Quote of the Day - September 16, 2008

"McCain has gone in some of his ads -- similarly gone one step too far and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the '100 percent truth' test."
- Former Bush advisor and current Fox News Network Analyst Karl Rove speaking on Fox News about Senator John McCain.

The Obama campaign jumped at the Republican strategist's tidbit:

"In case anyone was still wondering whether John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest campaign in history, today Karl Rove -- the man who held the previous record -- said McCain's ads have gone too far," said campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor, in a statement sent to reporters minutes after Rove's on-air comments.

Sen. Barack Obama gave his thoughts on McCain's blatant attempt of obfuscation in the current campaign during a stop in Manchester, New Hampshire:

""They're going to talk about pigs, and they're going to talk about lipstick; they're going to talk about Paris Hilton, they're going to talk about Britney Spears. They will try to distort my record, and they will try to undermine your trust in what the Democrats intend to do."

McCain accuses Obama of being an empty suit, a celebrity. But he offers no plan, no solutions, and trots around the country puppy-doggin' behind Sarah Palin, like a groupie. All of the McCain ads are a gross distortion of the Obama plan or a smear of the Obama campaign... to date, I have not seen one substantive ad from McCain about what he would do if he gets to move into the White House.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In other news, the Obama campaign announced Sunday that it had raised $66 million in August. The new total bests the campaign's previous high of $55 million, which came in February during his tough primary fight with Clinton. The Obama campaign said more than half a million new donors contributed in August, when the Illinois senator accepted the Democratic presidential nomination and named Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate. The campaign had more than $77 million in cash on hand at the end of August, compared with about $66 million in July.

On September 1, McCain's campaign reported raising $47 million in August. That haul also set a monthly record for the Arizona senator, whose campaign says it received a financial shot in the arm after McCain picked Palin to join the ticket.

Read the CNN.com article about Karl Rove's quote here.

Read the CNN.com article about negative campaigning in 2008 here.

Read the AJC.com article about John McCain's sleazy campaign here.


plez sez: dirty campaigning goes back to the beginning of america's political process. john adams and thomas jefferson ran a pretty nasty campaign at a time when few americans knew or cared about the character of their elected officials... as long as they weren't running for election as KING!

the 2008 presidential campaign has been a minefield of supposed political correctness buttress with allegations of ageism, racism, reverse racism, sexism, and just about every other "ism" we can think of... with a black presidential candidate, a woman presidential candidate, an AARP member presidential candidate, a "hockey mom" vice presidential candidate, a mormon presidential candidate, and a pig-wearing-lipstick candidate! the fodder for television ads is rich and it would take the restraint of even the tamest of campaign managers to not fall victim to easy stereotyping and innuendo. and with Barack Obama running as a Black guy who really isn't running as a Black guy, it becomes an even more tenuous position to stay away from BOOGIE MAN references meant to scare the BeJesus out of white folk!

i can't wait for the debates in the coming weeks... we'll see what happens when we get Obama and mccain on the same stage for an hour to jab and poke at each other while maintaining a modicum of civility. i grew up in New York and i love a good argument...

to be honest, plezWorld isn't that crazy about the fake civility...

• i wanna see Obama call mccain out for being a lily-livered POW who broke under a little pressure and gave out the few military secrets his stupid ass could remember to the viet cong;
• i wanna see mccain call out Obama about his white momma and his tissue-paper thin foreign policy ("sarah palin with her worthless degree from Idaho has more experience in her little finger than all that high brow Harvard bullshit law degree that you wasted on those miserable south chicago streets");
• i want Obama to call mccain out for ditching his crippled wheelchair-bound first wife for the MUCH YOUNGER, MUCH BLONDER cindy;
• i want mccain to call Obama a pencil-necked geek who he'd take around back and whip his ass if he could lift those damn arms above his chest.

"Well, yo' momma liked it!"

now that would be a debate that i could rewind and watch a couple of times!