The Smear Gap

America already had one major military operation underway in Afghanistan when the Bush administration -- with McCain's full support -- recklessly poured most of our other military assets into the invasion of Iraq. Today most Army and Marine units are either deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan, preparing to deploy or recovering from deployment. The fact is that at the present time, we do not have the wherewithal to respond militarily to a crisis even if such a response were necessary or appropriate.

As a result, John McCain's strident statements following Russia's military actions only place into relief the reality that he has continuously supported Bush policies that make us weaker -- in spite of his tough talk.

foreign policy blunders are without question McCain's strong point of consistency

As the situation in Georgia develops it becomes clearer by the day that the McCain supported Bush/Cheney- Iraq policy has severely undercut our diplomatic options as well. Apart from generally poisoning the good will of countries around the world, the McCain supported Bush/Cheney-invasion of Iraq lowered the bar for the rest of the world when it comes to justifying the invasion of one country by another.

It has made it very difficult for the U.S. to take the moral or political high ground against Russia when just six years ago our country invaded and occupied another nation that had not attacked or immediately threatened us -- and didn't have the weapons of mass destruction that were used to argue that they might "potentially" threaten our security.

foreign policy blunders are without question McCain's strong point of consistency

The Georgia conflict has shined a spotlight on McCain's chief foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann.

Scheunamann was a major organizer of the campaign to get the U.S to invade Iraq. He was a board member of the Project for a New American Century that circulated the now-famous manifesto signed by key Neo Cons that first called for the Iraq invasion. He was a founder of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. More recently he has been a paid lobbyist for a number of foreign governments including Macedonia, Taiwan and, most importantly, the Republic of Georgia.

According to records from the Justice Department's foreign agents registration office, Scheunamann's two-person firm has received $830,000 from Georgia since 2004. Though Scheunamann now claims to have taken a leave of absence from lobbying, his latest contract, with Georgia's National Security Council, was signed as recently as April 17th. According to the Los Angeles Times, McCain spoke by phone with Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili that day and then issued a statement denouncing Russian moves to "undermine Georgian's sovereignty."

The paper also cites lobbying forms filed by Scheunamann's firm Orion indicating that McCain sponsored or co-sponsored four Senate resolutions on behalf of Georgia and other Orion clients: Latvia, Macedonia, Romania and Taiwan.

The poor judgment McCain showed by appointing a man who was serving as a paid foreign agent to be his chief foreign policy adviser is simply breathtaking. It is even more so because of the history of the current conflict.

foreign policy blunders are without question McCain's strong point of consistency

Oh poor Johnie. Papa McCain has disappointed you again. Oh there, there. Don't cry. Everything is going to be alright. Johnie don't worry. You gonna feel better next week at the coronation in Denver and your heart will go pitter patter, and you will feel tingly all over, and you will shed tears of joy as you watch Barry accept the nomination. Feel better already, don't you? There, there.

Comment: It's nice to know that Obama is doing good raising money. Lets talk about the military. The troops in Iraq have donated over 60,000 dollars to Barack Obama. Only 10,000 to McCain. Thats funny. An anti-war politician getting more than a attack first and negotiate later politician. Ron Paul came in second. Not even the troops want McCain as the next President.

Mccain has 133 lobbyist who work ,raise money or advise his campaign.

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Thank you Jonathan Alter. You are speaking the plain truth.

I have seen a number of campaigns, and for the most part, when one nominee goes negative, the other follows. So it is tough to recall presidential campaign where both nominees did not get into a skunk spitting contest.

But because Senator Obama is running a relatively clean campaign, the nation has witnessed a number of appalling developments.

APPALING #1: -We witnessed an old-school candidate claim he would run a positive, civil and issue-related campaign. I am stunned and disappointed by McCain's negative attack strategy. It is almost as though McCain has hatred in his heart for Senator Obama.

APPALING #2: - I 'assumed' thoughtful, intelligent Americans would easily decipher ugly, negative character attacks and respond with disdain or just ignore them. After all, negative campaigning is the complaint of many American about political campaigns. But again I am stunned that some Americans say one thing, but 'eventually' gravitate in the direction of the skunk-spit.

APPALING #3: - After Americans and news journalist alike acknowledged the pathetically poor job done evaluating the judgment of Bush during Campaigns 2000 & 2004, I am shocked by 'more kid-glove' approach of mainstream news journalist to McCain's blatant lies and ocean of flip-flops. I am shocked when I watch big name news journalist like CNN???s Wolf Blitzer coward with statements like "both candidates running negative campaigns", when Wolf knows very well the overwhelming weight of negative attacks are coming from the McCain camp.

Yes, Jonathan. You have shown strong backbone on this issue and you are no 'Wimpy Wolf'. Thanks for standing and telling the truth. I???ve always read your articles, and listened to your TV comments. Again, thanks for telling it like it is.

It's clear to me that McCain is not all that bright...and at 72 he shows alot of evidence of early senility. When he speaks for himself and off the cuff, he makes alot of mistakes and is all over the boards. I believe that's one reason his supporters like him..his very unpolished and easy to relate to way of presenting himself.. his " straight talk". But it has become clear to his Republican supporters that this approach will not get him into te White House, so after several team shake-ups.. he is now being handled by die-hard Karl Rove managers. I'm sure he is being told exactly what to say and when. If a response to Obama is needed.. they think it up first and coach McCain as to what he should say, and how. McCain at this point will say and do anything to win.. even if it is blatantly rediculous and a bald faced lie. They are hoping that enough swing voters are too dumb or lazy to seek out the truth. What a sad way to seek the Presidency ! We've just been thru this with the last two elections, and look where it got us !!!

McCain has basically sold his soul in his quest for the presidency. His campaign has revealed his Machiavellian approach to all things political.

So was the charge by Mitchell of NBC who accused McCain of hatching the ''no visit to wounded soldiers'' with the Pentagon to begin with. So is the charge by the partisan NY Times,[along with Mitchell,again],with no evidence whatever save innuendo,that McCain was outside of the ''Cone of Sound''[Saddleback summit].. So were you Jon Alter,when you appeared on Olbermans COUNTDOWN last week and peddled this ''phallic''garbage the McCain camp was falsely accused of circulating. Obama said that McCain was responsible for tax breaks to ''oil companies''solely. Untrue. Obama said that McCain was reponsible for Rust Belt jobs losses due to companies moving overseas or to other states. Untrue. Obama ran ads which had McCain surrounded,''Resevoir Dogs''-style,by ''lobbyists''. Untrue. Obama said before a packed house that McCain wished to ''fight a hundred -year war' in Iraq.Untrue.
Obaman surrogates keep the ball rolling. Wes Clarks ''flying an aircraft does not make you qualified to be president'' John Rockefellers[who never served a minute in this countries uniform], ''hit-and-run aviator''.NEWSWEAKS Evan Thomas and Dick Wolffe falsely attributing the ''Obama As Muslim''card to Team McCain,when it was Clintons people who got that ball rolling,beginning with a piece in the liberal HUFFINGTON POST by Clinton supporter Bob Kerry. Tom Harkin who archly claimed that McCains military experience ''makes it dangerous''for him to become president.Obama foreign policy adviser Rand Beers,who impugned McCains POW horrors. Yet analysts even from moderate news and political watchers[POLITICO],and the liberal [SLATE and The NEW REPUBLIC],observed that none of these incidents were page one news,or even made it into the back end of a NEWSWEAK or TIME,due to the fact that the people enconsed in these forms of media are Obama surrogates themselves. Thus while percieved ''McCain smears of Obama''get a marquee spot on NEWSWEAK,''Obama smears of McCain'' are consigned to an editors paper shredder. Worse that the smears come from those who have a bounden duty to remain non-partisan in their reportage,as reporters. Not commentators or Op-eds.

www.politico.com ''Who's Smearing Whom"?

''Meet The Press'' [with Andrea Mitchell,who accused McCain of cheating [the ''Cone of Silence'']as though it was found-news rather than innuendo],Aug.17,2008 [NBC transcript].

CNN August 17,2008[with anchor Rick Sanchez and Pastor Rick Warren,who admitted the only person who had been given a preliminary question prior to the Saddleback event was not McCain,but Obama].

Alters comments on the ''phallic symbol''accuasations by the NY Times Bob Herbert[which are themselves a smear of McCain,with Alters actual quotes which further this smear],may be found here:

MSNBC COUNTDOWN with Keith Olberman,Aug.05,2008.[full transcript] www.msnbc.com

Off point here, and I love Jonathan Alter's column --but is it too much to ask that a Newsweek article display proper punctuation? Specifically: periods (first paragraph) and commas (third paragraph) placed INSIDE the quotation marks?

This is hardly news. Mr. McCain is and always will be the smear doctor in this race. He's so far behind on electoral votes 284-169, that even if he won the 85 toss-ups, he would still lose. Her has to bring the pain and lies. He has no other choice. Thank God for fact-check. It's good to read an article that the Blog smearers can read regarding their behavior. Keep this story close by for reference when you ask: what did we do?

Here's the smear URL too.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2008/08/18/barack-obama-and-the-curious-incident-of-the-stubborn-polls.html

The good news for Mr. Obama is that most of the "18 million" are confined to certain states that vote Rep anyway. Funny how that works out. They will not stomach Mr. Obama for any reason, and they live in the same states as the Reps who can't stomach Mr. Obama for any reason. How lucky is that for Mr. Obama? The same people who insist that he is a Muslim, terrorist, gay destroyer of man all live together. Go figure. What are the odds?

Once American politics the standard of presidential campaigns has become a mass media show.McCain if elected would be the coup d`grace to American credibility besides providing the basics to the extinction of human diversity.

The Republican base is evangelicals, so the RNC knows its audience is easily duped in the first place.

I am not surprised as it appears that McCain in his quest to be President, is learning that dirty tricks is the only way that he can get elected.

The sad implication is that he knows he can not get elected on his own merits, so he has to resort to attacks on Obama, and creating fear among the undecided/uninformed voters.

McCain rarely refers to what he stands for and what he truly believes - other than pandering to nationalistic "american" self-interest. He has not truly addressed how he will change the lives of average americans for the better. All he can say is "surge..surge...Drill here Drill now...I know how to win wars"

If he knows so much about winning wars, why didn't he talk to and share this strategy with his buddy Bush?