Don’t You Hate When Your Plumber Is a No-Show on Your Appointment?
Only, when you get blown off by repairmen, there aren’t 6,000 people and the national press watching.
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McCain, Don’t You Think A Surge Might Have Been Better BEFORE People Voted?
Nielsen reports that McCain is surging his advertising dollars in "swing states" (for the most part, states formerly known as "red").
Yesterday Sen. John McCain boosted his TV advertising units in seven key swing states — Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, closing the gap between his advertising and Sen. Barack Obama’s.
On Sunday, Oct. 26, McCain ran just 331 TV ad units in those seven states — 308% fewer than the 1,350 ad units Obama ran that day.
But on Monday, Obama’s lead in these key battleground states shrank to 113% — or a margin of 1,528 ad units, after McCain’s campaign increased the number of TV ad units it ran in those states by 308%, to 1,353 units.
I guess McCain has finally figured out that he needs to win a few more Bush states to have a prayer of winning this race.
But here’s the thing. Check out the number of people who have already voted in CO, FL, GA, OH, and VA (with the exception of VA and GA, totals are through yesterday):
CO: 813,948 people–or 37.9% of 2004’s total
FL: 2,063,157 people–or 27% of 2004’s total
GA: 1,206,891 people as of today–or 36.4% of 2004’s total
OH: 309,041 between Cuyahoga and Franklin counties–or 25.3% of 2004’s totals in those two counties
VA: 50,350 in Fairfax county as of Friday–10.9% of 2004’s total in that county
So McCain has finally decided to get serious about advertising to these states–after 4.5 million people have already voted.
Did I Mention Bush Is Preparing His Pardon Pen?
John McCain has called on Uncle Toobz to resign (ignoring, of course, that he may be guilty of the same crime himself), Mitch McConnell has piled on, and even Sarah Palin has decided it is safe to take on her mentor.
But the Bush Administration? Dana Perino’s no comment sounds remarkably like the "no comment"s we got just before Bush commuted Scooter Libby’s sentence.
McCain Only Wants to Sit with the Cool Kids on the Bus
I think Robert Draper is a better blogger than journalist. Check out this passage from his GQ blog, which has none of the dull finish of his NYT piece on the McCain campaign, but a so much more interesting bite (h/t WT).
I’ve heard from one well-placed source that McCain has snubbed [Palin] on one long bus ride aboard the Straight Talk Express, to the embarrassment of those sitting nearby. It has surely been implied to the governor that she should be eternally grateful to have been plucked from obscurity. And yet the high water mark of John McCain’s campaign for the presidency unquestionably began on September 3, when Palin gave her nomination speech—and ended precisely twelve days later, when McCain went off-script—I have that on the authority of the person who participated in the writing of said script—and told an audience that he still believed the fundamentals of the economy were strong.
McCain being an asshole to Palin? Check. McCain demanding her eternal gratitude for the huge favor he did her by turning her into a national laughingstock? Check. McCain going off-message when he made one of the biggest fuck-ups of this campaign? Check.
Three sentences, and each of them offering a nugget as delightful as the best line from his NYT piece.
“For better or for worse, our campaign has been fought from tactic to tactic,” one senior adviser glumly acknowledged to me in early October, just after Schmidt received authorization from McCain to unleash a new wave of ads attacking Obama’s character.
That said, Draper seems to think Palin got a bum rap with this deal. Me? I think McCain and Palin deserve each other.
Will McCain Declare His Gambling Winnings or Follow Stevens Down the Toobz?
John McCain has called on Toobz Stevens to resign from the Senate.
Yesterday, Senator Ted Stevens was found guilty of corruption. It is a sign of the health of our democracy that the people continue to hold their representatives to account for improper or illegal conduct, but this verdict is also a sign of the corruption and insider-dealing that has become so pervasive in our nation’s capital.
It is clear that Senator Stevens has broken his trust with the people and that he should now step down. I hope that my colleagues in the Senate will be spurred by these events to redouble their efforts to end this kind of corruption once and for all.
Note how McCain stresses that Stevens was found guilty of insider-dealing. But that’s not correct. Rather, Stevens was convicted of not declaring gifts on his Senate Financial Disclosure Forms. From Toobz’ indictment:
Beginning in or about May 1999, and continuing to in or about August, 2007, in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, in a matter within the jurisdiction of the legislative branch of the United States Government and subject to the legislative function exception, STEVENS, while a sitting United States Senator, knowingly and willfully engaged in a scheme to conceal a material fact, that is, his continuing receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of things of value from a private corporation and its chief executive officer by, among other things, failing to report them, as was required, on STEVENS’ required yearly Financial Disclosure Forms.
[snip]
STEVENS knew the requirements of the Financial Disclosure Forms, and knowingly and intentionally sought to conceal and cover up his receipt of things of value by filing Financial Disclosure Forms that contained false statements and omissions concerning STEVENS’ receipt of these things of value.
All in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001(a)(1) and (c)(1) and (2).
It’s funny McCain should make that mistake, given that he himself appears to be guilty of similar omissions in his Senate Financial Disclosure Form. Despite public reports of McCain gambling–and, at times, winning–large sums, he has never reported his gambling winnings on his Senate Financial Disclosure Forms.
Given McCain’s call on Ted Stevens to do the right thing, isn’t it time McCain himself avoid the crimes Stevens just got convicted of?
Compare and Contrast: Two Allegations of Campaign Violence
I spent a good chunk of the day chasing down and then not reporting this story (which was first noted here) and related details about the McCain campaign’s involvement in pushing Ashley Todd’s story. But after chasing the story all day, I think we’d all be better off trying to calm tensions, rather than attacking the McCain campaign (yet) for pushing this story.
First, let’s look carefully at what we know the McCain campaign did (and let me make clear–I’m not ruling out the possibility that they did more than this, I’m just dealing with what we currently have evidence of). First, when called by a local TV station following up on the Drudge story, the campaign told the TV station that the attacker had said, "I’m going to teach you a lesson," and that the letter "B" stood for Barack. In addition, the campaign told the TV station that Palin had called Todd. Note–the station called the campaign, not vice versa.
John Verrilli, the news director for KDKA in Pittsburgh, told TPM Election Central that McCain’s Pennsylvania campaign communications director gave one of his reporters a detailed version of the attack that included a claim that the alleged attacker said, "You’re with the McCain campaign? I’m going to teach you a lesson."
Verrilli also told TPM that the McCain spokesperson had claimed that the "B" stood for Barack. According to Verrilli, the spokesperson also told KDKA that Sarah Palin had called the victim of the alleged attack, who has since admitted the story was a hoax.
The KDKA reporter had called McCain’s campaign office for details after seeing the story — sans details — teased on Drudge. [my emphasis]
But let’s be clear: the campaign didn’t come up with the claim that the assailant wanted to "teach her a lesson." Todd did. I found numerous examples–like this one–that attribute precisely those words to the police, not the campaign, describing Todd’s allegations.
"He continued to kick and punch her repeatedly and said he would teach her a lesson for supporting John McCain," said police Chief Nate Harper. [my emphasis]
The cops were reporting that line contemporaneously with the rest of the allegations (this story appears to come from the first batch of story reported and printed in the 4PM to 6PM range). Read more →
Did McCain KNOW the RNC Bought Palin the Shopping Spree?
WT has been chronicling Sarah’s extreme makeover, including this picture (AP/Carolyn Kaster) she captions, "YOU told me I could keep the clothing!" I think she’s right–there’s a load of tension there.
And I think several things suggest the breaking news of Sarah’s spree is the precipitating factor in recent chilliness between McCain and his Caribou Barbie. There’s the terse way McCain responds to questions about it.
Presidential candidate John McCain isn’t happy about having to explain why the Republican Party has had to buy running mate Sarah Palin $150,000 in clothes, hair styling and accessories.
McCain was asked several questions on Thursday about the shopping spree — and he answered each one more or less the same way: Palin needed clothes and they’ll be donated to charity.
There’s the "tenseness" that Chuck Todd notes. Todd’s wrong to suggest McCain and Palin weren’t comfortable with each other, yet–after all there was plenty of chemistry about four weeks ago (at least on the part of McCain; Palin’s always been a little uncomfortable when he leered at her), and they traveled together and hung out in Sedona for a good chunk of that period of time. So I think Todd’s other suggestion–that McCain is blaming Palin for their failing campaign–makes more sense. And given the timing, the blame seems focused on the latest abusurdity of the $150,000 shopping spree.
Add in the well-reported history of McCain–the guy formerly known as a maverick reformer–attacking precisely this kind of campaign expenditure.
MCCAIN: Madam President, the amendment before the Senate is a very simple one. It restricts the use of campaign funds for inherently personal purposes. The amendment would restrict individuals from using campaign funds for such things as home mortgage payments, clothing purchases … and vacations or other trips that are noncampaign in nature. […]
The use of campaign funds for items which most Americans would consider to be strictly personal reasons, in my view, erodes public confidence and erodes it significantly. [emphasis TP’s]
Not that ignorance would exonerate McCain one bit–he still owns resposibility for allowing his campaign to do something that, in his own view, "erodes public confidence." But this signals the degree to which even McCain (who after all has better than average self-delusion skills) has to recognize that his campaign refutes everything the myth of the maverick reformer was supposed to be about.
Draper’s Silent Narrative of Resentment
Two things stuck out for me in Robert Draper’s story of the changing narratives of the McCain campaign. First, he repeats the McCain myth that Obama showed an interest–but no initiative–in McCain’s ploy to do town halls around the country together.
In June, McCain formally proposed that he and his Democratic opponent campaign together across America in a series of town-hall-style meetings. He had in fact suggested the same thing to Joe Biden three years earlier, Biden told me back then: “He said: ‘Let’s make a deal if we end up being the nominees. Let’s commit to do what Goldwater and Kennedy committed to do before Kennedy was shot.’ We agreed that we would campaign together, same plane, get off in the same city and go to 30 states or whatever together.” According to Biden, he and McCain sealed their agreement with a handshake. When McCain extended the same offer to Obama in 2008, the Democrat said that he found the notion “appealing” but then did little to make it happen. Since that time, McCain has repeatedly told aides what he has also said in public — that had Obama truly showed a determination to have a series of joint appearances, the campaign would not have degenerated to its current sorry state.
In fact, Obama responded to McCain’s proposal–with a counter-proposal, to model the debates on Lincoln-Douglas rather than Goldwater-Kennedy. As far as I know, McCain just ignored this counter-proposal. In other words, McCain has been stewing over the fact that Obama did not accept McCain’s proposal in its entirety for four months; or, to put it another way, he’s been stewing over the fact that the younger (and, in McCain’s mind, unworthy) man did not accept McCain’s terms without negotiation.
I find it interesting, then, that Draper doesn’t note Obama’s counter-proposal. It’s tough to say whether it’s just shitty journalism, whether Draper just internalized McCain’s own myths, or whether he simply saw himself repeating what the McCain campaign either sincerely or manipulatively told him. In any case, the silence about Obama’s counter-proposal shows how Draper’s entire narrative takes McCain’s claim to justifiable indignation uncritically.
More interesting still is the other significant detail Draper ignores: the McCain team’s cynical lies immediately after the convention. Nowhere does Draper mention the insistent lies about the Bridge to Nowhere; nowhere does he mention the manufactured outrage over the lipstick on a pig comment. Read more →
Saks Fifth Socialism
Democratic "socialism:"
Tweaking the tax code to shift the enormous tax break President Bush gave to his "base"–earners in the top 2% of the country–to those struggling to put food on the table and send their kids to college.
Republican socialism:
Taking $150,000 of money at a time when your candidate is taking public financing for a presidential election to buy an over-priced new wardrobe for the vice presidential nominee.
Republican communism:
Using $150,000 for new duds while receiving public financing when your own family doesn’t pay into the presidential public finance fund.
Update: Corrected to reflect that this money came out of RNC funds, not McCain funds.
Update: Saks corrected to spell it like people who shop there would spell it, per brendanx.
A Second Ohio Prosecutor Threatens to Criminalize Voting
A number of people have noted that Joe Deters–John McCain’s SW Ohio Co-Chair and Hamilton County Prosecutor–has subpoenaed the information for 40 percent of those who registered and voted at the same time during Ohio’s "golden week" that allowed people to do both at the same time.
Deters issued a subpoena on Friday for complete registration records for roughly 40 percent of the 671 voters who registered and cast a ballot between Sept. 30, when early voting began, and Oct. 6, the deadline for voter registration.
The subpoena, obtained by The Associated Press, is part of a grand jury investigation initiated by Deters in the county.
[snip]
It was unclear why the subpoena – which also calls upon the county’s election director and deputy director to testify before the grand jury – doesn’t ask for records of all voters from the weeklong window.
It’s worth noting, however, that this is not an isolated example of a Republican operative using his prosecutorial powers to collect information on people who voted during that week.
It seems that the former partner of Mike DeWine (DeWine is co-Chair of the McCain team in OH) is asking for the voter registration cards of everyone in Greene County, OH, who voted during golden week:
Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer and representatives of County Prosecutor Stephen Haller have contacted the local Board of Elections asking for the voter registration cards of everyone who voted during the six-day window, which ended Monday.
What a coinkydink, huh?
Of course, I have no hard evidence that these two prosecutors are playing the same game, leaking news of a criminal investigation into voting. But it’s worth noting that, in both cases, the prosecutors themselves claim to have received the allegations of vote fraud–not elections officials. Here’s Greene County:
Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer, a Republican, requested registration cards and address change forms Thursday for all 302 people who took advantage of the window. He told elections officials he had been flooded with telephone calls from people concerned about possible fraud.
And here’s Hamilton County:
“We’ve had widespread complaints of fraud but we do not discuss investigations at all,” Deters said. He said the complaints came from “a variety of sources.”
[snip]
The fraud allegations that led to the Hamilton County grand jury investigation did not come from local election officials, said county elections board Deputy Director John Williams.