Negativity, Lies, Shadiness: McCain Palin '08

Interesting article at Politico documenting the shift from the "a new kind of politics" version of McCain to what we've been seeing lately... the perhaps aptly called the "rape and pillage" McCain Palin campaign, especially considering this story.

The article covers decisions made around the decision to simply go hard core negative and try to keep Obama from talking about issues. Nice.

“Every day not talking about the economy, the war and how to fix a broken system is a victory for McCain,” said John Weaver, a former top strategist to the nominee who left the campaign last year. “They’re going to ride it as long as they can and as long as the mainstream media puts up every ridiculous charge.”

The negative and often exaggerated or misleading claims being made about Obama and Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, especially those playing on Palin’s gender, are just too irresistible for the process-consumed online and cable news media that now drives the campaign conversation, Weaver said.

More on Sarah Palin's Foreign Policy Experience!

Um... yeah, about that trip she took awhile back to Iraq to visit the troops... yeah, turns out, not so much the Iraq, really just Kuwait. Also, her other trip outside this continent, Ireland, turns out to have just been a refueling stop.

Hmm. But you can see Russia from part of Alaska.

Yes Yes Yes

More please. Get Ari Melber on TV more, Democrats! He's good. Calling lies lies, and calling those who tell them liars. Well done, clear, forceful, and appropriate. Check it out:

Update: Day of Pigs, Fish, Chimps Ogres

Wow... cable news and the McCain Palin Campaign have done it again. This time I'm actually a bit flabbergasted. They went and took what I thought was a outlier oddball reaction to a fairly straightforward quote and churned it right up into a full-blown ridiculous web attack advertisement. In the ad, they accuse Barack Obama of calling Sarah Palin a pig. Really? REALLY!?!?!?!

Wow. This is awesome. And so third grade. "He called Sarah a PIG!!!! Make him sit in the corner!" WOW! Wtf.

Anyway, in brighter news, the cable news cycle that picked this spin up and spun it further and further and further did actually begin to result in an interesting thing: they are calling lies "lies," and the folks who tell them "liars." Now, this may sound pretty basic, but so much of Karl Rove's brand of politics relies on the media acting like lapdogs in this regard. They count on (and are too often right to do so) the fact that media will take an "unbiased" view, shying away from reporting when one political party is telling bald-faced lies about another.

All in all, today's development continue to signal to me and to many that the McCain campaign is truly adrift way far away from anything resembling integrity. Here's a bit of interesting writing on that subject from one-time-McCain-admirer Andrew Sullivan.