I'm sitting here watching Morning Joe and screaming at the TV! David Axelrod is responding to McCain's "charge" that Obama has never fought his own party on any issue (which is pretty damn shaky ground for McCain to stand on, since his opposition to HIS party has been as firm as Jello).
How is he answering this? He's falling right into the trap once again of going on the defensive with one of our absolutely best talking points. He's trying to play up the fact that Obama defied both parties when he authored ethics reform, both in the Illinois Senate and the U.S. Senate.
Please...not before I've finished my coffee. Holy crap, what a doofus response to one of the most ludicrous statements in this entire election.
Here's the correct response. First, you laugh until the hosts have to call you back to the conversation. Then you say, "Are you kidding me? John McCain's party has been in power for eight years. It has driven our economy into the ground, has reduced our military to making empty threats, has allowed the health care of Americans to rank dead last among industrialized nations in preventable deaths, has blundered into an ill-advised war on false pretexts - I could go on - but John McCain is crowing that Barack Obama has not stood up to the democrats?
This is an outrageous and disingenous attempt by John McCain to move the discussion from the inexcusable conduct of his own party to the party who has opposed it for the past eight years. He doesn't like the fact that his voting record of 90% compliance with George Bush and the party in power is front and center in the minds of the American people.
McCain has changed his positions so many times that he's opposed everyone on the same issues, including himself. So how does he escape this trap of his own making? He makes the subliminal suggestion to the American people that somehow the democrats are responsible for the last eight years, and that it's a real problem because Barack Obama didn't stop them.
How stupid do you believe the American people are, John McCain? How many times do you think we can be led blindfolded over the edge of a cliff, Karl Rove? Don't talk to me about Barack Obama not distancing himself from his own party. The critical issue is about John McCain's standing up to the Republicans before he distanced John McCain from John McCain and embraced the disastrous policies of the Bush administration when he thought it would win this election.
Now that it's a problem I'm sure he would like to switch back to the other John McCain, but that's difficult to do in the last days of a campaign. So, since he can't put himself on the right side of the issues, he's trying to reframe the issue with respect to the past eight years to blame Barack Obama?
Just one more in a long line of examples where John McCain, George Bush and Karl Rove think you can destroy the true answer by simply restating the question.