You have to wonder whether it's because he thinks he's so pure that he could never be corrupted, that he's cynical enough to think he can claim purity even though his campaign represents the opposite, or that he simply didn't know what was going on, because he's too damn lazy to check, and now doesn't want to admit a mistake. I'd lean towards the last, but I'm genuinely unsure.

For 5 1/2 years I didn't have a lobbyist

It's really time to take the gloves off. They need take every bullshit soundbite uttered by Sarah Palin last night and go medieval on McCain. In the next two debates, Barack has to really hammer McCain with these facts and put his honor and integrity in question. It's time to put McGrumpy into the red zone and see some veins pop.

I'll simply never understand why John McCain decided that associations with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are a key measurement of a presidential candidate's worth. It keeps coming back to bite him on the butt.

Look, it's quite simple. McCain is simply practicing pre-emption -- whatever McCain accuses Obama of is actually something McCain is much more guilty of.

Which is why we can be sure that McCain is a secret Black Power Muslim.

Obama, as subtly as possible, should impugn McCain's character and judgment during the next few debates. Turn them into a referendum on McCain's personality.

John McCain is simply an egotistical bully, perhaps even a sociopath. The one thing that will get under his skin and make him blow his top is for someone to call into question his integrity. After all, he's a legend in his own mind.

McCain is EASILY rattled, and if Obama can deliver some thinly veiled character attacks, McCain will go off message and portray himself as a vengeful old curmudgeon.

This makes me think that accuracy shouldn't be measured on a 0%-100% scale, but more like statistical correlation, which ranges from -1 to 1. Thus, "wrong" would be 1-C, and range between 0% wrong (completely accurate) to 100% wrong (bearing no resemblance to reality) to 200% wrong (something so inaccurate that the exact opposite is actually true).

This latest line from the McCain campaign is just another in a long, line of statements that hover pretty close to the 200% wrong mark. Obama's connections put him on the hook for the currenct financial mess; Obama doesn't understand foreign policy; Obama is too partisan; and on, and on, and on. Not only are these not accurate criticisms of Obama, they are accurate criticisms about McCain.

You would think that he wouldn't want to invite people to make these comparisons. But then he's amply demonstrated his judgment this election.

What is most frustrating to me is the desperation on McCain's part to frame the entire credit crisis as the fault of FNMA and FMAC. They contributed, yes, but as big followers, not as leaders.

That this idea is taking hold is annoying.

If McCain's campaign triumphs, it will be because the American public believed him when he yelled "purse-thief" and casually walked in the opposite direction he just pointed while all the time being in possession of the stolen purse!

My question to the American public this time around - will you allow yourselves to be hoodwinked just one more time before you start paying attention to candidates who are real, and discard the candidates who are made of canards? -Kevo

When McCain himself first appeared on the Washington scene, he did so as, guess what, a lobbyist, or, as the Navy called it, liaison to Congress,

With McCain lobbyists don't have to wait in the lobby, they can go right on up.

That's Just What I Said

Look over there! It's Sarah Palin putting lipstick on a field-dressed moose that she just shot from an airplane while simultaneously holding her son Trig who has Down's Syndrome and reading all newspapers and magazines!

Mark Buse is a Freddie Mac lobbyist who also happens to be gay.

Deregulate the markets, and regulate the genitals -- that's the GOP platform.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-rogers/john-mccains-chief-of-sta_b_128362.html

"A campaign spokesperson conceded that McCain's chief of staff is a former Freddie Mac lobbyist, but said this did not influence McCain's policy position.

That might even be true, but it's entirely irrelevant."

I think you -- and a lot of people -- are missing how this game gets played. Sure, it didn't change McCain's "position": he probably continued to go on record as opposing overpayment, blah blah blah. But did he go on to take any action against it? No, not a chance. And if I'm the overpayed exec at FNMA or Freddie Mac, that's more than a good enough return for my money spent on lobbing.

McCain's record is riddled with this kind of stuff. Grandstanding and showboating in public, lobbyists and influence-peddling in private. And the people paying him are smart enough to know that that's just fine.

Look, it's quite simple. McCain is simply practicing pre-emption...

Stefan's being funny and all, but really, that's what the McCain campaign is doing. And they think it's still 20 or 10 or 5 or 2 years ago, when the media overwhelmingly let Republicans in general and McCain in particular get away with that crap. Watch him jerk his head around in bewilderment and mounting rage as it begins to dawn on his walnut brain that that particular party's over. Mmmm. Popping forehead veins.

I think they are getting the Rove playbook backwards. Rather than go after Obama's where he is strong they are going after him where McCain is weak. It isn't nearly as effective.

Rather than go after Obama's where he is strong they are going after him where McCain is weak.

Which explains both the vast number and varied nature of McCain's attacks.

McCain's in 12 glass homes shouldn't throw stones.

The Rovian strategy of attacking your opponent for your own faults will work as long as two things are left unrecognized by the American public:

1) Degree of offense
2) That hypocrisy is bad.

So far, Rove has game.

Previous post had an accidental apostrophe. It should read:

McCains in 12 glass homes should'nt throw stones

Perhaps John McCain should do some reading:
"Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother, Let me remove that splinter from your eye, while the wooden beam is in your eye?
You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye."
Matthew 7: 3-5

Note to Obama/Biden camp, commercial time!

Wow, just wow. Just when you thought it couldn't smell any worse!

Buck up there, tooweary...,

Looking at the polling data, I'd say that Rove in fact, no longer has game. Or should I say, he has the same old game while the world has moved on.