Preface: Mike Murphy - Friend of Jon Mccain and former adviser to the campaign.
Peggy Noonan - Primary Reagan speechwriter.

Transcript:

Chuck Todd: Mike Murphy, lots of free advice, we'll see if Steve Schmidt and the boys were watching. We'll find out on your blackberry. Tonight voters will get their chance to hear from Sarah Palin and she will get the chance to show voters she's the right woman for the job Up next, one man who's already convinced and he'll us why Gov. Jon Huntsman. (cut away)

Peggy Noonan: Yeah.

Mike Murphy: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state governor world: Engler, Whitman, Tommy Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. I mean, these guys -- this is how you win a Texas race, just run it up. And it's not gonna work. And --

PN: It's over.

MM: Still McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.

CT: I also think the Palin pick is insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, too.

PN: Saw Kay this morning.

CT: Yeah, she's never looked comfortable about this --

MM: They're all bummed out.

CT: Yeah, I mean is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?

PN: The most qualified? No! I think they went for this -- excuse me-- political bullshit about narratives --

CT: Yeah they went to a narrative.

MM: I totally agree.

PN: Every time the Republicans do that, because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good at, they blow it.

MM: You know what' sreally the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical.

CT: This is cynical, and as you called it, gimmicky.

MM: Yeah.
(scripted by TPM)

I was yelling "moron" at the screen while watching this.

Josh Marshal from TPM has it just about right:

It's like a comic parody of the mentality I described a few days ago. Don't get in McCain's face because it'll just be so much worse for you if you. By God, just keep your head down and try to muddle through! If you're nice maybe he won't hit you.

Is the Limbaugh, Drudge, McCain IV really so deep in Halperin's arm that he thinks the McCain camp feels like it needs an opening to get into the Obama/Terrrorist/Scary Black Man menagerie? They were holding back on Rezko? Really?

Tags for this video have been changed from 'john mccain, tpm, veracifier, nonsense' to 'john mccain, tpm, veracifier, nonsense, lighten up, get a life, jerks' - edited by lucky760

I'm getting somewhat tired of the "out of context" cry, especially if context doesn't change the meaning.

He somehow thinks comparing wartime in Iraq with peacetime in Korea is exculpatory of the attitude that it's "not important" when the troops come home.

If you insist they can't leave until they've won, and that after they've won, it doesn't matter when they come home, aren't you saying that you aren't going to try to bring them home at all for God knows how long?

I think Josh Marshall at TPM sums it up nicely:

Their other point [aside from saying they were quoted out of context] is that McCain isn't saying that bringing the troops home isn't that important, he's saying that precisely when they come home isn't that important and that reducing the number of casualties is more important than the precise date when they come home. But this highly strained argument seems premised on the assumption that journalists should report not what you say but your own highly generous after-the-fact interpretation of what you said.

I would say that in the context of Iraq when they come home and whether they come home are actually inextricably combined. Presumably US military personnel won't be in Iraq 20,000 years from now. At some point they'll come home. But staying for many decades is, in the context of most of our lives, the same as staying forever. On the latter point McCain doesn't say that reducing casualties is more important than getting people home. He's saying one is his focus and the other isn't very important.

Update from TPM: E.D.'s show is being cancelled. Maybe because she wasn't pushing the terrorist card hard enough?

>> ^NetRunner:
Someone had a good comment that I can't find to quote precisely, but it was something like "If you're going to be an asshole, try to at least be an entertaining asshole."

http://politics.videosift.com/video/TPM-Speechless#comment-425004

That's me you're attempting to quote. I didn't call him an asshole, though. I was just sarcastically imploring him to make a logical statement.

It's like when your dog barks at the TV because there are dogs barking on TV. You know there's no reason to be barking, but you understand why the dog is confused. In the case of my linked comment, the dog was barking at an innocent potted plant and I can't help but wonder what's going on inside his head.

TPM
Should Cindy McCain's Brain Damage Be A Campaign Issue?

>> ^eoe:
Trying to take a more objective stance on all this from the overwhelmingly liberal point of view on this page, I find it aggravating that -again- the media is concentrating -entirely- on anything -but- the issues themselves. I can, for myself, see whether Obama or McCain is a better orator. I don't need the media to tell me that. What I do need is them to be fact checking the -content- of the speech, which is something I can't necessarily do while they are giving the speech.
For the love of crap, regardless who's on the stiff end of the stick, be it the Democrat or the Republican, or Ralph Nader, I want to hear about the god-damned issues already.


I agree, though if you're interested in the issues, you shouldn't be listening to a campaign speech from the candidate. You should look at their website, and then read the online critiques of the candidate/policy from a source you trust.

For God's sake, don't take the candidate, or TV media's word for it.

Good stuff. Same sort of thing as this, but better done than that amateur attempt.

His soon to be infamous green speech was held in Louisiana, outside New Orleans, most likely in an attempt to bamboozle people into thinking he gives a shit about them.

>> ^quantumushroom:
I'd vote for a skeleton before a g_dd_mned marxist. And will.


If you're not going to be intelligent, please at least try to be entertaining.

>> ^NetRunner:
>> ^bamdrew:
yeah... news has it now that Obama's camp is considering holding a series of public town-hall talks with McCain on the issues, an idea McCain's side proposed... which would really be throwing McCain a bone... because if its down to who can give the best speech and who comes out the best after 3 debates, Obama has it in the bag.

They've been talking about 10 of these town-hall debates, I presume that's in addition to the already scheduled 3 official presidential debates in the fall.
I'd love to see it happen, and I can't fathom the rationale behind it at the McCain campaign. The worst thing they could do is give people a chance to compare Obama and McCain side by side.
It'll be YouTube vs. Feeding Tube.


McCain simply may have no other choice. He's crippled by public financing and the media limelight has effectively eluded him during the over-extended Democratic primary season. This may be his only way to take center stage again. But yeah I agree, it's a fool's errand, Obama is unanimously the superior speaker and orator, he was arguably a weaker debater to Clinton but just reminiscing back to the Republican debates, McCain hardly stood out either. If nothing else, this will give Obama a chance to highlight his utter hypocrisy embodying his image as a 'maverick' and accentuate his recent about-turns on countless social and economic issues. Not to mention, for a party heavily reliant on 'values' voters, rational and meticulous policy issues are hardly going to galvanise support.

>> ^entr0py:
Damn, you're right spoco2. It's uncanny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnJUWwSx1kE


Ha! I knew I was onto something Nice find

>> ^bamdrew:
yeah... news has it now that Obama's camp is considering holding a series of public town-hall talks with McCain on the issues, an idea McCain's side proposed... which would really be throwing McCain a bone... because if its down to who can give the best speech and who comes out the best after 3 debates, Obama has it in the bag.


They've been talking about 10 of these town-hall debates, I presume that's in addition to the already scheduled 3 official presidential debates in the fall.

I'd love to see it happen, and I can't fathom the rationale behind it at the McCain campaign. The worst thing they could do is give people a chance to compare Obama and McCain side by side.

It'll be YouTube vs. Feeding Tube.

>> ^Fedquip:
Beat me again! you must also subscribe to TPM Netrunner.

Yes, indeed I do.

>> ^tmcdermid:
Privately funded news is biased? What a fucking surprise! At least we have the BBC over here it's not perfect but my god it puts American cable news to shame.


Our publicly funded news (PBS) puts the rest of it to shame, too. Problem is, they pretty much only put out 1 hour of news a day, whilst the corporate media sports 3 24x7 networks, plus morning, noon, evening, and 11 o'clock news programs on the 4 main networks.

Add in that one network is entirely dedicated to the advocacy of a single political party, and it starts getting really out of kilter.

Beat me again! you must also subscribe to TPM Netrunner.

It is interesting what she reveals there...many interesting tales being revealed Post-Scott