MoveOn Hits One out of the Park

I love this: it hits McCain twice, once politically and once personally--which I think is the secret of all effective attack ads. Politically, on his lobbyist pals/his puppeteers. Personally, on his mockable "my friends" tic--which even his own campaign can't stand to hear him use.

Old Republican Tricks

Steve Schmidt, McCain's campaign chief, is a disciple of none other than Karl Rove.

He's a scary mother--and he's a quick study.

Jake Tapper writes:

Did you read the National Enquirer this week?

I didn't.

Why am I bringing it up?

Because I just got an e-mail about it from the McCain-Palin campaign.

He goes on to quote Schmidt:

"The smearing of the Palin family must end... The efforts of the media and tabloids to destroy this fine and accomplished public servant are a disgrace...

"Members of this campaign went to off-the-record lunches with reporters today...and they were asked if she would do paternity tests to prove paternity for her last child. Smear after smear after smear, and it's disgraceful and it's wrong. And the American people are going to reject it overwhelmingly when they see her."

Tapper concludes that the McCain Camp is just uneccessarily fanning the flames of these rumors.

But actually what Schmidt is doing is far more insidious and Rovian.

By lumping all of these sources together: the traditional media, the tabloids, the blogosphere, Schmidt is trying to create this amorphous blob of a media strawman--one that is spending every single moment trying to crush his candidate.

But this is a complete fallacy. In fact, this is little more than the promise of a "Global War of Terror"-style Orwellian perpetual war that can never end, but delivers McCain a conceptual opponent that, unlike Barack Obama, he may actually be able to defeat.

(Steve Schmidt, artist rendition)

By the way, with respect to the National Enquirer story-- which before the ABC piece I had only seen referenced on the right-wing National Review blog section here.

Well, all I can say is: Wow. If that one turns out to be true--and pursued by the media--then John Edwards ended up doing the Democrats a serious solid this year.

UPDATE:

It seems like the McCain people are turning the National Enquirer pushback up to an Edwardsian 11.

Me thinks the lady doth protest too much?

Fool me once

Wouldn't it be really damaging for someone like David Kuo to go on the talk shows and explain clearly how evangelicals are getting cynically played again by the Republicans--and this time from someone they never trusted and isn't even a true believer--unlike Bush?

Always Bet On Barack

British bookies don't like Sarah's chances:

Before the Republican senator's presidential campaign disclosed the pregnancy of Palin's 17-year-old daughter, bookmakers in Britain and Ireland were offering 20-1 odds or higher on a bet that she would be forced off the ticket, meaning a 1 pound ($1.78) bet would pay 20 pounds. Now that same bet will pay no more than 8 pounds.

And it's not helping McCain either:

"Ever since he appointed her, people have stopped betting on McCain," said David Williams of Ladbrokes in London. "He went down like a sack of potatoes as far as the punters are concerned."

Shock Therapy

It's never going to come to this, but stories even speculating on how this would go down cannot be a good sign for John McCain.

Here in St. Paul, talk of Palin has dominated the Republican convention—even more so than cable news—and by Monday night discussion among Republican operatives and reporters had turned to whether Palin would survive or become the first running mate since Thomas Eagleton in 1972 to leave a major-party ticket. On Monday, the InTrade futures market opened trading on whether Palin would withdraw before the election.

So...

..how long until Mark Halperin declares that John McCain "won the week"?

The vanishing fundraising window

Earlier this month, I argued that Obama would have had one additional strategic benefit by waiting until just before the convention (and by extension, the end of the primary season) to pick Clinton as his running mate:

Clinton’s presence on the ticket may be able to gin up Republican fundraising…except, because they are taking public financing, the McCain campaign will have precisely one week to both collect AND spend that money.

In short, absent some increase in RNC money and possibly 527 money, for the most part McCain’s advantage here would be completely neutralized by the clock. If Hillary had been the VP nominee all summer long the Republicans would be dining out on this–but now they simply would not have enough time to do it.

Now, obviously Obama didn't choose Clinton--and at the same time, much crowing has come from the McCain camp about how much money they've raised based on picking Palin.

But their problem is: they are about to run out the same clock as I outlined above!

MSNBC:

It is important to note, however, that after McCain makes his acceptance speech Thursday, he can no longer use any money raised previously. This is referred to as "primary" money.