Gloves Off

This is the crux of what I think will carry Obama, if he rides this momentum well and his campaign’s staff has things pegged, and the rollout of this “Keating Economics” thing is a direct manifestation of it.

The vast majority, if not all, of the Unicorn’s negative character attacks are fundamentally tied to policy matters; in a belief that those stances tell us more about a politician’s character than anything else. What we’ve seen with Talibunny working the Ayers/terrorist angle are the traditional “fear” playbook — brown people in general, the Sixties counterculture, anything resembling youth.

In the last two elections, I could say with a certainty that there are enough voters to fall into the culture wars once again to tip an election to the Republicans. Barring serious, high-level election manipulation (which is ENTIRELY possible), I can’t say that it’s possible this year. People get really sick of that shit when the bottom is falling out of their wallets for seven, eight years.

Tying McCain to a phrase like “Keating Economics” belies everything about his press-styled Maverick label, and threading the S&L scandal to deregulation and today’s economic chaos is what you do when you are closing the deal.

@Signal to Noise: Plus there’s a Cindy McCain drive-by in the details — fun times!

I may be overreacting — not the first time — but I think this is going to hit big. You’ve got the “preview” angle, which builds buzz for the noon “debut”. You’ve got Barry and His Merry Band of Surrogates flooding the zone with the issue. And you’ve got networks with tons of archive footage, which they’ll use to put the “charges” in “context.”

On the other hand, you have a single NY Times story that Palin has already overplayed. And with McCain making Wright out of bounds (why?), that just leaves Rezko for their dining pleasure.

But really? I just wanna see Geezer throw one of those famous tantrums. Tuesday night if possible, but I’m not picky. Today will be fine.

By the way, since I’m linking to Politico’s “exclusive” here, can I say how much I hate their “who won the day” posts?

I know the long background to that approach, and in a McCain-Hillary campaign it might actually be relevant, but it’s been clear for months that Obama isn’t playing that game — just as it’s been clear for months that he doesn’t need to.

But that’s Politico: MSM in all but medium. 20/20 coverage of yesterday, entirely clueless about tomorrow. If you’re looking for conventional wisdom online, that’s your source.

I reiterate: Faster, Unicorn! Kill, kill!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I’d say the chances of a Geezer Wet Start at the next debate went up to 50.1%.

Fucking brilliant.

David Axelrod is no Shrum, that’s for sure. Sharp Chicago elbows, indeed.

Pass the popcorn, Nojo.

Pissing match is totally unnecessary and will keep McCain’s attacks in the media longer; today’s complete market meltdown is gonna kill McCain for Obama.

We are all fucked, you know that, don’t you? Great Depression II, just like WW I and WW II, now it will be GD I and GD II.

Negative campaigns reduce turnout. Thats always good for republicans, who need low turnout to get elected to anything. But McCainy just isn’t going to be able to suppress the excitement about Obama and the general quiet deperation for change that is pervading the country.

I need a goobers and a raisinettes, please.

@Prommie: What’s the movie with the wonderful anachronism of someone celebrating the armistice by announcing that “World War I is over”?

@mellbell: I didn’t know that one, thats funny.

Prommie: I respectfully dissent. Yes, negative campaigning pisses people off — but Republicans are usually fighting a one-way battle on this. Clinton (Gennifer Flowers, Whitewater, Foster, Clenis), Gore (Clenis aftershocks, Buddhist monks), Kerry (Swiftboat). They win with it only because we don’t swing back.

I’ve been wavering on this the past couple of weeks, but I think that if Palin is going to bring up his Chicago ties, it’s time to bring it. If you let it go unanswered, you are letting Geezer define you. So he has to have a good mix of the useful (Bush, economic problems with, foreign policy destruction by) and the dirt.

Next up: Biden (after bereavement) comes out swinging against Palin’s ties to Alaska separatists.

FINALLY. JEEzus. I feel like the press – who have remained surprisingly mum on this topic – has been waiting for this, too, because if they had brought it up it would have martyred McCain at the hands of the liberal press, as they would put it. If Whitewater can be brought up, so can this, em-effers. And then at the end of this week is the thing on the Troopergate coming out, right? Oh please let this be it, please have the documentary make the clear line from Keating to this. It can’t be that hard to do.

The Eagle did OK in his Field and Stream interview. But wait until the hardcore NRA types that have never liked him anyway find out Geez wants background checks at gun shows, which are currently not covered by the law. Furthermore, he doesn’t own any guns and does not hunt, unlike (ahem) duck hunter John Kerry, Nobel Prize winner hunter and fisherman Jimmy Carter . . . hell, even Bill Richardson bagged a turkey last year.

Didja all know that in troopergate, there has already been testimony that the Palin did directly intervene to have her ex-BIL’s workers comp claim denied? There is direct evidence of misuse of office to pursue a personal vendetta. The ex-brother in law made a claim for workers comp disability. Alaska’s state employee workers comp claims are handled by a private contractor. Palin called the president of the private contractor, and directly told her, “deny his claim if you want to keep your state contracts,” and so it was denied.

Motherfucking shit, thats bad stuff. Thats way worse than just trying to fire him. Hell, most politicians, that the only reason they run for office, so they can hire and fire government employees. You beat up the governors sister-in-law, and you work for the State, you are dumb.

But a workers comp claim determination is just this side of a quasi-judicial determination. Its like fixing a trial.

Heyyyy, Romegirl, I saw a scary headline, said the Basques are now bombing homes owne by foreigners in “the south of France,” but thats not near you, is it? Thats on the Atlantic, right? Say it ain’t so, I love it where you are. I swear I am going to wind up there.

@Prommie: Naw, that’s way west of here. Well, I mean, not, like, Ohio-to-Oregon west, but far enough away from here. Also, we’re close enough to Marseille, the Newark of France, and nobody wants to fuck with those guys, so they stick to the other side of the Pyrenees as much as possible.

Everything’s quiet in looneyville. Just obsessively clicking on the link to the keating thing. Nada so far.

“Barack Obama: A Leader for Troubled Times”. Endorsement by the Santa Fe New Mexican four weeks before the election. Early voting starts here this week.

@Prommie: Nixon with lipstick!

Agnew with lipstick.

@redmanlaw: I read that quickly and thought it read ‘endorsement by Santa’. I’m thinking, wow. And the Xmas decorations not even up yet.

@mellbell: Wasn’t that Sid Caesar?

@Lyndon LaDouche: The local KMart has had Christmas stuff on display for at least a month now.

@Ewalda: Indeed. (And, yes, I’m prepared for a steady stream of invective for linking to William Safire.)

@Ewalda: And let me say, in a preemptive way:
Yes, Prommie, I AM old.

@mellbell: Yes, but highly literate invective.

@nojo: Like this? Okay, not so literate, but my friend posted it to livejournal this morning and I’ve been staring at it, hypnotized, for hours now.

drinkyclown: Awesome on so many different levels.

@Prommie: Agnew was evil, but he also had more intelligence than Ms. Ya-Sure-Ya-Betcha.
@redmanlaw: You still have K-Marts?

@drinkyclown: My god, that is completely hypnotizing, isn’t it. Freaky, but hypnotizing.

ALL HAIL THE HYPNOTOAD!

@IanJ: Its her face, her eyes, her sheer love for herself, the way she so loves to revel in her wonderfulness and the way she can manipulate and flirt. I have seen that look before, on the faces of strippers who love their work, inside they are thinking “oh, yeah, you pathetic loser, look at me, yeah, of course you want me, I am so hot, yeah, give me your money, you sack of shit, watch me wink at you and make you give me your money, I own you, look at me, you just wish, suckers.”

@rptrcub: ahh, I gotta disagree; Agnew was the anti-media attack dog, the exact same role Palin is playing, people wrote him ridiculous lines like “nattering nabobs of negativism” and he repeated them in cue, like Palin, and he was a corrupt governor, like Palin, and its the meanness and pettiness factor. Nixon was MacBeth, a tragic figure, Agnew was a joke, a fart in an airplane.

@chicago bureau: I think Biden needs to let loose on his “dear old friend” McNasty. With Talibunny, they can keep up a low level thrum of activity that questions her intelligence/sanity/ready-to-lead-ness, but they have to go after the top of the ticket for the win. Less than thirty days to go, and that RS piece is like a script for about 8 different 527 ads that will make Geezer’s head explode before Halloween.

The only October surprise, after all, should be one 20 second clip of Geezy calling Talibunny a “two-bit moose-hunting beauty queen who can’t even read a fucking Starbucks cup without notes”.

Oh, and tj/ for those who haven’t been there, but here’s Moe’s Gawker sign off.

The Agnew references are making me want to shape-shift my avatar…

Column: “(A) loud-mouth, loose-lipped nobody who is drunk on media attention and a quart low in the judgment department.”

@Prommie, D-clown: I noted in the VP debate how she would seem to sexualize her talking points with her voice and body, which Rich Lowry so famously noted. She’s on the big stage now, a narcissist’s dream.

@nabisco: I’m still betting that Bush might pull Bin Laden out of his cave. But even then, with Europe going down a black hole and the Papiermarks being shoved into furnaces for heat, being scared shitless from the economy might win out over being scared shitless but terrarism.

Jamie sighting at crappy hour.

@nabisco: Gawker is where bloggers go to die.

And from Wired comes the Google Instapoll…

The term “Keating Five” was the seventh-most searched for term on Google Monday afternoon, right after searches for voter registration information in Texas and Florida, and right before the term “Vote For Change.”…

In contrast, searches for terms related to Obama and Sixties radical William Ayers barely made an appearance among the top 100 online searches on Monday

I’ve never paid attention to Search Trends, so I have no idea what this means, if anything. But I like it more than if the results were reversed.

@redmanlaw: Yeah, the constant winking and smirking at the camera, she’s putting her tv experience to good use. That hypnotic gif pretty much sums up the VP debate for me.

@drinkyclown: A friend who worked at the NBC affiliate in ABQ used to get winks and beav shots from an anchor there.

ADD: Hmmm. I see now via the google that she is now a right wing propagandist. Whooda thunk it?

@nojo: This doesn’t include much new beyond the Rolling Stone article (except for acquainting me with the term “flat hatter”), but may reflect another hopey trend: the media grows a pair!