Day: February 20, 2008

McCain and the Lobbyist – Is This Why Romney Only ‘Suspended’ His Campaign?

Jon Ponder

The New York Times has just published a story claiming that John McCain’s relationship with a lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, eight years ago so concerned his 2000 campaign staff that they blocked her access to him.
Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access.
MSNBC is wall to wall with the story tonight, because everyone inside the Beltway has known about it since December 20. It was then, two weeks exactly before the Iowa caucuses, that McCain operatives convinced the Times to delay the story in order to protect McCain’s candidacy. If there have been subsequent attempts to get the story spiked, they failed today:

A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, in his offices and aboard a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.

The alleged sin here is hypocrisy, since McCain presents himself as being pure of the taint of lobbyist influence. There is also a hint of the of sin of adultery, but both parties have denied that their relationship was personal.

These charges are very thin. Pending more to come, the Times may well have given McCain what he needs most: the opportunity to play the rightwing victim card, “See! The liberal media is out to get me.” Thus giving McCain’s conservative critics cause to rally around him.

On the other hand, if the story does have legs, it may explain why Romney suspended, not ended, his campaign a few weeks ago. It also could also explain why Mike Huckabee has not dropped out.

Conservatives are trying to blame the leaking of this story on Democrats, but the original timing of its release (in December when the Dems were focused on each other and McCain was not the frontrunner in any polls) and sourcing ( Republican operatives who worked on the 2000 McCain race) both suggest it came from within the Grand Old Party.

Update: Best guess on the source of the leak to the Times: Team Romney.

The Secret of Obama’s Success and Why He’ll Keep Winning – He Listens to George Lakoff

Trish

The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank captured the angst foes of Barack Obama are feeling.

The Clintons in the past couple of weeks have done all they could to cook him up into an airy souffle, a candidate so light in substance that he collapses when speared. They exposed him as a guy who copies others’ speeches and makes lofty pledges only to break them.

And yet: The Obama Souffle continues to rise.

Why that is has befuddled many Democrats, particularly Clinton followers. How can Obama score so many wins by offering so little — just hope — and yet everything — hope?

I can answer that question. It’s because Obama gets it. He’s been reading the George Lakoff and Rockridge Institute playbook, Thinking Points and skillfully applying it. Lakoff and Rockridge rewrote the progressive strategy with the concept of framing. Had my guy, John Edwards, followed their advice and like Obama, gone lighter on the policies and heavier on the values, he might be where Obama is today. Dennis Kucinich would have won a primary or two. John Kerry might be president now. Al Gore would not have needed the Supreme Court in 2000.

At some point, Clinton allowed herself to morph into the candidate who does not represent change and derides hope, the authority figure who announces the party is over and it’s time to get back to work. Who wants to vote for that?

Richard Wirthlin, chief strategist for former president Ronald Reagan, made a discovery in 1980 that profoundly changed American politics. As a pollster, he was taught that people vote for candidates on the basis of the candidates’ positions on issues. But his initial polls for Reagan revealed something fascinating: Voters who didn’t agree with Reagan on the issues still wanted to vote for him…

Reagan talked about values rather than issues. Communicating values mattered more than specific policy positions. Reagan connected with people; he communicated well…It was not because all of his values matched theirs exactly. It was not because he was from their socioeconomic class or subculture. It was because they believed in the integrity of his connection with them as well as the connection between his worldview and his actions.

Are Lakoff and Rockridge saying that personality matters more than positions? Pretty much. Because if you don’t have the right kind of the former, you will never get to act on the latter.

Issues are secondary — not irrelevant or unimportant, but secondary. A position on issues should follow from one’s values, and the choice of issues and policies should symbolize those values.

[…]

Page Six: MSNBC Shows bin Laden Pic for Obama

Trish

Leave it to Hairball:

An employee at MSNBC’s “Hardball” probably feels like hiding in a cave for a while after mistakenly flashing a graphic of terror lord Osama bin Laden as host Chris Matthews was discussing presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Monday. The Illinois Democrat’s campaign staffers immediately called in to complain and Matthews issued an instant apology on-air. NBC News said it “reprimanded” the unidentified graphics department geek, but did not detail the punishment.

Gee, I don’t know why the below-average American might be getting the message that Barack Obama is a Muslim terrorist.

Obama Surrogate on MSNBC Can’t Name Any of the Senator’s Accomplishments

Jon Ponder

After 10 straight wins, including last night’s trouncing of Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin (where Republicans could vote for Dem candidates) and Hawaii, his native state, Sen. Barack Obama is now the putative Democratic nominee for president.

Let’s hope his surrogates are better prepared than this guy from now on:

State Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Texas) learned a lesson in preparedness Tuesday night when he was humiliated on MSNBC. Watson was on to talk about his support of Sen. Obama alongside Rep. Stephanie Tubbs (D-Ohio), who backs Sen. Clinton. Watson has endorsed Obama and writes glowingly of all the things Obama will do for the country, if elected.

But he was unable to answer Chris Matthews most basic demand: “Name some of his legislative accomplishments… name any…” A fantastically awkward mix of dead air, stuttering, laughter and repetition ensued, as Watson could not name a single one. Matthews laid off part way through, it seems at the demand of his producers, but came back around to lay a final blow at the end.

Watch what must be the most awkward clip of the night’s coverage.