Howard Fineman: Gaffe Alert! McCain doesn't need enemies. He has friends.

[babylonsister]

Gaffe Alert!

McCain doesn't need enemies. He has friends.
Jul 10, 2008 | Updated: 6:20 p.m. ET Jul 10, 2008



This was supposed to be John McCain's week to re-re-launch his campaign, this time with a tightly focused message about the economy and how he plans to fix it. He had a nicely staged debut in Denver, even if the experts quickly demanded to know how he could preserve George Bush's tax cuts, stay in Iraq and yet balance the federal budget by 2013. Details, details! Still, McCain was back in the game.

Then a one-man thundercloud named Phil Gramm rained on McCain's Main Street parade.

In one of the more boneheaded remarks in recent presidential politics (and Gramm has uttered others) the former Texas senator declared that we are in the midst of a "mental recession" and that we have "sort of become a nation of whiners."

This was so asinine as to make Jesse Jackson Sr. (and his live-microphone gaffe about cutting off Barack Obama's ... accessories) sound like Plato.

McCain, polls show, is struggling to persuade voters—even in his own party—that Republicans deserve to retain stewardship of the economy. Obama and the Democrats are way ahead in polls on questions related to jobs, health care, gas prices, business regulation, the mortgage mess—you name it.

At a time of $4-a-gallon gasoline (or more), of falling home prices in most American cities, of skyrocketing food costs and steadily rising unemployment rates, dismissing worried American voters as whining, depressed basket cases is, well, insane.

more...

http://www.newsweek.com/id/145421

[truthisfreedom]

1. Heh. McLame's had a great week, huh?

[babylonsister]

3. If you watch cable, you'd hardly know it. It's all Obama and

Jesse Jackson, all the time. I think they're biased. :think:

[blondeatlast]

8. Oh, come now! Our press takes their esteemed and vital role in democracy

very seriously--they are absolutely all over Christie Brinkley's divorce!

[VolcanoJen]

4. Mark Halperin, King of All Political Media, says McCain won the week.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

http://markhalperin.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/g9092v2.pdf

Our Liberal Media is So Awesome. :eyes:

[ErinBerin84]

5. oh my god, Mark Halperin is so insane!

He's just pissed that his false accusation of Obama's Iraq flip flop (which Halperin was the first one to "jump" on, with the others following. Seriously, The Page is the new Druge Report. And which he called "The BIGGEST story of the political season!") has not gotten much traction anymore.

[VolcanoJen]

6. Yep! The Page is like "Drudge with credibility."

That's the maddening part of it, isn't it? :eyes:

[Rowdyboy]

7. I almost spewed coffee on hearing the news....

Sometimes the lunacy of the beltway gang astounds me. No rational person could possibly say McCain won this week yet super-guru Halperin is on top of it. Maybe David Broder will stun us all by issuing another call for bipartisanship and moderation this weekend.

The punditocracy is nothing if not predictable.

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

2. Nice!