a desperate mccain resorts to lies about obama

John McCain went negative a few days ago, launching a rapid-fire series of negative attack ads that misrepresented and mocked his presidential adversary, Barack Obama. One of the ads, entitled “Troops,” for instance, claimed that Obama had canceled a trip to a military hospital in Germany because, “the Pentagon wouldn’t allow him to bring cameras.” That, of course, is false. The McCain camp has since been forced to admit the lie, but the damage had already been done in the battleground states where the ad ran. And, as no one seems to be demanding accountability, we can probably expect to see a lot more of the same.

The most recent McCain ad, entitled “Celebrity,” is right out of the 2004 Bush/Rove playbook. During that election, as you’ll recall, they took John Kerry’s greatest strength — his being a decorated Vietnam veteran — and turned it against him. By the time they were through with him, Kerry, who had been wounded in action, looked like more of a cowering wimp than Bush, who used his daddy’s connections to stay stateside, where, according to witnesses, he spent his days getting high and chasing tail in Texas. With Obama, they’re going after his popularity, making it look like something that we should be suspicious of…. Here’s the ad:

[As Josh Marshall points out, McCain, by showing Obama bracketed by oversexed young white women, might also be playing to the inner racist of the white electorate.]

So, they suggest that he’s got the gravitas of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. It’s laughably stupid, but I suspect it’s having the intended effect. Up until now, nothing seems to have stuck. First they tried to present him as a
baby mama-having drug user. Then, when that didn’t work, they tried to present him as an effeminate intellectual, or, as they would say, an elitist “fancy lad”. That didn’t work either, though… And let’s not forget the talk of the ““terrorist fist jab”, or the whisper campaign about him being a a radical Muslim who refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance… So, now they’ve decided to go with, “He’s suspiciously popular.”

Oh, and if you can believe it, the “Celebrity” ad ends with the following lie…
“Barack Obama… Higher Taxes… More Foreign Oil.”

If McCain is already getting this desperate, one wonders where we’ll be by this winter… Will we be hearing the N-word on Fox news?

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13 Comments

  1. Tower Power
    Posted July 31, 2008 at 12:37 am | Permalink

    Note the three shots of massive phallic towers, one just over his shoulder.

    Of the thousands of available shots of Obama, why all the towers, unless it’s to imply his is coming for a pair of slutty blondes.

  2. K
    Posted July 31, 2008 at 8:28 am | Permalink

    You know what is troubling? The accusations of “arrogance.” It’s just this side of “uppity.”

  3. Paw
    Posted July 31, 2008 at 10:31 am | Permalink

    Nothing is a coincidence. It’s not a coincidence that, in the ad, they show him with two young white women known for their sexual promiscuity. It’s also not a coincidence that they show the towers behind him, echoing the 9/11 attacks on America. The message is that Obama is going to fuck our women and aid the Muslim terrorists that want us dead.

  4. Robert
    Posted July 31, 2008 at 12:08 pm | Permalink

    Usually, when a campaign goes negative it’s because their opponent is polling near or above 50%. The idea is that some of that has to be eroded in order for their own candidate to be competative. Obama is up on McCain in popular support nationwide, but I don’t like how the elecoral map is looking.

  5. Robert
    Posted July 31, 2008 at 1:04 pm | Permalink

    The elecToral map isn’t looking that great either. It’s way too competItive.

  6. Brent
    Posted July 31, 2008 at 1:59 pm | Permalink

    Pollster.com seems to indicate a map that isn’t all that competitive, at least from the most recent polls. Obama has 284 electorals (strong and leaning democratic states), while McCain only has 147 (strong and leaning republican states), with about 107 in the toss up category. States like N. Dakota, Montana, Virginia, and even McCain’s home state of Airizona are still in play. But as fun as the polls are to watch there are so many errors in design, that the validity of the results either way are shakey.

    Outside of the October surprise, the Obama camp seems to be steadily gaining ground while the McCain camp seems to be scrambling to find something, anything, negative that will stick before all eyes focus on the Olympics.

  7. Robert
    Posted July 31, 2008 at 3:20 pm | Permalink

    Brent, 284 is not a comfortable position. That was the kind of lead Kerry looked to have in 2004, and Gore looked to have in 2000.

    Of the 10 toss-up states you keep referring to* I’ll give you $10 for every one Obama end’s up capturing on election day if you’ll agree to give me $1 for every one he doesn’t.

    * AZ,CO,FL,IN,MO,MT,NC,ND,NV,VA

  8. BLT
    Posted July 31, 2008 at 3:26 pm | Permalink

    Come quick, there’s a black man acting presidential!

    I’m outraged!

  9. Steph's Dad
    Posted July 31, 2008 at 3:28 pm | Permalink

    I want to watch it frame by frame. I know that Willie Horton is in that ad somewhere.

  10. BLT
    Posted July 31, 2008 at 3:30 pm | Permalink

    On the same subject, check out the Pat Buchannon smackdown.

    http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/7/30/185216/520/751/559634

  11. Micahel L
    Posted July 31, 2008 at 3:50 pm | Permalink

    From David Plouffe:

    Less than 24 hours ago, the McCain campaign launched the latest and lowest in a series of misleading attack ads.

    This Karl Rove-style ploy misleads people about Barack’s energy plan and even mocks his ability to inspire voters and bring Americans back into the political process.

    Watchdogs in the media are calling McCain’s accusations “bogus,” “desperate,” “wrong,” “misleading,” “ugly,” “offensive,” “reckless,” and “a nasty turn into the gutter.”

    Some of McCain’s own supporters agree. One senior Republican strategist quoted by the Washington Post called the latest ad a “wild swing at Obama” that reflects his campaign’s “increasing bitterness” and the lack of “any coherent strategy to elect McCain.”

    Even John Weaver, a strategist who worked for McCain’s presidential campaign in 2000 and on his current campaign last year, called the ad “childish,” adding that this negative strategy “diminishes John McCain” and “needs to stop.”

    But we will not let any attack stand. Barack himself responded quickly and forcefully, and within hours our campaign created a response ad to take their smear tactics head-on.

  12. Meta
    Posted August 4, 2008 at 1:05 pm | Permalink

    In case you missed Bob Herbert’s NY Times column yesterday:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/02/opinion/02herbert.html?hp

  13. Posted August 6, 2008 at 1:44 pm | Permalink

    http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/64ad536a6d

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