Sep 10th, 2008 at 12:52 am
Weisman Gets on the Tire Swing
Here’s John McCain on August 20 talking to Laura Ingraham: “I still believe the fundamentals of our economy are strong.”
Here’s the audio:
And here’s Jonathan Weisman of The Washington Post today proving that he’s evenhanded:
A McCain quote Obama has often used — that the economy is fundamentally sound — is months old. Since he said that, McCain has said almost daily that the economy is struggling.
Your liberal media.
40 Responses to “Weisman Gets on the Tire Swing”
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September 10th, 2008 at 1:05 am
If America falls for this bologna…the Extreme right could never chant the battlecry Country first ever again!
September 10th, 2008 at 1:15 am
Well, it *is* months old. Approximately 0.66 months old!
September 10th, 2008 at 1:37 am
Objects in your press reports may be closer than they appear.
September 10th, 2008 at 2:12 am
Is this really an important bone to pick if McCain has been for the most part consistently backpedaling on it for months? McCain or his supporters would just turn your criticism towards where McCain says “fundamentals of our economy” and say that the quote means something like “America is a rich country with a high standard of living” which very few people would seriously argue with.
There are plently of other bad things to say about their ticket that stick a lot better. How about the bridge-to-nowhere flip-flops, creepy covering-up of Palin’s record by the press, and McCain’s Confederate flag support? How about McCain’s bad policy positions, nonperformance in the Senate, or shoddy pre-politics lifestyle?
September 10th, 2008 at 2:24 am
swan, this is a presidential election, and the candidates define themselves in bold strokes: of course it is perfectly appropriate for obama to hammer mccain on his starry-eyed view of the disaster that is bush league economics.
in no meaningful way has mccain backpedalled: what is it about what he says he will do (in those brief seconds where we are allowed to gain an insight into what he would do) that shows you he in any ways understands of the costs of years of stagnant real income, lower levels of health insurance coverage, and poor job creation to the american household? in what way does he show the slightest indication that he understands how to conduct a better economic policy than the one he has supported for 8 years?
matthew, as you perhaps know, jonathan weisman used to be on the wapo economics beat, where he pretty much led prof delong to create the “why oh why can’t we have a better press corps” feature: weisman was clueless and easily spun about the economy for years.
naturally, the wapo thought him a comer and moved him to politics.
where he is equally awful.
September 10th, 2008 at 3:21 am
When will it be the right time to go down to the National Press Building, raise the black flag and just start slitting throats?
September 10th, 2008 at 4:27 am
It’s also just a funny defense in and of itself. “Obama sucks for not keeping up to date with McCain’s flip flops.”
September 10th, 2008 at 5:44 am
The credit system is fundamentally broken. The credit system is capitalism. Without credit expanding the economy can’t grow. Credit it the mother of all fundamentals of the modern economy.
The F’s bailout isn’t the end, it’s an early inning.
http://www.minyanville.com/articles/Paulson-Fed-bailout-mortgage-government-fre/index/a/18868
http://www.minyanville.com/articles/credit-crunch-fannie-fnm-freddie-fre/index/a/18876
Everyone believes someone is driving the train. Or maybe the best analogy is that they believe the emperor is wearing beautiful clothes. That includes the entire political class of both parties. Neither party or their candidate has a clue.
There is no magic fix for the errors of the era. That being a monetary and credit expansion on a scale which dwarfs by many orders of magnitude any other era.
In two years when the deficit is 1 or 2 trillion and the Fed is monetizing the debt like mad, rest assured everyone will still believe the emperors clothes are pretty. There isn’t any other choice psychologically really. We’ve bought in 100% into the idea that we are operating on the perfect principals of free market economics, when in reality we have been operating under the direction of the socialist banking system.
September 10th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Not so fast. In a television ad, Obama uses and dates a video bit from months ago. Who listens to the Laura Ingraham show?
September 10th, 2008 at 7:45 am
I have no idea what you’re saying, asl. That McCain didn’t say something on August 20 because a lot of people weren’t listening? That sounds like a tree falling in the forest doesn’t make a sound unless there’s a quorum.
September 10th, 2008 at 8:49 am
If it’s old, just put some lipstick on it.
And on Laura too.
September 10th, 2008 at 8:57 am
Who listens to the Laura Ingraham show?
Right wing nut jobs, which explains why “Mavrick” McCain was on the show.
September 10th, 2008 at 9:07 am
If the D.C. Vice Squad were competent, they would have gone after the Washington Post instead of Deborah Jeane Palfrey. Broder’s stable of Republican whores is second to none.
September 10th, 2008 at 9:23 am
I saw the Weisman article. I knew even before I read it that it would be another one of those faux objective pieces. The MSM is fundamentally corrupt because it refuses to accept any responsibility for what it does; it pretends to be a pure mirror when in fact it has become a bullhorn for lies.
September 10th, 2008 at 9:44 am
In response to Swan, at #4:
No, no, no.
*You* don’t let your *opponents* talk you into backing off of an attack.
Not when it’s justified (McCain said it before; he said it in August); not when it’s effective (if it wasn’t an effective political attack, don’t you think the GOP/media would let Democrats keep making it ineffectually? Which of those two entities do you think is seriously looking out for us?).
And just because “a reporter” isn’t a McCain staffer, that *doesn’t* mean his argument or analysis isn’t serving McCain’s ends.
September 10th, 2008 at 10:15 am
These outrageous sexist attacks must stop.
-The New GOP Politically Correct Speech Police
September 10th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Swan, you apparently meant well, but the subject here is Jonathan Weisman of the Post, not John McCain. What Weisman said was false. Now, he may have done this because he’s hopelessly incompetent, or he may have done this because he a corrupt, lying sack of shit. But either way, he and the Post made a false claim of fact.
September 10th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Is this really an important bone to pick if McCain has been for the most part consistently backpedaling on it for months?
Well, no, he hasn’t been backpedaling on it.
Underlying this is a real, substantive debate about what a “good economy” is this country looks like. McCain thinks tbhis economy is going great if big corporations are making record profits and the very richest people (people like John and Cindy McCain) are getting richer, even if everyone else isn’t doing so well. Many of the rest of us are worried about an economy in which the top 1% are doing better than at any time in history, and the standard of living of the rest of us is declining.
September 10th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
You’re right, let’s give poor old war hero honest John McCain the benefit of the doubt. I’m sure he’s changed his mind and come around to reality by now, like he has on so many other issues (the Bush tax cuts, oil drilling, war with Iran, etc.)
September 10th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Matt misses the second error in the Weisman piece. I haven’t heard McCain say that the economy is struggling. He says that individuals and areas are suffering. This would be true whether the economy is good or bad.
September 10th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
(hey, do “strike” tags work here?
Yesor no…)September 10th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Howard wrote: swan, this is a presidential election, and the candidates define themselves in bold strokes: of course it is perfectly appropriate for obama to hammer mccain on his starry-eyed view of the disaster that is bush league economics.
In my comment, I wasn’t criticizing that, I was criticizing Matt’s criticism of Weisman. Obama could do just what he’s doing and not run afoul of my idea of what his strategy should be like just by saying “McCain was saying such-and-such for months while such-and-such economic indicators were frightening people” instead of saying anything that sounds like he’s saying McCain is still saying this stuff now.
Again, I only wrote to criticize Weisman, which you somehow (intentionally?) missed. But Obama should just talk about whatever McCain is actually saying now and criticize it to the extent it can be criticized. If McCain said somethiing stupid 12 times up until 3 weeks ago, Obama should just say “This is what he was saying then, and it’s wrong because X, Y, and Z, and this guy definitely should have known much better all along because he’s a long-time U.S. Senator, and he was speaking like someone who knows nothing about or pays no attention to the U.S. ecnomony.”
September 10th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Please send this clip to factcheck.org because they are saying the same nonsense as Weisman. Actually, I suspect Weisman got it from there.
September 10th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Here is the offending FactCheck.com article. Interestingly, it was published one day before the Ingraham interview. So, one day FactCheck said Obama had distorted McCain’s remarks, and the next day McCain proved FactCheck wrong.
September 10th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Swan, work on your reading comprehension. See the part at the top that says “August 20″. McCain has not been backpedaling for months. That’s why Weisman is wrong.
Even if McCain had been “backpedaling for months”, the fact that he could have made such a ludicrous statement in 2008 is itself worth noting. If he says something mindbendingly stupid, and gets shouted down, then it’s still worth noting that he’s a mindbendingly stupid man, even if he’s not pathologically stubborn in addition to his stupidity.
September 10th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
swan, i went back and reread your original posting: i don’t see in the slightest how your comment is a criticism of weisman. it supports weisman as far as i can tell.
there’s no reason for obama to change anything about his rhetoric: we aren’t publishing refereed papers in academic journals here, we’re playing politics (and not beanbag).
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