59 Comments

Capitol Boy:

I saw the Dark Knight, and really loved it.

Aug 2, 2008 - 11:03 am Capitol Boy:

What McCain is doing is an insult to the voters and an evasion from the issues. He ought to be ashamed of himself.

Aug 2, 2008 - 11:04 am Jonas Blane:

“The Dark Knight” has made $400 million in 3 weeks? That’s amazing. I’ve only seen it twice.

Aug 2, 2008 - 11:07 am Ann:

At least it’s not the Eagles.

Aug 2, 2008 - 11:10 am richard locicero:

Sorry Bill but Schmidt and McCain stepped in some of poopy’s “deep Doo Doo.” Check the polling (see either Marc Cooper of KOS): And the results show Obama’s lead has not budged. But state by state its worse. Best case for McCain - OBama’s at 264; worse case - The skinny kid is over 400 (depends on how you treat MOE results as leaners or ties). In either case4 McCaion is sure of only 72 at the moment.

But its worse than that. Smears work when others do it. Swift boat ads came from 527s. Outside groups gave us Willie Horton. But these are McCain ads and at the end he’s the one saying he approved this message. And its hurting him. Yes he is getting free media but his former friends are appalled at the new guy - see Joe Klein, see Andrea Mitchel. The old narrative was, you may disagree but you know where he stands. The new one - McCain will say anything to get elected and he’ll change from day to day (see SS taxes).

Remember Obama will be advertising during the olympics - something the McCaniacs can’t do since they lack the resources. Watch for a lot on the $1000 rebate for energy - paid for by a windfall profits tax on big oil. Lets see what the GOP does.

Oh, and a bonus - Thursday the GOP Senators filibustered a defense authorization bill that provided mmore for the toops cause it didn’t allow offshore drilling. These guys make it too easy!

Aug 2, 2008 - 12:14 pm Chris M:

We’ll see.*

>richard locicero:

Sorry Bill but Schmidt and McCain stepped in some of poopy’s “deep Doo Doo.” …
—
* That’s me doing my best Bill imitation

Aug 2, 2008 - 12:31 pm Len:

If only you were right there, Richard.

Obama was ahead by 9 a week ago. Now he’s tied with McCain in the Gallup tracking poll.

http://www.gallup.com/tag/Gallup%2bDaily.aspx

Aug 2, 2008 - 1:00 pm Bill Bradley:

Right.

Aug 2, 2008 - 1:19 pm Bill Bradley:

Pretty good.

>Chris M:

We’ll see.*

>richard locicero:

Sorry Bill but Schmidt and McCain stepped in some of poopy’s “deep Doo Doo.” …
—
* That’s me doing my best Bill imitation
Aug 2, 2008 - 12:31 pm

Aug 2, 2008 - 1:19 pm Bill Bradley:

No, the Obama bounce has been successfully jammed. You try too hard to convince yourself.

>richard locicero:

Sorry Bill but Schmidt and McCain stepped in some of poopy’s “deep Doo Doo.” Check the polling (see either Marc Cooper of KOS): And the results show Obama’s lead has not budged.

Aug 2, 2008 - 1:20 pm Bill Bradley:

There is that.

>Ann:

At least it’s not the Eagles.
Aug 2, 2008 - 11:10 am

Aug 2, 2008 - 1:21 pm Bill Bradley:

Not yet, but it’s closing in.

See it again, maybe you’ll put it over …

>Jonas Blane:

“The Dark Knight” has made $400 million in 3 weeks? That’s amazing. I’ve only seen it twice.
Aug 2, 2008 - 11:07 am

Aug 2, 2008 - 1:21 pm Bill Bradley:

It’s not the shining moment of his career.

>Capitol Boy:

What McCain is doing is an insult to the voters and an evasion from the issues. He ought to be ashamed of himself.
Aug 2, 2008 - 11:04 am

Aug 2, 2008 - 1:22 pm Bill Bradley:

It’s a great movie.

>Capitol Boy:

I saw the Dark Knight, and really loved it.
Aug 2, 2008 - 11:03 am

Aug 2, 2008 - 1:22 pm Hap Hazard:

Watch for a lot on the $1000 rebate for energy - paid for by a windfall profits tax on big oil. - This is what passes for Obama’s energy policy. LOL

Aug 2, 2008 - 2:14 pm Hap Hazard:

Happy to see Obama concede on some oil drilling, but we should be drilling where the oil actually is, like ANWR, and some place off the OCS. I would rather have us doing it than Venezuela or someone who isn’t going to pay much attention to environmental considerations. But alternative fuel or hybrid tech should also be mandated. Maybe both candidates will get to this spot before NOv.

Aug 2, 2008 - 2:34 pm Hap Hazard:

What McCain is doing is an insult to the voters and an evasion from the issues. He ought to be ashamed of himself. - Unbelievable! I think he should be proud of himself. I am proud of him. Finally showing a little gusto and humor, two things lacking in both campaigns until now. It is time for Obama to step up in kind, and maybe this will become a true fight over the policies, and of course the personalities. Would be much more fun that the horrible Olympics from the pollution capital of the world. Can’t believe that the IOOC is so corrupt that they let themselves be pressured or bought by China into doing this. Are they a division of the UN?

Aug 2, 2008 - 3:48 pm Chris M:

Did we ever have a winner in our literature contest? My first guess was Kerouac, and my second would be Arthur Miller.

And, no, I’m not usually home at the computer on a Saturday night, but I rolled an ankle the other day ;-).

Aug 2, 2008 - 9:06 pm sergei:

The Batman movie is not here yet.

Aug 3, 2008 - 1:40 am pat skipper:

Obviously, bringing Schmidt onboard was a great maneuver. Clearly, he’s been successful in turning the flagging ship. This is electoral politics and, like it or not, winning ugly beats the Hell out of losing. I still believe that it will ultimately prove Quixotic for McCain, but if they hadn’t been able to do this, it would have been over by Labor Day.

Aug 3, 2008 - 6:59 am Hap Hazard:

Obviously, bringing Schmidt onboard was a great maneuver. Clearly, he’s been successful in turning the flagging ship. — “The One” was deadly, and caught Axelrod and company flat-footed. The response has been pretty anemic and whiny. Now I see that Obama is shying away from the joint appearances with McCain in favor of the safer atmosphere of traditional debates. Not exactly a good idea in my opinion.

Aug 3, 2008 - 12:35 pm Paul Burton:

BB: “So why did lovable old John McCain suddenly put out FOUR negative TV ads in less than two weeks?”

Because, contrary to conventional wisdom repeated endlessly in corporate media dn blogs, McCain is not lovable (old yes, very old, too old). He’s mean, negative, unstable, and dangerously out of touch, stuck in a permanent war mentality. McCain’s support (with our tax dollars) of every dictator and terrorist from Duvalier to deKlerk, from Somoza to Marcos; Rios Montt to Jonas Savimbi, his belated admission (20 years too late) that he was mistaken in opposing a Holiday for MLK, and his ‘bomb Iran’ lunacy shows that he is unqualified to be US president in the 21st century. He make Obama seem presidential; even if Obama has no foreign policy credentials and also would bomb Iran and Pakistan, he at least isn’t insane enough to think dropping bombs on innocent civilians, women and children is something to joke about.

The real choice: Nader or McKinney?

Check “The Real McCain” at http://therealmccain.com/ for more myth busting about McCain’s ‘maverick’ status.

Aug 3, 2008 - 4:07 pm Hap Hazard:

Paul — It seems to me that the left derives a lot of satisfaction votes a lot of effort ridiculing the right or anyone who doesn’t subscribe fully to the “correct” view of someone or some issue. In fact, if there is any humor on the left, making fun of folks in this manner is what is considered funny. But when someone mocks them, they become infuriated, which we are now seeing in the Obama camp as well. I would take issue with the ads being “negative”, and therefore coming from a mean and unstable John McCain. All of the ads were light-hearted and humorous, exactly the opposite from “negative.” To my way of thinking, attempts to characterize the ads, and the positively funny way that McCain has turned things in the last few days, as something “negative” is to attempt to curb their abvious effecitveness by injecting guilt and shame in the hope that it may discourage further similar attacks.

One more issue. How could you possibly claim that McCain is “mean” and “unstable” and in a presumably humorless, straight face, suggest that people should support McKinney, without a doubt one of the most unhinged politicians ever to “grace” the national stage?? Now that is something humorous

Aug 3, 2008 - 5:08 pm Jack Aubrey:

One man’s “light-hearted and humorous” is another man’s “vicious and dishonest.”

The ads attacking Obama on the troops are vicious and dishonest.

McCain is lying through his teeth there, as Bill pointed out.

Aug 3, 2008 - 5:20 pm Hap Hazard:

“vicious” I might agree with, but that is fair game during electioneering. This is also, as you well know, quite tame when compared against the campaigns and accusations that have been typical throughout our nation’s history, and positively tame compared to a normal day in the British Parliament.

“Dishonest” - How so? Obama did choose not to visit the troops. People are judged by their actions, and he chose not to go see them alone when he was told that campaign staff couldn’t come along, no matter if they were ex-military or not. Everything else is just noise.

Aug 3, 2008 - 6:01 pm Bill Bradley:

I eviscerated that McCain ad.

It is thoroughly bogus.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-bradley/13-things-to-know-about-t_b_115740.html

Aug 3, 2008 - 6:12 pm Hap Hazard:

I read your article before I commented

Aug 3, 2008 - 6:15 pm Bill Bradley:

Then you should be aware that your view is very mistaken.

Aug 3, 2008 - 6:17 pm Hap Hazard:

No, Bill I am very much aware that my view of this is different from yours, not that it is mistaken.

Aug 3, 2008 - 6:21 pm Hap Hazard:

As you well know, having had direct experience doing them, campaign ads are not subject to the rules of evidence at a trial. All they have to be is somewhat plausible and… “it’s a mailer” The true test of their worth is whether they are effective, and the best measure of that is what the other side does with them. By that measure the ads have been devastating. Not that one in particular,which is probably the least of the 4 he released last week. But the Paris Hilton and “The One” were full body blows to the Obama folks it seems to me.

Aug 3, 2008 - 6:25 pm Bill Bradley:

Actually, Hap, there are facts in politics.

And this ad is by far the most thoroughgoing in its dishonesty that I have seen yet in this campaign.

It is a real low in John McCain’s political career.

As I told top people personally.

Aug 3, 2008 - 6:25 pm Bill Bradley:

Go ahead and try to refute anything I say in that column.

Incidentally, the Britney/Paris ad is snarky and all that, but I’m not attacking it.

I do attack this ad.

With fact that is irrrefutable.

Aug 3, 2008 - 6:27 pm Bill Bradley:

Now you’re stuck with spinning.

“Maybe it’s not true — (IT IS FALSE) — but it’s effective.”

Whatever.

The ad I eviscerated is going to prove to have been a big mistake.

Trust me on that assessment.

>Hap Hazard:

As you well know, having had direct experience doing them, campaign ads are not subject to the rules of evidence at a trial. All they have to be is somewhat plausible and… “it’s a mailer” The true test of their worth is whether they are effective, and the best measure of that is what the other side does with them. By that measure the ads have been devastating. Not that one in particular,which is probably the least of the 4 he released last week. But the Paris Hilton and “The One” were full body blows to the Obama folks it seems to me.
Aug 3, 2008 - 6:25 pm

Aug 3, 2008 - 6:29 pm Hap Hazard:

My guess is that ad that you took apart on the troops will disappear on the radar because of the CELEB and THE ONE.

The ad I eviscerated is going to prove to have been a big mistake. Trust me on that assessment.

Of course you may be involved with helping the Obama create a counter ad taking apart McCain on that troops one, and that is perfectly fine, and is part of the fun of these things. Believe it or not I have been involved in production and spinning of these deals for democrats before, and am proud of my service..

Aug 3, 2008 - 6:54 pm Bill Bradley:

Okay then. I see that now you are saying that the ad you said a little while ago is a good and accurate ad won’t actually matter.

And you’re implying that I am going to develop an ad for Obama.

Which is to say that you have backed off what you were saying about the ad in question and are throwing out a new distraction.

Well, your assessment of the ad is wrong.

And it should be obvious I’m not working on the Obama ads.

They would be different.

Aug 3, 2008 - 6:59 pm Bill Bradley:

Incidentally, Paul, this is an extraordinary caricature of John McCain’s character and record.

I actually make it a practice to bother to get to know and learn about politicians before writing about them.

>Paul Burton:

BB: “So why did lovable old John McCain suddenly put out FOUR negative TV ads in less than two weeks?”

Because, contrary to conventional wisdom repeated endlessly in corporate media dn blogs, McCain is not lovable (old yes, very old, too old). He’s mean, negative, unstable, and

Aug 3, 2008 - 7:05 pm Hap Hazard:

With fact that is irrrefutable. - THe point I am trying to make, which is obviously against the prescribed narrative here, is that it makes no difference if not every phrase or word on the ad (which is I repeat, the worst of the 4) is true beyond a responsible doubt or not. These ads are done for effect, not to prove the truth of what is being alleged within the ad. It IS irrefutable that these ads have combined to have dealt a body blow to the Obama camp from which they haven’t yet recovered very nicely. But hold the mock outrage. I know this crap doesn’t really offend you.

Aug 3, 2008 - 7:05 pm Bill Bradley:

You are so far off your first levels of spin here — which was about how accurate and good the ad you are now disowning, i.e., the notorious “Troops” ad, is — that it is quite striking.

There is virtually NOTHING that is true in that ad.

Any campaign that makes this kind of mistake has exposed its jugular for the knife.

Aug 3, 2008 - 7:08 pm Hap Hazard:

Okay then. I see that now you are saying that the ad you said a little while ago is a good and accurate ad won’t actually matter. = Wrong, Bill. What I SAID was that Obama is judged by his actions. What doesn’t matter was the protestations of Obama afterwards. That has been and is always dismissed as noise.

Aug 3, 2008 - 7:13 pm Hap Hazard:

I am a little tired of seeing you resort to the “you are spinning” line of bullshit whenever someone says something that departs from YOUR spin.

Aug 3, 2008 - 7:15 pm Bill Bradley:

Hap, the ad is thoroughgoing in its dishonesty.

It is the sort of work that can be taken and jammed down a candidate’s throat over and over again.

It’s kinda like Phil Angelides and his now you see it/now you don’t tax loopholes program.

I challenged you once to refute anything in my takedown of the ad.

You backed off and spun other arguments, including a silly distraction about my working for the Obama campaign.

Either produce, or move on to another topic.

Aug 3, 2008 - 7:18 pm Bill Bradley:

Actually, that is exactly what you said.

>Hap Hazard:

Okay then. I see that now you are saying that the ad you said a little while ago is a good and accurate ad won’t actually matter. = Wrong, Bill. What I SAID was that Obama is judged by his actions. What doesn’t matter was the protestations of Obama afterwards. That has been and is always dismissed as noise.
Aug 3, 2008 - 7:13 pm

Aug 3, 2008 - 7:19 pm Jack Aubrey:

Pretty funny.

I should say I’m a McCain guy, and back up the lefty attacks on him.

Aug 3, 2008 - 7:23 pm Hap Hazard:

Actually, that is exactly what you said.

THIS is a quote of what I said:
“Obama did choose not to visit the troops. People are judged by their actions, and he chose not to go see them alone when he was told that campaign staff couldn’t come along, no matter if they were ex-military or not. Everything else is just noise.”

It is the sort of work that can be taken and jammed down a candidate’s throat over and over again. — I don’t see how, given that there has been two absolutely devastating ads since then, namely the CELEB and THE ONE.

Besides, It is going to take a pretty creative ad for Obama to make a credible case that he, not McCain is the one who is the better candidate on issues relating to the TROOPS.

Aug 3, 2008 - 7:30 pm Bill Bradley:

You’re wrong throughout, stuck in a spin zone, unable to try to refute any of my points. Tomorrow will be a better day.

BTW, all it takes is a Jim Webb pushback on the new GI bill, which McCain opposed throughout, lost badly on, and then tried to take some credit for. Oh, and the HumVee. You did — well, no, actually, I’m sure you didn’t — notice the McCain vote and fundraiser.

You seem to imagine that huge mistakes don’t matter if they are followed up immediately with other stuff. That would be, let’s say, wrong.

I don’t think you actually read what I wrote, Hap.

Since you refuse to engage on what I wrote, in a lengthy and detailed column, I’m going to ignore anything else you say on this. I’ve used enough of my weekend time.

Aug 3, 2008 - 7:36 pm Hap Hazard:

Thanks Bill I guess this means you are conceding this round to me. See you tomorrow.

Aug 3, 2008 - 7:44 pm Jack Aubrey:

These are my favorites:

5. Obama is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Europe. Afghanistan, as it happens, is not in Europe. Afghanistan is covered by an entirely separate subcommittee. Thus the attack on Obama for failing to hold a hearing on Afghanistan is non-serious. This does not mean that he should not have done so, as an eager beaver presidential candidate. Surely, McCain would have been opportunistic enough to do so.

6. … But it turns out that McCain has missed every hearing for the past two years of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Afghanistan. McCain is the ranking Republican member of this very powerful committee. It’s only in the last week that McCain has endorsed Joe Biden’s — and Obama’s — plan to send more US brigades to Afghanistan.

7. It’s true that Obama hadn’t been to Iraq for two years. McCain has been there a lot. There was the time last year when he toured a Baghdad market, declaring everything to be copacetic. As it should have been, with him wearing a bullet-proof vest, accompanied by a company of paratroopers and a flight of helicopter gunships. As most shoppers undoubtedly were.

8. Obama voted for troop funding on all but one occasion. When he decided to try to force the Bush administration to set a timeline for US troop withdrawal.

9. Obama’s visit to the US military hospital in Germany was never, despite the statement in this ad, on his media schedule. He actually visited the US military hospital in Baghdad a few days earlier, sans media. The former head of the military hospital in Germany has denounced the ad, noting that Obama visited the military hospital in Baghdad with no fanfare whasoever.

10. Obama pulled out of the German military hospital visit when the Pentagon informed his military advisor on the trip, retired Air Force General Scott Gration, that only Senate staff could accompany him. This happened after all the Senate staffers along for the Congressional delegation visit to the Middle East had been sent home. Which meant that General Gration, a highly decorated Air Force veteran who is not a member of Obama’s Senate staff, was effectively disinvited from visiting the military hospital at the well-known Air Force base at Ramstein.

11. While the TV ad says that McCain is always there for the troops, he actually opposed the new GI Bill authored by Obama ally Jim Webb, the former Navy Secretary-turned-Virginia Senator. Webb, as it happens, is an old friend of McCain, who has called him “a legendary fighting man,” as befits the most highly decorated Marine combat officer of the Vietnam War. McCain lost badly in the Senate on Webb’s new GI bill, but he and President Bush later tried to take some credit for its passage.

12. And with regard to always being there for the troops, it is interesting to note that McCain actually voted against $360 million for armored tactical wheeled vehicles for units deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. And that McCain just held a big ticket fundraiser at the home of one of the country’s largest defense contractors, Ronald Perelman, whose MacAndrews & Forbes holding company owns AM General, manufacturer of the HumVee. The HumVee became known in the Iraq War as a “Purple Heart box.”

Here is the actual scene from which Obama’s purported German workout in lieu of visiting wounded troops is taken. Note that it is Obama visiting enthusiastic American soldiers in the Middle East.

13. The footage in the McCain attack ad which accompanies the text about Obama spending time at the gym rather than visiting wounded troops is not actually of Obama working out in Berlin.

Actually, it is, as you see above, footage of Obama visiting with the troops in Kuwait. Hitting a 3-point jump shot on the first try, to the screams of the enthusiastic American soldiers.

Oh, what a tangled web … And all that stuff.

Aug 3, 2008 - 7:50 pm Jack Aubrey:

The McCain ad is a vicious lie.

Aug 3, 2008 - 7:52 pm Jonas Blane:

What new video today?

Aug 4, 2008 - 7:10 am paul:

Bill, I think you have an important line in today’s post mixed up:

“Obama, who may have overstepped by saying Friday that the Republicans are out to remind everyone that he doesn’t look like the other guys on American currency, made clear he’s saying McCain not a cynic, but a racist.”

Didn’t Obama say McCain was a cynic, not a racist?

Aug 4, 2008 - 7:21 am Bill Bradley:

Correct. Thanks.

Aug 4, 2008 - 5:23 pm Bill Bradley:

Obama’s first attack ad and Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s death.

>Jonas Blane:

What new video today?
Aug 4, 2008 - 7:10 am

Aug 4, 2008 - 5:24 pm Bill Bradley:

The One is a web ad, not a broadcast TV ad, which is why I don’t pay it much attention.

The joint town halls have been off for a long time.

>Hap Hazard:

Obviously, bringing Schmidt onboard was a great maneuver. Clearly, he’s been successful in turning the flagging ship. — “The One” was deadly, and caught Axelrod and company flat-footed. The response has been pretty anemic and whiny. Now I see that Obama is shying away from the joint appearances with McCain in favor of the safer atmosphere of traditional debates. Not exactly a good idea in my opinion.
Aug 3, 2008 - 12:35 pm

Aug 4, 2008 - 5:25 pm Bill Bradley:

So far, so good, but there is major backlash potential with these recent tactics …

>pat skipper:

Obviously, bringing Schmidt onboard was a great maneuver. Clearly, he’s been successful in turning the flagging ship. This is electoral politics and, like it or not, winning ugly beats the Hell out of losing. I still believe that it will ultimately prove Quixotic for McCain, but if they hadn’t been able to do this, it would have been over by Labor Day.
Aug 3, 2008 - 6:59 am

Aug 4, 2008 - 5:26 pm Bill Bradley:

I believe The Dark Knight opens in Moscow on August 18th.

>sergei:

The Batman movie is not here yet.
Aug 3, 2008 - 1:40 am

Aug 4, 2008 - 5:27 pm Bill Bradley:

Yes, the answer is that the Friday afternoon passage is from “Watchmen” by Alan Moore.

It’s the opening passage, voiced by the right-wing masked vigilante who calls himself Rorschach.

>Chris M:

Did we ever have a winner in our literature contest? My first guess was Kerouac, and my second would be Arthur Miller.

And, no, I’m not usually home at the computer on a Saturday night, but I rolled an ankle the other day ;-).
Aug 2, 2008 - 9:06 pm

Aug 4, 2008 - 5:28 pm Bill Bradley:

You’re really and Obama supporter?

>Hap Hazard:

What McCain is doing is an insult to the voters and an evasion from the issues. He ought to be ashamed of himself. - Unbelievable! I think he should be proud of himself. I am proud of him. Finally showing a little gusto and humor, two things lacking in both campaigns until now. It is time for Obama to step up in kind, and maybe this will become a true fight over the policies, and of course the personalities. Would be much more fun that the horrible Olympics from the pollution capital of the world. Can’t believe that the IOOC is so corrupt that they let themselves be pressured or bought by China into doing this. Are they a division of the UN?
Aug 2, 2008 - 3:48 pm

Aug 4, 2008 - 5:30 pm Bill Bradley:

Oh, don’t go away mad, Hap.

You keep playing the far right foil.

A useful roll, to be sure.

Aug 5, 2008 - 5:50 pm Bill Bradley:

Incidentally, NWN passed 68,000 comments sometime in the past week.

Aug 8, 2008 - 9:56 am

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