Gawker: campaign

MSNBC Calls Pennsylvania for Obama

Gabriel Snyder — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 20:00:52 EST

In a call that suggests the Obama-blowout exit polls may be more right than wrong, MSNBC has called Pennsylvania for Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Fox News is sticking with too-close-to-call.

McCain Supporter Bemoans 'Unfortunate' Lack of Racism

ian spiegelman — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 11:24:31 EDT

Can anyone on McCain's side speak for more than a minute without royally screwing up? There's "my fellow prisoners," everything Sarah Palin says, and the generally increasing ugliness of the whole campaign. It's infectious. Yesterday American Spectator managing editor J.P. Freire went on MSNBC to explain away the "Terrorist!" and "Kill him!" chanters, and to accuse the Obama camp of pulling "the hate card." He then went on to admit that, "If McCain and the Republicans really did believe that it would help them to be raving racists, we'd be seeing a lot more of this." Then the bigger stumble: "Unfortunately, though, no one wants to be a racist." Yes, yes, we know he meant to say "Fortunately." Clip after the jump.

Starts at about 2:01.

Sarah Palin: Tax Cheat

ian spiegelman — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 10:10:08 EDT

Say what you will about Sarah Palin—that she's a dingbat, an ideologue, and a bit of a creep—but she's not dumb enough to pay her taxes. The McCain campaign released the last two years of her tax returns yesterday in an old school Friday news dump—and she totally cheats! "Palin, it appears, did not pay taxes on the more than $60,000 of travel reimbursements that she and her family members reportedly billed the state during her 18 months as governor." McCain's goons will surely argue that there's nothing wrong with that. Because they are liars.

"There is a fairly wonky debate over whether she should have been charged for these trips or whether it was accounted for in her salary. John Bogdanski, a tax professor at the Lewis and Clark Law School, told the Huffington Post's Seth Colter Walls that they did qualify as taxable income."

And $60 grand isn't a big deal if you're a total millionaire like John McCain and own eight houses, but Palin is merely wealthy. So she rips off the Treasury Joe Six-Pack style.

"According to an accompanying 2007 personal financial disclosure report, Palin's 'income' as governor of Alaska was $196,531.50, well above the $107,987.00 that was noted on her W2 form from that same year." [HuffPo]

Jews for Obama

ian spiegelman — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:35:00 EDT

So are the Democrats going to have Florida stolen from them again? Not if everyone's favorite Jewey homegirl Sarah Silverman has anything to say about it (Okay, actually, a lot of people can't stand her anymore, but I still like her a lot). Sarah is stumping for Obama by urging folks to use emotional coercion against their aged relatives in Florida in order to get them to vote for the Illinois Senator. Silverman points out that rather than fearing black males, elderly Jews should realize that they have much in common with them. And if they still won't vote for Barack, well, she guesses they won't get any visits from the grandkids anytime soon. And, yeah, I know it's a couple days old, but it deserves a post. Clip after the jump.

Veterans for Obama

ian spiegelman — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 12:45:26 EDT

The group Veterans for Obama has just released a batch of ads featuring "The Next Generation" of combat vets from the wars in Irag and Afghanistan to counter John McCain's never ending claims that he's the only candidate who supports or our troops—and that he's the only one our troops support. In the spots, the vets themselves offer McCain a healthy dose of much-needed reality. Check out a few after the jump.

And here's one from Virginia Veterans for Obama:

[via Crooks and Liars]

John McCain Saving The Nation

Nick Denton — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 10:17:35 EDT

John McCain's motorcade snapped by a passerby on 57th St. at 9th Ave. in Manhattan yesterday at 5.30pm—just about the time he was supposed to be recording an interview for the Late Show with David Letterman or else saving the country from financial ruin.

Obama Is 'Crossword-Friendly'

Nick Denton — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 10:06:57 EDT

Late-night host David Letterman—who dropped his usual Midwestern bonhomie to drub John McCain yesterday evening—is not the only national institution to be overtaken by partisanship this election season. If only in jest, the New York Times crossword makers are being accused of favoring McCain's Democratic rival. While "Obama" has appeared as an answer several times, the Republican candidate hasn't been honored once. What's the Times' excuse? "It is because ‘Obama’ is a five-letter name that alternates vowels and consonants," a spokeswoman tells Politico. "It’s got three vowels out of five letters, starting and ending in vowels. So it is much more crossword-friendly than ‘McCain,’ which is a harder word to put in a crossword." And that explanation will do precisely nothing to mitigate conservative suspicions of a newspaper so rooted in New York that even the crosswords are liberal.

The Suspension Of John McCain's Campaign

Nick Denton — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 18:28:06 EDT

McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt is a risk taker and a brilliant manipulator of the news cycle. The Rove acolyte's two biggest gambles—a delay in the Republican Convention in deference to an approaching hurricane and the selection of camera-magnet Sarah Palin as running mate—both distracted the media and the public from John McCain's weaknesses as a presidential candidate. One can assume he's behind the "suspension" of the Republican nominee's campaign. Will it allow McCain to skip an otherwise dangerous debate this Friday night while claiming he's putting country first? Here's an instant poll. Suspend your political bias but not your judgment.

Obama Unimpressed With Crazy Lady Veep Candidate

ian spiegelman — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:55:23 EDT

So what do you do when the curmudgeonly old Republican you're running against for President throws you a curveball and selects a pretty young-ish woman as his running mate? Point out that she's a pro-life nutbunny chosen to win over the Christian Fundamentalists whose overwhelming political influence has most of the country quite fed the hell up already? Nah, just keep focusing on the old man and the fact that he's spent the last eight years living in the small intestine of the worst President in American history. That's just what Senator Barack "Hope" Obama is doing with his first television ad reacting to the Sarah Palin nomination—it doesn't even name her! Watch it after the jump.

Kathy Hilton Tells John McCain to Shut His Stupid, Crusty Face

ian spiegelman — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 16:38:16 EDT

How much of a silly old ass do you have to be to get me to side with the terrible, slithering Hilton Clan? About the size of John McCain, I'd wager. The war-loving Republican nominee's ad comparing Senator Barack Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears (watch it here) has gotten Paris' mom Kathy Hilton to write a terse response today. Well, she likely had someone else write it, but still.

I've been asked again and again for my response to the now infamous McCain celebrity ad. I actually have three responses. It is a complete waste of the money John McCain's contributors have donated to his campaign. It is a complete waste of the country's time and attention at the very moment when millions of people are losing their homes and their jobs. And it is a completely frivolous way to choose the next President of the United States. [HuffPo]

Hmm. Strangely, I don't find myself on anyone's side in this. I just feel like I hate rich people.

Running For President On $5 A Day

Hamilton Nolan — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:08:19 EDT

In the (very near) future, presidential candidates will have national advertising campaign budgets of about $637 or so. They'll just make a few very low-tech ads full of stock photos and slanderous lies about their opponents, run the ad once at 3 a.m. on a small local news channel in the Midwest, and then let the news networks swoop in and show the ad in its entirety hundreds of times for free, repeating all of its slanderous lies each time. That's basically been John McCain's strategy so far, and it's working like a charm!

The number of times Senator John McCain’s new advertisement attacking Senator Barack Obama for canceling a visit with wounded troops in Germany last week has been shown fully or partly on local, national and cable newscasts: well into the hundreds.
The number of times that spot actually, truly ran as a paid commercial: roughly a dozen.

Awesome work. The added bonus is that the ad says Obama refused to visit wounded troops because they wouldn't give him enough publicity for it, and he'd rather play basketball with fellow Muslims anyhow. Neither aspect of which seems to be factually true. Decide for yourself: watch the ad below! We'll send the McCain campaign an invoice for this post.

[NYT]

McCain-Approved Reporter: "Can liberals simply not keep themselves from attacking the military?"

Ryan Tate — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:01:25 EDT

John McCain used to totally love hanging out with reporters, back when he drove the Straight Talk Express, a giant party bus where the liberal press corps could smoke their hippie reefer weed and listen to old man MAVERICK tell hilarious stories about being tortured by "gooks." But now all the top journalists have abandoned McCain for the new cool kid, teen pop sensation Barack Obama, and so the Republican presidential candidate bitterly decided to only accept questions from angry people in wheelchairs and craven conservative bloggers. Here are the only two questions allowed during a July 1 campaign conference call, recorded by a reporter for progressive magazine Mother Jones (who will never be allowed to talk to or make eye contact with McCain, ever):

The first came from [conservative blogger] Ed Morrissey, who asked Graham and Swindle, "Can you explain the significance of John McCain's command experience in the Navy...as well as whatever leadership he has shown in the Senate....and can you address...that Barack Obama doesn't have any executive experience at all?"

The next query came from [conservative blogger] Matt Lewis. Referencing retired General Wesley Clark's recent comment that McCain's military service and POW experience did not qualify him to be president, Lewis asked Graham and Swindle if Clark's remark was part of "a concerted effort by the Obama campaign, or can liberals simply not keep themselves from attacking the military?"

Then the call was over.

Of course, McCain no longer needs the press, because he can go direct to voters with his amazing new ad slogan, "Don't hope for a better life."

[Mother Jones via New Republic]

Hillary Clinton and the Comments of Doom

ian spiegelman — Sat, 24 May 2008 11:51:38 EDT

Oh Senator Hillary Clinton, would you please, please, please, please, please stop talking! When the Sioux Falls Argus Leader asked her why she's still campaigning, she mused, "My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California." Hinting, in other words, that, you know, that Sen. Barack Obama, who's young and beloved and Kennedy-y, might get straight-up murdered in the coming weeks. Today she's apologizing for that, but now everyone's pointing out that she's been peddling that scenario for months!

"She has said much the same thing before. In a March interview with Time magazine, she said: 'Primary contests used to last a lot longer. We all remember the great tragedy of Bobby Kennedy being assassinated in June in L.A. My husband didn't wrap up the nomination in 1992 until June, also in California. Having a primary contest go through June is nothing particularly unusual.'" [AP]

Also? Some people are reminding everyone that Bill Clinton pretty much had his nomination wrapped up by March of '92.

Dayum, Hillary, Can't You Quit Lying?

ian spiegelman — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 10:05:21 EDT

Senator Hillary Clinton has been telling a heart-wrenching yarn of late about an uninsured woman who died, and lost her baby, when an Ohio hospital refused to treat her because she couldn't afford to pay a $100 fee. But... Oops! "The woman, Trina Bachtel, did die last August, two weeks after her baby boy was stillborn at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens, Ohio. But hospital administrators said Friday that Ms. Bachtel was under the care of an obstetrics practice affiliated with the hospital, that she was never refused treatment and that she was, in fact, insured." Video, after the jump.

I've been trying to stay off the Hill-hating band wagon, but she's really starting to creep me out. Initially, I tried to take that whole Bosnia thing with a grain of salt, but the more she talked and backtracked and recast the tale, the more she sounded not like some windy exaggerator, but like someone with "a pathology a thousand times more savage." (Thanks, Dr. Lecter!) And now there's this depressing display.

“'We implore the Clinton campaign to immediately desist from repeating this story,' said Rick Castrop, chief executive officer of the O’Bleness Health System. Linda M. Weiss, a spokeswoman for the not-for-profit hospital, said the Clinton campaign had never contacted the hospital to check the accuracy of the story, which Mrs. Clinton had first heard from a Meigs County, Ohio, sheriff’s deputy in late February." [NYT]

Buchanan to Blacks: Get Happy.

ian spiegelman — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 16:01:50 EDT

Old Timey conservative columnist, MSNBC contributor, and long-standing "The McLaughlin Group" shrieker Patrick Buchanan wants Senator Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, to "go down on his knees and thank God he is an American." The essay, posted on Buchanan's blog yesterday and entitled "A Brief for Whitey" offers many an insight into the history of black Americans in America.

"America has been the best country on earth for black folks," he writes. "It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known." Slave ships! Community! Salvation! What haven't we given these "folks"?

"We hear the grievances," Buchanan admits. But? "Where is the gratitude?" [via Media Matters]