Lunching with Obama

By GottaLaff

Via Taegan, Politico reports on a lunch fest pre-Obama Afghanistan speech:

Among those who attended: Joe Klein of Time, Fareed Zakaria or Newsweek, and Tom Friedman of the New York Times.

One out of three ain't bad. I'd love to meet Fareed.

Now let's sit back and wait for the criticisms from the Blechfast Club.

Joe Klein agrees with my 72-year-old friend: It's powder keg time

By GottaLaff

Please read my pal's Special Comment, and then come back and check this out:

Joe Klein: "Could I just say that the intensity of this is getting pretty scary...and dangerous? We are heading toward a cliff and the usual brakes of civil discourse are not working. Indeed, the Republicans have the pedal to the metal... I'm usually not one to panic or be overly worried about the state of our country -- even when we do awful things like invade Iraq and torture people, we usually right our course before long -- but I have a sinking feeling about where we're headed now."

UPDATE: On The Ed Show just now, they were just covering, and agreeing with, this very premise.

Video Good News: Ten Examples Of Journalistic Integrity

I had missed some of these. Need more. Via Media Matters.

McCain Campaign Won't Let Joe Klein On The Plane

Pouty little twits they are.

Time columnist Joe Klein, who’s been a forceful critic of the McCain campaign (and already said he’s unwilling to accept a post-election apology), has found himself without a seat on the McCain or Palin planes the past four months.

In June, Klein was kept from boarding the McCain plane over what they said had been a security issue. More recently, when trying to fly on the Palin plane last week, Klein told Politico over e-mail that the campaign's response was he “couldn’t be accommodated at this time.”

“I’ve done nine presidential campaigns and this is the first time this has ever happened to me,” Klein said. “I was even allowed—I won’t say welcomed—on the Clinton plane in the summer of 1996 after I was revealed as the author of Primary Colors.”

(snip)

UPDATE: Campaign spokesperson Michael Goldfarb responded that "we don't allow Daily Kos diarists on board either."

Funny, some pretty important politicians have written diaries over at DKos

John Sidney McDesperate gets rebuked

By GottaLaff

When will the Democrats figure out how to out-meme the Republicans? Not soon enough, but this is a start:

The initial rebukes have been strong -- but there needs to be a lot more -- a lot more.

Josh Marshall:

McCain's new ad, which you can see here, is really beyond disgusting. At this point I think it's clear that honor really doesn't mean much to McCain. When things get tough, as it is in this election campaign, there's no limit to what he'll do.

Joe Klein at Time Magazine:

This is the sort of thing you put on the air when:

1. You're desperate.
2. Your Middle East policy has been superseded by events and abandoned by your allies.
3. You apparently have nothing substantive to say about America's future role in the region and the world.

Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE):

BOB SCHIEFFER: Do you think that ad was appropriate?

CHUCK HAGEL: I do not think it was appropriate.

We need more than just "a backlash". We need a tidal wave of our own.

McCain Confronted With New Iran Gaffe, Gets Facts Wrong Again

By Paddy



Tsk, tsk. Those "facts" are slippery things aren't they John?

Yesterday, Time's Joe Klein noted that he could find no evidence that Sen. Barack Obama had ever specifically said he would negotiate with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

(snip)

Later in the day, Klein confronted McCain with this question at a press conference. For a foreign policy "expert," McCain clearly has a pattern of getting the basic facts wrong. McCain insisted that ultimate political authority in Iran rests with Ahmadinejad -- even mocking Klein when he challenged him on it. In fact, according to the CIA's World Factbook, ultimate political authority in Iran rests with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, not the president.

h/t Clancy