How low can McCain go? His poll ratings are in free fall now, ever since he did his Herbert Hoover impression Monday. Now, he's back to attacking Barack Obama's patriotism.
"Country first or Obama first," McCain told more than 11,000 supporters at rally alongside Gov. Palin. "When it comes to cutting taxes for seniors, for working families, for small businesses my opponent didn’t put the hardworking people of this country first. When it came time to support our troops fighting to protect our freedoms and way of life my opponent said he’d never deprive them of the funds they needed to fight and then did just that."
McCain: "Country First or Obama First?"
McCain also is now claiming to be a populist, even trying to channel John Edwards about not letting lobbyists have a seat at the table. Bullshit. This is McCain in total panic. More, after the fold.
(Update IV has Obama's smackdown)
McCain kept up the increasingly aggressive contrast throughout his speech Thursday night, adding that, "a vote for Senator Obama will leave this country at risk during one of the most severe challenges to America’s economy since the Great Depression and that’s straight talk my friends."
McCain: "Country First or Obama First?"
The risk is more of the same, and the American people have woken up to John McCain's bullshit. It won't work this time, John.
More insanity from John McCain:
We’ve heard a lot of words from Senator Obama over the course of this campaign. But maybe just this once he could spare us the lectures, and admit to his own poor judgment in contributing to these problems. The crisis on Wall Street started in the Washington culture of lobbying and influence peddling, and he was square in the middle of it.
NY Times
Which candidate takes money from lobbyists? McCain. Which candidate calls himself a deregulator? McCain. And which candidate has a campaign run by lobbyists? McCain.
Which candidate takes no money from lobbyists? Barack Obama. Which candidate has long fought for real regulation? Barack Obama. And which candidate will not allow lobbyists to run his campaign? Barack Obama.
And people know it.
Now McCain tries to tie Fannie Mae to Obama, but it just won't stick. And he tries to channel John Edwards. The only things John Edwards and John McCain have in common is their first name and each committed adultery. John McCain is no friend of working people. John Edwards, regardless of his faults as a husband, knows which side he's on. Our side.
This CEO, Mr. Johnson, walked off with tens of millions of dollars in salary and bonuses for services rendered to Fannie Mae, even after authorities discovered accounting improprieties that padded his compensation. Another CEO for Fannie Mae, Mr. Raines, has been advising Senator Obama on housing policy. This even after Fannie Mae was found to have committed quote "extensive financial fraud" under his leadership. Like Mr. Johnson, Mr. Raines walked away with tens of millions of dollars.
Senator Obama may be taking their advice and he may be taking their money, but in a McCain-Palin administration, there will be no seat for these people at the policy-making table. They won't even get past the front gate at the White House.
My friends, this is the problem with Washington. People like Senator Obama have been too busy gaming the system and haven't ever done a thing to actually challenge the system.
McCain speech, Ben Smith
Meanwhile, Palin peddles this line of crap:
Palin accused Obama of siding with special interests "time and time again" instead of standing up for working Americans struggling with high fuel costs.
"And maybe if he’d been the governor of an energy-rich state, he’d get it," she said at a rally in Green Bay, held just down the street from fabled Lambeau Field. "And maybe, maybe if he’d been on the front lines of securing our nation’s energy independence, then he’d understand."
snip
"As governor of Alaska, I’ve overseen a very large portion of our U.S. domestic production of oil, and through a heck of a lot of competition and hard work, I’ve secured agreements to build a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline to get our clean, green natural gas down to hungry markets like here in Wisconsin," she said. "I know what works, and I know that America needs this."
Palin: Obama doesn't 'get it' on energy issues
This garbage (Palin talking about special interests) is calling flailing about as you drown. Yeah, oil companies are now the people and the people are special interests. They are just grabbing slogans and bullshit from the past. The McCain-Palin campaign rapidly is becoming the Lehman Brothers of modern campaigns.
Here's why:
More?
DNC Web Ad
"Fundamentally Strong?"
http://www.youtube.com/...
Text
MCCAIN: "I want to convince you of my belief and my firm conviction that Americas economy, the fundamentals of it, are strong." [Town Hall, Chula Vista, CA, 3/24/08]
MCCAIN: "So our fundamentals, I still believe, are very strong." [Town
Hall, Round Rock, TX, 2/29/08]
MCCAIN: "But the underpinnings of our economy are strong." [Rally,
Pensacola, FL, 1/22/08]
MCCAIN: "But the fundamentals of America's economy are very strong."
[House Party, Concord, NH, 12/31/08]
MCCAIN: "I believe the fundamentals of our economy are still strong."
[Town Hall, West Palm Beach, FL, 1/24/08]
MCCAIN: "The fundamental principles, the foundation of our economy, is
strong." [Speech, Aiken, SC, 1/17/08]
MCCAIN: "The fundamentals of our economy are strong." [Speech and
Roundtable, Santa Ana, CA, 3/25/08]
MCCAIN: "Our economy, I think, still, the fundamentals of our economy
are strong." [Rally, Jacksonville, FL, 9/15/08]
MCCAIN: "The fundamentals of it are strong." [Rally, Pensacola, FL,
1/22/08]
MCCAIN: "I still believe that the fundamentals of our economy are
strong." [Laura Ingraham Show, 8/20/08]
TEXT: "Things today just aren't that bad." "When it comes to the
economy, we have surely become a nation of exaggerators." McCain Advisor
Donald Luskin, September 14, 2008.
GRAMM: "We've surely become a nation of whiners." [Interview with Washington Times, 7/9/08]
SOURCE Democratic National Committee
DNC Releases New Web Video: 'Fundamentally Strong?'
Fundamentally Strong?
And Bush and McCain talking fundamentals of the economy!!!
This is the beginning of the end for the McCain-Palin bullshit express. Like the rattlesnakes they are, they are dangerous, but their deceptive attacks will fool no one. People see McCain for the liar he is. His poll ratings are crashing like Wall Street earlier this week.
That's called karma, and John McCain is reaping what he sowed. The wheels of justice move slowly, but surely.
Update I: From grannhelen in the comments. GM workers chant for Obama during McCain's speech:
Working people are not going to buy McCain's bullshit.
Update II: Raines is an African American and the McCain campaign is running an ad with his picture. A little not-so-subtle race baiting going on. As McCain falls, he will move right into the worst of racism. John McCain is revealing himself to be a man without honor. He will lose, and history will remember him as one without integrity or honor, as a cowardly liar.
"Obama has no background in economics. Who advises him? The Post says it's Franklin Raines, for "advice on mortgage and housing policy." Shocking. Under Raines, Fannie Mae committed "extensive financial fraud." Raines made millions. Fannie Mae collapsed. Taxpayers? Stuck with the bill."
--McCain video release, September 18, 2008.
The Obama camapign calls McCain out again for lies.
The Obama campaign last night issued a statement by Raines insisting, "I am not an advisor to Barack Obama, nor have I provided his campaign with advice on housing or economic matters." Obama spokesman Bill Burton went a little further, telling me in an e-mail that the campaign had "neither sought nor received" advice from Raines "on any matter."
WaPo FactChecker
The Pinocchio Test
The McCain campaign is clearly exaggerating wildly in attempting to depict Howell Raines as a close adviser to Obama on "housing and mortgage policy." If we are to believe Raines, he did have a couple of telephone conversations with someone in the Obama campaign. But that hardly makes him an adviser to the candidate himself--and certainly not in the way depicted in the McCain video release.
WaPo FactChecker
John McCain, more dishonorable then even George Bush. Now I did not think that was possible.
Update III: Obama campaign. H/t to Kitty who provided me this:
JOHN MCCAIN’S GLASS HOUSES
John McCain Has Deep Ties to Fannie, Freddie
McCain Has Deepest Ties To Fannie, Freddie. According to the New York Times, "More than Mr. Obama, Mr. McCain’s circle of advisers and contributors includes current and former lobbyists or directors for the companies, although since July he has called for a ban on any lobbying by the two firms. Among the companies’ past advocates are Mr. McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, a longtime lobbyist; Mr. McCain’s confidant and adviser Charlie Black, whose firm worked for Freddie Mac for several years ending in 2005, and the deputy campaign finance chairman, Wayne L. Berman, a vice president for Ogilvy Worldwide and a former Fannie Mae lobbyist." [New York Times, 9/10/08]
Update IV: H/T to Kitty again.
At a rally in Coral Gables, Obama responds to McCain's shots:
This morning Senator McCain gave a speech in which his big solution to this worldwide economic crisis was to blame me for it.
This is a guy who's spent nearly three decades in Washington, and after spending the entire campaign saying I haven't been in Washington long enough, he apparently now is willing to assign me responsibility for all of Washington's failures.
Now, I think it's a pretty clear that Senator McCain is a little panicked right now. At this point he seems to be willing to say anything or do anything or change any position or violate any principal to try and win this election, and I've got to say it's kind of sad to see. That's not the politics we need.
It's also been disappointing to see my opponent's reaction to this economic crisis. His first reaction on Monday was to stand up and repeat the line he's said over and over again throughout this campaign -- 'the fundamentals of the economy are strong' -- the comment was so out of touch that even George Bush's White House couldn't agree with it.