Mudslinging Initiated
This is pretty good. AP:
WASHINGTON - Mudslinging — initiated over the weekend by Republican John McCain’s campaign — gathered intensity in the presidential race today as Democrat Barack Obama resurrected his opponent’s links to a financial scandal two decades ago.
That’s precious, coming from a news service that just accused the GOP vice-presidential candidate of racism without providing anything but an editor’s conjecture and personal prejudices to back it up. Especially after weeks of disproportionate trashing of said nominee and her running mate; repeating Obama camp talking points as gospel without any attribution; and regular reports on the sunlight that miraculously shines out of his … never mind.
The Obama campaign’s proxies have made it easy for him to maintain that above-it-all focused on a distant horizon of hopeful change thing. But that’s changing, and we can hope for a good time at tomorrow night’s debate.
Back to the Obamist Press and its latest talking points. Here we see how an “unusually angry” McCain … exceeding the high levels of irritation and tension usually attributed to him … has not stopped beating his economic wife despite some anonymous aide’s suggestion … I’m guessing an acknowledgment surrendered under reportorial badgering … that that could conceivably happen:
Today, Obama told reporters McCain was not paying enough attention to the economic crisis gripping the country, emphasizing that he could not “imagine anything more important to talk about” than Americans’ losing their jobs, health care and homes.
In an unusually angry retort, McCain sought to divert attention from his newly aggressive strategy by claiming that Obama “never answers the serious and legitimate questions he has been asked.”
Speaking in Albuquerque, New Mexico, McCain said his opponent had resorted to calling the Arizona senator a liar every time his record was questioned.
“Let me reply in the plainest terms I know. I don’t need lessons about telling the truth to American people. And were I ever to need any improvement in that regard, I probably wouldn’t seek advice from a Chicago politician,” McCain said in remarks released by his campaign.
An aide to McCain recently said his campaign would like to shift the presidential race’s focus away from the economy, which has been a better issue for Democrats than Republicans. Since then, McCain’s running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been questioning Obama’s character based on his association with an incendiary pastor and a 1960s radical turned college professor.
McCain continues to discuss economic conditions, but Obama says he needs to offer better and more specific remedies.
Angry Republican isn’t doing what Obama tells him to. Campaign of Rage is multi-issuing. Unacceptable! That “better and more specific remedies” is pretty sweet coming from a guy who just voted for the Bush administration’s bailout, loaded with Republican tax breaks, by the way.
It goes on. Apparently the AP has taken it on itself to lecture the McCain camp about what it should and should not be doing, using the Obama camp’s admonishments and preferences as its baseline. I don’t have time to poke through the entire tub of half-digested Obamit. I pulled this chunk off the bottom, though. It’s a nonsequitor, tacked on if not to advance any particular point, apparently just for good measure.
McCain has been hurt badly by his ties to President George W. Bush, a fellow Republican whose approval rating is near historic lows as American voters blame him for the crumbling economy and the unpopular Iraq war.
Well, it can’t have hurt him that badly as he remains in a virtual dead heat, only a few points below Obama. Anyway, the historic low belongs to the Democratic-controlled Congress at last check.
Regarding Associated Press race-baiting, denunciations are starting surface at news sites. A mild rebuke from Brit Hume at Fox, a stronger one from Taranto at WSJ.
The flaming lefties at Editor and Publisher ran the column, and apparently liked it enough as it was that they didn’t think it required any comment. They noted the NYT Ayers thing in passing but prefered to discuss the LA Times and WPost hitting McCain on alleged misdeeds from 30 to 40 years ago. Romenesko at Poynter, media newsclipper at a major journo ethics site that tends toward the gutlessly conventional, as of last night seemed to be not much interested in the AP’s declaration that the GOP veep candidate is a racist.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:18 pm on Monday, October 6, 2008
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October 7th, 2008 at 10:43 am
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the - Web Reconnaissance for 10/07/2008 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.