Broadcast (Novak) a Joyful Noise Unto the Times, Lord, and Please Capture It On Tape! 104 Days to Go!

All right, no more attempts at balance. Since this campaign began, John McCain has been more wrong, more weak, and more wobbly than any other national figure. He continues to astound me with how badly his campaign has been run, how incorrect his positions are, and how many gaps there are in his knowledge of the issues. He's already running a mean-spirited campaign, playing on all the fears and paranoias that the GOP did the last two times around. I don't think it will work this time. But the media isn't giving the candidates their due (read the two comments by Dan Theodore on that article, but more on this topic later). I watch the evening news, and I don't see the truth, I see a desperate attempt to not make either of them look bad, even when one of them looks bad. I will not be afraid to tell you when Obama looks bad (although frankly, that hasn't been often - his campaign has been pretty impeccable), and I will make every effort to tell you when McCain is bad. I have no problem calling out Obama when he screws up, but I can't pretend anymore that this is a real choice - it's no contest. This is my promise to you - this election is more important to this nation's future than any principle of balance to this blog. I will not let John McCain lie to you. I can now say that he terrifies me more than George Bush ever did. He could do so much damage as President, and I have to do whatever I can to not let that happen. Come here for the truth.



--> Last week, I told you about how John McCain thought that Czechoslovakia still existed (he did this twice, actually). This is something that I could probably write off as a simple slip of the tongue. Unfortunately, McCain's confusion goes deeper, as he showed on Good Morning America on Monday by referring to the "precarious and urgent" situation on the "Iraq-Pakistan border." Now, I don't expect any particular geographic expertise from my readership (except from former challengers for the New York State title), so I'll provide a little visual demonstration:

Notice that there's no real border between the two nations. In fact, there's a rather large, yellow country in between them. This is kind of a serious region of the world that U.S. foreign policy tends to, lets say, affect? McCain should know better. But again, maybe this is just a slip of the tongue...

--> Obama recently contended that it was the Sunni revolt against al-Qaeda that contributed to the improved security situation in Iraq. McCain was asked about this by Katey Couric (more on this annoying person later), and he had this to say:

"I don't know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening," McCain said, referring to the U.S.-backed revolt of Sunni sheiks against al-Qaida in Anbar province. "I mean, that's just a matter of history."

Seems like a reasonable point. The only problem is that the Anbar Awakening, a critical point in the development of this war, was first discussed by the US Department of Defense on September 29, 2006 - 4 MONTHS BEFORE GEORGE W. BUSH ANNOUNCED THE SURGE. This is a basic element of the current situation in Iraq, and the fact that McCain could get this wrong is pretty scary. So isn't it odd that CBS News, anchored by Couric, decided to air the question Couric asked, but actually aired a different answer! Here's the full interview. The American people deserve to know when McCain doesn't understand the Iraq War (besides the obvious ignoring the wishes of the Iraqi people). Shame on CBS News, whom the McCain campaign recently accused, along with the rest of the media, of bias against him. It's also possible that CBS violated some of their journalistic standards with this decision.

--> So, as per the title of this entry, Robert Novak has a Bad Day today. In fact, it's been a bad week. On Tuesday, Novak received hints from top McCain officials that he was going to announce his running mate soon. Novak "just put something on the internet," and then later in the day realized it was just a hoax to help draw attention away from Obama's fantastically successful international trip. Novak said that he "felt used."

Today, Novak's week got a whole lot worse. While driving his black Corvette, Novak made a right turn and hit a pedestrian crossing the street on a "Walk" signal. A bicyclist who saw the event described the car as "plowing" into the guy, who was "splayed into the windshield." The cyclist then saw Novak try to drive away, so he frantically got to his car, swerved in front of Novak to prevent him from escaping, and dialed 911. "Bono (the cyclist) said he told him that you can't hit a pedestrian and just drive away. He quoted Novak as responding: “I didn’t see him there.”" Great stuff, Novak. I hope you rot in prison, like you were supposed to two years ago.

--> With Obama's heavily-anticipated speech tomorrow in Berlin, John McCain was looking for a way to upstage him - hard to do in a nation that has such shitty landmarks. I mean, how could you have a good looking political event here? or here? or even here? Well, McCain clearly has his finger on the pulse of America, as he chose a photo-op location that truly represents the heart of America: an oil rig off the Gulf Coast. McCain saw this as a way of expressing his support for ending the offshore drilling ban, because apparently appearing with the President who issued the executive ban wasn't clear enough.

Of course, the weather has a liberal bias as well. While Obama was greeted by beautiful weather in Israel, a hurricane hit the Gulf Coast, forcing McCain to cancel his event. McCain unexpectedly went to Ohio tonight, fueling speculation that he may announce his VP tomorrow. Stay tuned for that, as it might be Rob Portman (former Congressman from Ohio, also former Bush Administration Director of the OMB). This would be hilarious, as McCain would not only ignore Newt Gingrich's advice and pick a white guy, but it would be a guy with direct ties to the most unpopular president ever.

--> Apparently convinced of the success of attacking Europe as a way of attacking the Democratic Presidential candidate, the GOP is at it again with their press guide to Obama's diplomatic tour of Europe. Of course, they pick on their favorite target: the French.

No, it's not this bad - it's worse. Click on the link above. Or this link. This is what John McCain believes is the best way for the American people to decide who is fit to lead the United States military. This is childish at best, and sickening at worst.

--> By the way, it's time to bring you another edition of our increasingly regular series:

By the Way, This Guy is Still President

--> Tonight, we feature this guy talking at a fundraiser on July 18th. As our leader, he tried to explain, as best he could, the nuances of our current economic crisis:

"Wall Street got drunk, it got drunk, (it’s one of the reasons I asked you to turn off your tv cameras.) It got drunk and now it’s got a hangover. The question is how long will it sober up, and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments."

Here's the video of our recovered-alcoholic President making a very detailed analogy to drinking. Dubya went on to explain, "So the economy got drunk, and it started stumbling around. It went over and puked on a bunch of middle class houses, because they were in the corner and he didn't think anyone would notice. Then the economy tried to hit on Great Britain, but we were like 'Naw, dude, that's not cool!" So the economy backed off, and ended up asleep on the coffee table, while Japan, India and China wrote on its face with Sharpies.... Not that I have any experience with any of this."

That's all for tonight folks. Get some sleep.