McGamble: McCain Camp Defying Political Standards

[Limelight]

Source: Huffington Post

The McCain campaign, in running TV ads which defy prior political standards, is gambling that the traditional rules governing what is permissible in presidential contests -- as defined by the mainstream media -- can safely be discarded this year.

The normally cautious and even-handed Associated Press on Thursday declared, "Even in a political culture accustomed to truth-stretching, McCain's skirting of facts has stood out this week." The controversies have surrounded McCain television commercials and stump speeches asserting that Barack Obama "supports" comprehensive sex education in kindergarten, that Obama called Sarah Palin a "pig in lipstick," and that Palin stood firmly against the "bridge to nowhere" -- despite videotape evidence that the Alaskan governor provided support for the earmark before she opposed it.

So far, based on polling over the past two weeks, McCain's roll of the dice has paid off. Not only has McCain made substantial gains, pulling modestly ahead in most national polls, but his assaults on Obama appear to have damaged the Democratic Party as well, raising Republican hopes of minimizing House and Senate losses.

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The McCain strategy is based on a series of major premises. These include, first, that what many thought was the fading salience of wedge issues -- evoking stereotypes of liberals as 'weak on terror' and 'sexually permissive' - can be revived; second, that Obama is particularly vulnerable to these stereotypes, in part because he is African American; third, that standards of accuracy and truthfulness in political competition have eroded; and fourth, that the traditional authority of the national media as arbiter of what is legitimate in political discourse has disappeared.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/14/mcgamble_n_126308.html

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Wow. Do you get what this is saying? The republicans are just going to flat out lie and even if they get called on it the American people might be stupid enough to fall for it. Obama has already started using the "L" word... Lie. He better not back down, he better not vacillate. Call these bastards what they are liars who care more for the lining of their pockets than this country.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. The word lie? That's all? :( nt

[tularetom]

2. No I think he's also gonna say "pants on fire"

Who the hell knows what else he'll say? When you opponent is digging a hole for himself, you really don't need any help. It's becoming conventional wisdom that McCain is lying, it's in the papers on cable and even on Faux. I'm not sure Obama has to say anything but "lying is unamerican and not in agreement with small town values". Even the dumshit american public will make the connection.

[Roy]

3. Nope! It's saying the media is not informing the public...

People get their information from the media, if the media don't report or misinform when they do, people just don't know.

If you miss a news broadcast and don't know what was said, does that make you stupid?
How in the hell do you fall for something when you don't know it exist?

"Wow. Do you get what this is saying? The republicans are just going to flat out lie and even if they get called on it the American people might be stupid enough to fall for it."

[Betty]

4. if this shit works with people

then they deserve the unmitigated disastrous meltdown that will surely follow, because mclame (and if he doesn't make it, palin) will surely finish what bush has begun. Too bad these of us that see him for what he is have to live with the results of the insanely bad judgement of others.

[iconicgnom]

5. Clearly McCain is banking on the supposition that the average US citizen prefers being lied to.

That supposition has lots of evidence, but in particular the '04 federal election results giving Bush a 2nd term even though at that late date it was already well known to all that he lied to the whole world when setting up the Iraq war. It is well known to all that he lied to the whole world in denying US kidnapping and torture programs, in denying US human rights abuses, in affirming US support for democracy and common human values. This is just the first page of the index. The second page lists the US lies about support for the nuclear NPT, while expressly breaking it in internal US programs, in supporting India's development of nuclear weapons, in (since a long time) supporting Israel's nuclear weapons programs, etc. There's only space here to paraphrase the index of US lies, of course, and the index goes on - it's hardly begun. The scope of the US gov't lies during the GWB administration is unprecedented - and these aren't just lies to the american people, they are flat out in your face blatant lies to the whole world. Quite literally, the whole world is watching.

Yet the evidence is that near half of US voters, and those are only the 60% or so who give enough of a shit to actually set aside a few minutes every few years to vote, are totally heedless of the dishonor of it. In other words, recent history has proved that 70+% of voting age citizens of the USA don't give a shit what the country they live in actually stands for, and how it presents itself to the world.

There are no excuses for that.

[dgibby]

6. Play the Honor Card

If McCain goes there, then it's time to play the honor/integrity card, as in, you, sir, have squandered whatever honor you once possessed and this is conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. Best delivered by Wes Clark and/or veterans groups. As a retired Navy officer, I can almost guarantee this will cause McInsane to have a MAJOR MELTDOWN, hopefully on national tv.:nuke:

[wordpix]

7. even my 83 y.o. mom with Alzheimer's got the absurdity of the 'Obama supports sex ed for kindergart

ners' meme. If she gets it, maybe the sheeple can get it, too.

[Zambero]

8. Fundamentalist conservatives & the 9 Commandments

9? Oh yeah, it used to be called the 10 Commandments. The one about "not bearing false witness" is now purely optional in fundamentalist circles, so it's been stricken from the list, no longer "etched in stone". God & Moses would certainly understand that changing times requires a certain amount of moral flexibility, wouldn't they?

[Jennicut]

9. It only works for so long but he is going too far, the msm's bs meter is waking up

Its gonna come back and bite him in the ass, actually its already has. Obama's polling #'s looked much better today and Sarah Baracrapa's negatives are going up.