McCain to Obama: Oh, Now It’s On Rookie!
By Jimmie on Aug 21, 2008 in Featured, Johnny Mac, The Good Old US of A, The Obamessiah
One of the big knocks on John McCain is that he has not gone after Barack Obama nearly enough this campaign. McCain has maintained that he doesn’t like to campaign that way but we know that he can because he has in the past, as conservatives who supported the Bush tax cuts and opposed his Campaign Finance Reform and Comprehensive Immigration Plan know very well.
The Obamessiah has largely coasted on such things as his lucrative association with known crook Tony Rezko and with terrorist Bill Ayers. McCain has pretty much let those issues die, much to Republicans’ chagrin, and they were, as of today, in the past.
So why in the world would he make a big deal of this Politico story wherein John McCain couldn’t tell a reporter how many homes he owned? Trying to portray someone as a rich guy isn’t a very effective attack unless you can also paint him as culturally elitist as well. The bogus scanner story worked on the first President Bush because he was already widely perceived as not knowing a darned thing about ordinary American life. That doesn’t work on the guy who went to Sturgis while the O-Man was jetting around Europe. It sure as hell doesn’t work on the guy who picked ABBA songs as two of his three favorites while Barack Obama picked a song for his list written specifically about him. Also remember that most of what John McCain “owns” is owned by his wife and that he has restricted himself after his involvement in the Keating Five so that he doesn’t involve himself in his wife’s finances. It’s reasonable to think that he didn’t want to give an off-the-cuff answer that could be used as a cheap “gotcha” if he was wrong about how many homes his wife owns as investment properties.
But before I answer the question about why Obama decided to jab McCain in the posterior with a sharp stick, let me point out that this is an all-out media blitz. Byron York noted today that he got six e-mails from either the Obama campaign or the DNC on the same subject before noon. He also lists sixteen events around the country today on the subject and here’s the breakdown of who was heading them up: eleven state legislators, two sitting Governors, and one former US Senator, along with various local Obama groups. He’s treating this as a very big deal.
Back to the question: Why has he decided to make a big deal out of this?
Because he has no idea in the world how to run a campaign against an opponent who doesn’t fold the instant his muckrakers dig up something he thinks is dirt.
There are plenty of better ways to attack John McCain than to make fun of him personally and to attack his integrity, something he protects fiercely. Obama should have known damned well that launching this offensive on such a trivial and easily-defended subject would rouse McCain. Obama’s barely holding on to the lead in this race so far and is walking into a convention that promises much more trouble for him than it does success. The last thing he needs is a pissed-off McCain dogging him all the way to his coronation stage at Invesco Field.
Yet, thanks to his own incredible stupidity, that’s exactly what he has. Johnny Mac’s supporters have unveiled a new ad that reminds us all exactly how close Barack Obama remains to an unrepentant murderer whose only lament about his bombings in the 60s is that they didn’t go far enough, who walked all over an American flag in 2001, and who said right before 9/11 that the very idea that America is a fair place “makes me want to puke”. Obama has never really answered any questions about his enduring relationship with the terrorist William Ayers but it looks like he’ll have to now.
Meanwhile, McCain’s campaign is launching a salvo of its own tonight – an ad reminding us all of just how tight the Obamessiah was with convicted felon and Chicago money man Tony Rezko.
I’ll say this again. Thanks to a mostly compliant MSM, these issues were virtually dead. Aside from folks like Stanley Kurtz, who is currently running headfirst into an old-school Chicago stonewall over Obama’s work with Ayers in the Windy City, few folks were doing much digging at all into either story. No major network or newspaper had any interest at all in either Rezko or Ayers. For all the MSM was concerned, both guys were just poor, misguided lambs who once ran afoul of the law some distance away from The Anointed One. But Barack Obama opened up the Rezko story by yakking about John McCain’s houses and he opened up Ayers by questioning his basic character.
It was a dumb rookie move that even I, who have won exactly as many contested elections for office as Barack Obama, knew not to make. Democrats have to be feeling great about their candidate right about now.
Oh, and did I mention that Hillary Clinton and her PUMAs are still out there, circling like a Great White? And The Obamessiah’s looking a lot like Quint.
And, in case you were wondering (or were Barack Obama), John McCain doesn’t own any houses. None. Zero.
Stumble it!
I am very interested in this whole Rezko deal…I hear from a friend in NY that the WSJ is about to print a huge expose on the Rezko matter on Monday. We’ll see.
Tommy | Aug 22, 2008 | Reply
Hey, I hear China is a real good place to do business!
Jewells | Aug 22, 2008 | Reply
The Rezko ploy won’t work. It didn’t for Hillary, and it certainly won’t work for John “Keating 5″ McCain. Rezko’s actions were deplorable, but they didn’t cost us taxpayers much money. The Keating 5 scandal cost us billions and McCain was happy to make us pay it. John McCain has been trying to play himself up as a “regular guy” and it just won’t work anymore. Regular guys don’t marry filthy rich women and don’t fly in their wife’s private jet. And they buy their own house, not expect their filthy rich wife to do so. He’s at best a gigolo. And normal people don’t barley squeak by at the Naval Academy because daddy’s an admiral. Republicans will try to explain that “elitists” are people who grew up on food stamps and got in to Harvard on their own merit and without daddy’s help. But the rest of us aren’t buying it. John McCain spent 5 years living like a real person, and the rest of his life living in undeserved luxury. Obama has lived 5 years in luxury after a lifetime of undeserved misery. How is Obama the “elitist?”
fostert | Aug 22, 2008 | Reply
Dear Jimmmie,(if you are the author)
Terrific, right on assessment. The Nobama Advisors are as stupid as the defrocked candidate himself: allowing him to ‘attack” McCain on a misstatement about who owns his properties when the Messiah has baggage in that department that would give Republicans fodder for years to come. And the Dems should have known better than to nominate an unvetted scoundrel like B. Hussein who gives “skeletons in the closet” a whole new meaning.
Ditto head | Aug 22, 2008 | Reply
I’m going to lay out a point of contention I have with McCain. He got into the Naval Academy because daddy was an admiral. His grades would normally have prevented that. And his behavior there would have gotten him thrown out quickly had his daddy not been an admiral. I tried to apply to that same Naval Academy. I had the grades and physical condition. And my SAT’s were easily good enough for the Ivy League. But I couldn’t even apply because I needed a recommendation from my Republican congressman. My mother was a known Democrat, so I was rejected immediately. And he even wrote me a letter saying exactly that. I deserved to attend the Naval Academy, and John McCain didn’t. But politics always trumps national security, doesn’t it?
fostert | Aug 23, 2008 | Reply
I don’t have a problem with that point of contention. It’s similar, in a way, to my contention that Michelle Obama attended Harvard despite not being qualified to do so, at least by her own admission. I think that such things ought to be entirely merit-based. The academies need to ease up on their Congressional approval requirements.
Though I will ask you if you think that what happened with McCain wasn’t that different from what happens at most every college thanks to legacy admissions.
Jimmie | Aug 23, 2008 | Reply
Which five years were those? And what does “undeserved” mean as you used it? Obama lived the childhood he lived because his father was a no-good bigamist who abandoned him. Yet it’s his father he openly embraces in speeches as opposed to the grandparents to took him in and loved him and raised him.
Jimmie | Aug 23, 2008 | Reply
“Yet it’s his father he openly embraces in speeches as opposed to the grandparents to took him in and loved him and raised him.”
You now, you have to love your father even if he’s an asshole. I was lucky, my father was a great man (yeah, he was an alcoholic, but he was still great). But I know plenty of people who can’t say that. And they still love their fathers. There’s a good reason that we have the phrase “blood is thicker than water.” And it’s not just the viscosity measurements. Obama gets a pass on this.
fostert | Aug 23, 2008 | Reply
“Though I will ask you if you think that what happened with McCain wasn’t that different from what happens at most every college thanks to legacy admissions.”
It isn’t, and I totally oppose legacy admissions. And it’s somewhat of a touchy subject for me. I got my acceptance letter from Cornell earlier than my friends who got early acceptance. Both of my parents graduated from Cornell, and that’s why the letter arrived so quickly. But here’s the thing: my SATs were considerably higher than most Cornell students, and my grades were too. I graduated in the 80th percentile of a degree program that was not only the most difficult at Cornell, it was the most difficult in the United States (A&EP). Did I deserve to go to Cornell? Absolutely. Would I have gotten into Cornell if I were a lesser student? Absolutely, and that’s a problem. But I wouldn’t have graduated if I wasn’t qualified. Cornell is a school that fails out most of their students (legacies included), and I had to be excellent to survive. And survive, I did. In fact, I excelled. And MIT can kiss my ass for accepting me too late. With apologies to my sister and two uncles, of course. I’m sure they got a good education there.
fostert | Aug 23, 2008 | Reply
On the subject of universities, I’ll add another point of contention: the “Gentleman’s C.” The idea that certain people will have their failing grades turned into C’s because daddy’s famous or donated a building is really appalling. And the worst offenders are in the Ivy League. Yeah, Yale, I’m talking about you. What makes this even worse is that some people will get an elite degree when they would have failed out of a regular school. Our president is a prime example of this, and Michelle Obama probably is too. To it’s credit, Cornell doesn’t have this policy. A good friend of mine almost failed out and took six years to scrape through. And his family had donated two very large buildings to Cornell. They don’t care if you’re Jesus, they’ll give you an ‘F’ if that’s what you deserve. They’ll even fail out a top notch hockey player. Yes, donating a building will get you into Cornell, but it won’t get you through it. They’re happy to cash your tuition check and fail your ass out. And they’re even happier to accept a free building and fail you out. Harvard and Yale can’t say that, unfortunately.
fostert | Aug 24, 2008 | Reply
Hey “fostert”, McCain was acquitted of all charges in the Keating 5, and his testimony helped convict Keating. The other four of the five, including the one that was convicted of criminal charges, were Democrats.
So just who was it that cost the taxpayers all these alleged “millions”?
And the investigation of William Jefferson (D-LA), who sidetracked Katrina relief resources (two trucks because the first one got stuck, and ultimately, a helicopter), for taking HUGE bribes, are ongoing.
As for the whether the “Rezko ploy” will work or not, that’s fairly irrelevant, if for no other reason than the McCain campaign has finally decided to open up a can of whoop-you-know-what on Senator Obama.
After over seven years of no response to President Bush being attacked in every way possible, including your utter canard about his education, comparisons to Hitler, Stalin, foreknowledge of 9/11, complicity in 9/11; this is frankly music to my ears, and doubtless millions of other Republicans.
At any rate, sll that has to happen is that Senator Obama’s shiny armor get tarnished a bit, and people might be able to see him for what he is.
Besides, there are few candidates with more fund-raising irregularity baggage of their own than the Clintons, so that would automatically take the sting out of any such attack by a Clinton on someone else. Senator McCain has no such baggage.
As a registered Republican, I would try to explain that elitism is about attitudes, not economics, but I don’t feel like wasting my time. The bottom line is that the elite think they’re better then us poor, unwashed proles, simply because they are them and we are us (as it were).
If you need more detail than that, read Laura Ingraham’s book: “Shut Up and Sing”
Heck, read the very first line, that tells you all you need to know about “elitism”.
As for: “…normal people don’t barley squeak by at the Naval Academy…”
How utterly ironic. My guess is that Senator McCain, as undistinguished as his academic career may have been, could spell “barely”.
And “normal people” aren’t carrier pilots, for that matter.
Besides, “A” students teach, and “B” students work for “C” students.
Speaking of distinguished, Senator Obama was the editor of the Harvard Law Review, and was also a Professor at the University of Chicago for five years. In all that time, he was published in academic journals, etc., just as many times as I have ever been (ZERO!!).
At least Senator McCain didn’t flat out LIE about his academic standing. Today, I heard a sound clip of Senator Biden claiming to have finished in the top half of his law school class, with three undergrad degrees, having attended on a full, academic scholarship. The problem is he was ranked 74 out of 79, his scholarship was needs-based, and he had only one undergrad degree.
Oops. His explanation? He tends to “exaggerate” when he’s angry.
Sounds JUST LIKE the kind of guy I want one heartbeat away from the Presidency!
BTW, while Senator Obama was allegedly “living on foodstamps”, he was also going to a very elite prep school.
As for “our president being a prime example” of getting an elite degree he didn’t deserve, that is pure, unadulterated, utter HOGWASH!! NO ONE gets such dispensation at the Harvard MBA school (and I DEFY you to produce even the SLIGHTEST SHRED of evidence to the contrary).
On the contrary, they regularly serve their bottom 10% with ultimata – improve or you’re out. And if they don’t improve, they DO get kicked out.
How in the world is it that a Harvard MBA has the cachet that it has – by giving them out to anyone that can bribe them sufficiently? Give me a break!
Besides, Bush 41 was special envoy to China at the time, do you honestly mean to tell us that the blue-bloods at Harvard would have been at all impressed by that?
Going to your example, just where is the building at Harvard that that funded by the Bush family?
lloydrmc | Aug 26, 2008 | Reply