Alex Witt: "Who won?"

By GottaLaff

I watch Alex Witt and "her boys" every Saturday morning before the dreaded Lockup marathon starts. I'm not sure why I continue to get sucked in to what passes for political discussion between Peter Fenn and ::shudder:: Pat Buchanan.

Why MSNBC continues to allow Buchanan to take up air space is beyond me. But I've posted about that before. A lot.

The point is, if I ever get to it, Alex Witt jumped right in with the following question about President Obama's exchange with the House GOP yesterday:

"Who won?"

That was the first thing she asked. Bang. Because to her, that's apparently what mattered.

This isn't a horse race. It isn't the Super Bowl. Or even a spelling bee. Or a pie eating contest, lottery, American Idol, Yahtzee, or Beer Pong.

No, this was an effort by President Obama to approach his political opponents, to communicate and confront, challenge and respond.

The ultimate goal shouldn't merely be a quantified and trivialized win or a loss for either side. But that is what the so-called news has been reduced to in a 24 hour cycle.

President Obama said it himself at his Elyria, Ohio town hall meeting:

And I understand why, after the Massachusetts election, people in Washington were all in a tizzy, trying to figure out what this means for health reform, Republicans and Democrats; what does it mean for Obama? Is he weakened? Is he -- oh, how's he going to survive this? (Laughter.) That's what they do. (Laughter.)

But I want you -- I want you to understand, this is not about me. (Applause.) This is not about me. This is about you. This is not about me; this is about you.

It's not always about cosmetics. It's not always about superficialities and one-upping. It's about cutting through the name-calling and yelling and lies. It's about priorities. It's about fixing America.

Alex Witt, please take note.

Dep't. of Bad Timing: Obama Advisers Think Coakley Will Lose

By GottaLaff

UPDATE #2 from Kos diarist:

Update: I am removing the word lie from the title because now that I have an actual transcript of what he said this morning vs. the twitter updates he is really walking-back an exaggeration not a lie.

Here is the transcript:

HENRY: In terms of that fear, I was told very reliably that a couple of the president's top advisers have told senior Democrats they think Coakley's going to lose.

Now, there may be some hyperbole in that. It may be about scaring the base, you know, turnout, if she's going down. But the way I'm hearing it is that there is real genuine fear inside the White House that she is going to lose. That's going to have dramatic implications, not just on health care but beyond.

In my opinion, the 2nd bolded section makes it sound like he heard those rumors directly, but the 1st bolded section is more along the lines of the twitter clarification.

So, I am apologizing to Ed for accusing him of lying. I think he is peddling unreliable rumors to help the GOP, but I have no proof he is lying.

And I apologize to the community for not being more accurate in my original diary. I am very embarrassed.

Please go here for more.

UPDATE (H/t: SeattleDan):

Ed Henryis now "clarifying" his lies on twitter:

@BLESSEDROSS to be clear, obama advisers themselves did NOT tell me Coakley will lose. CNN is reporting the obama advisers told other Dems

Ed is getting hammered for reporting unsourced rumors.

UPDATE: A fellow tweeter said this was misinformation given out by CNN's Ed Henry. Anyone have more?

The post below could help to explain this:

White House looks at bypassing another Senate health care vote if Democrats lose Massachusetts seat.

Just as President Obama gives a rousing speech, and just as there are rumbles of Brown's momentum leveling off, and just as there is an uptick in Coakley support, we get this:

Multiple advisers to President Obama "have privately told party officials that they believe" Martha Coakley (D) is going to lose Tuesday's special election to fill the Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat, several sources told CNN.

"The sources added that the advisers are still hopeful that Obama's visit to Massachusetts on Sunday -- coupled with a late push by Democratic activists -- could help Coakley pull out a narrow victory in an increasingly tight race against Scott Brown (R). However, the presidential advisers have grown increasingly pessimistic in the last three days about Coakley's chances after a series of missteps by the candidate, sources said."

And they let that leak out? Not exactly helpful to their candidate.

Dep't. of Bad Advice -Memo to Deeds: To win, be wary of Obama, Kaine

By GottaLaff

Memo to Creigh Deeds: Stop reading misguided pollster's memos...

In early summer, pollster David Petts showed Virginia gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds (D) how he could the win the general election.

The advice in the memo obtained by Politico: "Go negative on the Republican nominee, capitalize on his natural advantage with independents, and be wary of two fellow Democrats -- incumbent Gov. Tim Kaine and President Barack Obama."

Great advice! Wow! Who could ever imagine that Deeds would lose by moving to the right and disassociating himself from a popular president?

Poll-itics: Two Potential Challengers Would Beat Reid

By GottaLaff

Harry Totter may not have a sequel:

"It's the highest stakes ever for a Nevada election, and former boxer Sen. Harry Reid is on the ropes early. Either Republican Danny Tarkanian or Sue Lowden would knock out Reid in a general election," according to a new Mason-Dixon poll of Nevada voters.

"The results suggest the Democratic Senate majority leader will have to punch hard and often in order to retain his position as the most accomplished politician in state history, in terms of job status."

Nevadans favored Tarkanian over Reid, 49% to 38%, and Lowden over Reid, 45% to 40%.

Former Aides Keep Boosting Bush

If you have to "background" reporters on GWB's record, they're not reporters.

Even though former President Bush "is keeping quiet in Texas before heading out on a lucrative speaking tour," Politico reports that "an informal network of former aides is keeping his views in the political bloodstream, defending his legacy in TV appearances and backgrounding reporters about his record."

Palin left out of RGA leadership

By GottaLaff

Awwww:

Today, the RGA made that sentiment official, by not voting her in to any of the organization’s leadership positions:

The Republican Governors Association announced its new leadership lineup today after their annual meeting concluded Thursday in Miami.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was voted RGA chairman, taking over the top job from Texas Gov. Rick Perry who will now serve as finance chairman. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is vice-chairman, while Florida Gov. Charlie Crist will serve as chair for the annual RGA gala, and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue will head up the recruitment effort.

Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle, Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will also sit on the RGA’s executive committee. […]

Not on the list? Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who also attended the Miami meeting.

Poor Pitiful Palin wore out her welcome.

Delusional

Nancy Pfotenlips is on MSNBC now and just said, "We contacted over 5 million voters over the weekend and the campaign offices are overflowing, people having to sit outside to do phonebanking." (paraphrased)

Important word- "weekend". Obama's been doing it for over a year.

Gramm-pa McCain Running on Empty: The Photos

By GottaLaff

Apologies up front for the amount of space this will take up, but it's so worth it...

Volunteerless in New Mexico.. and Iowa.. and Ohio... and Virginia... and:

As the only reporter during this election who has actually visited upwards of 50 of John McCain's field offices around the country (13 battleground states and counting), this piece by Matthew Mosk at the Washington Post comes as no surprise:

The decision to finance a final advertising push is forcing McCain to curtail spending on Election Day ground forces to help usher his supporters to the polls, according to Republican consultants familiar with McCain's strategy. [...]

[O]ne top Republican strategist who has been privy to McCain's plans: "The folks who will oversee the volunteer operation have been told to get out into the field on their own nickel." [...]

John McCain's ground campaign is just not happening. It hasn't been happening, without Sarah Palin there might be four or five volunteers across the entire nation left, and now, per Mosk's piece at WaPo, it looks like it will be happening even less.

One dialer, Santa Fe:

One dialer, Albuquerque:

Staged, Española:

Closed, Durango:

Posed, Cortez:

Closed, Grand Junction:

Des Moines, empty of volunteers:

Troy, Ohio, locked:

Columbus HQ, one dialer:

Toledo, two volunteers and one security guard:

Sterling, VA, closing at 5, one dialer:

Empty, Fredericksburg, VA:

Richmond, VA, one dialer:

Raleigh, NC HQ, two dialers:

Wilmington, NC, closing at 5 and yawny, empty:

Thank you Sean, for the amazing report. There's much, much more here.

H/t: Eve

Gramm-pa McCain Buses in 4,000 Kids for Ohio Rally

By GottaLaff

Class if you don't go to that rally, you will be counted as truant! Now get! On! That! Bus!

Consider it a field trip:

[A]lmost the entire crowd of 6,000 was forced to be there.

From NBC’s Adam Aigner:

A local school district official confirmed after the event that of the 6,000 people estimated by the fire marshal to be in attendance this morning, more than 4,000 were bused in from schools in the area. The entire 2,500-student Defiance School District was in attendance, the official said, in addition to at least three other schools from neighboring districts, one of which sent 14 buses.

There’s really no better way to create the illusion of enthusiasm for a candidate than by enlisting the support of children who presumably face punishment for skipping school if they don’t attend.

I wonder if there will be a pop quiz about what Gramm-pa said? I'm betting half of those kids dozed off.

Quote-O'-The-Moment: Gramm-pa McCain's goose is cooked edition

By GottaLaff

Via Taegan:

The Economist: "If Mr McCain can capture Pennsylvania's 21 electoral votes, he can offset Barack Obama's gains in Republican strongholds in the Mountain West; if he loses Pennsylvania, his goose is probably cooked."

Honk.

Quote-O'-The-Moment: Gramm-pa McCain is taking the whole party down edition

By GottaLaff

Oof! Right to the gut:

Former Bush speechwriter David Frum: "There are many ways to lose a presidential election. John McCain is losing in a way that threatens to take the entire Republican Party down with him... I could pile up the poll numbers here, but frankly... it's too depressing. You have to go back to the Watergate era to see numbers quite so horrible for the GOP."

November 5th won't be easy for Grammps.

McCain shifts ads to Miami, Indiana

Hahahaha... snort....hahahahaha!

A Democrat keeping an eye on John McCain's media buying says the Republican is putting money into two red state markets: the state of Indiana and the expensive, but crucial, Miami media market.

That would be the first time he's advertised in either of those markets, though the RNC had aired ads in Indiana. Miami, in particular, is the sort of money pit that a campaign would love to avoid, if it can. Ad tracker Evan Tracey pointed out to me earlier today that the money gap is showing up in part in Obama's dominance of the huge markets: He's up in Chicago because Chicago TV reaches a fraction of Indiana residents; he's up in Boston for New Hampshire; and he's up in Washington D.C. for Virginia, three markets McCain's not in.

Unintentional comedy video of the year: BushCo snubs IWRC* Palin re: Iraq troop deal meeting

By GottaLaff



Priceless:

This week, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Barack Obama (D-IL), and Joe Biden (D-DE) all were contacted by Defense Secretary Robert Gates or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice regarding the Iraq security agreement.

In today’s White House press briefing, spokesman Dana Perino explained that the adminstration contacted the candidates “to keep them equitably informed.” “One of them is going to win the election, and they will be taking over and having to deal with these issues,” Perino explained. But nobody called Gov. Sarah Palin. In today’s State Department briefing, reporters got a chuckle out of Palin being left out.

Transcript:

Q: You called Senator Biden, you called McCain. Did you also call Governor Palin?

McCORMACK: No. If you hadn’t noticed, she’s a governor. Not a senator or a congressman.

Q: She’s a vice presidential candidate.

McCORMACK: Right.

Q: She also has extensive foreign affairs experience. (LAUGHTER)

McCORMACK: Right. I explained to you the reasoning behind the phone call.

Q: Maybe if this has to do with Russia, you would have called her.

Poor wittle IWRC* Palin! She's tired of Joe and depressed by the news

By GottaLaff

Get your hankies out for poor, pitiful wittle IWRC*. She needs a shoulder! She not happy! Her minders don't want her watching the news, and apparently god is controlling the polls. Anyone got a lollipop to shove up in her face mouth?

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin told supporters at a North Carolina fundraiser that her aides discouraged her from watching campaign news because they thought she would get “depressed.”

“At those times on the campaign trail when sometimes it’s easy to get a little bit discouraged, when you know, when you happen to turn on the news when your campaign staffers will let you turn on the news,” she said Thursday night, to laughter from the crowd. “Usually they’re like ‘Oh my gosh, don’t watch, you’re going to, you know, you’re going to get depressed.’

“But yeah, sometimes you do get depressed watching what it is that they’re reporting and the spin and some of the distortion of what our message is and what we stand for, sometimes that, that gets draining,” she added. “But it’s at events like these and our rallies that we are so energized and inspired and we know that we are not alone. We feel your strength and we feel the power of prayer, so many of you tell us that you are praying for us and praying for our country, and that’s why we so appreciate you being here.”

The view isn’t all glum from the trail. “We even saw today, thank the Lord, we saw some movement,” looking upwards and making a fist. Another bright note for her, she said later, was visiting “pro-America” areas of the country.

There are so many things wrong with what she said on so many levels. I don't even know where to begin: With the "anti-Americans" for Obama? With the parts of the country that her own special god condemns? With the distortions that should be attributed to her instead of the evil press?

After 24 hours dominated by the campaign’s latest unwitting celebrity, the Alaska governor conceded she was getting a little tired of talking about Joe “The Plumber” Wurzelbach. “And I, I begged our speech writers, ‘Don’t make me say Joe the Plumber, please, in any speeches.’ And I was asked ‘Just one time, just at this fund raiser.’”

I bet they waterboarded her into indulging them "just one more time". I can't fathom how painful it must be for her to talk about Joe the Bummer, because, you know, lying and distorting are such a rarity in her speeches.

The McCain camp has encountered some playlist difficulties this year: Heart, John Mellencamp, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Jackson Browne, and the Foo Fighters have all asked that the campaign stop using their songs on the trail. On Thursday, Palin expressed satisfaction with the latest musical selection.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had intro music by AC/DC before. That was kinda cool,” she said. “In fact, we were on the bus today, we were making a list of who are some celebrity singers who could come out and help us and gosh, for the life of us, the pickings were slim there. Who’s quasi-conservative out there in the celebrity land?”

Gosh! Using songs without permission is wrong! Who'd a thunk it!?

This is beyond pathetic. This is laughable. But it will be a whole lot funnier once Obama wins.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

RedState Co-Founder Can't Bring Himself To Vote for Gramm-pa McCain

By GottaLaff

This has got hardy-har-har written all over it:

RedState co-founder Joshua Trevino writes on his blog that he can't bring himself to vote for the Republican ticket:

In the end, I couldn't do it. My California ballot arrived in the mail today, and I opened it fully intending to vote for John McCain. I filled out the state propositions first -- yes on 8, no on everything proposing a new bond or new spending -- then the local offices, straight Republican excepting Kevin Johnson for (nonpartisan) Sacramento mayor. Finally, the vote for President of the United States: an academic exercise in California, where Barack Obama will surely win by a crushing margin. But good citizenship demands voting as if it matters. Do I believe in John McCain? Not as much as I used to. Do I believe in Sarah Palin? Despite my early enthusiasm for her, now not at all. Do I believe in the national Republican Party? Not in the slightest -- even though I see no meaningful alternative to it. So, my choice for President in 2008, scrawled in my ballot as an act of futile protest, is Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. If nothing else, I am confident this is the first of several votes I will cast for him in years to come.

His vote won't matter here in California where Obama will win, as he pointed out, but it's dee-lish anyway.

Everybody hates Gramm-pa

By GottaLaff

We all love presents. Paddy and I have one for you:

Rich Lowry has an observation that matches the mood of the handful of Mississippians I've talked to about McCain's move:

One side effect of McCain's debate gambit is, I'm told, that everyone at Ole Miss now hates him. It will make for a very hostile audience tonight among those students and faculty attending. He might have to apologize for creating the uncertainty or make some explanation up front, which is never ideal.

Razzle-dazzling himself off a cliff.

Former Gramm-pa McCain advisor: "He blinked and Obama did not."

By GottaLaff

The rats are leaving a sinking ship:

After days of saying that John McCain would not attend Friday's presidential debate unless an agreement on a bailout package for the markets was "locked-down," the McCain campaign has gone back on its word. [...]

The whole episode left even conservatives admitting that the McCain campaign looked erratic and a bit foolish with no apparent direction or guiding principle.

"It just proves his campaign is governed by tactics and not ideology," said Republican consultant Craig Shirley, who advised McCain earlier in this cycle. "In the end, he blinked and Obama did not. The 'steady hand in a storm' argument looks now to more favor Obama, not McCain."

Shirley added, "My guess is that plasma units are rushing to the McCain campaign as we speak to replace the blood flowing there from the fights among the staff."

Glub, glub.

Rachel Maddow VIDEO: Gramm-pa McCain's very bad week

By GottaLaff


And what a week 'twas!

Wall Street Journal: Gramm-pa McCain "unpresidential"

By GottaLaff

Here is what the Wall Street Journal, not exactly a liberal paper, says about Gramm-pa's grasp of the economy, based on his own remarks:

Wow. "Betrayed the public's trust." Was Mr. Cox dishonest? No. He merely changed some minor rules, and didn't change others, on short-selling. String him up! Mr. McCain clearly wants to distance himself from the Bush Administration. But this assault on Mr. Cox is both false and deeply unfair. It's also un-Presidential.

The Wall Street Journal just labeled Gramm-pa a liar.

The SEC further tightened its rules against naked shorting just hours before Mr. McCain excoriated Mr. Cox for doing nothing. [...]

While he was at it, Mr. McCain added the wholly unsupported assertion that "speculators pounded the shares of even good companies into the ground." It wasn't very long ago that he blamed speculators on the long side for sky-high oil prices. Then oil prices fell. Now Mr. McCain wants voters to believe speculators are responsible for driving mismanaged financial companies to ruin. The irony is that this critique puts Mr. McCain in the same camp as some of the Wall Street CEOs who have led their firms so poorly. They also want someone (else) to blame.

In case Mr. McCain is interested, overall short interest in financial companies actually declined by 20% between July and the end of August. That's right: Far from driving this crisis, shorts were net buyers of financial stocks this summer, as they must buy stocks back to close their positions and realize their gains (or losses).

In a crisis, voters want steady, calm leadership, not easy, misleading answers that will do nothing to help. Mr. McCain is sounding like a candidate searching for a political foil rather than a genuine solution. He'll never beat Mr. Obama by running as an angry populist like Al Gore, circa 2000.

Heckuva job, Gramm-py.

Sarah Louise Palin cancels big California trip

By GottaLaff

I speak for my state of California (as opposed to my usual state of insanity) when I say S Lou's time here would have been wasted. I see McPalin agrees. Even Republican Orange County can't help them:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who was to star at two major California fundraisers and an Orange County rally for 15,000 next week, has canceled her two-day swing through the Golden State, campaign sources said.

The change is a shocker, because Palin's presence had electrified the GOP base in California. Party insiders were distributing 15,000 tickets to her Sept. 26 rally in Orange County -- and fundraisers reported an almost instantaneous sell-out of her two $1,000-a-head Sept. 25 fundraising events in Orange County and Santa Clara. [...]

The change comes in the same week a new Field Poll showed that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama still leads Republican presidential candidate John McCain in California by a whopping 16-point margin.

So Palin's pullout from her Western state swing is sure to ramp up chatter that the GOP ticket -- which has insisted it will compete here -- may be reassessing its Golden State presence. (Team McCain says it's just a scheduling issue.)

They really need to stop coming up with such inferior excuses to cover their crescendoing embarrassments.

The Field poll had some troubling news for McCain-Palin here: The Alaska Gov's addition to the ticket, while strengthening the GOP base, hasn't advanced the ball for the Republican team among the 1 in 5 California voters who are independent or decline to state.

Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo noted this week that those independents and middle-of-the-roaders are the same critical voters who elected Arnold Schwarzenegger here -- and weigh heavily in the election nationwide. A New York Times poll released today, which shows Obama ahead by 5 points, appears to reflect the same trend.

Just to show how generous we Californians can be, we'll consider sending her an orange as a parting gift.