{"id":1077,"date":"2008-10-04T21:55:21","date_gmt":"2008-10-05T04:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1077"},"modified":"2008-10-05T11:31:13","modified_gmt":"2008-10-05T18:31:13","slug":"john-mccains-smear-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1077","title":{"rendered":"John McCain’s Smear Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

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 first presidential debate, after the Wall Street legislative activity in Washington, and after the vice presidential debate. With less than thirty days until the election, McCain’s desperation is showing. As the Republican angst escalates they will more aggressively execute the tactics that McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, articulated a few years ago in a newspaper editorial<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“The premise of any smear campaign rests on a central truth of politics: Most of us will vote for a candidate we like and respect, even if we don’t agree with him on every issue. But if you can cripple a voter’s basic trust in a candidate, you can probably turn his vote. The idea is to find some piece of personal information that is tawdry enough to raise doubts, repelling a candidate’s natural supporters […] It’s not necessary, however, for a smear to be true to be effective.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The onslaught of political mud has already begun. Top Republicans told the Washington Post<\/a> that:<\/p>\n

“Sen. John McCain and his Republican allies are readying a newly aggressive assault on Sen. Barack Obama’s character, believing that to win in November they must shift the conversation back to questions about the Democrat’s judgment, honesty and personal associations.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It appears that Sarah Palin has been tapped to be the campaign attack Pitbull (with lipstick). This afternoon she made the outrageous and offensive assertion<\/a> that Obama associates with terrorists:<\/p>\n

“Our opponent though, is someone who sees America it seems as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is the sort of garbage that can be expected between now and November fourth. McCain has nothing else upon which to campaign, so he is resorting to slander, lies and defamation. The candid confessions of Republican operatives, including McCain’s campaign manager, that they intend to pursue this strategy, should remove all doubt as to what depths they will sink. And from now on, any attack that emanates from the McCain camp must be viewed through the prism of these admissions.<\/p>\n

They have told us in advance that they will be personal and tawdry, and that they don’t care about the truth. These are their words and their stated objectives. We must remember that and make sure that every voter knows it as well.<\/p>\n

Just for the record:<\/strong> It may be John McCain who was really “pallin’ around with terrorists<\/a>:”<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 first presidential debate, after the […]<\/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":[152,1,3],"tags":[183,103,371,381],"class_list":["post-1077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election","category-general","category-graphix","tag-barack-obama","tag-john-mccain","tag-rick-davis","tag-sarah-palin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-hn","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1019,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1019","url_meta":{"origin":1077,"position":0},"title":"McCain Coach Working The Refs","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/18\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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":1077,"position":1},"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":934,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=934","url_meta":{"origin":1077,"position":2},"title":"John McCain’s Bottomless Pit Of Lobbyists","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/31\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It hardly seems that a day goes by without a new revelation of lobbyists in John McCain's campaign. Last week I reported that, so far this year, five tainted staffers have had to resign. Still on the McCain wagon are uber-lobbyists Charlie Black and campaign manager Rick Davis. Media Matters\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":1066,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1066","url_meta":{"origin":1077,"position":3},"title":"Free Sarah Palin From Rupert Murdoch!","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/25\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"While John McCain is consumed with personally resolving the nation's financial crisis, Sarah Palin is cavorting with the glamor set (elitist?) and the uber-conservative media barons who are propping up the Republican ticket: \"Sarah Palin schmoozed with controversial media tycoon Rupert Murdoch at a swanky charity gala here Wednesday night.\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art\/Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Art\/Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1114,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1114","url_meta":{"origin":1077,"position":4},"title":"Sarah Palin’s Constitutional Frights","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/31\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It's five days before the election and Sarah Palin has still never held a press conference. But that hasn't stopped her from bashing the media of which she is so fearful. And the story is getting even scarier. Having a pet newspaper is apparently not enough for Palin. Now she's\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":1129,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1129","url_meta":{"origin":1077,"position":5},"title":"John McCain’s Campaign Concedes Fox News Is Biased","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/14\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In an upcoming article in the National Review, Rich Lowry interviews John McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis. Much of the interview deals with the handling of Sarah Palin, the VP candidate who Lowry says... \"...was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. [Her TV appearance] sent little starbursts through the screen\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\/1077","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=1077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1077\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}