"Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses? Does a guy who worries about the price of arugula and thinks regular people "cling" to guns and religion in the face of economic hardship really want to have a debate about who’s in touch with regular Americans?"
Um... yes, please.
You giant bluffer.
What do you have in a "yes" this fall?
May I have a large order of "yes" and a side of fries?
Brian, you pose an excellent question. It's on-point. And the answer is:
Months ago I saw a former member of some boy band on the Jimmy Kimmel show. He told a story about how he had a back and forth on-stage rivalry with one of the other band members.
Most nights they would trade insults but at one show he decided not to fight back. The other guy kept throwing out more outrageous and wild insults trying to get a response. Pretty soon the audience started booing the guy throwing unprovoked insults.
That sounds a lot like Obama's strategy for dealing with ugly attacks. When Alan Keys and Hillary Clinton started going negative it ended up hurting them far more than it hurt Obama because he refuses to act in the same ugly manner.
Last Saturday I spent three hours in the Carolina sunshine (hot!) walking door-to-door to register voters, based on a list that the Obama campaign's Charlotte office provided me. I am a major introvert, so this wasn't a fun experience, but I felt I needed to do something more than just donate money to the campaign, and it was an enlightening experience.
I registered just four new voters, but here are some of the things that I learned in talking to probably 30 people:
I outlined some of my criticism of the Obama press strategy yesterday, and with McCain making a huge blunder, the Obama camp senses a huge opening. And like a lion catching a zebra, it looks like Obama is poised to go for the jugular.
But then there was another interview – this is yesterday, same day – where somebody asked John McCain, how many houses do you have? And he said, I'm not sure. I'll have to check with my staff. [Audience laughs.]
True quote. I'm not sure. I'll have to check with my staff. So they asked his staff, and he said, at least four. At least four. Now, think about that.
And by the way, the answer is John McCain has seven homes.
As we all know by now, McCain's really stepped in it with this nonsense about not knowing how many houses he has.
I mean, he might really not know, but what he was hoping to do with his non-answer was obfuscate the reality that he's kept and pampered by simply refusing to be the first one to put a number on it.
But could his flippancy be indicative of more than just not wanting to admit he collects houses like crazy old ladies collect stray cats? Isn't it really a sign that a McCain administration would bring us another four years of "I don't recall" governance? I mean, I know the play worked for Reagan, Bush I, and the Pretzeldent too. But haven't we had about enough of Republican "leaders" who can never recall a damn thing about anything they do? Puh-lease.
Anyway, in addition to laughing your ass off at how ridiculous McCain is, you should also take a moment to thank Brave New Films for sparking this latest round of questions for Mr. Furious. They did a lot of legwork and research that they put into a video about some of the vast real estate holdings McCain just can't seem to remember, and it's looking like that was what set off the questions that led McCain to stuff his $500 loafers in his mouth:
The McCain camp's response has been equally predictable: Obama's not exactly destitute himself. And that's true. But not being able to answer the question "how many houses do you own?" without having staff look it up is not in the same league as having made some money. Let's fact it, it's not in the same league as 99.9% of the planet. And this from the guy who just suggested that it took $5 million a year to be considered "rich," and had an auditorium full of his would-be evangelical base literally laugh in his face for it.
Good to see it's finally getting some attention, because it didn't when the same subject came up four months ago. And doubly delicious that it really got legs when McCain phumphered his way through a non-answer on a question that reg'lar Amur-kins have sooooo much trouble with themselves, "How many houses ya got?"
I think America deserves an answer, to borrow a phrase too often annoyingly parroted by the other side any time they can gin up something as dumb as what a candidate drinks at breakfast. Only this time, we really do deserve an answer. We have disclosure laws for candidates in this country for a reason. And given that the best his staff could come up with was, "at least four," I think it's fairly clear they don't want to give us that answer. It ought to be an question he's asked everywhere he goes, and frankly, I don't know why anyone would want to hear anything else from him until he answers it straight up. People ought to remind him of the fact that if he's hemming and hawing on a pretty damned basic question, they're never going to be able to believe him on anything else.
So why not remind him that it's time to answer the question whenever and wherever you see him? Maybe just with something as simple as what another blogger well known to you all once suggested: holding up your own house keys and jangling them at him next time he shows his face in public?
I woke up this morning to this pro-Obama video playing on MTV. It is a great and inspiring song by Big Boi and Mary J Blige. It touches on everything from high gas prices, unemployment, healthcare, and the Iraq war. Video and Lyrics below the fold
I don't know if this qualifies as substantive enough to diary about, but I just thought I'd share some anti-Obama sentiments I've been hearing from some very nice women. I frequent a forum on a website for women who are trying to conceive. I'd noticed over the last couple of months that these are some of the most caring and compassionate women you could hope to come across. Everyone is always there for each other with supportive comments, helpful tips and real empathy for the pain of infertility and loss. You get a real sense of sisterhood and community with these women.
I got inspiration from one of the comment that I found on politicalwire about super rich confused McCain not remembering how many houses he owns. I modified it to this new version of "There are some things that money can't buy" ad.
$100 for a makeover to look young
$520 for black leather Ferragamo Italian shoes
$28,500 in campaign donations from Hess Oil executives after changing mind to allow oil drilling
$50,000 for speechwriter who can attack 'hope'
$58,000 per year of taxpayers money in disability payments
Now that the presidential debates have been finalized, it might be worthwhile to remind the moderators (Lehrer, Brokaw, Schieffer) that they need to do a little bit more than toss up conservative softballs like Rick Warren. (Indeed, thinking back on the Faith Forum, Warren looked a whole lot more like an overweight softball pitcher, beer in hand, gently leaning forward to underhand those babies McCain's way, than he did like a serious interviewer.)
I thought it might be useful to look back at Tim Russert's series of one-on-one interviews conducted with the candidates in the pre-primary season.
What will you drink to toast the end of the Bush era? Will it be something to honor the 43rd President, or are you just looking forward to 44? Will it be something from Texas, which Bush calls home, or Connecticut, where he was really raised? Maybe a nice French champagne, a bit of a poke in his eye? Or do you prefer Italian prosecco, since they supported the "War on Terror"? Whatever it is, get ready to lift a glass and toast the end of an era that America will never forget.
This diary is brought to you by my own site, 2 Bottles per Day, and Wine Blogging Wednesday, a cooperative venture of the wine blogging community. Wine bloggers, meet political bloggers. Political bloggers, meet the wine people. And please come back to see the results of the first WBW Special Release, when the world's wine bloggers review their choice for January 20, 2009.
Wine Bloggers around the country and around the world will post their choices on Wednesday, September 3, during the Republican National Convention. I will post a compendium of them here, but hope you will visit all the sites to see what everybody was drinking.
There's been an awful lot of hay thrown around over McCain's comment at last weekend's Saddleback Forum that a $5 million income is what it would take to be classed as rich. Today, however, Magoo showed the comment was no mistake, but in fact was part of his long-term strategy to discredit Obama.
Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses?
With the current hullabaloo over how many houses McCain owns and the $5 million in income makes you rich idiocy (I'd provide links to diaries, but seriously, I couldn't link to them all in the diary character limit!), it is time to push harder on the idea that McCain is a richie rich guy who is out of touch.
One thing is to start pushing Cindy McCain's refusal to release her taxes again. With the McCain camp attacking Obama over making $4 million last year, it's time to find out how much the McCain family actually earns every year. It's a winner because if she refuses they have something to hide, and if she releases them we get a lot of info we didn't have before.
Another question to ask is how many servants McCain has. Does he have butlers, drivers, gardeners, maids, etc. How much does he spend every year on servants to wait in empty houses in case he arrives? Every Democratic talking head should be pushing this question to get it in folks' minds.
Picked this up off Drudge Report/Politico/The Crypt:
In an unusual move, Hillary Clinton's staff is creating a 40-member "whip team" at the Denver Democratic convention to ensure that her supporters don't engage in embarrassing anti-Obama demonstrations during the floor vote on her nomination, according to people familiar with the planning.
The team, which is being organized by longtime Clinton staffer Craig Smith, is working in conjunction with Obama's floor organizers to help foster the image of a unified front during a roll-call process Clinton herself has described as an emotional "catharsis" for her disappointed supporters.
"If people get down there on the floor and want to start blowing kazoos and making a scene we want to make sure we've got people who stand in front of them with Obama signs," said a person involved in the planning.
Like many in the blogosphere, I too occasionally worry about Obama's strategy. However, I've spent the last few weeks reminding myself of how it has played out in the long term, and I think the strategy has been clear, consistent, and effective.
It's all about Washington, not Obama. Obama is the finger that the people use to poke Washington in the eye. Clinton was in many ways the ultimate manifestation of Washington, in the ways she was connected, and who her most vehement supporters were. So Obama didn't need to attack, he just needed to continue defining the debate in terms of "change". As long as that was the framing, he was pretty sure to win. The same applies to November. More elaboration in the body.
