own re-election campaign and inauguration during his two terms in office. And he's not finished.

He's now lost a big part of the national spotlight to presidential contenders John McCain and Barack Obama, but he remains a formidable force on the fundraising circuit, mostly at private affairs closed to the media. His total so far this year is roughly $70 million.

Bush spent 90 minutes recently at a California winery tucked in a hillside in Napa Valley to help wring $850,000 from deep-pocket donors. That's $9,444 a minute.

Obama is running against Bush's third term, which brings us again back to the best ad of the cycle so far, which was, of course, not done by the Obama campaign. (Note to Obama's top media consultant, Jim Margolis from GMMB, watch this ad and learn from it):
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Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Check out the poem of the week, Love Calls Us to the Things of This World, by Richard Wilbur. Our poet, John Lundberg tells us "It's a great read to start your morning." And, it is a nice little respite.

Obama gets back on the campaign trail today. Meanwhile, John McCain thinks he's already the president -- and that the situation in Georgia is a more serious crisis than 9/11, Iraq or Afghanistan. And, Princess Sparkle Pony provides a critique of Condi's visit to Georgia.

Let's get it started.

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