Man, oh, man, don’t you just hate “teasers?” When somebody says, “I’ve got something to tell you, but you have to wait,” it ticks me off. Especially if they do it in that annoying sing-song voice people use. Well, that’s exactly what John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin are doing right now. Politico’s Jonathan Martin reports that the McCain camp is making news in the morning:
On what, they won’t say.
“We’ll have something to talk about,” is all a campaign aide would allow.
Check back again in this space or over on our front-page in the morning.
HillBuzz reports that the National Enquirer is supposed to release an Obama “sex scandal” tomorrow, and that they’ve heard of another scandal about to break of the RICO variety, involving Obama and ACORN. Don’t know what to make of all this, but McCain and Palin sure are “having fun.” Time’s Mark Halperin reports on their interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity:
On the advice McCain and Palin give each other before the debates:
McCain: “Well, the only advice we give each other is to have fun — two words. And we talk before the debates and just — have fun. And it was obvious that certainly Sarah was having fun at her debate, and I was trying to have fun at mine. And I think we did.”
The Dynamic Duo had a lot to say about Obama’s judgment and readiness to be president, especially as it relates to his associations with William Ayers:
“It’s about Senator Obama being candid and straight forward with the American people about their relationship. He has dismissed it by saying he was just a guy in the neighborhood. You know it’s much more than that. Let’s reveal all the details of that relationship and then the American people can make a judgment.”
This is the edited version of the controversial Saturday Night Live bailout sketch. It seems, believe it or not, that the reason the sketch was originally pulled is because neither Lorne Michaels, the show’s creator and producer, nor the NBC legal team, knew that the Sandlers, a couple depicted in the sketch, were real people. According to the L.A. Times:
“I, in a state of complete ignorance, thought they were characters in the piece,” he said. “I did not know they were real, up until somebody called me about it on Monday. And I went, what? Now, that’s entirely my fault. Entirely.
“When I spoke to them, I can assure you this: They are very, very real. I think they were angry, I think distraught, I think they were not expecting to turn on the television and see that. First of all, I pleaded incompetence, which is not a thing I do often, and the fact that I did not know they were real is 100% my responsibility.”
The unflatteringly depicted couple, accused in the skit of exploiting the subprime mortgage crisis, did not complain; the decision to remove the bit was simply the show’s attempt to excercise an abundance of caution. You buying any of this? Another L.A. Times story says this:
A “Saturday Night Live” skit that skewered President Bush, Democrats, homebuyers and subprime lenders for their roles in the mortgage meltdown was removed from the program’s website because it “didn’t meet out standards,” a spokesman for the show said Tuesday. An edited version of the skit will be re-posted online soon, the spokesman said.
In an interview with Gold, the show’s executive producer, Lorne Michaels, said the Sandlers were distraught but had not demanded the changes. He noted the “People who should be shot” line was deleted as was a reference to their “corrupt activities.”
But a comparison of the two versions shows that actually a little more than that was cut. What also was excised was any mention of the involvement of Massachusetts’ Rep. Frank in the Sandler subprime mess.
It’s getting harder and harder to tell the Democratic presidential candidate from the Republican one. If you’re not looking at them, that is. Just listening to them talk, or reading about their proposals, you’d swear they either switched sides, or sides don’t matter anymore.
Last night, though the “we’re smarter than you” pundits near and far scored the debate for Obama, saying since McCain didn’t deliver a knockout, Obie wins on points, in the light of day, it looks like McCain may have knocked them all silly at the opening bell. In answer to the first question presented to him, McCain said this:
You know that home values of retirees continues to decline and people are no longer able to afford their mortgage payments. As president of the United States, Alan, I would order the secretary of the treasury to immediately buy up the bad home loan mortgages in America and renegotiate at the new value of those homes — at the diminished value of those homes and let people be able to make those — be able to make those payments and stay in their homes.
Now, the first I heard of this plan was from Hillary Clinton, but nobody paid attention to her. Last night, immediately after the debate, Obi-WanNaBePresident seemed to take credit, at least according to a press release published by Politico:
The statement, “John McCain Lies Tonight,” began: “McCain today said he had a new plan to allow the Treasury to purchase and restructure mortgages. The truth is that this is not a new proposal and is already part of the rescue plan that was signed into law. It was Obama, not McCain who called for this move two weeks ago.”
But today, Camp O is singing a different Dixie; from AP:
The plan would cause the government “to massively overpay for mortgages in a plan that would guarantee taxpayers lose money, and put them at risk of losing even more if home values don’t recover,” Obama economic adviser Jason Furman said in a statement. “The biggest beneficiaries of this plan will be the same financial institutions that got us into this mess, some of whom even committed fraud.”
I can’t underscore enough what a rotten idea John McCain’s ACORN-like government mortgage buy-up is. I said it during my liveblog. And I’ll say it again: “HE WANTS TO EXPAND THE BAILOUT. He wants to do what ACORN wants to do. We’re Screwed ‘08.”
And, even though Obama slammed McCain just last night for saying the fundamentals of the economy are strong, today the O-man said:
“America still has the most talented, most productive workers of any country on Earth,” Obama said. “We’re still the home to innovation and technology, colleges and universities that are the envy of the world. Some of the biggest ideas in history have come from our small businesses and our research facilities.”
Having trouble keeping “who’s who” straight? Well, let me tell you, whatever you do, don’t call the black one “Hussein.” I know it’s his name, but it seems to really piss his friends off.
Or something like that. During last nights’ complete waste of time “debate,” Obama asserted that the invention of the computer was due to a government defense project of some sort. Per The Washington Times:
“The same way the computer was originally invented by a bunch of government scientists who were trying to figure out, for defense purposes, how to communicate,” he said.
The mistake was reminiscent of Mr. Gore’s comments about the Internet. When running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1999, he told a CNN interviewer: “During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.”
The first computers were created by teams of professors and graduate students. The two teams with the strongest claim to the invention were from Iowa State University and the University of Pennsylvania, where the research originally was funded by the Army during World War II.
Maybe Brokaw’s “Manhattan Project” question helped muddle Obama’s thoughts. Nah, this question came after. From CNN’s transcript:
Should we fund a Manhattan-like project that develops a nuclear bomb to deal with global energy and alternative energy or should we fund 100,000 garages across America, the kind of industry and innovation that developed Silicon Valley?
What the hell does that even mean? I get the “Manhattan Project” part, it’s the “100,000 garages” that stumps me. Why not a couple thousand shoe stores, or 1,500 beanie factories? Anyway, in response, John McCain said, “Blah, blah, blah, you know who voted for the Bush-Cheney energy bill, that one,” and pointed at Obama. (I’m paraphrasing here.) This seemed to be part of McCain’s strategy to portray Obama as “not-yet-ready-for-primetime.” It clearly rattled Obama, because later, he took a “nyah nanna-na-nah, same goes for you!” approach, when he said this:
Now, Sen. McCain suggests that somehow, you know, I’m green behind the ears and, you know, I’m just spouting off, and he’s somber and responsible.
McCain: Thank you very much.
Obama: Sen. McCain, this is the guy who sang, “Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,” who called for the annihilation of North Korea. That I don’t think is an example of “speaking softly.
Now, Obama’s media supporters are predicting that other sources will soon be calling McCain racist for the “that one” comment. While Grampa Mac was clearly being dismissive, it’s much less clear that his derision was racially motivated. But then, I guess whenever an old white guy, in essence, calls a younger black guy, “Sonny,” you could make the racism case. Whatever. All I know is, I would have cared a lot more about the whole race thing a few months ago, before racism itself became a stereotype.
Besides, the “green behind the ears” thing makes Obama a Vulcan. And, he called himself that.
Where’s the outrage about the William Ayers/Barack Obama association? Not from concerned voters, from William Ayers? Shouldn’t a guy who’s having his name dragged through the mud scream in protest? You’d expect a truly reformed, former radical to tell anybody who would listen, “Hey, can it with the terrorist stuff!” I’m a respected academic; a professor of education, for Chrissakes, with a wife and grown kids! Leamme alone, willya? So, I know the guy, so what?”
But that’s not the kind of response we get from Ayers or Obama. Ayers refuses to discuss it at all, and Obama avoids the issue as much as possible. When Obama’s forced to respond, he says something stupid, like “He’s an English professor who lives in my neighborhood.” Just the fact that they both work at the same university puts them in a little more proximity than that. And neither of them are English professors, by the way.
Obama’s surrogates are even stupider. In response to questions about Obama and Ayers’ supposed “first meeting” at a political coming out party in Ayers and his wife, Bernadette Dohrn’s home in 1995, David Axelrod actually tried to pass this bit of whimsy off as truth:
“When he went he certainly didn’t know the history,” chief Obama strategist David Axelrod told CNN – arguing for the first time since the story surfaced early this year that Obama was unaware of Ayers’ past.
Hello?
Exactly when was that first meeting anyway, Dave? I guess when you’ve “astroturfed” half the country into believing a guy whose profession is running for a different office every few years is ready to be president, you start to believe people will buy your bullshit as milk chocolate if you say so. This is not the first time Axelrod has said something in Martian to explain Obama/Ayers. In February, he told Politico’s Ben Smith:
“Bill Ayers lives in his neighborhood. Their kids attend the same school,” he said. “They’re certainly friendly, they know each other, as anyone whose kids go to school together.”
When it was pointed out that Ayers kids are damned near Obama’s age, their campaign tried to sell Ben this:
There’s been a bit of confusion about Axelrod’s line on the kids, who — as the Guardian’s Daniel Nasaw noted — aren’t the same age. Obama’s kids went go the the University of Chicago Lab Schools, where Ayers kids, who are much older, had gone. However, Bernardine Dohrn is still active at the school, and an Obama aide said that was the connection.
So, in cleaning up the “kids in school” cow pie, Camp O admits to a previously unreported Obama family/ Ayers family connection.
Then he got a call from Jerry Kellman, an organizer working on Chicago’s far South Side for a community group based in the churches of the region, an expanse of white, black and Latino blue-collar neighborhoods that were reeling from the steel-mill closings. Kellman was looking for an organizer for the new Developing Communities Project (DCP), which would focus on black city neighborhoods.
William Ayers, associate professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago; co-director of the Small Schools Workshop; co-director of the Chicago Forum for School Change—an affiliate of the Coalition of Essential Schools;[20] chairman of the Alliance for Better Chicago Schools (ABCs) coalition;[21][22] former Chicago assistant deputy mayor for education (1989–1990);[22] brother of John Ayers, executive director (1994–2004) of Leadership for Quality Education (an affiliate of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago) and former associate director (1987–1994) of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago; son of Thomas Ayers, former president (1964–1980), chairman and CEO (1973–1980) of Commonwealth Edison and former vice president (1980) of the Chicago School Board (my emphasis)
So, while it’s obvious these two guys go way back, if it’s innocent, why not just ‘fess up and be done with it? But, hey, the same could be said about Obama’s official birth certificate, or baptismal records, or college transcripts, or medical reports; we haven’t seen any of those things, either. Makes you wonder, what’s the big deal? Why do people have to go to court to get access to documents you’d think the “transcendent candidate for hope and change and transparent governing” would be only too happy to lay his cards on the table about? Only, Obama doesn’t just keep his cards close to the vest, he’s stuck half the deck up his sleeve to the elbow.
Now you’ve got this Barackaphile Robert Gibbs guy, mocking what the Obama boyz call “guilt-by-association smears,” ranting at Sean Hannity about Obama basher, Andy Martin, making the claim that since Hannity has interviewed Martin, who has been accused of anti-Semtism, that makes Hannity an anti-Semite, too. The fact that unlike Obama and Ayers, Hannity probably doesn’t even know where Martin lives, let alone visit the man, escapes these geniuses.
Man, oh, man, don’t you just hate “teasers?” When somebody says, “I’ve got something to tell you, but you have to wait,” it ticks me off. Especially if they do it in that annoying sing-song voice people use. Well, that’s exactly what John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin are doing right now. Politico’s Jonathan Martin reports that the McCain camp is making news in the morning:
