Thus revealed, the creature buried its nose in the tire-tilled soil...
September 4, 2008
Off goes the television.
Category: Serious

The hypocrisy is stunning: McCain releases ads criticizing Obama for his so-called celebrity status, and then has the audacity to stage a rock concert opening? Honestly.

And speaking of staged, how about that ridiculous plant? Dead giveaway: the fact that they clearly allowed the woman to advance towards the stage and left her alone long enough for her to remove her coat -- which would arguably have been a major security risk -- just so that the cameras could get a clear look at her pink tie-dyed shirt with pro-something (did it say pro-gay?) spraypainted on the back. Also, John McCain is nowhere near witty or clever enough to quickly respond to an audience distraction with an off-the-cuff comment, not to mention that he did that creepy smile and look around thing that he does when he comes to a "wait for applause" direction on the teleprompter. Nothing about McCain's reaction suggests that that bit was spontaneous. And now the television is off.

Yeah, he wasn't winning my vote anyway, but I would at least have listened to his speech had he dispensed with the scripted spectacle bullshit. I sincerely hope the American public isn't stupid enough to fall for this crap.

UPDATE: Okay, it looks a little less staged in this clip from FOX News. In the MSNBC coverage, the camera was focused on the woman, so you could actually see her advancing and removing her coat -- and then it cut right back to McCain and it seemed like he quipped on the fly. Here, with the camera focused on him, it definitely looks like he had a moment or two to rack his brain for something to say. Given that the security actually let the woman remove her coat, though, I'm not convinced that the interruption wasn't scripted (and the creepy "wait for applause" grin still doesn't help). Hrm.

-posted by Wes | 10:40 pm | Comments (5)
5 Comments »
  • Pablo says:

    McCain will be a forgotten memory in about 2 months. Unless something shady happens during the election, like the last couple. If McCain is elected I will apply for Canadian citizenship 🙂

    And yeah his smile is beyond creepy. So forced and..... I dunno, it's like if a zombie was smiling and had teeth.

  • Becky says:

    I had to crack up at your reference to his smile b/c I was thinking the exact same thing when it was happening -- is that the best you can do?

  • Wes says:

    Paul: You are more optimistic than I am! I'd like to believe Obama's got the edge, but I'm starting to think all McCain and Palin have to do is not fuck up incredibly (or, in Palin's case, get charged with abuse of power) to have a really good shot at winning the election. I don't at all have a hard time believing that 51% of Americans would be reluctant to vote for Obama (for whatever reason) or that they'd be too lazy to swing by factcheck.org to find out that one of McCain's major charges against Obama -- that he'd raise taxes on working families and small businesses -- is complete bullshit.

    Paul & Becky: I think the only thing worse would be a Lieberman smile.

  • dave says:

    Wes, I'm with you. I still think McCain is going to win - perhaps in a landslide. Obama fans (which I'm one of) have a habit of talking amongst themselves and building up a case. As you know I'm not afraid of bringing up a contrary opinion or bringing attention to logical or factual fallacies, or even highlighting a different point of view.
    Obama fans believe that since something isn't true, it isn't a factor in a swing voter's opinion. But, it is. They also dismiss an alternate point of view as being non-existant if they don't believe in it.
    For example. McCain ran against Bush in 2000. In 2004, John Kerry beat into the ground that Iraq was a good idea, but executed poorly. Yet, The Democrats are saying McCain is the same a George Bush (McSame, I've heard him called.) The 'factual' basis they use is that McCain voted with Bush 90% of the time. But Kerry told us: his ideas were good, just executed poorly. So, in theory, if McCain had run the war, perhaps it would be different.
    It's actually the stupidest tactic I've ever heard. Instead of forcing people to make a case that McCain is better than Obama, they're forcing them to make the case that he's better than Bush!

  • Wes says:

    Obama fans believe that since something isn't true, it isn't a factor in a swing voter's opinion. But, it is.

    This is maddening to me. Since Palin's introduction, she has pretty much lied about everything she's done. She didn't say, "Thanks, but no thanks," with respect to the "Bridge to Nowhere"; she's totally not against earmarks; any corruption she's rooted out isn't because of a moral aversion to it, but rather because it gives her an excuse to replace people she doesn't like with her own cronies; heck, she didn't even sell the damned plane on eBay. Not to mention all of the other stuff around her! I mean, I understand the mentality of staying focused on the top of the ticket, but can't they go after them both? If Palin is a major part of the reason for McCain's surge in popularity, I'd at least make an effort to knock her down a bit.

    The RNC was also filled with lies -- why not release some advertising going after that? Far from being a do-nothing senator, Obama's authored 152 bills and co-sponsored 427 (not to mention the 820 he sponsored in Illinois). But why do the Democrats assume people will bother to look that up? Obama was telling folks at a campaign stop that, given that they're suddenly claiming to be the change agents, the Republicans must think the voting public is stupid. News flash: of course they do. They always have (or maybe not always, but as long as I can remember), and the public has time and time again proven them right. Obama needs to stop giving folks too much credit and start responding to at least some of these lies!

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