Video- Hannity: Obama "never got asked tough questions about his radical friends and associates, except by me and others"

Nope, just 24/7 for a couple months of Ayers, Wright etc.

Quote-O'-The Day: Jeremiah Wright is so wrong edition

By GottaLaff

Um.... no. Nonono:

"Them Jews aren't going to let him talk to me. I told my baby daughter, that he'll talk to me in five years when he's a lame duck, or in eight years when he's out of office."

-- The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in an interview with the Hampton Roads Daily Press, when asked if he had spoken to President Obama.

I may not be president, but this Jew wouldn't talk to you if you paid her.

RNC ad raises Wright, Acorn to attack 'arrogant' Obama

You've got to give them credit, they'd rather die than put forward any new ideas. Do they not have polls in Republican world, or do they only see the ones they want to? It would be comical if it weren't so depressing. Maybe if they wish hard enough, Hillary can still win? Via Ben.

VIDEO: One of McCain's Unaired Reverend Wright/Obama Attack Ads

By GottaLaff

Think back to my post of November 25th in which the McCain campaign claimed to show some restraint by not airing certain attack ads. They didn't want to, you know, go there.

Well, here's one of those ads:

Now ABC has gotten hold of this ad, which went through the final editing and production process before being nixed. A former campaign staffer gave the spot to the network.

Pity. They spent all that time and money on this piece of drek and nobody saw it... until now.

Rogue Barbie wouldn't go on stage with GOP Senator Sununu

By GottaLaff

Forget reaching across the aisle, Wardrobe Barbie won't even reach across the stage:

Another reporter asked if he [Steve Schmidt] was happy with "the pick of Palin." He ducked the question. Schmidt was trying, not very hard, to hide his true feelings. He had been compelled to personally take over Palin's debate prep when she seemed unwilling to engage in the drudge work of learning the issues. McCain's advisers had been frustrated when Palin refused to talk to donors because she found it corrupting, and they were furious when they heard rumors that Todd Palin was calling around to Alaska bigwigs telling them to hold their powder until 2012. The day of the third debate, Palin refused to go onstage with New Hampshire GOP Sen. John Sununu and Jeb Bradley, a New Hampshire congressman running for the Senate, because they were pro-choice and because Bradley opposed drilling in Alaska. The McCain campaign ordered her onstage at the next campaign stop, but she refused to acknowledge the two Republican candidates standing behind her. McCain himself rarely spoke to Palin (perhaps once a week when they were not traveling together, estimated one adviser). Aides kept him in the dark about Palin's spending on clothes because they were sure he'd be offended. In his concession speech, McCain praised Palin, but the body language between them onstage was not particularly friendly. (Palin had asked to speak; Schmidt vetoed the request.)

I'm loving this next one:

The ad attacking Obama's former pastor was slick, with much better production values than the crude Reverend Wright videos running on the Internet. But it was too little, too late. When a NEWSWEEK reporter e-mailed a top Obama adviser for reaction, a reply came back reading simply: ZZZZZ.

Gramm-pa McCain has the worst judgment imaginable. The right candidate won.

Understatement.

UPDATE: The denials begin.

Newsweek goes behind the scenes: McCain In The Dark, Obama Threats, And More

By GottaLaff

Paddy covered Palin's little shopping spree, but here's a recap of what Newsweek will be reporting on in a Special Election Project, which allowed reporters to gather behind-the-scenes information on the presidential campaigns with an agreement that none of their reporting would be published until after Election Day:

-- McCain himself rarely spoke to Palin during the campaign and aides kept him in the dark about the details of her spending on clothes because they were sure he would be offended. Palin asked to speak along with McCain at his Arizona concession speech but campaign strategist Steve Schmidt vetoed the request.

-- The Obama campaign was provided with reports from the Secret Service showing a sharp and very disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October, at the same time that the crowds at Palin rallies became more frenzied. Michelle Obama was shaken by the vituperative crowds and the hot rhetoric from the GOP candidates. "Why would they try to make people hate us?" Michelle Obama said to a top campaign aide.

-- On the Sunday night before the last debate, McCain's core group of advisers--Steve Schmidt, Rick Davis, adman Fred Davis, strategist Greg Strimple, pollster Bill McInturff and strategy director Sarah Simmons -- met to decide whether or not to tell McCain that the race was effectively over, that he no longer had a chance to win. The consensus in the room was no, not yet, not while he still had "a pulse."

-- The Obama campaign's "New Media" experts created a computer program that would allow a "flusher"--the term for a volunteer who rounds up nonvoters on Election Day--to know exactly who had, and had not, voted in real time. They dubbed it Project Houdini, because of the way names disappear off the list instantly once people are identified as they wait in line at their local polling station.

-- Palin launched her attack on Obama's association with William Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber, before the campaign had finalized a plan to raise the issue. McCain's advisers were working on a strategy that they hoped to unveil the following week, but McCain had not signed off on it, and top adviser Mark Salter was resisting.

-- McCain also was reluctant to use Obama's incendiary pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright as a campaign issue. He had set firm boundaries: no Jeremiah Wright; no attacking Michelle Obama; no attacking Obama for not serving in the military. McCain balked at an ad using images of children that suggested that Obama might not protect them from terrorism; Schmidt vetoed ads suggesting that Obama was soft on crime (no Willie Hortons); and before word even got to McCain, Schmidt and Salter scuttled a "celebrity" ad of Obama dancing with talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres (the sight of a black man dancing with a lesbian was deemed too provocative).

-- Obama was never inclined to choose Sen. Hillary Clinton as his running mate, not so much because she had been his sometime bitter rival on the campaign trail, but because of her husband. Still, as Hillary's name came up in veep discussions, and Obama's advisers gave all the reasons why she should be kept off the ticket, Obama would stop and ask, "Are we sure?" He needed to be convinced one more time that the Clintons would do more harm than good. McCain, on the other hand, was relieved to face Biden as the veep choice, and not Hillary Clinton, whom the McCain camp had truly feared.

-- McCain was dumbfounded when Congressman John Lewis, a civil-rights hero, issued a press release comparing McCain with former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, a segregationist infamous for stirring racial fears. McCain had devoted a chapter to Lewis in one of his books, "Why Courage Matters" and had so admired Lewis that he had once taken his children to meet him.

-- The debates unnerved both candidates. When he was preparing for the Democratic primary debates, Obama was recorded saying, "I don't consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, 'You know, this is a stupid question, but let me ... answer it.' So when Brian Williams is asking me about what's a personal thing that you've done [that's green], and I say, you know, 'Well, I planted a bunch of trees.' And he says, 'I'm talking about personal.' What I'm thinking in my head is, 'Well, the truth is, Brian, we can't solve global warming because I f---ing changed light bulbs in my house. It's because of something collective'."[Laffy Note: Paddy posted this part here]

The Newsweek report also includes news about a cyber attack from an "unknown entity" that hit the presidential campaigns' computers in the summer, prompting an FBI investigation.

You can read a summary of their report here, and the first chapter of their book here.

H/t: SharonAustinTX

Chris Matthews: Gramm-pa McCain "deserves the Nobel Peace Prize"

By GottaLaff

On Hardball just now, Chris Matthews said that Gramm-pa McCain "deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for not bringing up Jeremiah Wright." He lauded Grammps ad nauseam for the way he's handled himself. Yes, I'm serious. And yes, there is now a fork in my right eye.

Earlier he chided an Obama spokesman for saying it's been a tough campaign, using Liddy Dole's "Godless" attacks against Kay Hagan to illustrate what a nasty campaign really is. He said the Obama v. McCain battle was (paraphrasing) like throwing puffballs (or something equally benign and ridiculous).

No, I'm not kidding. I need a fork for the other eye.

VIDEO: Coming to a network near you: Obama/Wright smear campaign

By GottaLaff

Via TPM:


Get ready:

The National Republican Trust PAC, which has been airing an ad attacking Barack Obama's association with Reverend Wright in three battleground states, has now put down for a national buy on five networks that will last from now through election day, a consultant with the group confirms to me. [...]

[T]he group just got through getting the spot vetted with network lawyers and is good to go.

I wouldn't exactly call it "good", but unfortunately, it's going, for the next 4 days.

This is all they have. This is what they do to try to win. These people are vile.

H/t: SharonAustinTX

Bottom of the barrel- "Wright TV"

Um, that was underwhelming. I'm thinking they could have done much better (or worse, depending on your point of view) Via Ben.

The National Republican Trust PAC, which aired one harsh anti-Obama ad that it also used to fundraise on Drudge and elsewhere, says it's putting $2.5 million behind this spot in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida.

The ad is exactly what many conservatives have been hoping would air for months: A Jeremiah Wright highlight reel, with a voice-over describing the pastor's long relationship with Obama.