For no other reason than to start the day off with a laugh, I ran across something over at Wonkette that appealed to my sick sense of humor.
So, for your viewing enjoyment.......It Is Raining McCain.
For those getting this via email subscription, the video doesn't show up, so here is the YouTube URL.
Now on to some actual news.
One of the reasons it is "raining McCain" is the consistent negativity between Obama and Clinton, which has surpassed policy issues and brought the race to personal attacks, color and gender and the latest reports show that 20 percent of Obama supporters would vote for Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Republican nominee, if Clinton beats their candidate for the nomination. Among Clinton supporters, 19 percent said they would support McCain in November if Obama is the Democratic nominee.
If even half of those people make good on that threat, it bodes well for McCain and not very good for either Democratic candidate.
This isn't stopping the candidates at all because the first thing I saw this morning was reports that Bill Clinton made a comment yesterday that Obama supporters took as questioning his patriotism.
From FirstRead at MSNBC:
CHARLOTTE, NC -- At a small VFW hall in Charlotte, NC, today, former president Bill Clinton contemplated a McCain/Clinton general election matchup, saying that it would one between "two people who loved this country" without "all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics."
"I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country," said the former president. "And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics."
So, of course, that starts the sniping and Tony McPeak, a retired Air Force general and current co-chair of Obama's presidential campaign said he was disappointed by the comments and compared them to those of McCarthy, the 1950s communist-hunting senator.
That led to the campaign spokesman Phil Singer, rejecting the comparison and lobbing public attention back where the Clinton campaign things it shoud be...on Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright and his controversial comments that have caused Obama such damage in the last couple of weeks.
"To liken these comments to McCarthyism is absurd," Singer said. He said McPeak was "clearly misinterpreting" the remarks and suggested that might be an intentional effort to divert attention from a recent controversy involving controversial statements by Obama's former pastor.
All that back and forth made Hillary Clinton post a response on her website, The FactHub:
Actually, as is indicated by the quote itself, President Clinton was talking about the need to talk about issues, rather than falsely questioning any candidate's patriotism.
He was lamenting that these kind of distractions "always seems to intrude" on political campaigns. This is consistent with his criticism of the "politics of personal destruction," which dates back 16 years.
Well Tony McPeak, who served under Clinton and the first President Bush, isn't buying that at all.
"It's a use of language as a disguised insult. We've seen this before, this little clever spin that's put on stuff," McPeak said. "I have no idea what his intentions are, but I'm disappointed in the statement. I think Bill Clinton is, or ought to be, better than that."
Quick question- When was the last time, other than the Democratic debate itself, when you heard either of these candidates discuss an actual issue, a policy issue?
Just saying.
(Joe McCarthy-Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period of extreme anti-communist suspicion inspired by the tensions of the Cold War.He was noted for making claims that there were large numbers of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers inside the federal government and elsewhere. Ultimately, McCarthy's tactics and his inability to substantiate his claims led to his being discredited and censured by the United States Senate. The term "McCarthyism," coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist pursuits. Today the term is used more generally to describe demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents)
[Update] Seems that others are finally starting to show and/or talk about the 'Raining McCain' video.
Matthew Yglesias, Althouse, AMERICAblog, The Moderate Voice, Eschaton and Buck Naked Politics.
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