Politico..

I'm so happy that they have decided to just publish Republican oppo articles. That's classy.

What I hate about the traditional media

Taegan Goodard writes:

Sen. John McCain's inability to tell a reporter how many home he owns became a major issue in the campaign last night, with segments on all three network news programs.

Chris Cilliza nails why it matters: "In politics, there is nothing worse than appearing out of touch."

In my perfect world, John McCain actually being out of touch, say with a ridiculous tax plan, would be what really mattered.

David Shuster sizzles

Via Rumproast, David Shuster lays the smack down on the PUMA crowd:



It's a delicious 11 minutes of pure awesomeness.

Great headline

A great headline from Jake Tapper (who is basically my favorite traditional media blogger):

President McCain Sends Secretary of State Lieberman and Defense Secretary Graham to Tbilisi

Anti-Swift-Boating

TPM is reporting that Sen. Obama is going actually discredit the lying Swift-Boater crowd:

Obama advisers say that whenever they hear that Corsi has been booked for an appearance on a network program, they are quickly contacting the program's producers to rebut the book's charges in phone conversations and giving them a whole run-down of past Corsi quotes that are controversial.

Obama aides also vow to insist that the producers allow them to have on a campaign surrogate to attack the charges, and are expecting to recruit more campaign surrogates, well plied with talking points, to push back against the book.

The question is, why didn't Sen. Kerry do this same thing last election cycle? I mean, it just doesn't make sense to allow scurrilous accusations by deranged liars to go unanswered. The traditional media will repeat anything even bald-faced lies, so you have to get to them early before the lies become "common knowledge."

Why I stopped reading The Note

When I first starting getting serious about politics, I used to read ABC's The Note religiously. I stopped reading it a while ago, and started wondering why. It quickly became clear.

Here is the third paragraph:

(And the poll we've all been waiting for has arrived -- the one that declares the race just about even.)

It links to the Pew Poll showing Barack Obama winning 46%-43%, with a 2% margin of error. Is that even to you? No, it means that Barack is leading... by 3 points. But, like I've said previously, everything is Good News For John McCain!

More nonsense from Michael Crowley

His new post about the Edwards affair includes this statement:

P.S. The coming wave of debate about the relevance of a candidate's extramarital affairs may be an unwelcome development for the McCain team (although the Iseman allegations were of course denied and never proven).

Putting the Iseman allegations aside, John McCain clearly cheated on his first wife numerous times, most notably with his current wife.

Thank you

In the wake of another negative, false McCain ad, I salute those in the traditional media who are pointing this out:

But when it comes to promises, it's worth pointing out that, according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center's analysis of both candidates' proposed plans, Obama would cut taxes for those making in the range of $38,000 to $66,000 three to almost eight times more than McCain would.

If only others would follow this lead.

*sigh* Paul Krugman

After such a promising start:

So the G.O.P. has found its issue for the 2008 election. For the next three months the party plans to keep chanting: “Drill here! Drill now! Drill here! Drill now! Four legs good, two legs bad!” O.K., I added that last part.

Why did he have to slip in a veiled Obama insult? I mean, the primary wars are like so over.

And the debate on energy policy has helped me find the words for something I’ve been thinking about for a while. Republicans, once hailed as the “party of ideas,” have become the party of stupid.

He does make this great point:

Bear in mind that members of the political and media elites were more pro-war than the public at large in the fall of 2002, even though the flimsiness of the case for invading Iraq should have been even more obvious to those paying close attention to the issue than it was to the average voter.

Misleading Headlines

Here's the WaPo headline:

Report: Exxon Execs Gave More to Obama

Here's what the report says:

Through June, Exxon employees have given Obama $42,100 to McCain's $35,166. Chevron favors Obama $35,157 to $28,500, and Obama edges out McCain with BP $16,046 vs. $11,500. McCain leads the money race with nearly every other top giver in the oil and gas industry, though -- Koch Industries, Valero, Marathon Oil, Occidental Petroleum, ConocoPhillips, the list goes on.

Notice something? Look, I work for an oil company, so technically, I am one of those oil company employees donating to Sen. Obama. Is this the same as our Company's BOD maxing out to Sen. McCain? No.

More good news for John McCain!

Obama maintains a five-point lead he had in June (right after he clenched the nomination). People like him better! People trust him more!

The headline: "Poll: Trouble Signs in Obama's Lead"

Intellectual Dishonesty

From the International Herald Tribune:

In an effort to cast himself as independent of the influence of money on politics, Senator Barack Obama often highlights the campaign contributions of $200 or less that have amounted to fully half of the $340 million he has collected so far.

But records show that a third of his record-breaking haul has come from donations of $1,000 or more - a total of $112 million, more than the total of contributions in that category taken in by either Senator John McCain, his Republican rival, or Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, his opponent in the Democratic primaries.

Several points:

1. The first paragraph discusses "percentages" the second switches to "totals"
2. Sen. Obama raised a lot more money than either Sen. Clinton or Sen. McCain, so it's no wonder that his "total" large donations was larger.
3. His "percentage" of large donations is smaller than both Sen. Clinton and Sen. McCain.
4. In fact, almost half of McCain donors have contributed the maximum (or more), which means that an increadibly large percentage of his total donations is from people who have paid the maximum (probably around 75%)
5. In sum, it's crazy that 170 million dollars has come from people who gave under $200 dollars.
6. Don't believe everything you read on Drudge
   

What Republicans are concerned about Obama?

Why is this considered news to Mark Halperin? On a related note, Fred Hiatt is not "center-left," he is an idiot enabler of the wingnuts at the WaPo.

Sad but true

Steve at No More Mister Nice blog reminds us that according to the press, all Republicans are mavericks.

Your Media at Work

Jesse astutely points out the racism inherent in the discussion of the candidate's planes, but he misses one other instance of media bias:

Article about John Kerry:

Kerry didn't say how his new wings compare to the Gulfstream jet owned by his wife, philanthropist Teresa Heinz Kerry.

Article about John McCain:

But, we have a librul media, so I shouldn't worry about things like this.

Desperation

Check this lede in the NYTimes article "Starry-Eyed Media Breed Green-Eyed Candidates":

That old devil “the media” is back in the news, and it’s still only summer. This particular villain is usually brought out in the fall, when one of the presidential candidates is feeling desperate and needs to blame someone else for what looks like a losing campaign.

But, no, the McCain campaign is that desperate now. I guess, he's feeling bad that the reporters are not getting him as many donuts as they used to.

The rest of the article is not that good:

Just today, the McCain camp released an ad that tries to stoke an emerging storyline about Mr. Obama — that he is arrogant and presumptuous [...] a meme that seems to be bubbling to the surface with more help from Mr. Obama than from Mr. McCain

So, in other words, it's Sen. Obama's fault that he's seen as "arrogant and presumptuous" for visiting the same countries as Sen. McCain, but doing it better... right...

Despite several other occasions of lucidity, the article itself is a paragon of the traditional media deciding that their behavior is perfectly okay.