The political career of John McCain has been made possible by a series of political maneuvers and a skillful public relations campaign, creating the juggernaut that I like to call The Legend of John McCain^TM.  There are many facets of The Legend^TM, but the base of the entire concept lies in John McCain’s military service.  The deification of his service and of his time in Vietnam as a prisoner of war has been constructed into a nearly impenetrable firewall against scrutiny, and have also served, along with media complicity, as rose colored glasses to the public throughout his political career.  Up until recently, no one could ever think of questioning any part of The Legend^TM without facing serious public backlash.  Fortunately, his candidacy for President has allowed and demanded closer scrutiny of his history, and of the phenomenon that is The Legend of John McCain^TM.

I'm worrying it's all too easy. Whenever public questions are too simple, then private means of parsing them suffer. Look, we have a national political choice between a fossil fascist fool and a new energetic hopeful thinker. That's way too easy.

We need to be tested more than that.

For Kossacks, it's not news that a John McCain presidency would be a disaster for working people. The McCain agenda -- more tax cuts for the rich, privatization of Social Security, and war without end -- would mean  the next four years would be just as disastrous for the American Dream as the last eight have been.

But McCain -- and the corporate interests that support him -- don't want Americans to know about the real McCain record. They're ready to do whatever it takes to sell Americans on a false image of McCain and bury the real McCain record deep underground.

Well, working people know a line of bull when they see it. And today nine workers set out on a campaign to call out John McCain for who he really is.

(Learn more and hear some hard questions for John McCain -- and learn how to submit your own! -- after the jump...)

Frank Rich is back from vacation. The rest has done him good! In today's NYT op-ed he starts by pointing out the absurdity of the constant obsession with Obama's poll numbers and reminds that historically those numbers have meant very little. He spends the rest of the piece showing that so far the campaign has played just the way the Republicans have wanted it ... a referendum on Senator Obama giving a total pass on who John McCain really is.

So why isn’t Obama romping? The obvious answer — and both the excessively genteel Obama campaign and a too-compliant press bear responsibility for it — is that the public doesn’t know who on earth John McCain is.

Some people are asking "Who in the hell is Paul Waldman?"  

Mr. Waldman is the Special Projects Director for Media Matters.  For the past week he has been out there refuting and debunking the Corsi book as well as Corsi himself.

He has shown how crazy and pathetic Corsi really is by revealing his lies and previous writings and statements, the people behind the publishing of the book i.e. Mary Matlin, former aide to Dick Cheney, and how it got to be number one on the NYT bestseller's list (the bulk purchase of the book by conservative groups).

I don't think I need to rehash the libelous book of crap that currently tops the NYT best seller list by Jerome Corsi (no link) will be provided.

Obama's camp has released a 41 page point-by-point rebuttal.

(Hat Tip: rapcetera's excellent diary)

Here's what I plan to do with this information and maybe others can as well.

Ha, no I'm not drunk blogging tonight. Unlike last weeks drunken Obama rant, I have some harsh but truthful things to say about John Edwards.

He said we were welcomed to beat up on him, so here are my greatest hits...

"All politicians lie."  How many times have you heard that one?  While there is (sadly) a fair amount of truth to the statement, it is often used, much like the charge of "liberal media bias", as a way to deflect or avoid conversations about important realities.

For example, I might point out to a conservative friend or neighbor that the new McCain ad which claims that Obama will raise middle class taxes is a flat-out lie.  In response, he can simply shrug his shoulders, and note with (feigned) resignation, "All politicians lie."  Thus avoiding any conversation about whether Obama will or will not raise taxes and, just as importantly, whether its OK for McCain to air clearly dishonest advertisements.

So, how might politicians like Obama -- who I believe wishes to run an effective, but mostly honest campaign – help to let voters know he is doing his best to tell the truth?

Nothing like an incendiary blanket statement to attract attention. The problem is: it's absolutely true.

My diary yesterday was a piece of fun. A link to an online quiz called "Is that a Terrorist or Conservative speaking? A quiz" which you can try here. It's simple: ten quotes are provided. All identifying information (example; name of religion mentioned) is removed. All you have to do is say where the quote came from; international terrorist mastermind, or [f]right wing goon. It will take two minutes of your day.

HelloQuizzy (a part of OKCupid) allows me to see rudimentary stats of the number of people that have taken the test, and changing the URL at the end of the test shows me the percentage of people that have scored worse than that particular score.

And after over 800 test takers, the proof is in. People really cannot tell the difference between a terrorist's words and a conservative's words.

More, below the fold...

The goal of this diary is simple. We are going to figure out whether John McCain or Barack Obama lies more on the stump.

Well, sort of.

We're going to use the Truth-o-Meter from PolitiFact.com to measure which candidate lies more according to PolitiFact.com.

With this revelation all the clamor, haughty condescension, and distasteful rhetoric about The "Race" Card and injections of race into this election shouldn't even be brought up anymore. Senator Obama's mild statements have seemingly been put under the microscope- a place where unlike Senator McCain, Senator Obama has been residing for the past two years.

This is so completely typifying of the press finding a narrative, sticking to it, and doing no research. It is typifying of the media's obsession with race, but only the talks of race that THEY want to have. The talks of race that defend the "race card" sentiment. The talks of race that fit the golden standard. The "race is not a huge part of society today" standard.

Obama's statement (paraphrased) "They will try to say, 'he doesn't look like the rest of the Presidents on the dollar bill.'"

Well, Democrats, here's a video from the John McCain campaign mocking the thought of Obama being on the dollar bill. What irony, eh?! Obama says they will do EXACTLY what they will do.. or in this case, what they have already done.

Now, it's not that John McCain's campaign would mock the thought of Senator Obama being on the dollar bill (well, kind of), it is the bigger picture.

With all the hullabaloo spinning around sequel to the mediocrity that has become associated with the call for offshore drilling and given the politicization of yet another national treasure and necessity, one could have imagined that the country could have been on fire, however it is gratifying to note that the people are still holding on and anticipating the change that will bring about the kind of hope, inspiration and lives that we all look forward to.

"War" on Terror

Today at TPMCafe Senator John Kerry discussed ways our response to extremism and terrorism should be changed.  As so many well informed people have been saying all along about the "War on Terror," everything about the way our government approaches the subject needs to be rethought from the bottom up.  The basic strategy of Communist guerrilla recruiters, which was highly successful in so many places, was always to swell the ranks by winning over the hearts and minds of the local population.  Terrorist organizations have adopted roughly the same strategy.  The militaristic approach our nation has employed during the Bush years plays right into the hands of the recruiters.

More after the flip.

For those of you kossacks who were not aware of the deadline to add your name to Kucinich's Impeachment petition go to http://kucinich.us/ and add your name to the petition.

God, I hate the media!  I hate them with the white hot fire of a thousand suns.  I hate them with every fiber of my being.  I hate them for lying and trying to destroy my country and the principles it was founded on, every single day. I hate them for smearing good men, destroying the economy, this war and basically damn near everything they do.

Everyone from Fox News to the Daily Show to John McCain himself has complained that McCain is getting no coverage while Obama is getting lots of coverage. But isn't this just his "base" coming to his rescue again?

That John McCain is the worst candidate in this election is an axiom. There’s no way else to say it. Everything is says and does is confusing, wrong or false (or some combination of the three). And, yet, he keeps hanging on. Why? Well, as we’ve been made painfully aware, the media is essentially keeping him in this race by preventing any substantive discussion.

Yes, I know this has been written up before and commented on.

Here for example.

But I thought that I needed to comment on it.

I kept thinking about it and getting more pissed by it, and so once I woke up I knew what I had to do, I had to diary about it.

So please forgive me for writing another diary on this topic.

<more after the break>