McCain's Free Pass Continues: Recent Deceptions Cause Hardly a Stir

The GOP is wont to assert that Obama gets all the coverage (and especially the favorable coverage).   And the media tends to react as if: If John McCain says something, it's good enough for them.  It is getting old.

Here's an article by ABC News' Jake Tapper outlining McCain's strategy to claim he gets a bum rap . Don't make me laugh.  But Tapper tries to make it appear as though if both sides are complaining about the media, as he suggests in another article on the same blog, then they must be doing their job.  Not so fast.  And though I quote Tapper below, he does not get off the hook completely either.

The past week is also a great example of how the GOP manage to intrude into anything and everything Democratic.  More on that in a moment.

Then, this week, the McCain-boot-licking media largely let him get away with many deceptions concerning the Palin controversy.  "Country First" appears not just in McCain ads, but in media banter: McCain coins a term, uses it in ads,  and the media spin it outward.  But as another blog here by teacherken challenges, McCain hardly put country first in his selection of the most unqualified person ever to be selected for VP. And it's kinda difficult to outdo Dan Quayle. Today, Comcast.net had the temerity to run a claim by McCainiac Carly Fiorina that Barack Obama is "sexist" for questioning the McCain's decision and questioning Palin's meager "experience." So now no one can criticize McCain because "he was a POW" and now no one can criticize Palin because to do so is supposedly "sexist."  Well, I'm a woman.  And I call bs on Carly Fiorina--and Palin.  

Palin's scant tenure as governor, on the heels of serving as mayor of a microscopic town is beyond ludicrous.  They ought to save the Palin fairy tale for a kindergarten class.  It's insulting to everyone else.  

Here and around the blogosphere there is ample evidence that her supposed "maverick" status is one of the biggest fibs in a long time.  But all of this pales in light of Palin's scant "experience."  Her  recent query about what "does a VP do" and her self-proclaimed professed ignorance of foreign policy ought to make anyone wonder what this election has come to.  (She doesn't know much about domestic policy either, but I digress).

In addition to twelve years in the Illinois legislature, Barack Obama has served four years in the US Senate, where they actually consider issues of national importance.  Palin, on the other hand is the guv of a state the size of Austin Texas.  She got a little over a whooping 100,000 votes.  

Obama has had the counsel of experts, met with foreign leaders.  Even the Bush administration now mimics his Iraq policy.  Barack garnered the respect of leaders around the world. 60 generals and admirals have advised him.  Twenty of them were standing there last Thursday night.  And Comcast dismissively runs the Fiorina statement.  McCain himself implied no one should question his choice.  Really? I also question McCain's decision making ability.  He is just too impulsive to be commander-in-chief and our nation's primary advocate.  And his using his POW status as a shield also brings up more questions, such as:  Was he irrevocably damaged by that experience? It's a fair question.  
But if anyone questions someone, such as Wesley Clark did, the weight of the McCainiacs in the media come down upon him or her. And the media let McCain get away with it.  They do this knowing of his hair-trigger temper.  Americans have a right to know about that, but few media figures will talk about it.

Then we learn that Palin possibly was a member of the AIP (which both she and McCain today denied).  Ther is conflicting evidence about whether she was actually a member. ABC first reported on Jake Tapper's blog:

Officials of the Alaskan Independence Party say that Palin was once so independent, she was once a member of their party, which, since the 1970s, has been pushing for a legal vote for Alaskans to decide whether or not residents of the 49th state can secede from the United States.
And while McCain's motto -- as seen in a new TV ad -- is "Country First," the AIP's motto is the exact opposite -- "Alaska First -- Alaska Always."
After refraining from commenting on the charge for a day, the McCain campaign on Tuesday asserted that Palin was never a member of the AIP.
But Lynette Clark, the chairman of the AIP, tells ABC News that Palin and her husband Todd were members in 1994, even attending the 1994 statewide convention in Wasilla. Clark was AIP secretary at the time.

More recently, CBS weighed in with a column by one of my favorite bloggers, Steve Benen, formerly of the Carpet Bagger Report and now at the magazine, the Washington Monthly.  Read it here.  MSNBC weighed in here.You read and decide. However, the evidence suggests that, at minimum, Palin has been in attendance at meetings, spoke at at least one meeting, and may have been a supporter (without actually registering for that party) for at least a while.  Her husband has belonged (registered) for years to a group  which wants to secede from America.  Where are the rest of the media?

But the media has had more blemishes this past week or so.  As Gustav began to unleash its winds and rain, the McCain-adoring media recast the "let them eat cake" right winger as the nation's most beneficent Grandpa.  Again, do not make me laugh.  McCain shared birthday cake during Katrina's destruction of NOLA.  Forgiveness doesn't come that easily from an opportunistic grandstand now that McCain wants our votes.  

Over at Daily Howler Bob Somerby unpacks the lies concerning the "Bridge to Nowhere" that the media hasn't yet gotten completely right.  And if the public saw the cynical elaborate deception, the so-called "Straight Talk Express" nonsense would be no more. The public wouldn't stand for it.  Even the libertarian-leaning Capital Hill Blue has gotten the Palin un-vetted "nomination" disgrace.  Where's the so-called MSM?

As it is, in "Mainstream Medialand" (or better yet, Orwell Land), we put up with one GOP grandstand after another.  With the exception of the final night of our convention, it was hard to get uninterrupted coverage of the actual speeches, except on CSPAN (after 5 PM).  Ever playing the filter, the talking heads tried to tell us what we should think. A citizen tuning in at this point would have thought the Democratic Convention avoided details, values and everything important.  Those of us who watched the actual speeches know better.

Media Matters concluded:

It was easy to lose sight of that while watching television coverage of the Democratic convention this week. Not because the convention speakers weren't talking about policies and values and ideals -- they were -- but because the media wasn't paying much attention to any of that. Instead, the media treated the convention as purely a political matter -- are the Democrats unified? Should they criticize President Bush and Sen. John McCain more? Was Sen. Hillary Clinton's speech good enough? Too good? (No, really: several journalists suggested that might have been the case.) How many pronouns did she use? Will Sen. Barack Obama get a "bounce" in the polls? ABC's convention coverage actually featured Good Morning America co-host Robin Roberts channeling Republican mockery of the the stage design for Obama's speech by chanting "Toga! Toga!" Yes, that really happened.

At one point anchors were chair dancing to the tunes from the stadium.  

But one thing was incontrovertible: Even Obama skeptics in the media, lauded his acceptance speech.  Over at MSNBC even right-winger Pat Buchanan gushed with praise for Obama's speech dubbing it probably the best acceptance speech ever.  At CNN there was praise, however tepid by the likes of Campbell Brown (whose husband, Dan Senor, has worked as a spokesman for the Bush administration and as spokesman for the Iraq Provisional Authority).  He's also been a member of the Carlyle Group.  Why is she even an anchor?  

And then came the increasingly malicious, poison pen of the AP, whose Washington bureau is now headed by Bush administration crony Ron Fournier, who, evidence shows, has sent his approving emails to the administration.  He's also encouraged pseudo-analysis with first person reaction rather than serious analysis. So the AP's Charles Babington wrote what was surely written by a McCain promoter.  Read about it here. His "analysis" bears little resemblance to Obama's talk, but rather appears to have been inspired by McCain campaign spin.  Charles Babington needs to get a new job, said Keith Olbermann.  As if...

Despite the MSNBC team's late night positives concerning the speech, overall, I have given up hoping we'll ever get a fair deal at the hands of the so-called MSM.  We can't even have a convention anymore without them actively trying to undermine it.  They talked endlessly about an exaggerated disaffection by the Clinton's supporters.  Even if it were true, it's irrelevant.  

Lightweight Norah O'Donnell anchored the team inside Pepsi Center, the knowledgeable Olbermann and his sad sidekick, motormouth Tweety, anchoring  nearly a mile away. Oh, the almost nonstop idiocy of Tweety!

Furthermore, until Thursday of the DNC, the coverage was nearly all GOP spin, all the time.  Every time I tuned in through three daytimes of coverage, there were Republicans bashing Dems.  I watched in amazement as Mitt Romney is inside the DEMOCRATIC convention.  If a Dem acted as a pretender at or inside a GOP convention, all the talk would be about the terrible, terrible Dems (and "how dare they?").  But, Mitt gets an interview to spin the convention the GOP way. And there was Rudy, the fulminator,  par excellence, who never let an opportunity to include the words "9-11" pass him by. BTW, Bush was expected to not let an opportunity pass to mention 9-11 tonight.  How many lies can the man, McCain's twin, tell?

Last week, Bill-O was there, FAUX News was there, bloviating, while accusing Dems of doing so.  MSNBC didn't even deliver speakers' whole speeches, but rather  the sound of its own talking heads' voices. For days they open mic'd the screamers outside their studio to suggest Dems are screaming crazies.  It was difficult to listen to them. From the media, which knew how to sound-engineer out the crowd noise at a Dean rally, it is suspiciously apparent that it included the screaming maniacs outside the MSNBC studio (there were only about 150-200, but they sounded insane), fpr a reason.

Joe Scarborough gave what passes for commentary only in the dreams of GOPhers.  Why was he (former GOP Congressman that he is) even covering the Democratic Convention for MSNBC?  Worse, why do we have to put up with the likes of that Nixonian spinmeister and perennial xenophobe, Pat Buchanan?  BTW, the McCain camp is also denying what Buchanan confirms, that Palin was a supporter and fund-raiser for him in 1992.  They just can't help themselves with deceptions.

Meanwhile, the McCainiac media gave undue emphasis on the McCain No. 2 spot announcement last Thursday and Friday.  No Obama post-election coverage for us!  Of course, they probably hoped McCain's usurpation of our time would all go better than it has with the voters.  Imagine them giving Dems such coverage had we pulled such a stunt as announcing the VP pick so conspicuously timed!  

That the viewer got to hear little of what's actually going  on at the convention is is by design. The networks want to be able to tell Americans what to think instead of letting them do so for themselves.  That way, the electorate may be more compliant and succumb to the ads hitting the airwaves trashing Barack Obama, even as our convention unfolded.  

And then, this week the McCain campaign unleashed another of its fear-mongering and despicable ads (accusing of Dems of red ink as far as the eye can see) and the old "tax and spend clap trap, lies all).  Where are the media fact checks?   Just who gave us red ink?  And who did not?  

And now, the media are still using the "maverick" frame.  They'll still falsely claim that McCain is a straight-talker.  They'll repeat the "country first" mantra.  Despite his past service nearly forty years ago, McCain does not put country first now.  Sorry, Barack.  I know you do not like us talking like that, but it's the truth.  McCain does not get a free pass.  He has not the judgment, the knowledge, the temperament, or (currently) the honesty, to run for anything, much less the presidency. His entire campaign is based on multiple misrepresentations, now at least 75 major deceptions, as The Carpetbagger Report website reveals in its long list of flip flops and worse-than-flip-flops.  These don't include McCain's Palin lies.

Personally, I believe that the blogging gloves come off now. This does not mean that I endorse any effort directed at the children of Palin.  I do not--it's unethical, in my humble opinion.  I agree with Barack Obama, who says families (i.e., children) are "off limits." Spouses may be, if the issue is private.  But should they get themselves embroiled in a public issue that we have a right to know about, then its the public business.

McCain doesn't leave families out of it, though.  But we should. And I say that despite the unbelievable hypocrisy of Palin not wanting sex education or birth control available to Americans.  (She's not just against choice!)  And I say this despite the appalling way Palin and the GOP want REAL BIG GOVERNMENT in our bedrooms and into decision about whom Americans can marry.  

This really is a contest for America's soul.  Americans wish something better for our country than the war-mongering, gluttony, greed, fraud, corruption, fiscal neglect of the Bush administration and its biggest promoter, John McCain.  His few, lame criticisms were and are empty for he gave into the administration --about almost everything.  Even he admits he voted with Bush over 90% of the time.  (It was 100% this year.)  By his rashness, his condoning Bush administration transgressions, his endless deceptions, his ignorance, faulty memory, and his temperament, John McCain shows he's simply unfit for the presidency.  And the media keeps refusing to face up to it.  Where are all the honorable media figures?  There are some left.  I know there are.  We need a few more good media people to come forward, to do what is right, to tell the truth about this man.  Our country needs them.  Now!

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