Of course, Rove suggests that Obama has "similarly" gone too far.

....

I'm honestly not sure what to say.

....

**ROVE** is admitting that McCain has gone too far.

Granted, it was apparently in the context of "balanced" coverage the media claim to love so much, but still.

....

This is big.

I smell victory.
Karl rove is fleeing his sinking ship.

Was Palin the torpedo?

We can't trust the fact check organizations? But we can trust the campaigns and Karl Rove?

"I didn't decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in, or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president. I was sixty-two years old when I made the decision, and I thought it was my one shot at the prize."
John McCain 1998
http://dailymull.com/1187/John-McCain-Spiritual-Values-and-the-Republican-World-view

In case you don't get how important this words are. Read 'em again.

"I didn't decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in, or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth..."

So, he really isn't a reformer, it's all about ambition.

That's the truth folks, so help me god.

Top sleazeball Rove is trumped. Imagine that. And look for the Monday poll numbers to be even HIGHER for McSame. Go figure.

KAPOW! My head just exploded!

No doubt coming soon to an ad near you.

I have doubt...

If only we would see this stuff in ads...

I honestly wonder what Obama is doing with that huge war chest. On TV, it's all McCain, McCain, McCain, all the damn time.

I honestly wonder what Obama is doing with that huge war chest. On TV, it's all McCain, McCain, McCain, all the damn time.

I suspect that we'll find in the post-election weeks that a lot of that money was spent on ground game organizing instead of on TV ads. If it works, people will be singing the praises of the strategy for decades to come. If it doesn't, they'll look like idiots.

Guess hell just froze over...though it is just light rain here in MN today.

I've heard enough in past years about Rovian Politics and Bush/Rove Politics, but considering the level to which this campaign is sinking, it seems to me that John McCain has earned his own trademark. My question to you is, has it gotten to a point now that we can start to form the meme: 'McCain Style Politics' to represent this dishonorable, deceitful, ham-handed, "assume your electorate is stupid" brand of campaigning?

If we keep on assigning all the blame to Rove and Bush's lackeys, McCain gets away as a honorable veteran and public servant who is victim of the people that the Republican machine assigned to him. I really feel we need to stop putting so much blame on Rove and Eskew and start blaming McCain forcefully by branding him as the person responsible for an entirely different "new kind of politics".

I've heard enough in past years about Rovian Politics and Bush/Rove Politics, but considering the level to which this campaign is sinking, it seems to me that John McCain has earned his own trademark. My question to you is, has it gotten to a point now that we can start to form the meme: 'McCain Style Politics' to represent this dishonorable, deceitful, ham-handed, "assume your electorate is stupid" brand of campaigning?

If we keep on assigning all the blame to Rove and Bush's lackeys, McCain gets away as a honorable veteran and public servant who is victim of the people that the Republican machine assigned to him. I really feel we need to stop putting so much blame on Rove and Eskew and start blaming McCain forcefully by branding him as the person responsible for an entirely different "new kind of politics".

I assume it's ground operations. They have a really strong presence here in the Orlando area. I'm not sure if he can win Florida but he's certainly trying.

"Was Palin the torpedo?" - toowearyforoutrage

Maybe, or maybe the nail. I saw this in a cute and sometimes feisty discussion of Tina Fey's dead-on and Amy Poehler's quite adequate impersonations of Palin and Hillary last night, at http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/09/live-from-new-y.html?cid=130657540#comment-130657540

"Anagram of

SARAH PALIN = A SHARP NAIL

(in McCain's coffin?)"

Posted by: Anagram

Then later, following up with a related concept, "another" commenter:

"Rally together, Palin-drones! Backwards is forwards!

Four more years of Bush!"

Posted by: Palin-drone

Yeah, clever find and new catch phrase. I hope my "McBushlin" catches on too.

totally OT but McCain and the Republicans are in for a world of hurt. gas supplies are going down 25% and staying down until Election Day. http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/09/analysis-us-fue.html

McCain is Able.

Able to con the American public into believing that he will change the face of Washington. (although his gal pal Sarah might be able to get more Wasilla HS folks in positions of power).

McCain is Able.

Able to push for tax-cuts for the wealthy that even Alan Greenspan is wary of!

McCain is Able.

Able to run the sleaziest, more rovian campaign, than any other in the history of the United States.

More evidence that the establishment has turned on McCain. The Republican establishment? No, the Beltway Journalist Establishment, the same one that has been eating Rove's gruel for eight years in exchange for access and nicknames from W. If Rove is off the reservation, expect continued "McCain is a liar" stories in the next few weeks. Ironically, "McCain is a liar" is the epitome of Rovian politics, taking the strength of "straight talk" and making it a weakness.

Yes you are reading way too much into these comments from Rove if you do not look at his entire interview.

What? Did hell freeze over?

I agree with dal20402. Yesterday on AMC I saw 4 McCain ads within 1.5 hrs and zero Obama ads. The only ad I saw contradicting McCain in any way was the one of T.Boone Pickens saying that drilling here won't end America's dependence on foreign oil. (but yeah, he is for it anyway). Maybe I am not watching the right channels.

Ironically, "McCain is a liar" is the epitome of Rovian politics, taking the strength of "straight talk" and making it a weakness.

Well, yes. But you're supposed to take your opponent's strengths and make them weaknesses, not take your own damn strengths and torpedo them.

And yet McCain has been doing that very thing at every possible turn this election - attacking Obama for being a celebrity (when McCain's strength is that he's a political celebrity - the attacks on Obama kill that strength), attacking the media (when McCain's strength was an ungodly love affair from the media), cuddling up with right-wing hard core radical Christianists (when McCain's strength with moderates was largely due to his denouncement of those very same agents of intolerance), picking a totally unexperienced and underprepared running mate (when McCain's strength was his experience and "ready to lead from day one" mantra), and finally culminating in the destruction of the "Straight Talk" brand altogether by mounting a campaign of lies.

Sometimes I wonder if there's an anti-McCain mole named Steve Schmidt running McCain's operation. The fact that the polls show this stuff to not be completely tanking McCain's chances make me think Schmidt is playing it straight, but sometimes I wonder.

We know that McCain hates Rove, and Schmidt may be trying to outdo his mentor, in the Bush-Bush sense. So maybe this is payback from the failing master.

It's also true, of course.

Oh look, another talking piece of shit... So last 8 years..

Leslie: I think Obama is concentrating on swing states, here in VA I see lots of his (and McCain's) ads. Where are you?

NonyNony, that is fascinating but lots of these people are undone by their own creepy drives and weak spots, I don't think for instance that Edwards wanted to deliberately torpedo his chance of being someone's VP pick. Speaking of Edwards - WTH did he have to drop out of it all, not speaking to the Dem Convention, not taken seriously by the MSM, when Rudy - wretched adulterer who even used public money in the process - was Keynote Speaker at the Republican convention, still darling spokesperson, etc? Things that make you go hmmm... (if you still even bother ...)

The syphilitic whore Rove chimes in. A grateful nation awaits his next emission.

Rove had to do this because the ‘lipstick on a pig ‘ sexism accusation was the ‘one lie too many’. It even had newly diehard John McCain backers, like Phyllis Schlafly, thinking, ‘You're accusing him of sexism for that. John you lost me there’. This is an attempt to get supporters back onto the same page by admitting that obvious misstep. Rove proves himself practical. Acknowledge it and move on.

But then we still have video - ha ha! kryptonite for the fact-repellant, blindly-loyal, lizard brains - of McCain, digging in, standing by his sexism accusation telling Barbara Walters ‘Obama chooses his words carefully. OK’.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtFQUebNaZg&feature=related

This work in McCain's favor. You have to be unreasonable and incapable of logical, reasonable, sane thought to understand why.

After he says he's sorry (and reminds us he was a POW in the Nam--and that questioning Palin is inherently sexist), he will continue with the same attacks and lies.

Witness McCain's planned contrition next week, and his poll numbers (and contributions) will soar. Obama/Dems will keep wondering what happened.

Sigh.

This is Rove at work.

An ad on Rove's quote would be even better than the change ad.

Hell, a whole series of ads!

Maybe there's a couple of Republican adults who finally realized what a President Palin would entail.

An “Obama campaign� statement on Rove’s comment not only is weak tea, it ignores the strategic possibilties of Obama ads saying “ I’m Karl Rove and I approve this message ,� targeted in swing-state/suburban swing area voting blocs.

It's a choreographed mea culpa.

A few Republican talking heads go on TV to say "Whoa guys, you've gone too far."

Someone gets chastised for it - probably Steve Schmidt - and there is then an announcement of a 'shake-up' within the campaign team with McCain going on a few shows to say that he has 'gotten his house in order'.

He'll probably ask when is Obama going to do the same thing to create a bit of false equivalency and repeat the charge that this wouldn't have happened if Obama had agreed to the town hall meetings in the first place.

They're maneuvering to kill off the 'liars' narrative with a bit of political theater.

People would be wise never to listen or watch Rove or repeat anything he says.

I suspect that we'll find in the post-election weeks that a lot of that money was spent on ground game organizing instead of on TV ads. If it works, people will be singing the praises of the strategy for decades to come. If it doesn't, they'll look like idiots.

WRT where are the ads - I suspect that if you're in a state that's reliably blue, you won't see many ads for Obama. Here in Virginia, we're seeing a reasonable number of them.

More to the point, I know they're on the ground here - my sister is part of a team that's going door to door in the reddest of red counties. She says of those who are willing to admit a preference, it's 50-50. Pretty incredible, if you knew the place.

Sources in the McCain camp, the Republican Party and Washington think tanks say Mrs Palin was identified as a potential future leader of the neoconservative cause in June 2007. That was when the annual summer cruise organised by the right-of-centre Weekly Standard magazine docked in Juneau, the Alaskan state capital, and the pundits on board took tea with Governor Palin.

Her case as John McCain's running mate was later advanced vociferously by William Kristol, the magazine's editor, who is widely seen as one of the founding fathers of American neoconservative thought - including the robust approach to foreign policy which spurred American intervention in Iraq.

In 1988, Mr Kristol became a leading adviser of another inexperienced Republican vice presidential pick, Dan Quayle, tutoring him in foreign affairs. Last week he praised Mrs Palin as "a spectre of a young, attractive, unapologetic conservatism" that "is haunting the liberal elites".

I watched the actual "interview" with Rove and the portion of false equivalency mentioned here was not only observation that Rove made in speaking with Wallace

1) Rove said that Democrats, including John Kerry give him way too much credit and that he should collect royalties from the Democrats (don't remember that part clearly.
2) He stated that Obama clearly intended to refer to Palin when making the lipstick and pig remark because "he hadn't used the lipstick and the pig references for several months".
3) The comments referenced here about McCain not being straight or whatever were more in the context with Rove giving the Obama campaign advice on how to get back in the race and win back the momentum.

At no point did Fox point out that Rove works in an advisory position for the McCain campaign. That is in fact what he is doing.

In my personal opinion, not only should Obama do the opposite of what this despicable man is saying - we should stop even giving this man any credit whatsoever unless it is of complete and utter mockery. This lying sack of crap embodies everything what is wrong with America.

Anyone else wonder if Palin is scaring some people out of the "Big Tent", closing the Log Cabin, if you will?

Is that like Monica Goodling's going too far or like Levi, Bristol's boyfriend's going too far?

So, with all due respect, Karl Rove says you can't trust the fact-checker organizations. That makes it hard for the ditto heads to hear any differing points of view. Anyway, if Karl says it, it's official now.

I haven't seen any Obama ads that I can remember, but I'm in California where he's probably going to win in a landslide anyway, so it would be foolish to spend that money here.

Don't forget that cable commercials are surprisingly local -- what I see watching AMC in California may not be the one you see in Arizona, or even a different part of California.

Records are made to be broken.

"Rove responded, "McCain has similarly gone one step too far, attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the 100% truth test."

What is particularly evil about Karl Rove is he knows what is "100% truth," as far as Facts are concerned, but chooses to compromise this "100% truth" in running his devious and deceitful political campaigns.

Anything less that "100% truth" is a LIE.

So, this statement by Rove says a lot about him and the twisted way he thinks. Just like Faux News, Rove sprinkles a little bit of "truth" on his lies, just enough to give people the false impression that what they heard was "true" because a little bit of it was "true."

So, we end up (in Rove world) with 90 percent LIE hiding under 10 percent "true", or whatever percentage, but never "100% truth."

Karl Rove said it,

therefore it is suspect.

1) McCain could spin this as his "departure" from Bush.
2) I am so tired of hearing the name Karl Rove.
3) Many voters don't even know who he is or what he represents. If Obama uses the Rove quote, he needs to stress how Rove is connected to McCain and Fox News. Otherwise, it will be a waste of time. Keep in mind that not everyone pays attention to politics until election campaigns swing into high gear, and they won't be familiar with the back story. Case in point: I actually heard someone say during the Republican Convention, "I didn't know that Ronald Reagan was a Republican. I always thought he was a Democrat. And I voted for him."

It's like Rove is pissed-off that McCain can't remember his carefully worded script.

Rove has a big mouth, sometimes too big.

Rove judging the truth is one of the signs of the end times. Wait a minute, my goldfish is talking to me and all the lights are blinking on and off and snakes have materialized and are coiling around my legs...

Rove knows too well about what will happen if Palin is in. Unlike Palin, Bush is not the true soldier of the extreme Evangelist. With Palin, the US may have at least 4 years of continuous and intense cultural warfare on top of the same old Bush fail policies. The effect would be devastating to the Republican party. Not to mention the potential rift that can develop between McCain and Palin if they win. Afterall these two are really strangers to each other until just last month.

Republican insiders know that their party will become leaderless when current administration pack their bags, and many of them don't trust McCain. They want the other side to feel the pain and try to fix the almost unfixable with this status quo two party system.

If Rove says it is over the top you gotta go with that. It's like if Michael Jackson says something is crazy you gotta believe it. What good are your national treasures if you don't believe in them.

I think the big mistake in Rove's eyes isn't lying, but putting your own name on the lie instead of letting whispering campaigns, viral e-mails and push-polls do the dirty work.

It's interesting how the dems continually slam Carl Rove, until his statements reinforce their vitriol for the republicans. I don't care what the media says, if you connect the dots, it's obvious that Obama's lipstick/pig comment, which came just days after Palin scored points with her pitbulll/lipstick statement, was an ugly sexist response from Obama. Now, Obama is crying that he was misinterpreted, while the media, once again assists him in playing the victim. The deck has been so stacked in favor of Obama, whether it's the media's refusal to vet Obama in the first place, to giving Obama free rides with Wright, Farrakhan, Rezko, Ayers, etc.. The media, as well as shows like The View, are continuing to show extreme bias against Senator John McCain, while kissing Obama's ass.

I think what was interesting about Rove's comment was simply that we all expect him to say what he said about Obama's campaign. After all, he isn't a Democrat. We expect him to bash Obama for going too far or what have you. But it is interesting to hear him call out his own party's campaign for the same thing. It doesn't change the fact that Rove is who he is and has always been, but just adds a different spin on things.

Yes, the clip was preceded by a criticism of the Obama campaign, specifically was that it went to far to say that McCain is "not email savvy." OUCH!

http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/2008/09/14/karl-rove-says-mccain-obama-have-gone-too-far/