The Deep New Voice of McCain’s Campaign

Michael Scherer is too busy to have lengthy dialogs with the rabblehere. He is busy putting together collections of McCain propaganda videos. He does this because he is an attentive student of McCain's posturing.

Some may view this as idiotic propagation of McCain's campaign messages. But the real ironists among us will view it as a courageous protest by Mr. Scherer against the cunning use of vocal intonation to sell a candidate.

Michael Scherer: strong enough to suppress the tough questions and ironic enough to laugh about laughing about himself.

Is McCain a maverick, Michael? Is he a straight shooter?
Tell us about how firm his arms are from punching terrorists all day.

I'm going with Morgan Freeman, Michael.

I'm thinking something along the lines of March of the Penguins: "TomT and his friends head to a local bar. Some will not return."

“The American president Americans have been waiting for,”
You know, as opposed to that foreign MUSLIM Hussein Obama.

It may not be profound but it clearly means something.

“The American president Americans have been waiting for,” as if that phrase meant something profound.

This is indeed supposedly to profoundly say:

"as opposed to black islamist Kenyan president"

It begins.

“The American president Americans have been waiting for,”
You know, as opposed to that foreign MUSLIM Hussein Obama.

Excuse me, when taunting Swamplanders, PLEASE use the correct spelling of our next President's name as being .....Barak HUSSEIN AL-Obama

Michael Scherer is bureau chief material. The young gun is every bit as vapid as Jay Carney. Scherer is as insightful as Anna Marie Cox without the tastelessness.

It begins.
Posted by jayackroyd

Should Obama win the nomination the country will be debating "What's so wrong about saying (N-word)" by July.
Crazy? 7 years ago I thought our contry's position on torture was settled.

Maybe instead of just posting Pops McCain's tv ads you can ask him if he paid for them with the dough he fleeced from the public financing system.

Again, clearly this born again college republican is antagonizing the kennel. He'll toss us a few bones shortly. God, at least AMC has wit.

And Rustydog--here's hoping you find a dash of red dye #6 in your stool.

More Barak Obama race-baiting politics...

Senator Obama Responds to the Indian American Community

Monday, June 18, 2007

On Monday, June 18, Senator Barack Obama issued the following statement in response to the concerns expressed by the Indian American community regarding the Hillary Clinton opposition research memo. Senator Obama personally requested that we distribute this letter to the entire SAFO community:

I wanted to respond personally to the concerns you expressed regarding the recent research memo that our campaign put into circulation.

I believe that your concerns with the memo are justified. To begin with, the memo did not reflect my own views on the importance of America’s relationship with India. I have long believed that the best way to promote U.S. economic growth and opportunity for American workers is to continually improve the skills of our own workforce and invest in our own scientific research, technological capacity and infrastructure, rather than to try to insulate ourselves from the global economy.

More importantly, the memo’s caustic tone, and its focus on contributions by Indian-Americans to the Clinton campaign, was potentially hurtful, and as such, unacceptable. The memo also ignored my own long-standing relationship to – and support from – the Indian-American community.

In sum, our campaign made a mistake. Although I was not aware of the contents of the memo prior to its distribution, I consider the entire campaign – and in particular myself – responsible for the mistake. We have taken appropriate action to prevent errors like this from happening in the future.

Please feel free to share this letter with other members of your organization or leaders in the Indian-American community. I look forward to our continued friendship and exchange of ideas – during the course of this campaign, and beyond.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama

"Punjab"??? Hmmmmmmm
Controversial, NO I SAY!!! Elect this man for your President, YES YES YES. Superior intelligence, comparable to Abraham Lincoln in stature and rhetoric. Undeniably the most supreme potential leader this country has EVER witnessed....Blah Blah Blah

Hang on to your hats boys and girls, there's still more to come!!!!

Hey Michael,

Speaking of performance, I wanted to say I caught you on Hardball and thought you did a nice job.

I thought the way Chris Matthews questioned you was emblematic of how the press feels about McCain.

He must have asked you 3 or 4 times in the course of several minutes if there was any proof McCain had done anything wrong.

When I saw him grilling you, I thought to myself if the subject were Obama and Rezko, would you be interrupted every few seconds to prov that you had some sort of smoking gun with you.

Even though Chris Mathews is widely viewed as sympathetic to Obama, I found it fascinating that he had almost a "how dare you" tome to your examination of McCain's lobbyist ties.

Despite all the crap commenters give you here, I think you have to be given some major credit for even broaching the subject given the peer pressure you seem to face to give McCain a pass like the rest of the media. While you will probably never go as far as we would like, it is appreciated that you are at least willing to broach a subject that many of your villager buddies wish to sweep under the rug.

he has been through hell and back, who has lived life and learned something, who could win a bar fight just by looking at you the right way. You need the voice of a simple man, who simply loves his country

Looks like Michael's been taking Man-Crush lessons from Chris Matthews....

The only Rusty that I know of in public life is the drug addicted, ED suffering, closted, thrice divorced Limbaugh.
Is that really you?

Man, I miss QH/Obamish...this Rustydog troll lacks any originality or humor.

Michael, next time you see McCain would you ask him about all the wrong statements he made before the war about the invasion being easy?

His military service (which yes I do respect him for) did not at all give him any kind of deep insight into the realities of Iraq and the Middle East.

I see why Rusty is so happy. He's in the clear

"We have no intention of prosecuting Rush Limbaugh because lying through your teeth and being stupid isn't a crime," said Leo Jennings, a spokesman for Democratic Attorney General Marc Dann.

Now I know why we got the slightly critical look at McCain yesterday, so Michael could hop in the saddle again for some more Maverick love.

Did someone say Michael and College Republican? He has the look.

Cliff:
"Tell us about how firm his arms are from punching terrorists all day."

Aren't his shoulders, like, broken from when he was tortured? I don't want McCain to win either, but come on, man.

I'm pretty sure that gavelly macho voice is Powers Boothe .... didn't he play a U.S. president or two in his career? (like, maybe, on "24"?) .....You're right --it's funny how the voice alone can make that inane phrase sound like it actually has some kind of meaning...The American president Americans have been waiting for,”...geeezzzzz

Observer:
McCain is like Jack Bauer - even with two broken shoulders he can punch his way through a layer of tank armor.

Sorry, I can't resist the opportunity for a Jack Bauer joke.
In all seriousness, I'm getting irritated at Scherer for not ever asking McCain some hard questions. I'm frightened that the media is going to keep throwing softballs to McCain and allow him to win the election, and I'll be honest: I'm taking that fear out on Scherer, because he's on the McCain beat but he keeps posting things like this.

My problem is not with what Scherer is or isn't asking McCain...it's how how every post I read of his here in the swamp is like his scrapbook of "Why I love McCain in a way you will never understand."
Call it Bromance, but I think it's a but unsettling

I'm getting irritated at Scherer for not ever asking McCain some hard questions.

Mr. Scherer is a very busy man. When not eating potato chips on the bozo bus and collecting McCain propaganda videos, he has to keep up with Meghan McCain's blog site and defend her from snide critics.

A man with these heavy responsibilities cannot pause to banter with the rabble on this blog. If he refrains from asking difficult questions, there must be a good reason. He may be saving them up for after McCain is elected, or he may already have asked them and had McCain laugh in his face.

Since we have already repeatedly given Scherer the list of hard questions, I think we should help him out with the softballs now:

1. Did you pray for your captors as they tortured you mercilessly in Vietnam?

2. Does Cindy give you an allowance to supplement your government salary?

3. Has Meghan persuaded you to be tatooed?

4. What is your favorite war movie?

5. Do you think it was a mistake for Athens to form the Delian League?

Don't thank us, Mr. Scherer. It is the least we can do in gratitude for enjoying your unique work on this blog.

Oh, the bozos on The Bus *do* ask McCain the hard questions. They do. They just don't report to their readers what was said. Instead, they write long, adoring pieces on how great it is On the Bus. They are so into fluffing McCain that they actually forget to report all those so-called "on-the-record" answers which are actually "off-the-record" by default, in order to remain one of McCain's trusted fluffers. Only the trusted fluffers get invited to the barbecues and get to gather panting and wagging at the Master's knee, and watch the basketball game in the swivel chairs and munch on the free munchies. At least Cox was honest about being in the tank for McCain.

For those who are craving *real* news and substance about McCain's policies and positions, head on over to Think Progress' The Wonk Room where you'll find analysis and links and substance galore. Now that's how it's done *right* in the blogosphere! No propaganda pieces there.

Michael, you might want to head on over to Wonk Room yourself. They do all the work for you, so you can spend more time munching all those munchies in the swivel chairs.

Thanks, James from LA, I'll remember the link.

Here’s a closer look at the details of McCain’s tax relief plan:

– Provides only 9 percent of its benefits to the bottom 80 percent of taxpayers
– Provides 58 percent of its benefits to the top 1 percent
– Would require, if paid for, massive cuts in benefits for middle-class taxpayers

Link to complete analysis of the Bush-McCain-Norquist Tax plan here:
Source: TP's The Wonk Room.

That's how it's done, Michael.

Want more, more, more of Bush's disastrous war?

McCain's Foreign Policy Advisors
Source: TP's The Wonk Room.

There’s going to be other wars. I’m sorry to tell you, there’s going to be other wars. We will never surrender, but there will be other wars.”
– John McCain, 1/27/08 (video)

John McCain’s foreign policy offers a future of numerous U.S. military interventions in the name of “promoting American values.” He has assembled a team of foreign policy advisers who believe strongly, as he does, that American security requires the robust and relentless exercise of American military power. Here’s a look at those key advisers:

RANDY SCHEUNEMANN
Director of Foreign Policy and National Security
BACKGROUND: Co-founder, president and executive director of the Committee For the Liberation of Iraq. Drafter of the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act. Project director at the Project for a New American Century (PNAC).

MAX BOOT
Foreign Policy Adviser
BACKGROUND: Boot advocates an imperial role for the United States similar to the British Empire. Believes that the United States needs a “colonial office” inspired by the British system in India in order to better fulfill its role of transforming the world. Advocate of a sort of foreign legion wherein immigrants and other non-citizens would receive citizenship in exchange for U.S. military service.

JAMES WOOLSEY
Energy and National Security Adviser
BACKGROUND: Former head of the CIA. Subscribes to the “World War IV” formulation (in which the Cold War was World War III) and believes that the United States has been “at war” with Islamists since 1979, when “they [Iranian revolutionaries] seized our hostages in 1979 in Tehran.” Suggested during an interview on September 12, 2001, that Iraq had sponsored the 9/11 attacks, and also attempted to exhume the discredited idea that Iraq was behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

BILL KRISTOL
Informal Foreign Policy Adviser
BACKGROUND: Prominent neo-conservative pundit. Co-founder and chairman of PNAC, current New York Times columnist. Advocates stronger American leadership through the unilateral use of force; co-author with Robert Kagan of essay “Toward a Neo-Reaganite Foreign Policy” which advocated “benevolent” American global hegemony based upon military dominance and “elevated patriotism.” Co-author of a book strenuously arguing for the invasion of Iraq. Strong supporter of the surge. Advocates war with Iran. Known to be “exceptionally close with McCain.”

ROBERT KAGAN
Informal Foreign Policy Adviser
BACKGROUND: Kagan was a co-founder of PNAC, and is currently a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Advocate of a “concert of democracies” to supplant the UN Security Council in order to grant legitimacy to U.S. military interventions around the globe.

GARY SCHMITT
Foreign Policy Adviser
BACKGROUND: AEI Fellow and PNAC signatory. Subscribes to the Straussian view that “deception is the norm in political life, and the hope, to say nothing of the expectation, of establishing a politics that can dispense with it is the exception.” Advocated war against “the Saddam/bin Laden axis” as a way to “restore national honor.”

RALPH PETERS
Informal National Security Adviser
BACKGROUND: Retired U.S. Lieutenant Colonel, novelist and op-ed writer.
QUOTES:
“If we can’t leave a democracy behind, we should at least leave the corpses of our enemies. The holier-than-thou response to this proposal is predictable: ‘We can’t kill our way out of this situation!’ Well, boo-hoo. Friendly persuasion and billions of dollars haven’t done the job. Give therapeutic violence a chance.” [New York Post, 10/26/06]

JOE LIEBERMAN
Supporter and Adviser
BACKGROUND: Like McCain, Lieberman subscribes to George W. Bush’s “global war on terror” view (which McCain calls ” a transcendental struggle“) and also supports expansive executive power for prosecuting that war. Lieberman has also advocated a tax to fund expansion of the military.

WILLIAM KRISTOL !!?!! Him again !!?!!
This is what the bozos on The Bus forget to tell you. Much, much more at the Wonk Room link.

This is how it's done, Michael.

James, Would you believe me if I told you that Podesta and crowd over at the Wonk Room just had m over for fresh fruit and bagels? And I was about to write about their reports, but I felt the whole experience had made me biased. You know, they gave me access, they fed me food, coffee, they made me feel important. . . You really have to be careful about that stuff. ;)

You know, they gave me access, they fed me food, coffee, they made me feel important. . . You really have to be careful about that stuff.

Were you careful to be polite, Michael? A proper courtier always shows the right blend of respect and servility. You must maintain your dignity at all times, but never suggest that you question the wisdom those in authority. This is the key to securing continued access: a properly deferential attitude.

How is Meghan's blog site doing? Are you thinking of getting any tatoos?

Touche Michael.

I note they didn't invite you to watch the NCAA tourney though.

BTW Michael. Here's something you might blog about.

Krugman:
The Gramm connection

Aha: the Politico notices that Phil Gramm, McCain’s economic guru, can also be viewed as the father of the financial crisis.

...
Seriously, the Gramm connection tells you all you need to know about where a McCain administration would stand on financial issues: squarely against any significant reform.

Source: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/the-gramm-connection/

I mean, c'mon, Michael.

Michael, look.

You have got to see the contrast between the stuff you and Carney post on McCain -- referring to a "kinda vague" policy speech without any kind of analysis, cute observations on his campaign videos, Carney's "it's fine" that he sells the bozos on The Bus to his potential donors. Your colleagues, on the other hand, post endless shrill, wild, baseless speculations and tea readings on the Democratic candidates like sniping chimpanzees at the zoo, claiming that it's all politics and it's a political blog.

You yourself may not be biased, and you probably have no control over what the others post, but the contrast couldn't be more stark.

As I have said before, I have no problem with you DC journos socializing with politicos. I completely understand the dynamics of those relationships. It wasn't the barbecue as such, but it is the absolute lack of critical (as in critical thinking, not criticism as such) reporting by those journos that followed. And they all have a history of fluffing McCain. Now if your fresh fruit-and-bagels session with Podesta and the Wonk Room Mates results in endless propagandizing for the Democrats, well, *I* wouldn't have a problem with it, but I wouldn't blame the Republicans if they browbeat you about it.

Let's say Huckabee somehow became the nominee. You could bet your last nickel that guys like Scherer would not be asking him about Creationism on the bus. There is a happy equilibrium that these "journalists" fall into that establishes limits on their coverage.

Easily available information reveals that McCain's closes economic and foreign policy advisors are advocates of ideas that have failed conspicuously in the last decade. Scherer knows this and seems to fee that it is his duty to obscure it by a process of jamming: writing endlessly about irrelevant rubbish like the vocal characteristics of the narrator on McCain's propaganda films.

We are being played by the corporate press, just as we were when Bush was depicted as a sound choice for leadership. Scherer is either doing this knowingly or by natural selection; the outcome is the same: a disservice to the American people.