Twists and turns in the story line
Byron York, at The Corner on National Review Online says that under pressure, John McCain has allowed that the "Rev. Wright Is An Issue, After All".
John McCain, stung by criticism on the right that he seems unwilling to go after Barack Obama on the Jeremiah Wright issue, is changing course. The McCain campaign, latching onto Obama's comment this morning on "Fox News Sunday" that Wright's comments are "a legitimate political issue," is sending around a transcript of McCain's comments at a press conference in Florida today.
One of the nice things about a democracy is that politicians, to a certain degree, listen to their constituents. With the MSM force field leaking in places, politicians are simply forced to respond to things they'd rather not and explore issues they wish they wouldn't. For example, Glenn Reynolds has a mini-roundup suggesting that Barack Obama is belatedly trying to distance himself from his radical base. And the pro-Hillary blogs have discovered the Obama-Ayers connection and are mining it for all it's worth.
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23 Comments:
I think McCain's initial strategy (focus on Ayers, not Rev. Wright) is the correct strategy. But he made a mistake by criticizing the North Carolina G.O.P. (who went after Rev. Wright) and has had to make up for that error.
But McCain's people are right; leave Jeremiah alone. He's doing a good enough job hurting himself and BHO.
Rev. Wright: Different is not deficient.
Well, different is not necessarily deficient but the odds are that "different" is, more often than is admitted, quite deficient.
I think the good Reverend has tried to be quite clever in his address at the Detroit NAACP and CNN has obliged him by providing full coverage but I'm not sure the speech is going to work as intended.
Rope-a-dope. Obama is betting that after his Philadelphia speech on race, re-hashing the Reverend Wright issue is now a tarbaby that only sticks to 71 year old white guys, and he's telling Br'er McCain not to throw him in the brier patch. But he actually wants McCain talking about Wright over and over, thus identifying himself irrevocably with the good old boys in the North Carolina GOP while Obama campaigns there.
Is Obama one of us
By all odds, Republican retention of the White House should be as imperiled as it was in 1932, when the hapless Herbert Hoover faced FDR.
Yet John McCain, who presides over a disconsolate party many of whose leading lights not only do not love him, they do not like him, is even money to be the next president of the United States.
What explains this?
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On the big issues of 2008 – amnesty, the hemorrhaging of American jobs, Iraq – McCain is on the same side as George Bush, whose approval rating is 28 percent. McCain can be defeated on those issues.
But if, with a little help from Hillary, McCain can paint Barack indelibly as a man of the trendy and radical left, he can win. America will have nowhere else to go.
Journalists disagree on whether immigration, Iraq or the economy will be the major issue in 2008. The real issue may be – and this is what is causing heart palpitations among Democrats – is Barack Obama one of us, or is he one of them?
The good old boy Sen Cane is most at odds with is a courageous, polite, well-spoken 65 year old lady.
Money and support is pouring into the office of that good old girl.
How McCain
Lost in Pennsylvania - Frank Rich
No Teresita, Obama is at a quandary.
He has courted radicals who are the enemy at every turn, and is now vulernable.
Wright, Sharpton (shut this city down), etc. are not going away. Either you think Marines = Roman soldiers who killed Jesus, or you don't. Either AQ'a flag = US, or not.
No middle choices. Obama did well by that choice for years, and now he OWNS that choice. All of it. So too, Dems. You don't get to pick and choose, and "It's OK I'm Black" won't cut it.
"..thus identifying himself irrevocably with the ol' boys in NC". What elitism you demonstrate, Teresita. Looking down your nose, eh? Better look out.. that perceived pedestal you have placed beneath your feet is only of your imagination.
FYI, NC has a very large constituency of military in those "good ol' boys". And they've also been pretty consistent in the past two elections.
2004: George Bush 56%, Kerry 44%
2000: George Bush, Gore 43%
Another of your snobberish analogies, i.e. "71 year old white guys" is in error.
I hear more than plenty black commentators and analysts from both sides of the aisle who are anywhere from disappointed to dismayed at his Wright association.
I suspect your guy, BHO, will fare even worse in NC in the general. However only time will prove that.
BDS outbreak: Anti-war nut attacks wheelchair-bound girl; Update: Video link, “We Are Change” assailant info added
A man heckling First Lady Laura Bush and daughter Jenna outside the 92nd Street Y was arrested after he punched a wheelchair-bound girl whose parents has told him to shut up, authorities said yesterday.
Accidently deleted the Bush-Gore percentage in 2000. It was Bush 56%, Gore 43%.
Obama: (on PA shellacking)
"But they are more familiar with her. They shared a - she is from a bordering state. On the other hand, in Wisconsin I won those same voters over Senator Clinton. In Virginia I won those voters over Senator Clinton. In Iowa I won those voters over Senator Clinton."
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Translation:
Those primaries were pre Wright/Ayers.
Billy Don Moyers @work:
"During coverage of the 2004 presidential election, Moyers stated,
"I think that if Kerry were to win this in a tight race, I think that there would be an effort to mount a coup, quite frankly.
I mean that the right wing is not going to accept it."[16][17]"
Michelle Malkin » McCain Umm, okay, maybe Wright’s fair game after all (w-video)
Update:
Video and a transcript of the full Wright interview can be found here.
McCain's War Words: Obama's Relations with Wright Beyond Belief
Sen. John McCain came out swinging against the Rev. Jeremiah Wright on Sunday and suggested Sen. Barack Obama's relationship with the controversial minister was "beyond belief."
Campaigning in Coral Gables, Fla., McCain reiterated that he still wants the North Carolina Republican Party to stop running an ad that shows Wright screaming "God damn America." The ad links the pastor with Obama.
But McCain said he was deeply disturbed by new comments Wright has made.
"I saw yesterday some additional comments that have been revealed by Pastor Wright, one of them comparing the United States Marine Corps with Roman Legionnaires who were responsible for the death of our savior. I mean being involved in that, it's beyond belief. And then of course saying that al-Qaida and the American flag were the same flags," McCain told reporters.
McCain pointed out that Obama told Fox News Sunday that he thought criticism of his involvement with Wright was fair.
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Return Fire is ...CHANGE!
The Obama campaign reacted quickly to McCain's broadside.
"With each passing day, John McCain acts more and more like someone who's spent 26 years learning the divisive, distracting tactics of Washington," an Obama campaign statement read.
"That's not the *change* that the American people are looking for."
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Doug: A man heckling First Lady Laura Bush and daughter Jenna outside the 92nd Street Y was arrested after he punched a wheelchair-bound girl whose parents has told him to shut up, authorities said yesterday.
Doug are you joining Tammy Bruce in making a collectivist argument, creating a rule of thumb about the nature of the Left from one anecdote? Jerk-ism crosses party lines.
No, I was joining Michelle in disseminating the news.
Ayers Issue is McCARTHYISM!
- Stanley Fish
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...almost every comment from intentionally ignorant leftists, heavy of opinion, devoid of facts.
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Soft Jihad
Obama & The Flag Pin [Jonah Goldberg]
From Don Surber:
To offset complaints that he was just wearing the patriotic lapel pin for show, he spoke about it in Kokomo, Ind., on Friday, as reported by Jake Tapper of ABC News.
“This is a phony issue,” Obama said. “So let me address it right now.”
Just what we need, politicians who are brave enough to tackle what they view as the phony issues of the day.
Obama on Friday: “The reason that I don’t always wear a flag pin is not that I disrespect the flag, it’s that when I started wearing a flag pin after 9/11, I gotta admit that sometimes I would misplace it and so I didn’t always put it on.”
Obama in October: “You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest. Instead, I’m going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.”
Thank you, Sen. Obama, for clarifying where you stand on this “phony issue.”
Lacking suicidal tendencies, I have reluctantly decided to support Senator McCain. I did not support him initially because of a few things such as his illegal immigration bill, campaign reform bill, his definition of torture and wanting to abandon GITMO, his belief in global warming and the spending federal money to fight it, his reported temper and his age ( I have a temper and I am very old too). But I now support him over his rivals since I at least know where he stands, know they have little experience and shift views to fit the territory, and we have seen him, in the case of illegal immigration, acknowledge that he must bend to the will of the vast number of Americans who want our borders to be secured first. He believes in cuts in spending and elimination of earmarks/pork and has demonstrated that with his own record. Historically he has shown that he keeps his word and his change on immigration policy also means that his own views can be changed when faced with realistic, rational and concrete public opinion. And above all else, he wants our country to win in the war against Islamic fascism; with al Qaeda publicly announcing that Iraq is the central front in their attack on the West that means we must win in Iraq. Without this success, all other wants and policy speeches are meaningless.
Doug, you're not referring to HRC as a "courageous, polite, well-spoken 65 year old lady", are you?
Hillary is 60, turning 61 in October. Don't think she'd like the extra years you're adding on! No lady does.
No, I was refering to the head of the North Carolina GOP.
...at the time, Sen McCain had bigger issues w/her than w/Hillary.
He since seems to have gotten a bit of religion, if that's still possible.
(old dogs, etc)
Hillary polite?
Bubba would beg to differ!
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