Dishonest, like McCain or any of his talking heads.

Ayers! Wright! Rezko! POW! POW! DID YOU HEAR ME? PPPOOOWWW!!!

Dishonest, like McCain or any of his talking heads.

Ayers! Wright! Rezko! POW! POW! DID YOU HEAR ME? PPPOOOWWW!!!

This really was funny to watch. In a laugh-to-keep-from-crying kind of way. Way to go, Time.

McCain has 21/2 more months in which he can make stupid remarks. Obama is doomed!

That clip was just unwatchable.

You misidentified the target of Halperin's attack. It was only indirectly aimed at Obama.

But it was aimed dead-center and that hated turncoat and mortal enemy of all that is conservitive and GOPish: Colbert.

Really, with Halperin getting up on his hind legs and spouting blatent nonsense like this, who needs to watch The Colbert Report?

Well, one can hope it doesn't work. After all, The Onion is still in business, in spite of the Bush Administration swiping & implementing all of their policy suggestions over the past 8 years.

You know Halperin is really way off base and clueless way beyond the ordinary when even Cokie Wrong-about-everything Roberts was dumbstruck by his comments.

What an utter idiot.

The problem is, as bad as you think it's going to get, it's bound to get worse, as you suggested. It's of course absurd to suggest that the McCain campaign would have avoided certain attacks unless provoked. But people will still try to push that idea.

I hope that the Obama campaign starts a "What happened to John McCain?" message. Send Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden out there to talk about how they used to like the guy but how they don't any longer, because he's acting in a way that's beneath us. Hell, I can imagine Biden saying something like, "I used to like and respect John McCain, but now he's just a tool of the far right, and just a tool in general." And he'd probably get away with it.

This is more of the David Broder meme of "if you'd just debated John "Zinger" McC*nt in those townhalls he wouldn't have been forced to go negative".

Now it's "If you hadn't mocked John "Zinger" McC*nt for not answering how many "houses" he owns, he wouldn't have been forced to bring up Wright, Aryes and Rezko".

Both are just loads of bullshit being spewed by the McCunt Campaign to any stupid pundit who will listen.

This is far more a comment on Broder and Halperin than on anyone else.

Halperin has a job? Why?

I watched this and wondered where Mark had been for the last months. Nobody needs to give the Rovettes an opening to attack. They pretty much attack all the time. In fact, I think that the housing gaffe forced them to play their Rezko ad before they were ready.

Shorter Mark Hapless: If that Uppity Negro doesn't shut up, we'll make him sorry!

You think McPOW's folks love this guy? I bet they've got that clip on endless loop at Obama HQ.

Halperin's one-trick pony show would've been just as implausible if he had started spouting cake recipes.

Even Cokie "Why is he vacationing in HAWAII?" Roberts pushed back - "it's about the economy" - but Marky Mark wouldn't budge.

Halperin just painted his own target : he's not just a flack, he's a poor flack.

Halperin argued, adding, "I believe that this opened the door to not just Tony Rezko in that ad

Halperin has clearly been getting the same right-wing talking points that our chorus of resident trolls -- "Orwell," Chicounsel, Brian the faux-reasonable concern troll, et al, have been. The Mighty Wurlitzer may be off-key, but it's still in full operation.

In fact, I think that the housing gaffe forced them to play their Rezko ad before they were ready.

Amen. That is a just and interesting observation, something you just don't get on TV now.

Following Halperin's logic, all that McCain has to do to win is make an unending series of dumb comments between now and election day. I think he can manage that.

I'm shocked, SHOCKED that Mark "I wrote an entire chapter entitled 'How Matt Drudge Rules Our World' " Halperin would make a statement so slavishly in enabling of the Right's character assassins.

I had never seen Mark Halperin before when I saw that on George Stephanapoulos's show and thought he was just another National Review hack. Imagine my horror when I realized this was supposed to be ABC News' political chief.

Even his fellow panelists were politely aghast at his suggestion.

So---the squealing harridan of the McDoofus campaign wants to see a door opened? Suppose we get thirty or forty people to each e-ail the sumbitch a copy of Mr. Benen's world-renowned McCain flipflop list? Or just open up a great big can of whoop-a$$ called TRUTH? That's got to be the most negative thing imaginable to these Reskunklicans.

And I'm still confused. Do we call him Steve, Mr. Benen, CB, or the Animal? I don't want to try the hybrid thing, though---using the title of Animal Bagger or Carpet Animal might get the PETA folks all upset, and then we'd have to put up with that horrid Pamela picture again....

How is this "political analysis"? It is nothing of the sort. It is merely reiteration of points that have already been done to death, as if they were revelations that the public had always suspected but feared to believe.

I swear, if you elect this guy after the campaign he's run, you'll be looking in the caves of Papua for respect.

FIRST, thanks for realizing that "some of us" can't watch all the videos out there (stupid dial-up in the country)...BUT, I happened to view this piece of (insert very nasty word) yesterday on TWWGS and at one point in his foolish recitation Mark swallowed as if he, himself, couldn't choke down what he was saying! This one should be put in a VERY SPECIAL place to be pulled out and used on him over and over again...expecting it to be something KO uses (but guessing there won't be a COUNTDOWN tonight) I have long thought he was a fool but added to yesterday's panel it was hardly discernable how ridiculous he is...apparently there is something about constantly appearing on TV that kills brain cells....feeds EGOS at the very least - "Hey, look at me folks BELIEVE what I say!".....

Ultimately, the biggest problem with Halperin's mind-numbing commentary is the underlying strategic message it offers Obama: If McCain makes a humiliating mistake, don't say anything. If you do, you'll get smeared and you'll deserve it. Even if McCain accuses you of treason, don't fight back. It'll only empower McCain to take the campaign even further into the gutter. -- CB

I'm not sure who Halperin is aiming this message at. I know some really stupid, gullible people, but even they could see through this.

Nevertheless, the attempt is to intimidate as Steve notes -- combined with blame shifting. Typical Repub tactics but never so poorly integrated or executed.

jeebus he's stoopid.

look, McCain had the Clinton for VP spot done already before the 10-houses issue came up. the Clinton for VP spot plays the Rezko card.

wanna talk about opening doors? now that McCain has tried to slime Obama with "corrupt" Rezko, I think corruption ads are fair game. Keating Five, anyone? Let the saturation advertising commence. . . (lemme guess "For 5 1/2 years, I couldn't take any bribes and didn't have access to S&Ls because I was a POW!")

I watched that live on Sunday and even Cokie "I can't believe that Obama went to Hawaii when everyone knows that REAL people vacation on Nantucket" Roberts could believe the inanity of Halperin's statement.

When Halperin looks back, I bet he'll have to say that this was the moment when his career jumped the shark.

Halperin had a good point to make, but he didn't phrase it very well. You can say that McCain was always going to get around to hammering Obama on Rezco, Wright, Ayers, et al, but it's a question of effectiveness. If the McCain team is perceived as single-handedly driving all the negative dialogue, that could be politically damaging. On the other hand, if a healthy percentage of likely voters perceive it to be back and forth: "yeah, McCain started some of the negative attacks, but then Obama attacked Mrs. McCain with the seven houses thing . . ." that provides cover to the McCain team to take it to the next level by hitting hard on Obama's connections to Rezco, Wright, Ayers. In that sense, Halerin is right - the Obama team's seven houses attack, which did only modest damage to McCain, will make it easier for the McCain team to do some real damage. That's a net plus for McCain.

Is there any particular reason for the media's failure to do it's job when it comes to political reporting. I understand that politicians are generally an incompetent and corrupt bunch. What I dont understand is the media's inability to expose this sh*t whenever they come across it.

You would think that a person like McChameleon would be scared to touch anything George Bush because of what Bush ahs done recently, and the media would call out anything resembled a touch of Bush in camp McChameleon for what the former has done to the US's reputation, economy, etc (the list is endless)...

However, that is just not the case because the media just does not care what incompetence or corruption or immorality they discover from the Republicans (maybe because their bar is low) and they over look it completely at times. The media has actually created a parallel industry (blogosphere)which seeks to augment the information MSM presents as "news reports or analysis" in its broadcasts.

For people delivering "news" 24/7 365 days a year, one would think that out of the 8 736 hours available the msm would spend at least 10 00 hours at presenting full news coverage, nothing fancy just complete news reporting. Instead of guessing what events mean, actually sending reporters to find out and deliver news on those finding. If this was what journalists actually did the people like Halperin would have no place on TV screens because they are ugly and dumb so their roles would be redundant. But the msm is content to let them stay on our screens because the standards are so low.

Thank you Steve for fighting the good fight to ensure that some information does filter through. It is amazing how many stories are "broken" blogosphere (and youtube) to the media instead of the other way around. Anyway that is my take on all of this.

You can say that McCain was always going to get around to hammering Obama on Rezco... -tom

It's Rezko. He's a man, not a company.

And zeitgeist already pointed out a preexisting McCain ad referencing Rezko, so there was nothing to get around to.

And you're underestimating how well McCain's inability to remember how many houses he owns is playing, especially in the midwest.

Combine that gaffe with the VP announcement and the convention, and get back to me in a week about who is doing real damage.

Well, you can't get too hard on McCain.

Being exposed to 5 1/2 years of intense Communist propaganda can really screw with your head.

Being exposed to 5 1/2 years of intense Communist propaganda can really screw with your head. -2Manchu

And he was a POW.

And he was a POW.

I hadn't heard that. I'm surprised he doesn't mention it more.

If you are a Democrat, you should shut up and take it. You're lucky to be allowed to participate in the political process at all.

tom,

no.

I get the feeling Halperin & Ron Fournier of the AP are battling it out to see who can be the biggest sycophantic media tool of the GOP. They're like the Renfields of the Republican party, doing what must be done to satisfy their bloodsucking masters...just not doing it particularly well. But no matter. These vampires place loyalty above all, even bare-bones competency. Of course, if you're competent at your job, you may figure out how to do it better, and Republicans don't like themselves no thinkers, no siree.