{"id":1019,"date":"2008-08-18T14:02:19","date_gmt":"2008-08-18T21:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1019"},"modified":"2008-08-18T14:19:40","modified_gmt":"2008-08-18T21:19:40","slug":"mccain-coach-working-the-refs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1019","title":{"rendered":"McCain Coach Working The Refs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following the candidates forum at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, a minor controversy erupted with regard to the participants playing fair. The ground rules called for each candidate to be asked the same questions. Therefore, John McCain was to be isolated so that he could not gain an advantage by hearing the questions as they were asked to Barack Obama, who went first.<\/p>\n

As it turns out<\/a>, McCain was not in the “Cone of Silence”<\/em> as stated by Rev. Warren. Instead, he was en route to the church where he could have plausibly listened to Obama’s interview or been briefed on it by a staffer. Andrea Mitchell reported on Meet the Press that some Obama supporters were questioning whether McCain did, in fact, cheat:<\/p>\n

“The Obama people must feel that he didn’t do quite as well as they might have wanted to in that context, because what they are putting out privately is that McCain may not have been in the cone of silence and may have had some ability to overhear what the questions were to Obama. He seemed so well-prepared.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This set off McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, who fired off an angry letter to NBC president, Steve Capus. The letter said in part…<\/p>\n

“We are extremely disappointed to see that the level of objectivity at NBC News has fallen so low that reporters are now giving voice to unsubstantiated, partisan claims in order to undercut John McCain.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Reporters giving voice to unsubstantiated, partisan claims has been routine in this campaign. Though they have mostly been aimed at Obama. McCain’s people have relentlessly spewed nonsense about Obama’s faith, his patriotism, and his agenda on everything from war to energy to taxes. It is apparently OK if reporters give voice to unsubstantiated, partisan claims if they come from McCain.<\/p>\n

Davis’ disingenuous indignation is especially pathetic in this context. In his own letter he quotes Mitchell as saying that the Obama campaign was less than thrilled with his performance. Conversely he notes Mitchell’s assertion that McCain seemed well prepared. Mitchell’s report was actually declaring McCain the winner of the debate, and yet, Davis still finds cause to complain.<\/p>\n

McCain’s spokeswoman, Nicolle Wallace, also commented on the affair. In her remarks she pointedly accused the Obama campaign of having “lost its bearings.”<\/em> I wonder if the intent of that language is meant to imply that she believes Obama may be senile. That’s exactly what McCain adviser Mark Salter alleged when Obama used the same words<\/a> last May to describe McCain.<\/p>\n

This fake outrage on the part of Davis, Wallace, et al, is nothing more than another transparent attempt to bully the media into shaping coverage that is one-sided and positive in favor of McCain. And the really sad part of this cynical and manipulative whining is that it has a damn good chance of working.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following the candidates forum at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, a minor controversy erupted with regard to the participants playing fair. The ground rules called for each candidate to be asked the same questions. Therefore, John McCain was to be isolated so that he could not gain an advantage by hearing the questions as they were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[152,1,8],"tags":[372,183,103,374,101,373,371],"class_list":["post-1019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election","category-general","category-propaganda","tag-andrea-mitchell","tag-barack-obama","tag-john-mccain","tag-mark-salter","tag-nbc","tag-nicolle-wallace","tag-rick-davis"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-gr","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1077,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1077","url_meta":{"origin":1019,"position":0},"title":"John McCain’s Smear Campaign","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/4\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"As John McCain's prospects for election diminish, the incidence of dirty tricks and nasty campaigning are likely to increase. Almost every event and news story in the past couple of weeks has resulted in voters trending more to Barack Obama. Polls show Obama gaining support after the conventions, after the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1082,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1082","url_meta":{"origin":1019,"position":1},"title":"The Hermetically Sealed Presidential Debate","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/7\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Heading into the final month of campaigning, John McCain is showing signs of desperation. His aides have announced that they cannot talk about the economy or they will lose. So they are resorting to personal smears and distractions. Sarah Palin is doing her part by associating Barack Obama with controversial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":989,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=989","url_meta":{"origin":1019,"position":2},"title":"John McCain’s Play For Free Media Love","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/22\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"John McCain's campaign is floundering and desperate. He is bankrupt both financially and intellectually. And nothing illustrates this more than his pathetic attempts at self-promotion through media manipulation. Rather than present his policies and personal attributes to sway a skeptical electorate, McCain has opted to beg for attention from the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1028,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1028","url_meta":{"origin":1019,"position":3},"title":"Barack Obama Picks Joe Biden – So Does John McCain","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/23\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It didn't take long for news of Barack Obama's selection of Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate to stir John McCain's campaign PR machine. The first comments from McCain's people were released quickly and contained a fair measure of respect for Biden himself. In fact, they relied wholly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":974,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=974","url_meta":{"origin":1019,"position":4},"title":"The New Yorker’s McCain Cover","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/14\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"After generating much scorn for publishing an over-the-top satire of Barack Obama and his wife Michelle on the cover of the magazine, I thought I would help the New Yorker out by offering them this artwork with John McCain for the cover of next month's issue: I'm sure they will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1003,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1003","url_meta":{"origin":1019,"position":5},"title":"John McCain Claims To Be The One","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/5\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Harmful If SwallowedOn the heels of his ad mocking Barack Obama as a Messiah-like figure, John McCain has now anointed himself as \"The One.\" This new ad declares that \"Washington's broken\" and \"John McCain knows it.\" He admits that \"We're worse off than we were four years ago.\" But without\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1019\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}