Sep 12th, 2008 at 10:51 am
McCain: Barack Made Me Lie!
Speaking last night at the national service forum, John McCain got asked a question about why his campaign keeps making false accusations. /;”First of all this is a tough business,” the Arizona senator said. “Second of all, I think the tone of this whole campaign would’ve been very different if Sen. Obama had accepted my request for us to appear at town hall meetings all over America.”
In other words — it’s Barack Obama’s fault, Obama is forcing him to lie by refusing to engage in a series of town hall debates.
This is something to ponder the next time you hear McCain talk about the central role that “honor” plays in his worldview.
54 Responses to “McCain: Barack Made Me Lie!”
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September 12th, 2008 at 10:55 am
GOP Handbook
Politician asked tough question.
Politician moves irrelevant air around.
Repeat as needed.
September 12th, 2008 at 10:56 am
What a disgusting toad.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:00 am
John McCain wants to raise your taxes on energy and healthcare.
John McCain wants to raise your taxes on energy and healthcare.
John McCain wants to raise your taxes on energy and healthcare.
John McCain wants to raise your taxes on energy and healthcare.
John McCain wants to raise your taxes on energy and healthcare.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:00 am
i’m sorry, is this really mccain’s answer to this question? surely it’s an answer to another question!
ok, kidding aside, this is exactly how mccain convinces himself that he is still a person of honor: by delusional projections that every failure to behave honorably is really someone else’s fault.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:00 am
This is definitely one of the more bizarre things he has said recently–and that is saying a lot.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Yes this is crap BUT… I really think that more debates of any sort would have helped Obama. I never understood why he refused.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:01 am
I hate to sound like a broken record, but what the Obama campaign needs to do is to go after McCain directly on the “honor” issue. And Mr. invisible, Joe Biden, is far and away the best conduit for such an attack.
Is it risky? A little. A couple of weeks ago, I can see why the Obama campaign thought they needed to play it safe. No longer.
What’s sad is this - while it’s apparent that the Obama campaign is aware that they can no longer play it safe and run out the clock, past experience tells us that they will respond inadequately and defensively.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:02 am
I’m shedding crocodile tears over here.
Poor John McCain, forced into dishonor by the big bad Obama campaign. It took some time for the North Vietnamese to break him, but in not accepting McCain’s town hall meeting offer, Obama totally crushed his spirit, leaving him the shell of his former self that he currently is.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:04 am
John McCain says Barack Obama is forcing McCain to run a dirty campaign.
If John McCain can’t stand up to Barack Obama, how can he stand up to the threats he’d face as President?
If John McCain is too weak to keep his principles in the face of a single opponent, how does he expect to change the status quo in Washington?
September 12th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Seems David Broder is McGoiter’s new speech writer
September 12th, 2008 at 11:05 am
“tough business”, which is a lame excuse coming from the GOP which is supposedly the party of morals and accountability, blah, blah, blah.
Then there is the “I lie about him because he did not concede to a demand I made”. More of the same tough business excuse and frankly shows that these people cant act like adults. They have to act like spiteful and petty assholes.
There is morality of the GOP for all to see.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:08 am
I’ve never understood why Obama didn’t agree to do at least some of those Town Hall meetings. It seems to me the more exposure of the two of them side-by-side the better it would be for Obama.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:08 am
My take on this is that McCain need to attach himself to a celebrity, whether it be Obama or Palin, lest he be relegated to wooing a hundred dozing people at a nursing home.
If Obama doesn’t let him glom on a la “town hall” meetings, he has to follow Palin around for the next 2 months. Tough situation.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Does anybody else get the sense that John McCain believes he has a moral obligation to win which trumps his moral obligation to wage a fair campaign?
September 12th, 2008 at 11:09 am
He said basically the same thing about a month ago when the first wave of “celebrity” ads came out. At least the media is now starting to call bullshit.
In other news, this Lakoff piece is worth a read this morning.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:10 am
After hearing Matt and Sullivan speak (mostly) the truth about McBain and Paleface over the last days and weeks I am beginning do doubt the influence of the blogosphere. Don’t you feel like you are pissing in the wind with all of this reporting? Your only reaching your own audience which is predisposed to agree with you on most things.
This morning I watched the usually okay Scarborough say that he didn’t know what the Bush Doctrine was either(His panel then took turns kissing Palin’s ass) Whaaat? I’m a shitheal labor lawyer and I know what the fucking Bush Doctrine is!
The people that need to be reached with this sort of information are not being reached. Matt should run a commercial for his blog during Monday Night Football.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Since the basic health and fitness of candidates is a required by the public to make a decision, any word on Palin and menopause? She’s in the statistical zone. From wiki:
“The average age of menopause in the Western world is 51 years, and the normal age range for the occurrence of menopause is somewhere between the age of 45 and 55. Last period ever occurring between the ages of 55 to 60 is known as a “late menopause”. An “early menopause” on the other hand is defined as last period ever between the age of 40 to 45.”
Maybe this is what is causing McCain’s behavior? He’s having sympathy flashes…
September 12th, 2008 at 11:13 am
It’s quite as if a college football coach argued that, if the opponent had agreed to play us on our home field, we wouldn’t have had to spear-tackle.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:18 am
I really noticed that McCain statement as well - what struck me about it was the mindset it reveals. This is exactly the way abusive spouses think - ‘I didn’t want to hit you, you MADE me do it.’ I’ve always thought that McCain had an abuser’s personality and that remark just about clinched it for me.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Why is Barack Obama being so mean to that nice old man who’s trying to help out child molesters & pedophiles?
September 12th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Of course it’s a bullshit excuse, but I wonder if it’s partly true—if he’s genuinely so angry about what he perceives as a snub that he was eager to see sharper attacks. He’s an extremely angry and vindictive man.
Of course, even if that’s true…if they had done the town halls, he would have found something else to get furious about, so.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Is that pic of McCain spontaneous or posed? My big money’s on the latter option.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:21 am
So in other words, “If I had to stand and look my opponent in the eye every week, I would be to ashamed to say the things I’ve been saying. But since I don’t, I don’t.”
Stay classy, Johnny!
September 12th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Thirty second ad by their nature over-simplify and mislead. Obama’s are no exception. McCain wanted weekly town hall style debates. That would have created a civil, respectful tone that is impossible in a war of negative ads.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:27 am
It sounds like an excuse for date rape. But I’m sure Scarborough, Mathews, Broder and the like think it’s valid.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:31 am
I am beginning do doubt the influence of the blogosphere. Don’t you feel like you are pissing in the wind with all of this reporting? Your only reaching your own audience which is predisposed to agree with you on most things.
exactly.
i’ve reached the point where i’ve stopped following links from blogs if the writer is only referencing another blogger - there’s just no point in it. a blogger out here in the wilderness might have something smart to say, but smart things are basically irrelevant in politics if the MSM isn’t talking about them. hell, smart things the candidates themselves say are routinely overlooked by the MSM, and even the things that the MSM picks up are just stuffed into their pre-approved narratives.
blogs are fun, but really, they’re just harmonized whining.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:35 am
laborlibert-
It is frustrating, but I think all the blogospheric wind pissing does make a difference - it is just a very small and incremental progress. When folks like Joe Klein and Mark Halperin start to occasionally make sense, some credit must be given to the bloggers who day in and day out hammer at this stuff until they must feel they are blue in the face.
I would also encourage writing old fashioned letters to the editor, especially for WaPo or other journalistic malfeasance. There are many many voters who still don’t get news from anywhere but the papers and tv. It may still be wind pissing, but if you get printed you reach a circle-jerky target.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Is that pic of McCain spontaneous or posed? My big money’s on the latter option.
Crackpot Republican fascist to McCain: OK, Senator, now squint one eye closed and gnash your teeth, real angry, like this [shows him how to do it]– I promise, this will help us out.
—————–
Who knows what the picture is for specifically (generally, it most probably has something to do with selling McCain to the American public), but I bet it has to do psychology or advertising.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Man I’m tired of this town hall excuse from McCain.
1) he acts like its Obama thats being negative.
2) he acts like this is justification for being FOS every time his candidates open their mouth
3) Obama didn’t quite refuse. McCain said they wanted 10 of these “town hall” meetings, Obama said that 10 was too many given the amount of campaigning he needs to do, *McCain* said one, plus three debates, plus a focused foreign policy debate wasn’t good enough, so forget it. Personally I’d like to see more than one, but ten is too many. This is a clear demonstration of how McCain negotiates and probably can be applied to his foreign policy as well:
McCain: I want this
: no we propose that
McCain: F-YU
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/5837182.html
just another McCain half truth. McCain and Palin are taking the Bush and Cheney philosophy of government to the next level.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:49 am
whoops, the section above should read:
McCain: I want this
*insert foriegn leader here*: no, we propose that
McCain: F-YU
*begin invasion of foreign leaders country*
September 12th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
In my line of work, we don’t let mentally retarded five year-olds get away with “But he made me do it!” Why do we let a seventy-three year-old senator?
September 12th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
For five and a half years, the Vietnamese didn’t let John McCain get away with SHIT - don’t we owe it to his service to let him get away with it now?
September 12th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
I just saw the latest Obama ad that attacks McCain for saying he doesn’t know anything about computers or the economy. We’re at the stage of the race where almost all the ads will be negative. Every one of these will be a cartoonish depiction of the opponent. All candidates rely on their campaign team for this. It’s like Coke vs Pepsi — all fizz, no substance.
Town hall meetings would have been a far better approach.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
McCain made this ridiculous argument and got away with it.
The moderators at the forum did not follow-up by asking, “Are you saying it is Obama’s fault that your campaign is running slanderous ads?”
And then, after the forum, I heard Chris Mathews on MSNBC make McCain’s argument all over again: The forum, he said, showed that the awful stuff in the campaign (which he implied came from both sides) wouldn’t be there if they campaigned alongside each other.
It is one thing to point out the stupidity of McCain’s pronouncements on this blog, but it is another to figure out how to make those pronouncements boomerang to bite McCain where it hurts.
That is what needs to be done.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Bill is right. Broder actually seems to have been the first person to give this explanation for McCain’s behavior. He gave it as soon as McCain began going dirty and defended in Post reporter chats. McCain is just referencing the Dean here.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
What I’d like to see - hell, it might not work, but it would be fun - obviously not from the Obama campaign directly - would be an ad showing how McCain survived as a POW by violating his oath and committing treason by making propaganda films for the North Vietnamese.
Upon his release, he should have been court martialed and shot as a traitor.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Yes, but will Obama pledge to use these newfound psychic powers for the good of America? Or will he just banish the disobedient ones……to the cornfield. Will no one ask the question?
http://thesebastards.blogspot.com/
September 12th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
The “town halls” are stupid. Candidates sit there on the stage and answer pre-screened questions. Basically, McCain’s down to one event a day, and he wants Obama to campaign at his pace, go into the states he wants, and he’s adopting the time-honored tactic of putting out an offer you know will be rejected and then blaming the other guy for refusing.
Do American voters give a flaying anything if candidates show up at a “town hall” in some dirt burg in Missouri? No — only the media care about process stories. This nonsense isn’t even horserace coverage.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Pepsi says it tastes better than Coke. It doesn’t say Coke is a mix of heroin and goat piss. There are repurcussions for that kind of behaviour.
There is not an equivalence between what the two are doing. McCain has launched a fusilade of obviously false advertisements, egregious in the magniitude of their deception. Obama’s negative adds run from truth to exaggeration.
McCain is relying on the “Both sides always do it” belief that has aided Republicans in elections for over a decade. The press has obviously noticed, and have begun reporting the obvious falsehood of McCain’s claims. Some might even be working up the courage to make the connection that a man who knowingly lies every day about important matters might be a liar.
September 12th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
I would love to see these Coke V. Pepsi ads Njori hypothetically conjures. Thanks for first good laugh all day.
September 12th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
I’ve never understood why Obama didn’t agree to do at least some of those Town Hall meetings. It seems to me the more exposure of the two of them side-by-side the better it would be for Obama.
While Andruw is probably correct that Obama would probably fare well in an extended side-by-side comparison, I think it’s easy too understand why the Obama campaign rejected the idea.
The perception is that McCain excells in a town hall format. Now, I think that’s mostly hype — he didn’t come back to win the GOP nomination because of the numerous town hall meetings he did; he won because Romney and Huckabee split the conservative vote. Also, I think the perception, or conventional wisdom regarding McCain and town halls also is because relative to his lackluster campaign speeches, his town hall performances do look good.
The let’s-do-a-series-of-town-halls-together gambit was an attempt by the McCain campaign to level the playing field — so that McCain could share some of the media attention garnered by his “celebrity” opponent. In a way this is just a variation of the norm — the underdog nearly always seeks to increase the number of debates and joint exposure.
When this gambit failed, and I think when it became clear to the Steve Schmidt/Rove/et al. that the anti-celebrity ads weren’t doing enough damage, they decided to throw the Hail Mary pass to the fundies by picking Palin. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em (and never admit your inconsistencies).
September 12th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Clearly we now know that with McCain, the buck will not stop here. If he wanted, he could call off the attacks today. In fact, he DID yesterday!
Yes, the campaign is a classic Prisoner’s Dilemma, but McCain was the one who flinched first. He can’t seriously believe that Obama would keep going negative if McCain stopped. It’s hurting Obama more than him.
September 12th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Your link below doesn’t say what you say it says. You write, “John McCain got asked a question about why his campaign keeps making false accusations.” According to the link, he was asked about the negative tone of the campaign.
I’m not saying McCain hasn’t lied or isn’t at fault for the negative tone, but I’m not sure you’re representing the question quite accurately.
September 13th, 2008 at 1:08 am
If you are referring to Broder’s Aug. 7, 2008 column, the explaination came from McCain. Broder just quoted him.
Maybe so, but McCain has chosen to flat out lie about Obama, even when there is no 30 second time constraint. McCain had close to an hour to make his acceptance speech at the Republican convention, and McCain decided to lie about Obama anyway.
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