Last night I caught a screening of a new documentary called Boogie Man about legendary Reagan & Bush operative Lee Atwater. The lessons I came away with most vividly from the film, which was an interesting portrait of a truly twisted soul but not a great film, was two things: 1. when you get hit, hit back fast and hard and 2. even a 17 point lead in June can be closed.
A good chunk of the film focused on the 1988 race, which was marked by the Willie Horton ad and the Dukakis tank ad, both of which were Atwater innovations (he was Bush's campaign manager) that went essentially unanswered by the Dukakis campaign and contributed greatly to Dukakis's loss. The over-confidence of the Democrats at the convention that year was palpable and it was a problem and should serve as a good lesson for us today. But it also reminded me of how ruthless the GOP can be when they're down -- remember, they operate best that way. Even though Atwater is dead, his legacy and the memory of how effective his tactics were are not.
Which leads me to yesterday's Meet The Press. Much of the hour was spent in a debate between Joe Biden, speaking for Barack Obama, and Lindsey Graham, speaking for John McCain. Now, I don't really want to bash Biden, he was quite effective in calling Graham out on his off-shore drilling obfuscations (or ignorance) and got the message across that Barack Obama's stance on public financing is perfectly consistent with his stated goal of getting corporate influence out of our elections. But what was one of the headlines that came out of Meet The Press yesterday:
Obama's Public Financing Move Puts System at Risk, Biden Says
Great. While drama queen Lindsey Graham was putting on a show, feigning outrage and deep disappointment at what he portrayed as an almost tragic fall from grace that Obama's decision to opt out of public financing represented, going all in for his candidate, Joe Biden seemed to be most concerned with not appearing one-sided and looking even-handed. Sorry, Joe, even-handed doesn't cut it. If you can't be an advocate for our guy 100% on message, then what are you even doing out there? If we've learned anything over the past 20 plus years of Republican presidential victories, I think it's got to be that having the facts and the argument on our side is not enough and I hope Barack Obama starts to get that through to his on air surrogates moving forward.
Tim Russert, NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and the moderator of “Meet the Press,” died Friday after collapsing in the bureau, NBC News said Friday. He was 58.
Russert was recording voiceovers for Sunday’s “Meet the Press” program when he collapsed, the network said. No details were immediately available.
Source: 6/13/2008 MSNBC article "NBC's Tim Russert dead at 58"
Yesterday's Meet The Press finally abandoned all pretense to fairness in coverage of the Democratic primary, and spent much of its time hammering Hillary. However, there were two particular cases of grave cognitive dissonnance.
Out of nowhere, Jon Meacham: 'I don't think we talked about Henry II enough in campaigns...Just stay away from the pastors, you know. "Who shall rid me of this troublesome priest?" Turbulent priest.'
Oh, yes, very witty. Jon Meacham hoping for the assassinations of Hagee and Parsley. He didn't? Oh, no; he didn't think the idea of a political assassination could be a little bit sensitive at this time (admittedly, it is a little remote in history)
(more...)
Barack Obama was looking weary as he endured a barrage of questioning by Tim Russert on his releationship with Rev. Wright. At the same time Clinton looked and acted confident and professional as she towered over host George Stephanopoulos and silenced her critics.
While being interviewed by Mr. Russert,Obama tried to quell the controversy over his connections to Rev Wright by simply ignoring it opting to change the subject.
For her part, Hillary Clinton did not even flinch when a woman in the audience, an Obama supporter who said she made less than $25,000 a year, argued she, too, thought Mrs. Clinton was "pandering" for short-term political gain. Instead Hillary rose to her feet and answered the women directly, cutting Stepanopoulos completely out of the camera shot.
When he tried to flummox her by asking whether the campaign would ever release the names of donors who had given money to her husband's foundation, Mrs. Clinton shut him down with a one word answer: "No."
In Short Mr. Obama revealed that he was not impervious to pressure, while Mrs. Clinton once again proved that it takes more than a village to make her sweat.
Tim "gotcha" Russert gave the entire hour of Meet the Press this morning to Hillary Clinton.
Russert had his usual sheaf of "gotcha" quotes but Clinton swept them aside to dominate the hour.
Russert attempted to compare and contrast Clinton's vote for Bush to use force against Iraq to Obama's stance against that occupation and invasion. There were no apologies from Clinton in reference to that vote. She chose to deftly turn the conversation to what she described as the "untold story" of Obama's changing positions on Iraq. She pointed out that in the Senate Obama stated that he supported Bush's handling of the war and he voted for the bills Bush handed to Congress to pay for that war. If he was opposed to it why did he help pay for it? This, she says, was the "fairy tale" her husband, Bill Clinton, was alluding to when he spoke about Obama's inconsistency about Iraq. Hillary explained that her husband did state that Obama's entire campaign was a "fairy tale" -- a meme going around that raised the ire of African American pundits like Donna Brazile and Bob Herbert.
Russert's attempts to stir up a kerfuffle around alledged racism in her campaign was quickly grabbed by Clinton and transformed into a discussion about the amazing high road that Democrats have taken in having an African American candidate and a woman candidate.
Russert once again tried to get something going by mentioning the meme also going around that she had maligned Dr. Martin Luther King by stating that Lyndon Baines Johnson basically carried the heavy water for the civil rights movement. She explained the synergy that existed between the groundbreaking work King did and the groundbreaking work LBJ did on the political front that created the Civil Rights Act.
Russert tried again with the singularly dumb question "Would Barack Obama make a good President or Vice President." Why would she answer that? She didn't and swatted it away like a pesky fly was buzzing her ear. Russert persisted. "Are you saying that he would not make a good President or Vice President." Since that is not what she had said she easily smacked Russert down.
Another meme has it that Clinton is being back by the NV Teacher's Union and a law suit they have brought will make it difficult for Hispanic service workers from voting in the caucus. In fact, Russert asserted in his question that Clinton was being supported by the Teacher's Union, implying that she was complicit in their law suit. She pointed out that she is not supported by the Teacher's Union, has nothing to do with this move and, in point of fact, is doing what she can to make the vote accessible.
This was a morning when I saw a masterful politician shut Russert up. She actually is better at defense than her husband who so often tripped up on his own intellect that he would say things like " ... it depends on what is is." There was none of that from Hillary Clinton this morning. Clearly there was spin along with a good deal of clarity. She held her own against Russert who could not do a show if he couldn't Google up someone's quotes from ten, twenty, even thirty years ago and think that reading them aloud on air is investigative journalism.
Update: Video at http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/1/13/113633/286
Just when she got out, she pulled her back in.
That's back into the self-serving, pernicious muck of the political lie, the cesspool where Hillary Clinton thrives.
Hillary's attacks on Barack Obama on Meet the Press this morning show again that absent misogyny and right-wing irrationality, the tragic Hillary apparently wishes to return to her sphere as the object of scorn, retaining her sad commitment to disingenuous assaults that has earned her the loathing of many hues of the American political spectrum.
via http://malcontends.blogspot.com/2008/01/ john-mccains-whopper-on-meet-press-bush. html
Senator John McCain for reasons beyond understanding still gets the red-carpet treatment from the media covering the campaign.
On Meet the Press, after distancing himself from Bush on the salient issues pertaining to Katrina, Iraq and corruption, McCain said this:
"(Bush) led this nation after 9/11 and united us."
I understand Sen. Obama's going to be on Meet the Press this Sunday and I thought I'd help Timmeh out by writing up a few questions for the good Senator. Obama's been on the campaign trail for about a year now, and in all that time there are more than a few questions that ought to be answered. Sure, some have been raised and we've gotten a lot of excuses and dodges, but far too few answers have been offered up.
So here's a Letterman's Top Twenty list for Russert (ok so there are more than 10). It'd be nice if Russert could raise a few of these, and even nicer if we could get some answers before the voting actually starts next week.
· Jim Gilmore Praises Bush, Calls SCHIP "Welfare" (lowkell)
· MyDD Blog Talk Radio -- Live from Netroots Nation (Jonathan Singer)
· NYT Kinda Confirms Al Gore Special Guest at #NN08 (Adam Conner)
· Nate Wilcox Interviewed on Netroots Nation, Netroots Rising (lowkell)
· Comprehensive Q2 & CoH Numbers for Senate Candidates (Senate Guru)
· IA-05: Steve King embarrasses Iowans again (desmoinesdem)
· MS-Sen: Musgrove Comes Out In Favor Of Net Neutrality (cottonmouthblog)
· Rasmussen: Obama Up in Nevada (Sven at My Silver State)
· Livebloggin McCain in Kansas City (clarkent)
· DFA Night School featuring Lakoff convenes today (desmoinesdem)
· CA-46, CA-50: Cook, Leibham Outraise Incumbents (dday)
· SD: Tim Johnson Leads Big in Polls, $$$ (lowkell)
