But McCain took the low-road long before Schmidt arrived. Remember how he lied about Romney's Iraq plan, claiming that Mitt favored a timetable for withdrawal? It's pretty clear that McCain, no matter what he says about honor, is willing to do whatever it takes to win.

That elitist Obama trying to win an election with understated humor against the salt of the earth common man McCain.

Next Barack will praise the virtues of Aragula.

What the hell is Aragula anyway?

This really is fucking annoying. You expect this shit from a shit like Broder. But I heard a poli sci proof from some also ran California school on NPR this AM making an unrelated but similar non sequitur statement of A somehow proving C. What liberal media indeed.

It seems anymore that anyone in the news and information media has some sort of governor that prevents them from asking the most obvious follow-up questions.

Juan "Republican Boot-lick" Williams is especially gifted this way. I think he's the only non-full time Fox hack that ever got to interview Cheney, and it was one inane softball after another.

Sigh...David Broder is pretty awful when he writes about presidential or even national politics.

He is far better when he covers governors, state legislators and the nitty gritty of congressional legislation, important topics that few if any in the national press writes about. What a waste of talent.

If I were a 60-something-year-old homeless pedestrian in Washington, I'd be watching out for Broder behind the wheel.

Perhaps McCain still believes that "in order to save the village, we had to destroy it" makes sense?

Sooooo ...

McCain's attacks on Obama are ... Obama's fault!

Yup, sounds like a GOP talking point to me!

Yup, sounds like a braindead journalist parroting a GOP talking point to me!

*

Broder really likes Karl Rove, too. And Schmidt is a Rove protege, so....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Broder#David_Broder_and_Karl_Rove

Funny that someone who decries nastiness and "partisanship," likes the basest pracitioners of that. Basically, he is fair to Republicans at the expense of Democrats.

I hope those who think of him as "The Dean" do it out of past respect but realize his views are antedeluvian. Though I suspect they don't.

So McCain is saying that if they had town hall meetings in the future (candidates don't debate before the convention) then that would have prevented him from going negative now? Besides, didn't Obama agree to doing 2 of those, but McCain wanted a lot more and wouldn't agree to just 2. So now whose fault is that?

The fact that Obama finds true statements about his positions offensive is a problem with those positions, not with the statements which drew attention to them.

So McCain is saying that if they had town hall meetings in the future (candidates don't debate before the convention) then that would have prevented him from going negative now? Besides, didn't Obama agree to doing 2 of those, but McCain wanted a lot more and wouldn't agree to just 2. So now whose fault is that?

Broder said McCain wanted to hold town halls "during the summer months." So, McCain was suggesting they be held before the convention.

Hrm....blame the victim mentality?

Sounds like the standard fare from GOP hacks and their favorite enabler, Dean Broder.

Seeing Broder live on TV these days makes it clear just how much he is losing it, the same as with with McCain. The performance of these and other public figures in their 70's really gives pause to the argument that longer life spans should mean longer active careers - the director of the government office from which I recently retired had a long and distinguished career with the agency, and if he had retired at age 65, everyone would have had nothing but wonderful things to say about the guy. Unfortunately, he decided to hang on until age 70, and we all spent the last 3 years muttering about when he would finally go, since it was obvious he was quickly losing his ability to absorb new information and make reasoned decisions. Andrew Sullivan has a link today to a study on coginitive loss in people in their 70's, which estimates that over 20% of people age 71 have a measurable cognitive deficit that does not affect everyday living, but makes it likely that they have difficulty processing new information, and that the percentage with deficits increases every year. Obviously, Obama can't bring this up directly, since the press would eviscerate him if he said anything that even vaguely implied that St. John is a few tacos shy of a combo plate, but I think he should go back to the formulation he used earlier to the effect that McCain's service to the country has been long and honorable, but his ideas are those of the past. Somehow, we need to find a way to get these folks to GET OFF THE FREAKIN' STAGE!

And the "Straight Talk Express" crashes.

In Florida no less with Joe LIEberman on board; oh the metaphors abound.

“Men argue; nature acts.� - Voltaire

What's wrong with Broder? He just takes McCain's claims about not enough debates being the cause of the negative tone!? Broder is a complete dufus with no critical abilities.

I hope those who think of him as "The Dean" do it out of past respect but realize his views are antedeluvian. Though I suspect they don't.
Posted by: riffle

sorry, riffle, but i'm really tired of people thinking 'dean' has some kind of implication of quality of thought. all it means is that he's been at it the longest:

3) dean, doyen
a man who is the senior member of a group; "he is the dean of foreign correspondents"

...so maybe he's getting senile like his straight-talking hero.

your pal,
blake

Politics are strange in the gamma quadrant.

Why didn't Obama take McCain on and have the town meetings? I don't get it. Sure, the more exposure one has to unscripted events the higher the probability that something will go wrong. However, it's evident that McCain is far more susceptible to embarrassing himself than Obama, and the Obama folks obviously know this. The only explanation I can come up with is that they decided to be conservative because they think the election is theirs to lose. If this is true, it's a dangerous attitude.
____________________________________________

David Broder is pretty awful when he writes about presidential or even national politics.

True, that.

Sadly, doing so is his job.

Bizarrely, Broder actually frames the entire column around the possibility that the lack of debates has turned the campaign negative.

Imagine that. Broder frames his entire column around a McCain talking point. The only thing bizarre about that is that Kevin thinks it's bizarre.

And the "Straight Talk Express" crashes.

In Florida no less with Joe LIEberman on board; oh the metaphors abound.

Don't they just? Who's going first?

ckelly -- word

Seeing Broder live on TV these days makes it clear just how much he is losing it, the same as with with McCain. The performance of these and other public figures in their 70's really gives pause to the argument that longer life spans should mean longer active careers Posted by: dcsusie

Ageist bastard! If we shuffle everyone off after 65, where the hell is Home Depot going to get it's greeters and McDonalds it's off-peak servers?

Agreed. I was at a "debate" between Magnuson and Gorton during Maggie's last campaign. He's had a stroke and needed to be wheeled around. He made Strom Thurmond look sprightly. It was sad.

What the hell is Aragula anyway?

Aragula is a made-up word. Arugula is grown, shipped, sold, and eaten by all sorts of Americans, salt-of-the-earth and otherwise. If Applebees had a salad bar, arugula would be in it.

Several other elitist substances arise from the anti-American method of growing plants in dirt. From beans and broccoli to wheat and zucchini. We are enduring an alarming cultural invasion from this middle-eastern born "agriculture".

And the "Straight Talk Express" crashes.

And you people keep saying that McCain is like Bush. Hmmmph. If McCain were like Bush, the bus would have been driven right off a cliff.

Okay, Obama's grammar was a little screwed up there, but I have to say I'm enjoying his tone lately.

Broder is a bought-and-paid-for tool of America's Ultra-Rich Ruling Class, Inc. Like all the "pundits" and "on-air personalities" of the corporate mass-media, he is a highly paid employee of a giant corporation and he serves the interests of his employers, not the public interest. And it's in the interests of his employers to put in power another right-wing extremist Republican administration that will shift taxation from the ultra-rich to everyone else and deregulate media ownership.

Broder? BRODER? Sheesh. The only thing older than Broder is Sen. Methuselah. But, hey -- when you've got it, you've got it. You should've seen the ruckus those guys raised at bingo night last Friday.

Meh, this article just shows those who bother paying attention that McCain can't even control his own campaign. It shows this man will acquiesce to others even when doing so compromises his own (stated) principles.

If he can’t control the outflow of negativity from within his own camp, how can voters expect McCain to maintain control this country's government, a fractious Congress, and the insidious bureaucratic remnants of the Bush Administration, while juggling the weight of domestic recession, trillion dollar national debt, and foreign wars? What will we hear out of Broder then?

Most Americans feel this country is going in the wrong direction, so lets put a man in the White House who can't even maintain the moral high ground of his own campaign.

Well, I would assume that because of the late Democratic primary fight, Obama didn't have the time and resources to swat Clinton away and make some worthwhile pointed debate with McCain. That would have been a bit much for anybody!

I don't think Obama is a particularly aggressive candidate; he shouldn't be. Assertive is a better fit for him (and sometimes that's a bit too subtle for people to grasp). Now that McCain is really showing his ass and derailing his own intentions for how he wanted to campaign, come debate time, Obama's gonna let him have it.

Secular do you have a set of progressive cliche keys on your keyboard?

Sounds to me this whole negative thinking about because Obama called McCain a racist.

Orwell, do you have a metal plate in your head?

Sounds to me like this whole negative thing came about because of McCain's abject fear of having to speak in public about anything that might be associated with the Republican platform. And I don't blame him. I'd be mining the gossip rags for material, too, if I were stupid enough to be hitched to that little pig of a wagon you all call "conservatism."

"Why didn't Obama take McCain on and have the town meetings? I don't get it. Sure, the more exposure one has to unscripted events the higher the probability that something will go wrong. However, it's evident that McCain is far more susceptible to embarrassing himself than Obama, and the Obama folks obviously know this. The only explanation I can come up with is that they decided to be conservative because they think the election is theirs to lose. If this is true, it's a dangerous attitude. "

I think it had to with the fact that McLean's original offer came immediately after Hillary's "concession" speech. And if I remember correctly he proposed having one once a week. So at a point in time when Obama had to switch from primary to general election campaign mode, make peace with the Democrats that opposed him, etc., McCain wanted him to waste time preparing for and traveling to debates every week. Furthermore, politicians only ask for the debate forum they feel they will do well in - why would Obama want to agree to the forum McCain prefers?

Now that McCain is really showing his ass

Aaaaagh! I'm hungry and had kind of been looking forward to dinner, but I think I'll skip it.

Did you guys know, McCain was called "punk" in his younger days? Now, married to a second wife he had an affair with, who stole narcotic pills from her own charity - that's "bad", man!

"In the gamma quadrant" is a much-appreciated, totally appropriate use of a (latter-day) Star Trek term.

Let's not forget that Broder was once highly regarded, and I would assume rightly so, by Hunter S. Thompson (see F&L on the Campaign Trail '72).

Yes, Gamma Quadrant reference is appreciated. Maybe that explains some of McCain's actions.... he's a changeling.

Bizarrely, Broder actually frames the entire column around the possibility that the lack of debates has turned the campaign negative.

The lack of joint appearances is almost certainly a major reason for McCain's desperate negativity, since, in the absence of joint appearances, its the only way his campaign can even get noticed at all. I don't think the McCain camp, though, really serves itself well by drawing attention to that.

McCain has shown he is desparately dishonest, not just by hiring a Rove-ite but through his recent energy price ad smears against Barack Obama. McShame is dishonest enough to put out an ad implying that people like BHO were responsible for the high gas prices today. Well, first that's hypocrisy because McCain opposed OSD for years until recently too. Mr. Fake Talk Express has implied that he, McCain, was always for off-shore drilling - But McCain just changed his mind several weeks ago, only a few weeks before Obama.

Second, it's a lie because the core reason for the recent oil price rise is rising consumption - we and citizens of other countries are responsible for our own gluttonous appetites, not environmentalists. If we'd followed the advice of the latter, such as strict CAFE standards opposed by Repiglicans, the price of gas would be maybe a dollar lower not the few cents someday from OSD.

(BTW - let's allow some off-shore drilling but only *on condition* that the oil from such wells *must* be used directly in the USA! - See how they like them apples ...)

Obamaraptor