Quickie-O'-The'Day: Gramm-pa McCain Campaign Post-Mortem

By GottaLaff

I usually don't do this, but there's too much to post. I did give you a preview of this here.

This is the New York Times Magazine article in full, released today.

Chris Cillizza gives you highlights here.

Coming Sunday: NYT Mag Lifts Curtain On Palin Choice, Angst With Schmidt, Worry In Gramm-pa McCain's Campaign

By GottaLaff

Oh-h-hboyoboyoboy!

The New York Times Magazine is set to publish an explosive story this Sunday on the inner workings and combative personalities of what has been a wild few months for the McCain campaign.

The piece, written by Robert Draper and titled "The Making (and Remaking and Remaking) of the Candidate," breaks some new reportorial ground, including a growing weariness within a campaign that seems more interested in tactical victories and the next compelling narratives than an overarching strategy. [...]

Having interviewed several of the Senator's chief aides, Draper details the process by which McCain ultimately chose his running mate (New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg was surprisingly high on the list). And the decision may have been even more impulsive than initially thought. Gov. Sarah Palin, who had never been on the VP shortlist, was advanced at the last minute by Schmidt and Rick Davis, and was picked after a less-than-hour-long chat in with McCain at his ranch in Arizona.

[...] There are additional, juicy nuggets that he uncovers earlier and along the way. These include the birth of the Obama-as-celebrity attack line -- the campaign felt it was on the wrong track, its pollster described their situation as "third and nine," and Schmidt "blurted out the epiphany concerning Obama. 'Face it, gentlemen,' he said. 'He's being treated like a celebrity.'"

Then there is Schmidt's -- perhaps fatal -- push for McCain to "go all in," leave the campaign trail and head to Washington to work on the financial bailout package.

"Schmidt evidently saw the financial crisis as a 'true character' moment that would advance his candidate's narrative."

[...] His reporting will undoubtedly spur an early start to the campaign postmortems. Even McCain aides waxed skeptically about their bosses chances.

Can't wait!

H/t: Ellen

VIDEO-- David Axelrod to Rick Davis on Fox: "Do you sell access to Senator McCain?"

By GottaLaff

On Fox News Sunday, Obama chief strategist David Axelrod goes on offense against McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis:

Axelrod: "Do you sell access to Senator McCain?"

Davis: "No, I don't."

Axelrod: "Is that how you've made millions of dollars?"

Davis: "Not at all."

Axelrod: "You've never done that? You've never — nobody's ever been told they oughta hire you if they want to get to Senator McCain? I'm asking you a question."

Davis: "Character assassination has become the hallmark of the Obama campaign."

Watch the video. The fun starts at about 7:10.

Oh-h-h, THAT'S why Gramm-pa McCain is smearing Obama

By GottaLaff

Yeah, he must think we're that stupid. It has nothing at all to do with his mental deficit (as opposed to mental recession) and/or inability to stick to a so-called economic plan that lasts longer than 20 minutes. Or maybe he just gets off on trash-talking Obama, because he's grown weary of insulting his own wife:

"I don't know if you really want to turn a campaign into a CNBC news show on the stock market."

-- McCain campaign manager Rick Davis, in a conference call with reporters, on why Sen. John McCain isn't talking much about the financial crisis.

Gramm-pa McCain campaign manager flip flops on smears

By GottaLaff

Via the wonderful BarbinMD:

And as McCain campaign manager Rick Davis once said:

The premise of any smear campaign rests on a central truth of politics: Most of us will vote for a candidate we like and respect, even if we don't agree with him on every issue. But if you can cripple a voter's basic trust in a candidate, you can probably turn his vote. The idea is to find some piece of personal information that is tawdry enough to raise doubts, repelling a candidate's natural supporters. [...]

It's not necessary, however, for a smear to be true to be effective. The most effective smears are based on a kernel of truth and applied in a way that exploits a candidate's political weakness.

Davis wrote that in 2000, decrying George Bush's smear campaign against John McCain during the South Carolina primary, saying that:

Rebutting tawdry attacks focuses public attention on them, and prevents the campaign from talking issues.

Nope. They're not hypocrites. Not at all. They're all about the issues.

Gramm-pa McCain senior advisor Rick Davis Busted

By GottaLaff

Hear that "thud"? That's Gramm-pa hitting the ground in a dead faint. He may get up in time for the wedding, but other than that, he's down for the count:

Newsweek is reporting that Rick Davis took deferred compensation, funneled into his lobbying firm shop, and was racking up huge fees for a related business run out of the same address.

The McCain campaign told reporters the fees were irrelevant because Davis "separated from his consulting firm ... in 2006," according to the campaign's Web site, and he stopped drawing a salary from it. In fact, however, when Davis joined the campaign in January 2007, he asked that his $20,000-a-month salary be paid directly to Davis Manafort, two sources who asked not to be identified discussing internal campaign business told NEWSWEEK. Federal campaign records show the McCain campaign paid Davis Manafort $90,000 through July 2007, when a cash crunch prompted Davis and other top campaign officials to forgo their salaries and work as volunteers. Separately, another entity created and partly owned by Davis—an Internet firm called 3eDC, whose address was the same office building as Davis Manafort's—received payments from the McCain campaign for Web services, collecting $971,860 through March 2008.

In an e-mail to NEWSWEEK, a senior McCain official said that when the campaign began last year, it signed a contract with Davis Manafort "in which we purchased all of [Davis's] time, and he agreed not to work for any other clients." The official also said that though Davis was an "investor" in 3eDC, Davis has received no salary from it. As to why Davis permitted the Freddie Mac payments to continue, the official referred NEWSWEEK to Davis Manafort, which did not respond to repeated phone calls. One senior McCain adviser said the entire flap could have been avoided if the campaign had resisted attacking Barack Obama for his ties to two former Fannie Mae executives, which prompted the media to take a second look at Davis. "It was stupid," the adviser said. "A serious miscalculation and an amateurish move." Still, this adviser said, McCain's faith in his campaign manager remains unswerving.

While Davis left his lobbying firm, the firm continued to take Freddie Mac money. Davis is of course a major shareholder and all these monies are going to end up with him once this campaign is over and he "puts his lobbying hat back on".

What a fine campaign run by that heroic P.O.W. Gramm-pa John Sidney McCain this is. His "unswerving faith" in Davis is as admirable as his unswerving inability to look Obama in the eye.

I'm sure Soon-to-be-Gramm-ma IWRC* Palin's new Gramm-baby will look up to Gramm-pa Sid as a role model, as all children should. Family values abound: Honesty, transparency, adherance to morals, straight talk... oh, we could go on, couldn't we?

But we won't.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

Video- Rick Davis and the "Deference Demand"

Vid of what I posted about here.

Obama hits McCain on DHL issues in Ohio ad

By GottaLaff

Keep hitting, Obama... harder and harder:

The Land of Lincolner’s campaign unveils a radio ad airing in Ohio criticizing his rival’s campaign for their involvement in a DHL buyout deal that could cost the state more than 8,000 jobs.

“It was McCain who used his influence in the Senate to help foreign-owned DHL buy a U.S. company and gain control over the jobs that are now on the chopping block in Ohio.”

Listen to it here.

Obama camp holds 2:30 pm ET media call with manager Plouffe to discuss ad.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports McCain helped lobby for the deal in the Senate, and McCain campaign manager Rick Davis was part of the lobbying firm trying to push it through.

It's about jobs and lobbyists, and when it's about jobs and lobbyists, McCain loses.

McCain's Campaign Manager Has A Meltdown

Dude is crazy. As BBC says, "It's pretty hard for a Republican to lose Andrea Mitchell." Also note how jealous he sounds.