John McCain & Press Access

in , ,

Article courtesy of DailyKOS.

There's just 84 days until the election, but more and more, John McCain's campaign is doing everything they can to shield their candidate from the press. Apparently fed up with foreign policy blunder, after blunder, after blunder, and mixed messages on exactly who speaks for John McCain, along with his habit of being known:

...to sign off on big campaign decisions and then to march off his own reservation.

...the McCain campaign decided to clamp down. After all, they don't want McCain ruining another great GOP tire gauge give-away. So they cut off access to the traveling press, and now are trying:
...to cut down on Mr. McCain’s use of his cellphone and limit the people who have regular access to Mr. McCain in an effort to keep him more focused, advisers said.

Yes, this wannabe leader of the free world is on friend and phone restriction so he doesn't get distracted. But you can't really blame the campaign when McCain continues to serve up gems like this:
I think the thing that helps me, I probably -- I don't know if you like this much detail -- if I can sleep in to about 7:30 or 8, then it really helps me. When I get up real early, like 5:30 or 6, then, you know, you don't go to bed until 10, 10:30 or 11 -- it seems to help me to get up a little later in the morning. [...]

I just get a little more tired. Never cranky, or testy. I just think I do better. I kinda can tell, and I think [my staff] can tell you, if I put in three or four 18-hour, 20-hour days in a row, then I'm not sharp. It's just a fact. I can be sharp if I get a little more rest.


Yes, there's an image you want to project...a president who won't be too sharp when that 3:00 a.m. call comes, and won't be up to speed without a solid eight hours.

So, it looks like the McCain campaign's strategy for the duration is going to be to try and keep screw-ups to a minimum and the press at a distance. Which is quite a change from the vow McCain made about press access in the days after he was implicated in the Keating Five scandal:

I would henceforth accept every single request for an interview from any source, prominent or obscure, and answer every question as completely and straightforwardly as I could...It is a public relations strategy that I have followed to this day, and while it has gotten me in trouble from time to time, it has on the whole served both my interest and that of the public well. [Worth Fighting For - page 192]

Apparently John McCain has decided that public interest is going to have to take a back seat to self interest.

McCain Calls For Investigation Of “Train Wreck” He And His Lobbyist Campaign Manager Created In Ohio

in , , ,

As Jane mentioned yesterday, back in 2003, McSame helped DHL screw the people of Ohio out of thousands of jobs. Now that's he facing the political backlash campaigning in Ohio, he's shocked, shocked -- and wants to get to the bottom of it.


Sen. John McCain promised Thursday to call for a congressional hearing and Justice Department review into the potential loss of some 8,000 jobs in this Ohio town as his presidential campaign once again faced uncomfortable questions about its ties to Washington lobbyists.


Why have a hearing? He can just ask his buddy Rick, who got rich in the deal, what went down. In the meantime, McSame heard plenty from this angry Ohioan.

Finally given a chance to address Sen. John McCain, Mary Houghtaling choked up Thursday and began to cry.

Wiping away her tears, she told the presumptive Republican presidential nominee how a controversial corporate deal he backed in 2003 as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee -- the sale of Airborne Express cargo service to a German conglomerate that owns DHL and the subsequent expansion of the air freight hub here -- had gone horribly wrong.

"Never before have so many people been abandoned at once," said Houghtaling, who runs a local hospice. "It is inconceivable to think about losing 10,000 jobs in the first wave, and the estimates run in the 30,000 range as the wave continues."


McSame's McLame response?

"I can't assure you that this train wreck isn't going to happen, but I will do everything in my power to avert it," McCain told two dozen elected officials and community leaders during a 45-minute meeting on the campus of Wilmington College.


I'm sure he'll get right on that.

Wall Street Journal Backtracking From Sketchy 'Beanpole' Obama Story

in , , ,

Wall Street Journal Beanpole Article

Remember that story in the Wall Street Journal last week about how maybe elite Barack Obama was too skinny for lardy everyday Americans? Sure you do, it was a total water cooler piece and we all ate it up like the obese news gluttons that we are. It had great details, like how the Democratic presidential candidate drinks Black Forest Berry Honest Tea, and great quotes, like that one Clinton supporter who said "I won't vote for any beanpole guy," LOL. Well, it turns out that "beanpole quote" came from a sort-of jokey anonymous reply to a message board topic the Journal reporter herself created, and was the only remotely quotable line in that thread. And the Berry Honest Tea detail originated in a memo put out by Obama rival John McCain's campaign manager. Whoops! Today's it correction time:

A Weekend Journal article Friday about Barack Obama's weight included a quote from a Yahoo bulletin board that was posted in response to a question from a Wall Street Journal reporter who initiated the discussion. The article should have disclosed that the reporter used the bulletin board to elicit the comment, "I won't vote for any beanpole guy."

Ha ha, the article should probably also disclosed that the quote came from an account ("onlinebeerbellygirl") only used once — to post that message — and read in full as follows:
Yes I think He is to skinny to be President.Hillary has a potbelly and chuckybutt I'd of Voted for Her.I won't vote for any beanpole guy.

Fan of Hillary's "chuckybutt" suddenly won over to McCain by his jowls? Sounds like a serious, reputable source!

Also probably worth putting in a correction? Why the reporter, Amy Chozik, appears to have deleted the original discussion thread.

Fearless, honest journalism in the service of an important story — you just knew Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal would turn out this way, didn't you?

Sometime between August 5th-25th Barack Obama is going to select Evan Bayh to be his running mate

in , ,

It's late - I'm about to head to bed. I just wanted to put this out there before I do. I am beginning to see mounting evidence that Barack Obama is going to select Indiana Senator Evan Bayh to be his running mate. I think the Obama campaign made the decision last week, or the week before. I also think there is a strong possibility that he could make the announcement tomorrow, August 5th. Why?


  1. The Olympics start on Friday and run until the Democratic convention starts. He won't want to compete with the Olympics for press coverage. He'll announce before the Olympics starts. If he announces on Wednesday morning, he'll get coverage all day and be on the news cycle until the Opening Ceremonies knock him off the top spot.

  2. Barack Obama is coming to the state on Tuesday afternoon for a campaign stop in Elkhart, Indiana. He'll be attending with Evan Bayh. The press has been told to plan on staying until Wednesday afternoon/evening. Why would he spend so much time in Indiana with nothing on his public calendar?

  3. Staying around Indiana allows Obama and Bayh to travel to Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio - all important states in this election. When you've just announced your VP, those are states you'll want to visit - especially since Bayh's reputation will help the most in those states.

  4. The website ObamaBayh08.com is taken. For a tiny sliver of time late last week, you could type in the URL and you'd be forwarded to another site. Where do you think it took you? The Democratic Party website.


Also - there is this trivial bit of info:

Bayh Partisans cancel softball game


Sen. Evan Bayh’s staff softball team, The Bayh Partisans, has cancelled the game it had scheduled for tomorrow evening with the drug policy team The One Hitters. Bayh staffer Jonathan Stahler sent One Hitter team captain Kris Krane an e-mail Monday morning citing “[t]oo many people out of town” as the reason for the cancellation.

Rational minds may note that it is early August, a time when congressional staffers often head of town. Other minds, however, might ponder the fact that Bayh, a top veep prospect, is scheduled to introduce Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) at a rally in Bayh’s home state of Indiana Wednesday.

Krane, executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, asked Stahler if the cancellation had anything to do with “an important announcement of national significance on Wednesday? ;-)”

He got no response, so The Crypt called Bayh’s office. “Our softball team is a juggernaut, so I can’t see why we cancelled a game,” said spokesman Eric Kleiman, who added that the Bayh Partisans are “the toast of the league.”

Kleiman, however, dismissed the suggestion that the cancellation had anything to do with any upcoming announcements. “Oh, my goodness, no,” he said.

Obama hits McCain HARD on Big Oil Contributions

in , ,

Best ad of the campaign, ladies and gents.


“Every time you fill your tank, the oil companies fill their pockets. Now Big Oil’s filling John McCain’s campaign with 2 million dollars in contributions. Because instead of taxing their windfall profits to help drivers, McCain wants to give them another 4 billion in tax breaks. After one president in the pocket of big oil, we can’t afford another.”


Brilliant. This spot not only holds Bush's energy policies directly responsible for record gas prices, it ties McSame to those policies. And the proposal to give each taxpayer $1,000 right out of the pockets of Big Oil is a stroke of genius, forcing McSame to take ExxonMobil's side (which he's already doing) over Joe Taxpayer's.

Democrats have not sufficiently hammered Bush/Cheney on gas prices. President Harken and Vice President Halliburton let Big Oil write our energy policies -- no one should be surprised about the fix we're in. Add that collusion to their brilliant foreign policy of antagonizing oil-rich countries like Venezuela and Russia, coddling the Saudis and launching disastrous wars in the Middle East, and it's difficult to imagine who could've done better for Texaco and Shell.

I hope the Obama camp keeps this up. Take the fight right to them. Put them on defense.

Obama's speech on energy policy, which he delivered in Michigan today, is here. More sticking it to McSame and Bush. Beautiful.