By Greg Sargent - June 30, 2008, 12:30PM
Oh, this is fun. Today the McCain campaign held a conference call unveiling a new "truth squad" Web site designed to defend McCain from attacks on his military record, such as the one uncorked by Wesley Clark yesterday.
On the call, the McCain camp rolled out a leading surrogate named Bud Day -- who was described merely as a fellow POW of McCain -- who blasted such attacks. "John was slandered and reviled in the 2000 campaign in a way that denigrated his service enormously...it was absolutely important to face this issue right off the bat."
But guess what -- it turns out that this very same Bud Day was
featured in the Swift Boat Vets ads attacking John Kerry in 2004!
To make matters even better, recall that McCain himself
condemned the Swift Boat Vets. Yet now the McCain campaign is cheerfully enlisting someone who did what McCain claimed to decry -- attacks on Kerry's credentials -- and using him to defend McCain against the same sort of attacks.
That's a good one..
Media bias, anyone?
Posted: Monday, June 30, 2008 9:22 AM by Mark Murray
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
*** Entering the lull: This week begins what’s essentially a two-month lull in the presidential race. Later this week is the July 4th holiday, next comes the Olympics in early August, and then we have the conventions -- the Democrats’ ending on August 28 and the GOP one on September 4. Then the day after, the sprint toward the November finish line truly begins. During this two-month lull, neither Obama nor McCain can win the election. But they both sure can lose it. That happened to John Kerry in August 2004, when the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth effort began and when his campaign wasn’t spending much money (saving its millions in general election funds to begin at the same time as Bush’s kicked in after the September GOP convention). What these next two months in the Obama-McCain race are about is positioning for September 5. Obama begins that process by delivering a speech on patriotism in Independence, MO today and -- as Politico’s Mike Allen reports -- a faith-based address in Ohio tomorrow. McCain, meanwhile, hits Pennsylvania, a battleground state Republicans haven’t won since 1988. There are at least a combined four bounce opportunities: the two VP selections and the two conventions. McCain's goal for these next two months: to have this a low single-digit race by September 5. Obama's goal is more obvious: 1) to begin erasing character doubts about himself, 2) bankrupting McCain financially in the lean red states, and 3) building not only a national lead but double-digit leads in as many states as he can.
moreWhat they forget to mention is that Kerry was locked into public financing. Obama is not.
Also, the difference in dates between the 2004 Dem and GOP convention meant that for the entire month of August when the Swift Liars launched their vicious smear, Kerry's spending was limited to the amount allowed under public financing, $75 million. Bush was still in primary mode, and his public financing funds were in reserve for after August.
Yet there's no 2008 equivalent to the 2004 Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which spent $22 million attacking Democrat John Kerry. Prominent groups and donors that played key roles in independent conservative 527 groups four years ago say they're sitting out this election. And while they've raised more than they did at this point four years ago, the independent pro-Republican groups still lag more than $50 million behind pro-Democratic groups.
linkThat's $22 million plus an
unlimited amount in media complicity.
We're fighting against the Repubs and media bias, which is going to be kicked up a notch during the GE.
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