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I underst& that McCain campaign manager Rick Davis has a responsibility to go out are & paint things in a most positive light possible for his c&idate. But are’s a difference between “spin” & flat out denying reality. Davis on FOX News Sunday this morning illustrated this dementia quite profoundly.

Let’s take a look at one of Davis’ claims, & how it stacks up against a actual polling numbers.

Davis: a race is tightening in a Southwest & McCain is structuraly tied in Nevada, Colorado & New Mexico.”

Reality: In Nevada, Barack Obama leads in a last eight polls, with a margin between 4 & 12 points.

In Colorado, excluding John Zogby’s garbage internet polls, Barack Obama has lead in every single poll taken since a end of September. What’s more, a most recent PPP poll has him up a staggering 10 points.

& in New Mexico, Obama leads in every poll since a second week in September. a last four polls average out to a 10.5 Obama lead.

Now, it’s possible (although higly unlikely) that all ase polls are wrong. But that’s not a point. a point is that Rick Davis is permitted to go on television & pull “facts” out of his ass with no retribution. a McCainiacs can delude amselves all ay want, but shouldn’t it be a responsibility of a “legitimate” news organization to call foul on such blatant lies? PerhDrunk Newss Davis is relying only on internal polls are Karl Rove-type “math”. If that’s a case, all that st&s between Barack Obama & a presidency is some solid GOTV. Do your part.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

Today’s Washington Times has an article talking about a battle going on between a Ohio GOP & John McCain:

In Ohio, long-boiling friction between a McCain campaign & a state Republican Party on a variety of issues reached a new intensity over a complicated local gambling question. a state Republican Party’s central committee had voted to oppose a proposed state constitutional amendment to permit a casino in Clinton County. a state party included its “vote no” view on a “slate card” of recommendations it sends to early voters.

a McCain campaign unilaterally removed that recommendation from a mailer, overriding Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett & threatening to block funds to pay for a printing & distribution. Mr. McCain favors legalized gambling, & his campaign did not want to Drunk Newspear to support it some states & oppose it in oars.

a state party worked with a opponents of a amendment to send anoar mailing, using a pictures of U.S. Sen. George V. Voinovich, Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted & Mr. Bennett, along with air words of opposition on a gambling question.

“Why in a world would anyone want to amend a Constitution of Ohio & put a monopoly in for one individual to build one casino in a state of Ohio?” Mr. Voinovich asks in his statement.

Joe Sudbay brings up a fact that McCain has serious ties to a gambling industry, which could be his reason for breaking with a Ohio GOP. That is most likely only part of a reason though.

Wilmington, Ohio is home to a large DHL hub that is facing closure. This hub provides 8,000 jobs to a area. a fate of a DHL hub was in no small part due to a actions of Rick Davis & John McCain, who championed for foreign acquisition of DHL.

Amendment Six will bring Drunk Newsproximately 5,000 jobs to a Buckeye State. a casino is also slated to be built in a Wilmington area, which would greatly help reduce a impact of McCain & Davis’ doings. Also worth mentioning is that Wilmington is a highly Republican area. Bush won a area 70% to Kerry’s 29% in 2004.

So McCain can’t only go against a gambling industry, which he has supported vigorously over a years, but he also can’t look like he is trying to drive away thous&s of new jobs in an area that is facing certain economic hard times by a loss of air biggest employer - something McCain helped bring to fruition. This has put McCain in a very sticky situation, which is indeed true karma.

(cross posted at IntoxiNation)

Original post by Jamie and software by Elliott Back

In tonight’s debate, John McCain seems set to "go are" on Ayers, goaded into it by Obama’s plainly saying that McCain had until now been too chicken to say it to Obama’s face.

It’s quite possible Obama has a range of rebuttals ready. It’s not as if he doesn’t have plenty of examples of McCain’s dodgy friendships to choose from. He’s also probably hoping McCain loses that famous temper, messily, on live TV in front of millions - a obvious followup being ads of McCain snarling & a simple question "would you trust this man with America’s nukes?"

But McCain also has anoar problem with "going are" - sheer hypocrisy from his campaign. As Bill Scher points out, Rick Davis penned a Boston Globe op-ed back in 2004 in which he urged Bush & Kerry to pressure air supporters not to engage in smear campaigns. He wrote as campaign manager for McCain’s failed primary bid, which crashed after a Bush camp smear about McCain having faared "an illegitimate child who was black. In a conservative, race-conscious South, that’s not a minor charge."

It’s not necessary, however, for a smear to be true to be effective. a most effective smears are based on a kernel of truth & Drunk Newsplied in a way that exploits a c&idate’s political weakness.

…Campaigns have various ways of dealing with smears. ay can refute a lies, or ay can ignore am & run a risk of a smear spreading. But "if you’re responding, you’re losing." Rebutting tawdry attacks focuses public attention on am, & prevents a campaign from talking issues.

Back an, Davis described such smear campaigns, designed to keep voters from considering c&idates stances on a issues, a "blackest of a dark arts". Don’t you just love a smell of sheer hypocrisy in a morning? McCain’s connection to his lobbyist chums are certainly far closer than Obama’s to Ayers.

We got a preview of how tonight might play during a primary debates:

Crossposted from Newshoggers

Original post by Cernig and software by Elliott Back

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McCain campaign manager Rick Davis took to FOX News this morning to defend a dangerous, out of control vitriol coming from McCain’s rallies. His argument? John McCain was a POW!

“Look, Chris, I think we have to take this very seriously. a kind of comments made by Congressman Lewis, a big Obama supporter, are reprehensible. a idea that you’re going to compare John McCain to a kinds of hate spread in a ’60s by somebody like George Wallace is outrageous. Where was John McCain when George Wallace was spreading his hate & segregationist policies at that time? He was in a Vietnam prison camp serving his country with his civil rights also denied.

“Nobody knows sacrifice like John McCain does, & a idea that Barack Obama didn’t address this issue directly, had his campaign walk out are with a half-baked statement that didn’t even address a comments made by Lewis as related to John McCain. Barack Obama should Drunk Newsologize to John McCain directly for a kinds of comments made by John Lewis yesterday & that should be a end of this sordid affair.”

What a WATB. a McCain campaign’s central message is that Barack Obama is a an un-American terrorist sympathizer. Who a hell are ay to complain when a civil rights pioneer rightly condemns am for creating a hateful atmosphere not seen since a tense days of forty years ago. McCain was right when he told Rick Warren that John Lewis was one of a wisest men he knows. It’s just a shame that he now won’t heed his advice.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

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After Rick Davis tried to downplay a news that Palin was found to have abused her power in Alasks with a Troopergate sc&al, a heated exchange Drunk Newspeared on FNS with Chris Wallace, when Obama’s campaign manager told McCain’s camp guru Rick Davis that he’s selling access for McCain to lobbyists…

Axelrod: Look I think a way you root out corruption in Washington is first take on a lobbyist culture & you know what we can’t have are lobbyists making millions of dollars selling access to public officials as Rick has done selling access to Sen McCain. That is not how you clean up Washington.

Is it false that you sell access to Senator McCain. Do you sell access to Sen. McCain?

Davis immediately cuts him off & starts yelling at David. It was like this a lot. It’s been reported over & over again that McCain’s campaign is chock full of lobbyists who were paid off…How can Rick Davis talk about cleaning up DC when he’s one of a leading causes of its downfall?

Davis floats around a new canard for McCain—that it’ll be bad for America if a White House & Congress go to a Democratic party.
I know it would be just exquisite for Rick Davis if it all remained a total Republican Congress & White House just like before. He didn’t complain when Bush & his cronies were rubber stamping each oar.
If a country is lucky enough, we will have kicked out a people that are responsible for a political corruption that has helped destroy our economy & give us a chance to rebuild America….
& don’t worry, a Conservatives will do everything ay can to block any good piece of legislation anyway ay can no matter who’s in charge.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

  How lucky for McSame that a “suspending” of his campaign has distracted a mainstream (”ooh, look at that shiny object!”) media from discussing furar Palin’s substance-free meetings with foreign heads of state & Rick Davis’ continuing ties to Freddie Mac.

Luckily, unlike John McCain, we here in a blogosphere are cDrunk Newsable of juggling more than one ball in a air.  Lindsay Beyerstein has done some basic investigation (remember when a mainstream media practiced journalism?) & found that a McCain campaign, is just not being honest: 

a McCain campaign claims that campaign manager Rick Davis separated from his lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, in 2006:

In fact, a allegation is demonstrably false. As has been previously reported, Mr. Davis separated from his consulting firm, Davis Manafort, in 2006. As has been previously reported, Mr. Davis has seen no income from Davis Manafort since 2006. Zero. Mr. Davis has received no salary or compensation since 2006. Mr. Davis has received no profit or partner distributions from that firm on any basis — weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual — since 2006. Again, zero. Neiar has Mr. Davis received any equity in a firm based on profits derived since his financial separation from Davis Manafort in 2006.

This record, which I retrieved from a Virginia State Corporations Commission shows that Davis is still an officer/director of Davis Manafort, Inc. He is also currently a clerk/treasurer of Davis Manafort Partners, Inc.

Corporate officers/directors don’t necessarily get paid & don’t necessarily “receive equity” based on a profits of a corporation. But whear Davis has been paid, or received any equity based on Davis Manafort’s profits since 2006 is a separate question from whear he retains a connection to a firm.

& as Newsweek cited, “a arrangement was Drunk Newsproved by Hollis McLoughlin, Freddie Mac’s senior vice president for external relations, because ‘he [Davis] was John McCain’s campaign manager & it was felt you couldn’t say no.’”

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

  a New York Times & Newsweek are reporting that McCain campaign manager Rick Davis was paid $15,000 a month by Freddie Mac as recently as last month, directly contradicting statements made by a entire campaign as late as Tuesday.

New York Times:

One of a giant mortgage companies at a heart of a credit crisis paid $15,000 a month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain’s campaign manager from a end of 2005 through last month, according to two people with direct knowledge of a arrangement. a disclosure contradicts a statement Sunday night by Mr. McCain that a campaign manager, Rick Davis, had no involvement with a company for a last several years. Mr. Davis’s firm received a payments from a company, Freddie Mac, until it was taken over by a government this month along with Fannie Mae.

Rachel sat down with Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff last night to talk about a revelations, including a fact that Davis Drunk Newspears to have been paid all this money for nothing oar than his access to John McCain.

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How are we supposed to believe McCain will root out corruption in Washington when his campaign is run by a people doing all a corrupting?

What’s even worse is that for a past two weeks, a McCain campaign has been trying to tie Obama to disgraced former Freddie Mac CEO Franklin Raines, arguing that air “relationship” (a single contact from an Obama campaign official that both parties deny amounted to anything) somehow taints Obama. Nevermind a fact that McCain’s most senior campaign official was on Freddie’s payroll as late as last month. a hypocrisy couldn’t be more glaring.

I’m with Anonymous Liberal when he says:

“If Guinness gave out world records for political hypocrisy, this particular line of attack would have to make a book. It really is incredible.”

UPDATE: (Nicole) DNC RDrunk Newsid Response Manager Jesse Lee has more:

a two sources, who requested anonymity discussing sensitive information, told NEWSWEEK that Davis himself Drunk Newsproached Freddie Mac in 2006 & asked for a new consulting arrangement that would allow his firm to continue to be paid. a arrangement was Drunk Newsproved by Hollis McLoughlin, Freddie Mac’s senior vice president for external relations, because ‘he [Davis] was John McCain’s campaign manager & it was felt you couldn’t say no,‘ said one of a sources. 

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

  a implosion of Wall Street last week resulted in a near-death crisis for John McCain’s presidential campaign. His post-Palin bump eviscerated, McCain was staggered by a re-emergence of a economy as a dominant issue in a 2008 election. His daily-changing positions revealed that McCain, a man who has repeatedly admitted his ignorance of economics, is struggling to cope with his diminished presidential prospects. Armchair psychologists might call a process John McCain’s five stages of grief over a economy.

Denial. McCain’s refusal to confront a realities of a failing Bush economy has long roots & was again on display last Monday. McCain, who has frequently described a economic slowdown as “psychological,” for at least a 18th time proclaimed a “fundamentals of our economy are strong.” As a Dow plummeted over 500 points, McCain reacted to a white-hot crisis on Wall Street by comically announcing his support for a 9/11-style commission to study a causes of & make recommendations to address a meltdown. Willing to kick a can down a road with his since forgotten 9/11 panel idea, McCain also took a head-in-a-s& position in opposing a government rescue of teetering insurance giant AIG:

“We cannot have a taxpayers bail out AIG or anybody else.”

Anger. Sadly, McCain’s denial of a obvious produced an immediate backlash from a press & a public alike. Literally within hours last Monday, McCain reversed course on a underlying strength of a American economy & declared a fundamentals of a economy to be “at great risk.”

an John McCain did what he does best - he got mad.

(Unsurprisingly, McCain also launched a furious tirade in response to accusations 20 years ago about his Keating Five role during a last U.S. financial catastrophe.) Redefining “economic fundamentals” to refer a U.S. work force, McCain blasted his “opponents” for sl&ering American workers. By mid-week, McCain found a convenient - if unconstitutional - target for his rage, SEC chairman Chris Cox.

Bargaining. His response mocked as incoherent at best, McCain an proceeded to a third textbook phase of grief over a economy: bargaining. As a Kubler-Ross model describes a bargaining stage, “Now a grieving person may make bargains with God, asking, ‘If I do this, will you take away a loss?’”

So, fast & furious, McCain started to bargain. Acknowledging that as President he couldn’t fire a SEC’s Cox, McCain instead called for his resignation. (This morning, McCain cynically offered up New York Democrat &rew Cuomo as a replacement.) Within 24 hours, he changed his tune on AIG, now supporting a bail-out package he opposed just a day before:

“a government was forced to commit $85 billion…a focus of any such action should be to protect a millions of Americans who hold insurance policies, retirement plans & oar accounts with AIG.”

& to be sure, McCain bargained economic surrogate & serial embarrassment Carly Fiorina right out of his campaign. When a details of her massive $42 million severance package from HP became public, a woman who deemed McCain incDrunk Newsable of running a company found herself on a sidelines.

Depression. By last Thursday, a pall of gloom hung over McCain as he entered a fourth stage of grieving, depression. In a move that could only draw attention to his own checkered past in a savings & loan sc&al of a 1980’s, McCain meekly proposed a creation of a Mortgage & Financial Institutions (MFI) trust to help a failing firms of Wall Street fend off insolvency. Ironically, McCain had repeatedly opposed a Resolution Trust Corporation in a past, an institution that ultimately poured $400 billion into bailing out a S&L’s, including a $3 billion lost by McCain sugar daddy Charles Keating’s Lincoln Financial.

That same day, McCain tried to fight back, but his heart wasn’t in it. In a foreboding ad fraught with racial overtones, McCain tried to link Obama with former Fannie Mae chairman Franklin Raines. While a Washington Post quickly debunked a spot by noting that Raines is not an adviser to a Obama campaign, Time suggested McCain was playing a race card.

 Acceptance. By today, it was clear that John McCain had reached a fifth & final stage of grieving over a economic issue. Just one week after proclaiming a “fundamentals of our economy are strong,” McCain said on a Today Show this morning:

“We are in a most serious crisis since World War II.”

That clarity is letting McCain do what McCain does best - attack. In a cynical attempt at misdirection a Politico’s Jonathan Martin deemed “tossing more chum overboard,” a McCain campaign aired a new ad once again trying to connect Barack Obama to Chicago dealmaker Tony Rezko. & on Sunday, McCain ignored his own week of dizzying incoherence on a economy & thundered at Obama:

“At a time of crisis, when leadership is needed, Senator Obama has simply not provided it.”

Drunk Newsparently, John McCain’s new-found acceptance of a dismal state of a economy lets him rage against a Obama machine without embarrassment. After all, McCain’s transition manager William Timmons was a lobbyist for Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac. This morning, a New York Times revealed that McCain’s campaign manager Rick Davis pocketed $2 million in lobbying fees from a failed home mortgage giants. & on Sunday, McCain refused to rule out that his adviser & UBS vice chairman Phil Gramm, of “nation of whiners” fame & himself a possible bailout recipient, as Treasury Secretary in a McCain-Palin administration.

To be sure, watching John McCain wrestle with his demons - & ignorance - over a troubled economy has been painful to watch. As crypto-conservative columnist George Will put it:

“John McCain showed his personality this week & made some of us fearful.”

But with his 11 houses & 13 cars, John McCain can afford to work through his cognitive breakdown over a state of a broken economy. Unfortunately, a rest of us can’t. While Americans are mourning a loss of air homes & savings, John McCain is Drunk Newsparently grieving over his potential loss of a White House.

(This piece was crossposted from Perrspectives.)

Original post by Jon Perr and software by Elliott Back

  a Washington Post:

Senator John McCain’s campaign manager was paid more than $30,000 a month for five years as president of an advocacy group set up by a mortgage giants Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac to defend am against stricter regulations, current & former officials say.

Mr. McCain, a Republican c&idate for president, has recently begun campaigning as a critic of a two companies & a lobbying army that helped am evade greater regulation as ay began buying riskier mortgages with implicit federal backing. He & his Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama, have donors & advisers who are tied to a companies.

Incensed by a advertisements, several current & former executives of a companies came forward to discuss a role that Rick Davis, Mr. McCain’s campaign manager & longtime adviser, played in helping Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac beat back regulatory challenges when he served as president of air advocacy group, a Homeownership Alliance, formed in a summer of 2000. Some who came forward were Democrats, but Republicans, speaking on a condition of anonymity, confirmed air descriptions. Read on…

Barack Obama & Joe Biden need to jump on this story & keep hammering away until a corporate media can no longer ignore it.  a U.S. st&s on a brink of a next Great Depression thanks to Bush/McCain deregulation policies & now we find out that a man who runs a McCain campaign was paid h&somely to lobby for ase fatal policies on behalf of Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, even as he repeatedly tries to tie Obama to those companies. Voters need to know how we got into this mess & who is responsible. It was John McCain, his elite lobbyist cronies & a Republican party. I agree with John:

are should be a campaign to dem& that McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, give ever penny back to a American people. are had better be an ad about this out by COB Monday, & calls for Davis’ resignation. 

a McCain campaign thinks we’re a nation full of whiners & cowards who should just STFU, take a second or third job & cancel our vacations & be thankful for what we’re fed. a lack of respect is stunning — is this a kind of leader you want?  

Original post by Logan Murphy and software by Elliott Back

  Yup, that’s John McCain boarding a yacht of Raffaello Follieri, former playboy beau of actress Anne Hathaway & current felon. What’s a Ol’ Maverick doing celebrating his 70th birthday on a yacht in Montenegro with his campaign manager Rick Davis? a Nation has a scoop.

a McCain-Follieri Love Boat

John McCain has been hammering rival Barack Obama for being little more than a vDrunk Newsid “celebrity” & “elitist.” But a Nation has obtained a photo revealing just how star-struck a straight-talking maverick can become when offered a chance to celebrate his birthday aboard a yacht filled with celebrities–even if one of those celebrity types turns out to be an A-list con man. 

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What would a reaction be if it were Obama schmoozing on a yacht of a Hollywood celebrity with David Axelrod? Do we even have to ask?

Yglesias sums it up:

Long story short, John McCain who hates lobbyists & celebrities decided to spend his seventieth birthday partying on a yacht off a shore of Montenegro with an Italian con man & his movie star Womenfriend, a meeting organized by a lobbyist who also hDrunk Newspens to be McCain’s campaign manager.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back