Posted by John Publius Jr. on June 15th, 2008 — in Barack Obama, Talk Radio, John McCain, Blog
Last week the Obama campaign announced the opening of a new website: FightTheSmears.com.
The unfair and ridiculous attacks against Barack Obama are numerous and frequent. The new Obama website addresses some of the smears against Obama and directly and convincingly refutes them. FightTheSmears.com as a web-based rapid-response tactic is an interesting and significant development in the election campaign.
Political attacks come in all shapes and sizes. Of course, political smears are nothing new and I think go back to the first cave council elections in 56,742 B.C.
Often candidates directly attack their opponents in debates, official statements, and campaign commercials. This is a legitimate and above-board tactic because the candidate who is attacking must be accountable for the message. Sometimes the message is unfair, but at least it is out in the open for discussion, and the attacked candidate can choose how to respond directly to the attacker.
Barack Obama and John McCain have already engaged in some good clean “debate” on substantive issues. Both campaigns will do plenty of “spinning” to paint their opponent negatively and themselves positively. No doubt, some of their statements will be unfair and perhaps even blatantly false. But, I have some faith that both McCain and Obama want to run clean campaigns and will not tolerate smear tactics by their official surrogates.
A political smear is when people (often anonymous) create a lie about a candidate and aggressively spread the rumor. A smear campaign (focused in South Carolina) against John McCain during the 2000 Republican primaries possibly impacted the contest enough to guarantee that George Bush would win the Republican nomination that year. That was an example of an effective “whisper” campaign because no one was accountable yet the disgraceful rumor spread widely.
Swift-Boating is a new verb:
During the 2004 presidential election campaign, a political group ironically named “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SWVT)” sponsored a $546,000 advertising campaign to air television commercials attacking Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.[ref] The ads focused on undermining the reputation of Senator Kerry’s military service as a highly decorated officer and veteran of the Vietnam War. Right-wing radio talks shows picked up on the SWVT message and repeatedly perpetuated this line of attack on Kerry. Many analysts believe that John Kerry and his campaign failed to recognize the seriousness of this smear. Kerry and his campaign were slow to respond and this may have cost Kerry the election.
527 Political Groups:
SWVT was one of many 527 political groups, as described by Wikipedia:
A 527 group is a type of American tax-exempt organization named after a section of the United States tax code, 26 U.S.C. § 527. A 527 group is created primarily to influence the nomination, election, appointment or defeat of candidates for public office. Although candidate committees and political action committees are also created under Section 527, the term is generally used to refer to political organizations that are not regulated by the Federal Election Commission or by a state elections commission, and are not subject to the same contribution limits as PACs.
527s are key in recent presidential elections. They legally can (and do) pour unlimited millions of dollars into attack ad campaigns while operating as officially separate from any candidate’s campaign. 527s fly beneath the radar of campaign finance reform. Expect to hear much more about 527s as we approach the general election.
One argument is that a campaign should not respond to smears because doing so simply helps advertise the falsehood. The Obama campaign decided that it is better to respond. Barack Obama has been and will be smeared. “Swift-boating” is the spreading of the lies, but a candidate is “swift boated” only if the smear works. FightTheSmears.com helps prevent Obama from being “swift boated”.
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on June 5th, 2008 — in Libertarian Party, Bob Barr, Comic Relief, 3rd Party Politics, John McCain, Blog
Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr appeared on the Colbert Report last night. Stephen Colbert questioned Barr’s consistency with Libertarian principles.
Watch this video:
Bob Barr may have an impact on the presidential election. Some speculate that Barr will take away enough votes from John McCain in swing states to enable Barack Obama to win those states.
Vote in Our Opinion Poll about Third Party candidates!
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on May 18th, 2008 — in Comic Relief, John McCain, Blog
John McCain appeared on Saturday Night Live (SNL) last night and he was pretty funny. He addressed the “age issue” head-on, saying, “We need to elect someone who is very, very, very old”.
It is interesting that presidential candidates have devoted time to appear on comedy shows and other popular TV shows in recent years. Some people criticize this, but I like it as long as we don’t lose sight of the real issues. It is important for our president to be able to connect with the voters, but let’s not elect someone simply because we think they would be a good “drinking buddy”.
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on May 16th, 2008 — in Barack Obama, Talk Radio, John McCain, Blog
On Thursday, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel, George W. Bush gave a speech before the Israeli Knesset (congress). One part of Bush’s speech has been controversial:
Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.
The Obama campaign and some political analysts have interpretted Bush’s statement as a direct attack on Barack Obama’s policy of willingness to “meet with our enemies”. Obama hit back and proclaimed he “welcomes this debate”. In campaign rallies, John McCain focused criticism on Obama’s foreign policy ideas.
The general election battle between Obama and McCain has started in earnest. Some interesting Democratic Party stories are still playing out, but now the media is paying much more attention to John McCain, and, of course, Obama vs. McCain.
George Bush does have a way with words. Some Bush supporters claim that Bush was referring to Jimmy Carter. It really doesn’t matter now, and who wants to spend more time looking into “Bush’s brain”?
“Appeasement” is one of the most historically-politically charged words in the foreign policy lexicon. At least we have a good history lesson and it’s the first real salvo in a critically important foreign policy debate. If you never have, now is good time to read a book about World War II (or at least read these links: Munich Agreement, Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill). Appeasement is when you give up something important (for example, Czechoslovakia) to your enemy with the hope that the concession will end their treachery.
This foreign policy debate is just beginning.
I enjoyed watching MSNBC’s Chris Matthews give a history lesson to right-wing talk show host Kevin James. Rachel Maddow’s introduction and follow-up interview with Chris Matthews are good too!
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on May 12th, 2008 — in John McCain, Blog
This is only one possible scenario. For example, time will tell if Republicans fully unite for McCain.
- Inertia: the U.S. has had essentially a Republican majority since 1968. For John McCain to lose, 2008 would need show a major shift in the electorate.
- John McCain’s personal story of heroism, surviving as prison of war in Vietnam, is inspiring. Everyone must respect John McCain and his courage and sacrifice.
- Most Republicans will vote for McCain. The primary season caused some divisions among Republicans. The Republican base lacked a single favorite candidate and some dislike McCain’s refusal to walk in lock-step with conservative ideology as defined by the keepers of purity. Conservatives have no one else to vote for in 2008 and they like to vote.
- Attack dogs: talk radio and all right-wing media started smearing Barack Obama a long time ago. This will continue and greatly intensify.
- While the attack dogs do “the dirty work”, McCain can appear to rise above personal and unfair attacks on Obama. McCain simply needs to keep repeating, “Obama is a liberal”.
- McCain is a maverick. While this causes problems unifying the base, it creates opportunities to win over independent voters.
- McCain is popular and well-respected in the media.
- Although McCain supported the invasion of Iraq, McCain has credibility as a harsh critic of the Bush administration’s handling of the war.
- “The surge is working” in Iraq. This is probably not really true. But, if McCain convinces enough voters that this is true, he will neutralize Obama’s second biggest issue (the first one is the economy, stupid!). McCain was largely responsible to push forward a new “strategy for victory”.
- Fear: an “October surprise” happens that scares enough voters.
Also, see my other post, “10 reasons why Obama can win in November“.
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on May 6th, 2008 — in Opinion Polls - VOTE!, Issues/Policy, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain, Mainstream Media, Blog
Just when I thought the Democratic Party nomination would only be a referendum on bowling vs. basketball, finally the media is covering a real issue: gasoline prices.
Gas prices impact most people much more than candidate flag pin accessory decisions. It is encouraging that we can analyze a real issue.
Hillary Clinton has joined John McCain in calling for a “gas tax holiday”, proposing a suspension of the federal tax of 18 cents per gallon of gasoline during the summer months. Many analysts and Barack Obama have heavily criticized this proposal. They claim that this “gas tax holiday” would have little economic benefit and encourage more gas consumption when our energy policy should instead focus on conserving oil and other energy resources. Clinton critics also decry this proposal as nothing more than political pandering. (Steve Brenan’s article is one example. If you can find someone praising the proposal, please post it in the comments - I always want to present “both sides”). Clinton has dismissed her critics as simply “elite opinion”.
For many people, a temporary elimination of the federal gas tax will not add up to meaningful savings. However, most people whose income depends on significant driving would welcome this relief.
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The “gas tax holiday” proposal is not a major issue, but it opens the discussion to a critically important one: U.S. energy policy. Everyone should know about the “peak oil” debate.
The candidates actually have much more substance than the goofy nonsense that dominates the media coverage.
Remarkably, unlike the websites for the Democrats, the “issues” section of John McCain’s website does NOT include “energy policy” as one of his issues. It does list “Second Amendment” (guns) as one of the major issues. I really try to be objective, but WOW!
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on May 2nd, 2008 — in Comic Relief, Opinion Polls - VOTE!, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain, Blog
As the Democratic Party moves towards finally choosing its 2008 presidential nominee, the issue of “electability” is central, especially for the remaining undecided super delegates. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have strengths, weaknesses, and very similar positions on the main policy issues. The Democrats want to choose the candidate who has the best chance to defeat John McCain in the general election on November 4th.
As often is the case, after reading many articles, listening to talk radio, and watching TV news shows of the serious pundits, I find that comedy shows have as much insight and needed perspective.
I enjoy this video of Stephen Colbert debating with himself on the question of electability.
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on March 25th, 2008 — in Rev. Wright controversy, Comic Relief, Barack Obama, John McCain, Blog
Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert puts the recent Rev. Wright controversy into perspective:
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on March 6th, 2008 — in Referee whistle, Talk Radio, John McCain, Blog
Now that John McCain is the Republican Party presidential nominee, we wonder if the right-wing attacks on McCain will subside.
Because our blogsite is so new, this is really a late call, but an important call to make before we move forward.
Referee whistle: against Talk Radio, Clipping (illegal hit in the back) , 10 yards
I listen to political talk radio almost every day: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, and Laura Ingraham. When I refer to “talk radio”, this quartet of radio show hosts is a fairly definitive representation of whom I mean. I listen to other shows too: Michael Medved, Dennis Miller, Dennis Praeger, Michael Savage, Air America Radio, and some local shows.
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on March 5th, 2008 — in John McCain, Blog
John McCain clinched the Republican Party nomination with decisive victories in the March 4th primaries in Vermont, Ohio, Texas, and Rhode Island.
The Republican Party nomination process had its share of interesting developments in 2008. In addition to McCain, the Republican field featured Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson (and a few others who had little impact). With the exception of Ron Paul, all of these candidates enjoyed at least some fleeting moments in the limelight as the potential front-runner.
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