And McCain is considered leadership material?

Get used to it.

McCain will play good cop, and the swift-boaters will play bad cop.

Yes, you can expect that McCain will protest just hard enough to look good in the press, and not hard enough to actually stop the attack ads. Kind of like his objections to torture.

McCain is doing the political version of the old Italian mano morta, the ‘dead hand’ — a blatant ass-grab, when, if you’re caught, you look at your hand with haughty distain, as if to say ‘now whose hand is that, and however did it get there?

How dare anyone criticize a War Hero?!

The man was flying in a plane! And it crashed!! And his captors treated him in way he wished they wouldn't.

It takes a special kind of person to be affected by things outside one's control! In a way, we're all heroes for how we catch flu once in a while, or seasonal allergies.

BELOW IS A COPY OF MCCAIN'S EMAIL

-----Original Message-----
From: John McCain [mailto:johnnymac@johnmccain.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 1:51 PM
To: NC-GOP-ALL
Subject: Your Barack Obama Ad

Please do "not" run this "un" helpful ad in NC. ;)

-J.M.

That's funny, I was putting together a list of controversial figures from McCain's present...

Falwell, Hagee, Cheney, George W. Bush...

That's funny, I was putting together a list of controversial figures from McCain's present...

Falwell, Hagee, Cheney, George W. Bush...

You can say that again.

There's definitely a "shocked, I'm shocked" quality to the Republican response. I would be amused, amused if all this weren't so tragic.

Why is Obama so insistent on pursuing the people who attacked us on 9/11, when we should be focusing resources on the terrorists we had right here in this country in the 1960's?

Seriously, what do you want?

He can't make them pull it. He can call (or email) and say, hey guys, this sucks. And he can go on record to the media saying it sucks, so if they decide to be dicks and run it anyway, he looks bad and takes a hit.

I'm pretty happy with this and think we should go ahead and respect decency from the candidate when we see it. Everyone else, what exactly do you want McCain to do? C'mon, Mr. Drum!

I think this is a big deal. He's now on record against Swiftboating. If he dithers the next time and the time after that it will give us a good measure of his command and control capabilities. Which as a Navy pilot and US senator, he should likely have in small amounts.

And thank you, SKR. It's been such a long winter... I was beginning to forget what concern trolling looked like these days.

THE INTERNET IS THE NEW THIRD PARTY AND THE BLOGOSPHERE ITS POLITBUREAU. Find YOUR OWN candidates to run, the Dems and Repubs really have nothing worth showing. Run SOMEONE who will FIGHT for the people, someone who can lead, someone who actually cares about AMERICA. ( its STILL early in the REAL campaign season)

These guys are really pulling out all the stops, aren't they?

Point taken, Kevin. To prove we mean it, we will send spokespeople to every cable news channel to decry this ad - and we will keep at it for days if need be.

It's going to get a lot heavier for Obama than just a reference to "controversial figures from his past." Why "his past"? Heck, Sen. Obama gave $26,000 to Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright's church in 2007 alone. That's not very "past" at all.

So we're not allowed inform the public of Obama's past anymore? It's per se unreasonable now? I guess we need to pass a law that prohibits criticizing Democrats.

Let's get real. Obama only needs to win North Carolina and Indiana in May. The thought of him winning these states in November is silly. (And Clinton wouldn't win there in November, if you're wondering about my loyalties.)

And speaking of loyalties . . .

Notice how it is now impossible to post any criticism of Obama on any liberal web site without getting flamed. I'm seriously concerned about the state of conversation in this country when no dissent is allowed . . . anywhere. Civil discourse is dead.

Seems pretty obvious to me that McCain is trying to do a pre-emptive strike at deflecting future negative ads against himself by appearing to publicly refute negative ads against Obama now. McCain has plenty of "controversial figures" from his own past he'd just as soon leave in the past.

OMG, the sky is falling, Obama gave 26,000 to a Christian church, stop the presses!!! Sound the bells! Beat the pots!! Bang the drums and stomp your feet!!! Money to a Christian Church!! Oh the shameless sinner gave money to a church!!!! Whats next!!!??

Why email and voice mail? To create a tangible record. It's all about plausible denial!

..meanwhile Hagee is planning to help thousands of people to die in the middle east and Israel, many of our troops and many innocent people so Jesus will come down and save him for helping to foment war.

Why does Hagee hate our troops? Does he really think people dying for his prophecy will earn him a spot beyond the pearly gates?

I'm sure he signed it

;) - John

They should poke her with the soft cushions or put her in the comfy chair!!!

Heck, Sen. Obama gave $26,000 to Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright's church in 2007 alone.

This proves that Obama is not really a Christian.

Heck, Sen. Obama gave $26,000 to Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright's church in 2007 alone. That's not very "past" at all.

It's called tithing, dumbass.

Speed wrote: McCain will play good cop, and the swift-boaters will play bad cop.

I think that's right. It's just ambiguous enough so McCain can scrape off some swing voters who need to see him as not racist or not nasty to vote for him.

John McCain...

Don't you just love the droll tone of his voice, the slightly slurred speech, the testy temper?

But as POTUS?

Oh my.

I am afraid that the attack ads will just get worse.

Obama will be crucified for going to a private school in Honolulu (you figure out which one).

He will be cast as UN-american as possible. Simply to get dull voters to respond to trivial facets of his life.

But John? No way can he be anything but our saviour.

Again.... don't you just love: the testy temper? The slightly slurred speech? The tendency to lump all souls that the US has killed in Iraq as Shiunnialkayduslims?

You,Kevin may think McCain is just cynical abut saying he opposed the ads,and your readers are savvy enough to see through the ruse,but your liberal voices on the cable news swallow the story hook,line and sinker.
I'm watching Rahel Maddow,ostensibly a liberal voice on MSNBC,and she thinks McCain comes out ahead because he asked them not to run the ad.She thinks he's taking the high road,leaving unstated the comparison to the vile and evil Clinton.
With liberals like these on TV,buckle down for 4 more years of a Republican.

...4 more years.

Folks, we ain't gonna survive it that happens.

But then again, the demoncrats are rapidly imploding, causing JM to rise in the polls.

DECIDE NOW DEMocrats.

I think the race underscores deep divisions in the democratic "machine." We may WANT to beat the repugnacans...but we actually end up beating ourselves.

McCain really is on a roll.

The real question is will McCain denounce AND reject. Snuffy will be on that I'm sure.

Oh you take the high road
And I'll take the low road
And I'll be in DC
Before you...

"Wow! A voicemail and an email! These guys are really pulling out all the stops, aren't they?"

Aren't they specifically not allowed to do much to stop them under the campaign finance laws lest they run afoul of [cough] McCain-Feingold anti-coordination concepts?

(Note if so this is a great argument against the law, not that a voicemail is really sufficient).

I listened to NPR's coverage of the Pennsylvania results last night.

The NPR "on-air personalities" were diligently regurgitating every single RNC-scripted smear against Obama in the form of "questions" about his "electability".

The purpose of the "swift-boat" groups is to spoon-feed these scripted, focus-group-tested smears to the corporate-owned mass media which then legitimizes them and bullhorns them to the American electorate.

And sorry, Garrison, but NPR is most definitely part of America's corporate-owned mass media.

John Cole from "Balloon Juice" has seen the light, much like Andrew Sullivan, et al. I always felt he had great potential and the wingnutz just pushed him too far.

Here's his take on it:

Step 1: GOP wingnut (is that redundant?) says something offensive, writes a nasty editorial, creates a vicious radio or tv spot.

Step 2: Ad receives widespread coverage and national attention.

Step 3: McCain condemns the ad/editorial/whatever.

Step 4: Chris Matthews and other bobbleheads in the media show off their man-crush for McCain while praising his integrity AND showing the offending ad/editorial on national television.

Step 5: I scream at the television and send another 25 bucks to the Obama campaign.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=10200#comments

Pretty good stuff.

Quoth Dan:

Why email and voice mail? To create a tangible record. It's all about plausible denial!

McCain is 71. He is what Randolph Churchill called Home-Rule era Gladstone -- "an old man in a hurry".

Every day the country he wants to run is less white, less native-born, less straight, less Protestant, less Christian, less religious, than it was the day before.

For him, there is no long run.

For his party, there is no tomorrow.

I expect the dirtiest campaign in modern American history.

Plausibly deniable, of course — but the dirtiest.

FUCK THE DO NOTHING PARTY BLOGS. YOU’VE WASTED ENOUGH OF OUR TIME.

John McCain is 5'7", and loses his temper all the time. We do not need this little, snotty, wannabe, smarmy, two-faced, too-old prick trying to live out his boyhood vengeance fantasies by playing with the fates of everyone in the country.

It's easy to look at Barack and McCain and see the contrast. The first is a man, the second is a boy. McCain tried to cover up his feelings of inadequacy with his reckless stunt of going into the Air Force, taking a place that certainly should have gone to a better man, a cooler head. Ever since, he's been milking his performance to convince everyone he's something worthwhile-- the better part of which consisted entirely of sitting in a little room, tied-up, and getting tortured. That's no action hero-- that's a victim who's trying to take out his bad experiences on the people here at home.

So McCain opposing the running of the ad is not enough? Pretty shallow criticism. Anyone know of any occassion when a democratic presidential candidate took any action to oppose an ad run against a Replubican? My recollection is the democrats would not even criticize the moveon ad effectively accusing General Petraus of treason.

Drum, the only thing you have left to do now is apologize for supporting Obama.

When are you going to be getting around to that? It's not a matter of whether, mind you, but when.

Look, what do these Republican piles of shit have to run on anyway? Failure, failure, failure and more failure. So, the best they can come up with guilt by association. Obama has already apologized for his pastor - who's next? His barber? His plumber? The guy who dry cleans his suits? Fuck these Republican slimeballs and just continue to point out their failed war, their failed trickle-down economics, their failed tax cuts for the rich, their failed education policies, their failed health care "reform" and on and on and on....

Two can play this game - when is McCain going to apologize for associating with Albanian terrorist groups??

um, Swan? McCain was in the Navy. And whatever else he is, or has become, (and I personally would vote for one of my own turds before I would vote for John McCain,) his service was honorable. He had a chance to use his family connections to get out of the Hanoi Hilton and chose not to.

The damn ad is being played 24/7 by Chris Mathews and his friends on Cable News. Mathews is downright gleeful. I don't hear him taking Republicans to task about "their failed war, their failed trickle-down economics, their failed tax cuts for the rich, their failed education policies, their failed health care "reform" and on and on and on....." It wouldn't be nice.

When is the ancient, mildewesque midget, McCainus going to start pimping boner pills?

Can we run that ad one more time, to give people an idea of what kind of character McCain demonstrates in asking for it not to be run on his behalf. I mean, it's devastating to his opponent -- just watch, you'll see what I mean. It's cutthroat. The third time you see it, you start to understand how committed McCain is to changing the tenor of this campaign.

He'll be as emphatic about this as he was about the Swiftboat attacks on Kerry. One brief comment saying how appalled he is.....and then nothing while the slime continues.

Atrios said it best....run a truly awful ad, get an opposing statement from McCain which lets him appear statesmanlike and then have the cable shows run the ad over and over and over for free so it gets lots of free exposure while they debate what it means...

Rinse, lather, repeat.

um, Swan? McCain was in the Navy. And whatever else he is, or has become, (and I personally would vote for one of my own turds before I would vote for John McCain,) his service was honorable. He had a chance to use his family connections to get out of the Hanoi Hilton and chose not to.

Yeah, I can't believe I forgot that he was in the Navy- that's pretty easy for me to remember, because when my dad was young, he wanted to be a Naval Reserve pilot, if I'm recalling correctly.

But with a personality like John McCain's, it's pretty hard to believe that anything he did was honorable. The fact is that people do all sorts of things for all sorts of motivations, and when someboyd does something that somebody could do for an honorable reason, but actually does it for an evil or selfish one, it doesn't at all become an honorable act automatically because someone else could have done the act with the right motivation in mind.

The examples are all over the place. Look at Rudy Giuliani. Running for President takes a lot of heart and a lot of work. But these Republican pricks don't run for President because they care about justice or because they care about people, they run for President for base reasons, like personal ambition and acquisitiveness.

Imagine if we could go back in a time machine to Nazi Germany. I'm sure we would find many examples of pretty vile humanity, who nonetheless ended up doing pretty amazing things in warfare, even sometimes to help their comrades. Does a man who believes all Jews are vermin and should be exterminated, or who sexually harasses or rapes and abuses women, become an honorable men just because he throws himself on a grenade to save his fellow pricks, or because he bravely charges an Allied machine-gun post manned by guys risking their lives, fighting on the right side? I think he's just a misguided idiot committing a further act to further his evil.

The Vietnam war was fucked up. It takes some guts to serve your country, but we shold not have been there in the first place, and really the even better thing to do at that time than serving was staying home, ducking the draft, and protesting. If I had to go back in time and live in that time, I would not fire one shot at a Vietnamese. And surely, John McCain could have served and made every choice he made for all the wrong reasons- for racism, for personal ambition, to prove to people that he was a big deal- that's not honorable, that's at the best small and shallow. I'm tired of hearing people say that this small, fucked up man who we know is out to ruin our country served honorably in that war. Far from it! It's hard to imagine anything John McCain could do honarbly, aside from renouncing his conservative beliefs and stepping out of the way of people who know better how to run our country.

Well, who would have predicted that McCain even knew what email is, let alone how to use it?

Sorry for the typos.

There could be any number of reasons why John McCain didn't use his connections to get out of p.o.w. camp. Maybe he just wasn't thinking straight because of the condition of being held in captivity, or maybe he just didn't think of it when the situation presented itself, or maybe for some reason he thought it wouldn't work. He could have then, after having thought about it more, polished up the story to change his decision to one of self-sacrifice, just to help his reputation.

Anyway, what was he accomplishing by staying there? If it wasn't helping his allies or the war-effort any, than it was either just a stupid or an inexplicable act.

Probably more likely, if there is really no solid explanation for why staying in prison was a good thing for him to do, my explanation in my previous paragraph-- that John McCain just didn't know what the hell he was doing at the time-- is reinforced, and it was just a missed opportunity that he's parlayed into a fairy-tale about how great he's supposed to be.

Anyway, the point is that it's not clear at all that (allegedly) neglecting to try his contacts to get out the p.o.w. camp was some kind of noble, self-sacrificing act.

Maybe Obama should contact the Vietnamese and ask for copies of McCain's propaganda tapes and then ask some 527 to please not run them.

The conservative-run media is going to do everything they can to smear Obama and torpedo his campaign. They have decided that McCain is the next Keeper of the Corporate Flame. Corporations run this country now, not We the People.

The hijacking of American democracy is complete.

I'm shocked that there is gambling in the casino. The GOP plans to use Reverend Wright against Obama! Ya think. In light of the fact that most pastors have total authority in their churches and its considered bad form to conradict them in any way, let me assure you we have only scratched the surface of Reverend Wright and his interesting statements. Hagee will get a pass well because most of his contraversy is related to spiritual and doctrinal matters and when he does venture into politics its usually to bash the Clintons.

Re: SKR's comment at 3:13 PM

The Republican party is good at message discipline. If the North Carolina Republican Party doesn't pull the ad after getting McCain's E-mail, it means that the North Carolina Republican Party shares the assessment of many commentators here: McCain is lying when he says he wants the ad pulled.

Corporations run this country now, not We the People.

Don't forget the ultra-rich, like that Wall St dude who pulled in $3,700,000,000.00 last year. Granted the value of the dollar has declined some but that is still an awful lot of zeros.

I heard an interview with the chairwoman on NPR this evening. This lovely lady explained that these aren't "attack" ads; they're simply "the truth about controversial topics," and "controversial topics" cause a lot of, well, controversy. But they're the truth! So she's going to run them, because the people need to know the truth, and the first Amendment guarantees her right to run this stuff! Even if John McCain himself called and asked her not to run them. "This issue is important to the people of North Carolina!"

Oh, yes, I'm sure if the "Democrat party" (as she repeatedly said) ran similar ads, about (say) John McCain's close relationship with Rev. Hagee, she wouldn't mind at all, because it's only "the truth," right?

Pfah. How long ago did these people burn out their shame circuitry?