It seemed to start off very well. McCain's selection of Sarah Palin for Vice President energized the base, propelled much more attention to his campaign, and the donations were pouring in. Things were rolling along pretty smoothly, especially after Palin's acceptance speech. "Grand Slam!" "Home Run!", "A Star is Born!", screamed the headlines. Even the campaign's strategy of beating up the press seemed to be working with pundits left and right crying foul over Palin's treatment. But then, after the smoke had cleared and we got a clearer picture of scene, the media put on the brakes.
First there's this from Time's Jay Carney with Nicole Wallace in an on air exchange over Palin granting interviews:
Wallace's bash-the-media exercise has its merits as a campaign tactic. It certainly rallies the base. But the base won't lift McCain to 50% in November. More importantly, in her smug dismissal of the media's role in asking questions of the candidates, Wallace was really showing contempt not for reporters, but for voters. I bet there are a lot of undecided voters out there who were intrigued by Sarah Palin last night, but who don't yet know enough about her -- what she believes, what she knows -- to be comfortable with the idea of her as vice president of the United States. It's important to them to know if Palin can handle herself in an environment that isn't controlled and sanitized by campaign image makers and message mavens. Maybe she can, maybe she can't. As far as Wallace is concerned, it's none of their -- or your -- business.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Here's reliably conservative McCain apologist Mark Halperin
The McCain-Palin 60-Day Media Plan
"The View"
ESPN’s "Driven to Hunt" and "Monster Buck Moments"
"Deadliest Catch"
"Ice Road Truckers"
"Iron Chef America" (special moose meat episode)
"Dancing With the Stars"
"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno"
"Late Show" with David Letterman
"The Simpsons" (guest voice)
"60 Minutes" (assuming the campaign chooses which correspondent handles the report)
"Hour of Power"
Any Fox News Channel show with Oliver North
"Paula’s Home Cooking" with Paula Deen
"The 700 Club"
"Saturday Night Live" (with guest host Tina Fey)
"Rachael Ray"
Every show on the Outdoor Channel
That's some fine snark coming from Halperin. I didn't know he had it in him. Hey, when you've got Halperin mocking you, it MUST be bad. And if the mocking stories about how Palin must be protected from the big bad media weren't enough, they are actually pointing out outright lies by the McCain campaign. This one involving an e-mail the campaign sent out accusing the Obama/Biden ticket of attacking Palin's family.. The thing is, it's not true and the McCain spokespeople couldn't reference even one instance of the Obama campaign doing this. The media derision commences.
This is the e-mail:
"I cannot tell you how special last night was for me and how enthused I am to be John McCain's running mate," Palin said in the email solicitation, adding: "Unfortunately, as you've seen this week, the Obama/Biden Democrats have been vicious in their attacks directed toward me, my family and John McCain. The misinformation and flat-out lies must be corrected."
Says First Read:
Unless we're mistaken, neither Obama nor Biden nor the campaign has attacked Palin's family. In fact, Obama said this after it was revealed that Palin's 17-year-old daughter is pregnant: "I have said before and I will repeat again: I think people’s families are off limits, and people’s children are especially off limits. This shouldn’t be part of our politics, it has no relevance to governor Palin’s performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president. And so I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories."
Reached for comment about the charge, RNC spokesman Danny Diaz cited a comment Obama's Florida spokesman made noting (incorrectly, it seems) that Palin supported Pat Buchanan, whom Jews -- at least according to this spokesman -- have called a "Nazi sympathizer."
But Diaz didn't cite a single Obama or Biden charge against Palin's family.
And here's Jake Tapper
I asked spokespeople of the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee just which "Obama/Biden Democrats" they're referring to.
The response I got was that Obama spokesman Mark Bubriski erroneously attacked Palin as a supporter of Pat Buchanan.
That's it. That's the evidence.
An attack on Palin herself.
In other words, they can't name one person affiliated with the Obama-Biden campaign who attacked the Palin family.
He then goes on to cite the time McCain made that Chelsea Clinton/Janet Reno joke and says:
Now THAT is attacking someone's family!
And pardon me for piling on, there was the issue of Palin openly mocking Community Organizers. The backlash for this was swift and fierce:
Roland Martin
At a time when Americans are losing their homes to foreclosure, folks are trying to get by after layoffs, people are struggling with lack of healthcare, and we're facing pressing environmental issues, it's ludicrous to slam the little man and woman who isn't asking the government for handouts, but is doing what they can to make their neighborhood and city better.
Jake Tapper again.
For nine years I've listened to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., movingly call on younger Americans to serve a cause greater than their self-interest.
Wasn't Obama merely heeding that very call?
- jpt
And all this is came before McCain's seriously awful speech last night. The reviews are NOT kind:
- * Jeffrey Toobin on CNN: "I thought it was the worst speech by a nominee that I've heard since Jimmy Carter in 1980.... I personally cannot remember a single policy proposal that he made because they had nothing connecting them. I found it shockingly bad."
- * Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson on MSNBC: "The policy in the speech was rather typical for a Republican. Pretty disappointing. It didn't do a lot of outreach to moderates and independents on issues that they care about. It talked, about issues like drilling and school choice which was really speaking to the converted. I think that was a missed opportunity."
- * Juan Williams on Fox News: "I don't think it worked very well at all."
- * New York Times Liveblog: "Sleepy? Our colleague Patrick Healy reports from the floor: There is a delegate in the Utah section and a delegate in Puerto Rico who are both drooping, eyes closed -- look asleep -- both are men."
And that, my friends, is a very bad week indeed. Just a little something to give you a lift into the weekend.