Isn't It Ironic...

The many faces of John McCain

During the course of the 2008 presidential campaign, John McCain has reversed course on more issues than one can count. Today, however, McCain outdid even himself when he called for a suspension of his campaign to deal with the present economic crisis. Actually, I would assert that McCain's announcement to return to the Senate is really more irony than inconsistency.

Irony #1: Just last week, McCain, amid a catastrophic meltdown in the financial sector, claimed that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong." Today, McCain referred to the same economic environment as an "historic crisis." While leaders like McCain and President Bush have ignored the economic warning signs for months, McCain now seeks to claim that he's the one out in front of this issue. That's quite a bold attempt, considering McCain and his GOP buddies were complicit in stripping our financial system of the very safeguards that are meant to prevent this kind of thing from happening in the first place.

Irony #2: The idea that McCain wants to suspend political activities to get work done in the Senate is, in a word, laughable. McCain has not cast a single vote in the Senate since April 10th. By comparison, Barack Obama has voted 99 times since Senator McCain's last vote. McCain has missed a whopping 64% of Senate votes since the 110th Congress was sworn in January of 2007, by far the most of anyone in the Senate. In fact, the only other members of the Senate missing more than 15% of votes either ran for president (Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Sam Brownback) or had severe health issues (Tim Johnson, brain hemorrhage, and Ted Kennedy, brain cancer). McCain hasn't felt the need to show up for work for five and a half months, yet now is calling on a suspension of the 2008 campaign to fix a failing economy his party was responsible for creating. I guess that might be funny is it weren't so reprehensible.

Irony #3: Last week, Senator McCain dismissed Obama's concerns over the crashing economy as "political opportunism." If that was indeed the case, McCain has taken that opportunism to a whole new level. By "beat[ing] Obama to the punch" as the Associated Press put it, McCain has in essence forced Obama to either suspend his campaign and risk looking like a Johnny-come-lately, or go ahead with the campaign and be seen as insensitive to the economic crisis. Jumping at an opportunity to put your opponent in a political paradox is the very epitome of "political opportunism".


I think Obama did the right thing in refusing to suspend the campaign. Of the two options, he chose the one that made him look like more of a leader than a follower. Plus he got in that little jab about being able to "deal with more than one thing at once." The ultimate irony - and the reason I believe McCain is taking this siesta - is that by going back to congress to "work on the economy," he won't have to answer as many difficult questions about the economy.

Ten Ways Democrats Can Avoid Losing Yet Another Election

Silver medalists (L-R) Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Gore and Kerry

The Republican National Convention and the fervor created by the nomination of Sarah Palin has turned the 2008 Presidential Election into quite a barnburner. Barack Obama, who has at several times enjoyed as much as a 9-point lead in Gallup polling over rival Republican nominee John McCain, now finds himself in a virtual dead heat with the Arizona Senator.

This should be especially disturbing for Democrats, given that the political climate could hardly be better. An unpopular war, an unpopular president, a floundering economy and a skyrocketing national debt are just a few of the factors in the Democrats' favor. Coupled with the fact that the Democrats have nominated a fresh, exciting and change-oriented candidate in Obama, the Democrats should be burying an old, uninspiring, politically entrenched, retread of a candidate like John McCain. But they're not. Somehow McCain has convinced 45% of the electorate that he and the Republicans are the agents of change. He has convinced them that a woefully inexperienced Governor of very average intellect is qualified to run the United States. (Come on, John. We know why you picked her. You can stop pretending she's qualified now.)

So whatever the reasons are for the Democrats' current predicament, I believe there are ways they can recapture the energy of Denver and possibly win in a November landslide. So if I were advising the Obama campaign (no, seriously, are there any openings?), here's what I would propose:

1. Ignore Sarah Palin

Democrats need to treat Governor Palin as a non-entity. Much to my own surprise, the national media has shown thus far that they are interested in Palin and will not let her lies, scandals and outrageous views go unnoticed. But Palin is not the candidate. John McCain is rife with inconsistencies, bad policies, conflicts of interest, and deep-rooted Washington entrenchment. McCain not only is an easier target, but attacking him doesn't bear as much risk of backlash. Excessive questioning of Palin's credentials could lead some to feel she's being unfairly treated or bullied. Democrats don't want to make a martyr of a "good Christian" rural mother of five. Democrats need to treat Palin as they would treat a rumor about Obama being a Muslim: ignore it, or risk lending credence to it by addressing it. When Republican Senator Larry Craig called a press conference to announce that "I am not gay.... I never have been gay," people must have come away saying, "You know what? I bet he's gay." (of course, if Sen. Craig was gay, he could always visit Sarah Palin's church to get "converted.")

2. Get the Clintons out there

Hillary Clinton may still be stewing over her narrow defeat in the Democratic primary, but she needs to get over it, and soon. I know the Clintons both spoke at the convention, and that's nice. But they need to really get busy for the sake of their party and to ensure that the Clinton legacy is not permanently dismantled by another Republican administration. The Clinton's have the ability to do the following:

• Appeal to Southern and moderate voters. Bill Clinton was successful in 1992 and 1996 because he was seen as a centrist and had credentials in the South. 2008 marks one of the extremely rare occurrences in American politics where there has not been someone from the South or the rural Midwest on either ticket. And Bill is in the rare position to say, "Hey, I know moderate. John McCain is no moderate."


• Bring Hillary loyalists to the Obama side. Hillary Clinton has scores of followers who appear to have been more interested in electing a woman than electing a Democrat. Hillary needs to show how similar she and Obama are and how distant the McCain-Palin ticket is from either of them.


• Attack Sarah Palin. Oddly enough, this parody on SNL made me realize something. Hillary is probably the only person who can attack Palin with impunity. At the very least, she is the position to be the most effective critic of the Alaska Governor. Despite the fact that Obama and Palin have both been criticized for inexperience, religious affiliations, family, patriotism and sex education, some on the right have argued that criticism of Palin is purely a result of sexism. Hillary has the ability to criticize Palin without being viewed as sexist and hopefully make American women realize that the selection of Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate is itself a blatantly sexist act. (further reading on this here and here.)

3. Dumb it down a little

As the enthusiasm over Sarah Palin has demonstrated, Americans aren't going to be voting with their brains any time soon. That is the unfortunate reality for Obama, who is without a doubt a brilliant man. The Columbia University and Harvard Law graduate, former editor of the Harvard Law Review, and former Constitutional Law professor at the University of Chicago probably has the combined McCain-Palin ticket beat in terms of IQ points. McCain ranked 894 of 899 students in his class at the US Naval Academy. Palin attended four different schools, including two stints at the University of Idaho, before attaining her Bachelor's degree in communications. It's not that Barack Obama is too smart to be president. On the contrary, I would argue that one can't be smart enough for that job. His problem is that he's too smart for people who would vote for John McCain.

The average voter doesn't get that increased domestic oil drilling will have no immediate effect, very little long-term effect, and will get us no closer to developing cleaner, renewable energy sources. They don't understand that unregulated capitalism leads to the kind of economic disasters we are seeing this week. They don't see how blunders in foreign policy have eroded the global goodwill the U.S. has been building for a century. In essence, they don't understand cause and effect very well, and don't want some politician lecturing them about it. It's sad, but true. Obama needs to hit people with a barrage of "problem-solution" scenarios. There are plenty of problems that need solving, and people generally want a quick fix. Don't tell people all the most intricate details of a solution, how long it will take or how much it will cost. Just tell them it will work.

4. Focus on the economy

McCain this week criticized Obama, calling Obama's assessment of the crashing Bush economy, "political opportunism." Notice how McCain didn't say Obama's assessment was wrong, or offer any solution other than setting up a "commission" to study the current economic crisis. Imagine if the 9/11 Commission was formed as the planes were about to strike the World Trade Center. I'm pretty sure the planes would have still hit their target, just as a commission on the economy will not likely deter this current economic free fall. In fact, as Lehman Bros., Merrill Lynch and AIG were collapsing, McCain reiterated his claim that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong." The resulting echoes of laughter must have reached McCain's ears, as he quickly redefined these "fundamentals" as "American workers, innovation, entrepreneurship," bizarrely suggesting that criticism of the economy is akin to criticism of working people. See for yourself:

The point of course, is that John McCain knows next to nothing about the economy, and what he does know is wrong. For example, McCain's chief economic advisor and likely Treasury Secretary Phil Gramm was instrumental in ushering in a new age of financial deregulation and corporate loopholes. Obama needs to show who is responsible for the current economic meltdown, and let the American people know that, aside from the Iraq War, economic policy is where Bush and McCain are probably most similar.

5. Grill McCain on his houses

Various reports have concluded that the McCains own somewhere between seven and nine houses. The Obamas own one. This topic is not simply a personal attack and is very much fair game for the Obama campaign to use. For one, McCain is touting himself as the populist while calling Obama an "elitist." This is almost hysterical, given McCain's aforementioned real estate empire, the fact that he believes only those making more than $5 million are rich, and - hello??? - he's a Republican, the party that for decades has committed itself to making life easier for the super rich at the expense of the middle class. Despite these facts, McCain is still going to try to claim that he's the guy that supports the middle class. Obama needs to mention the 7+ houses whenever it is appropriate and often when it is not. People aren't that stupid. If someone with nine houses says he's in touch with the plight of the middle class, he's lying, and people will know he's lying if they know he has nine houses.

6. Grill McCain on his staff of lobbyists

For reasons unknown to me, John McCain has somehow been able to make a lot of people believe he is a "Maverick," an "Agent of Change" and someone who will clean up Washington. This is highly suspicious given the fact that so many current and former lobbyists are employed in key positions on McCain's campaign staff. Here are just a few:

• Rick Davis: campaign manager, partner at lobbying firm Davis, Manafort & Freedman.


• Charlie Black: chief campaign adviser, former chairman of lobbying firm BKSH & Associates.


• John Green: campaign liason to Washington, current lobbyist for the firm Ogilvy Government Relations


• Frank Donatelli: Deputy Chairman of the RNC, former lobbyist for McGuireWoods Consulting.


• Randy Scheunemann: foreign affairs advisor, registered lobbyist for the Republic of Georgia.

In fact, according to the website, Mccainsource.com, the candidate has had 133 current or former lobbyists working at various levels in his campaign, many sporting conflicts of interest with either the candidate or the country. And if McCain gets elected, what happens to these high-level lobbyists? They become high-level members of the President's cabinet or staff, giving lobbying firms people on the inside.

For Obama, this one shouldn't be at all difficult. People don't like lobbyists and they don't like hypocrites. By cramming his staff with the former, the Maverick has become the latter. Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington put it this way: "The problem for McCain being so closely associated with lobbyists is that he's the candidate most closely associated with attacking lobbyists."

7. Grill McCain on his flip-flops

Back in 2004, Republicans painted John Kerry as a flip-flopper. That, along with with smearing a decorated war veteran and "fixing" things in Ohio and Florida, helped the Republicans win a close election. McCain's flip-flopping is legendary. If there ever was an example of a politician that will say anything to get elected, it's this guy. More complete lists can be found here or here, but here are some of the highlights:

• Religion: McCain, who once called Reverends Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson "agents of intolerance," actively sought the endorsement of Paster John Hagee, an equally bombastic Christian ideologue. In an April 2008 interview with ABC's George Stephanopolous, McCain said it was a mistake to accept the Hagee endorsement, then later said he was "glad to have" it.


• Taxes: McCain opposed the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. Now he promises to expand those tax cuts, even amid an economic meltdown.


• Economy: In the midst of this week's economic debacle, McCain flip-flopped on regulation in less than an hour. He said "I don’t like excessive and unnecessary...government regulation." Later he said "Do I believe in excess government regulation? Yes."


• Immigration: McCain said in January that he would not vote for his own immigration bill he sponsored in 2006.

McCain's flip-flops are especially damning for his campaign because they almost all involve him flopping to the right. McCain the Maverick has built his brand image on bucking his own party, yet in the race for the White House, the GOP seems to have been successful in reigning him in. Obama needs to expose McCain as the master panderer that he is, essentially a political nomad loyal to everyone and to no one.

8. Indirectly attack McCain's age

Obviously Democrats can't explicitly call McCain "too old". They need to imply that he is too old. The two best ways to do that are to stress McCain's public gaffes (i.e., "senior moments") and his ridiculous aversion to technology. All political candidates make verbal errors over the course of a year-long campaign. McCain, however, has really outdone himself this election cycle. He has confused Sunni and Shia. He has mixed up his economic regulatory agencies. He said the Sunni awakening in Iraq was caused by the "surge," when that was not remotely the case. He claimed that Iraq and Pakistan share a border. (They don't) Recently, he started discussing Latin America and Mexico when a reporter asked him about U.S. relations with Spain. Whether these are merely "senior moments" or evidence of a deep lack of understanding we may never know, but either way, this is not good for McCain.

McCain's bizarre disdain for technology is not as widely reported as it should be. I'm not saying a presidential candidate must have a Nintendo Wii and a Blue Ray player before I will vote for him. But in the most industrialized nation in the world, is it too much to ask for the president to be able to use email? It's clear that McCain's technology gap could pose problems in November. As one GOP strategist put it, “If I were counseling John McCain, I would have him standing in line for an iPhone.” Again, inability and/or unwillingness to adopt technology that has been around for 20 years may not be to the benefit of McCain either as presidential candidate or as president. Since he has admitted publicly to being "illiterate," this illiteracy is fair game for the Obama campaign to use to paint the broader picture of a candidate that needs to be put out to pasture.

9. Get people talking about his temper

Most politicians and Washington insiders have known about McCain's nasty streak for some time. From obscenity-laced tirades on the floor of the senate, threats of physical violence aimed at political opponents, and even dropping the "C-bomb" on his own wife, McCain has proven to have a very short fuse. Apparently he once got into a Senate floor fight with a 95-year old Strom Thurmond. Needless to say, a hot-head in the White House is the last thing the country needs. While Obama can't explicitly attack McCain's temper, he needs to find a way to get it out there. In the debates, Obama should try to get under his skin a little and see if he can elicit an outburst. Hey, if Obama is lucky, he may even get a racist eruption from the Arizona senator. Cha-ching!

10. Remind voters that McCain is a Republican

Comparisons of John McCain to George W. Bush may be fairly accurate, but that strategy has seen mixed results for Democrats. According to A CNN poll conducted last week, only 53% of those surveyed felt that McCain would carry on the policies of the current president. If a McCain victory really means a third Bush term, the public isn't buying it. It's as though McCain has acheived a public opinion that more closely associates him with his self-invented "Maverick" brand than with his own political party. If Democrats want to win back the White House, this perception needs to change. The fact that McCain is fleeing the disastrously unpopular Bush presidency indicates that he knows Bush won't be an asset to his campaign. What the Democrats have to do is simplify things. Instead of endlessly dissecting Senate votes and policy positions, Dems need to put it this way: George Bush is a Republican. John McCain is a Republican. Therefore, George Bush = John McCain. While extremes certainly exists within political parties, what gives the major parties their strength is their unity on a vast number of issues. If McCain really had a 50/50 chance of bucking his own party, as Americans now believe, that would potentially fracture the Republican party as we know it. Anyone who believes the Maverick will come out once John McCain is elected doesn't understand American politics or political parties.

Look. John McCain is a Republican. If he wasn't, he would be running as an independent. He's not. He belongs to the same Republican regime that is on the wrong side of issues like Iraq, health care, the economy, the environment, abortion, gun control, and stem cells. He's a member of the same party that has crashed our economy and has erased any credibility we once had with the rest of the world. Most of the people that voted for George W. Bush will also be voting for McCain. Why? BECAUSE THEY ARE REPUBLICANS!!!! There simply aren't enough Republicans out there (27% by recent estimates) for McCain to win this thing unless independents and moderate Democrats vote Republican as well. To prevent this from happening, Democrats need to stop making this about people and start making it about party. When you're dealing with an ill-informed electorate, as we are in the U.S., Republican = Republican is a lot easier to grasp than McCain = Bush.

Thou Shalt Not Rock

"Everybody Wang Chung tonight, my friends"

The nomination of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has infused the McCain campaign with some well-timed Christian self-righteousness. Absent from this new holier-than-thou ticket, however, is the adherence to the commandment "Thou Shalt Not Steal." A rather amusing or perhaps disturbing theme in the 2008 campaign has cropped up in recent weeks. On multiple occasions, musicians have objected to the unauthorized use of their music in conjunction with the McCain campaign. Many have demanded that the Senator cease playing their songs or face legal consequences. For example:

Van Halen: While introducing Sarah Palin at an August 29th rally in Ohio, the campaign played "Right Now" without the band's permission. The band responded by saying, “Permission was not sought or granted nor would it have been given.”

Jackson Browne: On August 14th, the artist filed suit with McCain's campaign and the RNC for the unauthorized use of his iconic hit "Running on Empty." The song was used in a RNC television ad criticizing Barack Obama's energy policy. Browne's objections were based less on intellectual property violations and more on his desire to not be associated with the Republican party or John McCain.

ABBA: In February, the McCain was compelled not to use the Swedish group's 1977 hit "Take a Chance on Me" at campaign rallies due to licensing issues.

Theme from "Rocky": Also in February, the owner of the copyright to the popular theme song informed McCain that "Rocky" was not his to play. McCain continues to use the song at campaign functions.

John Cougar Mellencamp: In February, reps for the artist asked McCain the stop playing “Our Country” and “Pink Houses” at campaign events.

John Hall: The founder of the band Orleans and current New York congressman asked the McCain campaign in June to stop playing his song "Still the One." Hall also had to issue a cease-and-desist order to the RNC and Bush-Cheney in 2004 for the same infringement.

Frankie Valli: McCain attack ads were removed from YouTube after it was determined they used the classics "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" and "My Eyes Adored You" without a copyright.

Heart: Musicians Ann and Nancy Wilson objected to the use of their song "Barracuda" during the Republican National Convention, in reference to a former nickname of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The band's publishers sent a cease-and-desist order to the McCain camp and Nancy Wilson issued the following statement:

Sarah Palin’s views and values in no way represent us as American women. The song ‘Barracuda’ was written in the late ’70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there’s irony in Republican strategists’ choice to make use of it there.

There are several amusing aspects to all this. First is the idea that the McCain campaign thought they could get away with stealing music. In general, rock musicians are not part of the Republican base, and many (Neil Young, Melissa Ethridge, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Kanye West, The Dixie Chicks, Green Day, Cheryl Crow, Rage Against the Machine, Dave Matthews, Bon Jovi, Willie Nelson and REM, to name a few) have been extremely vocal critics of conservative policies. One could certainly include Browne, Hall, Mellencamp and the Wilson sisters on this list, which really begs the question, "Did they really think they would get away with this?"

Perhaps this was another way for McCain to sharpen his "maverick" credentials: "I'm John McCain, dammit! I'm a maverick, you see, and no one will tell me what songs I can or cannot play." Another theory is that the campaign just doesn't care if they violate copyright laws. Both theories are highly unlikely, however, given the fact that McCain has touted "protecting American intellectual property" on his official campaign website. To be honest, I couldn't tell you why the McCain campaign has shown such blatant disregard for intellectual property. All I can tell you is that at the rate he is currently alienating musicians, future McCain rallies may be a continuous loop of Donnie & Marie masterpieces.

That got me thinking a bit. In the past I have opined about the lack of conservative self-expression when it comes to bumper stickers. What about music? Where are all the conservative anthems? I stumbled upon this list of the "Top 50 Conservative Rock Songs" published by the conservative The National Review. Going through the list, you almost get the feeling this is a joke, written by liberals to underscore the lack of creativity and artistic fervor behind the conservative movement. Apparently, however, the list is meant to be taken seriously. Yet most of the songs listed simply allude to socio-political situations that conservatives have hijacked as their own: law and order ("I Fought the Law and the Law Won"), anti-Communism ("Cult of Personality," “Revolution,” “Right Here, Right Now”) family values (“Stay Together for the Kids,” “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”) and anti-idealism (“You Can’t Always Get What You Want”). Others are either misinterpreted by the author, obscure to the point of irrelevance or obnoxiously right-wing (“Why Don’t You Get a Job,” “Stand By Your Man,” “Capitalism,” “Get Over It”) And of course the list included songs by such "conservative" artists as Bob Dylan, The Beatles, John Mellencamp, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, David Bowie, and U2.

So this may be an issue to watch in the coming months. Will the McCain campaign:

A) continue to play pirated music at campaign functions and face fines and/or lawsuits

B) scour the earth for music with a conservative message

C) offer to pay for the rights to play these songs and hope the artists acquiesce

or

D) bypass the copyright process and play nothing but public domain John Phillip Sousa marches