This thing here? This is farce.

(This week has been SO bad for them that I *almost* feel bad for them. But then I remember "sex ed for 5 yr olds", and I smile, grab the popcorn and watch the implosion with delight.)

Nothing new... didn't the McCain campaign make predictions about Obama's post convention bounce?

Overheard just now on the tube on Hardball: Rep Debbie Wasserman Schultz of FL, who is Jewish, talking in support of Obama re the Jewish vote and since the McCain campaign is smearing Obama on those issues. Obama needs Florida.

McCain Doctrine of Pre-emptive Lying.

I think this needs to be repeated a LOT.

Greg Sargent asks, "Are we seeing the birth of a new McCain campaign doctrine of preemptive lying?"

Why not? The Republicans have already tried every other kind..

And I get the distinct sense their polls show that, while honesty, as alwas, spells certain defeat for the Republicans in, all that lying isn't working out so hot for them. People are starting to notice, and there goes the major appeal of McCain's brand.

It's amazing, really -- George W. Freakin' Bush took eight years to ruin the Republicans' decades-long branding efforts. Who'd'a thunk McCain would piss his away in a mere eight months?

Preemptive, whatever. All the Rove-Palin campaign has been doing all along is lying, from day one. What else can they do, after all? They've got nothing else to offer the country.

I have heard, but not first hand that Obama said something like, "Why stop with Christopher Cox, in 47 days we will fire all of them" or some such. I really want to hear what he actually said.

Gosh, it seems to me that the (dis)Honorable Senator John McCain has been operating in such an accountability-free zone for so long he can't take legitimate criticism for the policies he's championed over the past 26 years. I don't know about you, but I don't need no stinking amoeba in the White House for 4 more years. McCain must do better than he has to gain any cred back with me, and personally I don't think the Senator is up to it at this juncture in his career. -Kevo

Wow!

Steve, by my count you are at 13 posts already, with the Mini-Report still on tap. Will 14 in a day be a record for you? (and us readers get 15 due to the added benefit of Hilzoy!)

Seriously, the pace you keep is amazing. Don't fall over of exhaustion by Election Day!

Let me fix that one line of yours, Steve:

In other words, the McCain campaign line is, "Obama might point out how McCain screwed up earlier, and if he does, Obama's lying about it -- even though he's not -- and he hasn't said it yet -- and we don't know that he will -- but Obama's wrong for saying what he hasn't said that's an inconvenient truth for anyone to say about McCain yet -- because we say so."

There. You're welcome.

Folks, McCain can actually get away this this statement.

Why? Because the Chairman is planning on quitting when a new administration takes over. Read his statement on the SEC website.

So, while you could call it pre-emptive lying, ya can't fire someone if they've quit.

It's more like obfuscation.

Since you're on a roll today, I've been spending more than my usual time reading the blog. And I must say that, while I love what you say, this format sucks hard.

Too soon for you to push for your elegant Carpetbagger format?

Of course, the Obama campaign could safely announce that John McCain is going to lie in any speech he's about to give without even knowing what the subject is.

A noun, a verb, and a lie.

Dumbth

"Are we seeing the birth of a new McCain campaign doctrine of preemptive lying?"

Not quite. Call it instead preemptive dumbing down. What we have been witnessing these last few weeks is nothing less than the GOP trying to sell stupidity as a campaign asset. We've had 12 years of the far right calling anybody who thinks, does their homework, or reads: elitists.

The culmination of this cultivation is the McCain-Palin ticket. They are the essence of dumbth. He finished in the 99th percentile at Annapolis. She makes George Bush look like a poet laureate. To wit: The Bush Doctrine is now a gotcha. The geography of Spain is now a gotcha. That McCain doesn't know he can't fire the SEC exec? That's a gotcha too.

232 years of American history honoring the "marketplace of ideas" and this is where we now find ourselves:

We either go ass-backwards into a permanent cul-de-sac of dumbth, or we win and save our country and the planet.

I hate to be that declarative and stark.
But this really is the Armageddon election. The country as we know it will not survive President Palin...

McCain has gone from being in a campaign to being in a Fellini film. Preemptive lying? Wow, that's the sign of a campaign spiraling out of control. The steady stream of WTF-inducing comments coming out of McCain and Palin is overheating the ability of the communications staff to deal with it. The only question is whether we'll witness an implosion or a mushroom cloud.

In his rush to score political points on his campaign disaster, we've heard that at his next event in Arizona, Senator McCain is about to distort the facts and attack whatever position he held yesterday.

So be sure to tune in.

"Lying" is such a harsh word --- I prefer "clairvoyant spin" !

Not sure about this one. Check Bainbridge's post

http://www.stephenbainbridge.com/punditry/comments/massive_misinformation_on_the_web_the_president_can_fire_the_sec_chairman/

D E F E N S E !! D E F E N S E !! The new Repug Mantra

CBS news had McCain's bold "I will fire" statement, and didn't bother to say that, you know, the president can't fire the commissioner. Oh, well. I mean, they accomplished what they were aiming for.

John McCain is proud to lie for his country.

And I really like both 'The McCain Doctrine of Preemptive Lying' and 'A noun, a verb and a lie.' However the latter is just a bit redundant.

LOL. Is this true or is this from ONN?

How imminent was the speech? How good was the intelligence that this was going to be in the speech? Those were the questions that would concern Sarah Palin, because all tho she stumbled through the question, she stated those pre-Bush-the-Lesser standards that the civilized countries used.

But if there were no intelligence that Obama may say that, or if the chances were low, or even if they thought Obama MIGHT be giving that speech? Then that would be more of what most of us call "The Bush Doctrine."

"...taking phrases he thinks are important, and repeating them, a few times, hoping they'll be more persuasive that way."

Hey, that's the Republican way!

Except they repeat them louder and louder, too. Did McCain do that?

"D E F E N S E !! D E F E N S E !! The new Repug Mantra"

Ha ha ha ha.

Throw the flag -- OFFSIDES.

Has Phil Grahm slapped that bunch of whiners? Clearly the McCain campaign seems to be in a mental recession.

What with Rove's subtle dissing and the self-destructive phoniness that is ruining McCain's straight-talk reputation (what was left of it), some are wondering if Schmidt/Rove really want McCain to win. If they don't at some level, why not?

Bush must be assisting McCain. How else could he move into that surrealistic Bushie campaign mode so easily?

Stephen Stralka, Nat: Rework it a bit as "A noun, a verb: a lie."

So he wants to fire this guy, a guy who is about to retire, and calls Obama a 'liar' even though the senator hasn't even responded to the gaff yet?

When McCain said "the fundamentals of the economy are sound" obviously he's not talking about the marketplace of ideas in his campaign.

There's a saying about low-hanging fruit that applies here, but I don't know the analogy.

Fire Chris Cox. Throw Russian out of the G8. It's a one size fits all solution. Sound tough by promising to do what can't be done.

It's all part of the New Verbage.

I still like McCain's explaination of his fundamentals are strong. The American workers..didn't anyone point out that those American workers have lost and many are going to lose their jobs? Not very strong to me. He is a joke. My sister who is a Republican has been saying for a while now that he is NOT going to win..who would vote for him? Especially now that he is confused on a daily basis.

The president has the authority to remove the chairman from the chair at the sole descretion of the president.

Furthermore, the president has the authority to remove any commisioner for cause.

You, and half...no, 3/4 of the lefty blogs have it wrong.

Corrections and revisions forth coming??? Probably not.

Damn, I miss Kevin.

McCain accused Obama of not having a response on the market collapse & bailout after McCain had done a 180 on the issue in less than 24 hours.

Remember Rove's 2nd Law is, "Always accuse your opponent of doing what you're doing." (The first is "Attack your opponent's strength from your weakness.") Rove's been criticizing McCain for going too far meaning, I suppose, that McCain's doing it without any finesse. McCain has, undoubtedly, the stupidest political handlers on the planet. Add a short-tempered, vain old-man of uncertain memory and no impulse control as the candidate, and you've got the campaign from hell.

"Chairman of the SEC" is a title, not an office. Since the president names the Chairman, yes, the president could name one of the other commissioners as Chairman, but that's different than "firing" since the man he "fired" would have the exact same powers as before.

Notice the inherent dysfunction of the wingnut mindset, here. They're silent, unable to offer up any relevent thoughts of their own until a right-wing blogger posts the talking points. Then, full of relief and marching orders in hand, blockheads like majarosh file out to liberal blogs to assert -- on their own (feeble) authority -- that the host is wrong.

Only one argued in enough good faith to post reference, so that the argument could be evaluated. Now, as I understand it, there's considerable debate in the comments to Professor Bainbridge's post as to whether his assertion of a technicality has any real relevance to McCain's statement. But hey, Republicans have so little to hang their hats on, any tendentious technicality will do, right?

Here's a clue, majarosh: Your assertion and a buck will buy a cup of coffee, and a lousy one at that. You'll need to bring a lot more that your word to demand a correction, particularly for someone with your record of intellectual dishonesty and support of odious Republicanism. Shame on you.

Haven't you idiots learned yet not to trust the bullshit posted on right-wing blogs, no matter how comfortable it may be to your cognitive dissonance? Good Ford, the complete domination of you so-called conservatives by emotion over logic is simply embarrassing to behold.