 The right wingers are so busy getting the dry heaves over the media coverage of the Barack Obama overseas junket, they've completely forgotten just how much the media remains biased IN FAVOR OF their candidate, John McCain (whom the wingers used to hate because of the media's glowing coverage of him...) judging by the extent to which the MSM still refuses to cover his screw-ups the way the hyperventilate over every Obama surrogate, and the way supposedly sober analysts continue to credit him with foreign policy and military expertise he simply doesn't have -- even when he makes major, major gaffes. If you're not totally confused, here's some of what went on today:
First, the media coverage, which U.S. News and World Report helpfully breaks down:
The media is awash in the last 24 hours with coverage of Sen. Barack Obama's trip to Iraq, and the central theme of the coverage is that the Iraqi government is on board with Obama's plan for a withdrawal of US combat forces in 16 months. ABC World News, in its lead story, said "Obama came to Baghdad and he brought his star power with him." The New York Times reports Obama "arrived in Baghdad on Monday, meeting with" Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki "and other senior Iraqi politicians," along with several US officials. The Financial Times says Obama "received a red carpet welcome from the Iraqi government, which called for the withdrawal of US combat forces by the end of 2010." Ali Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman, "said the 2010 goal was an 'Iraqi vision'. His comments came after Maliki this weekend appeared to support Mr Obama's timeframe in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel." Dabbagh said yesterday, "We can't give any schedules or dates, but the Iraqi government sees the suitable date for withdrawal of the US forces is by the end of 2010." The AP notes that "roughly mirrored the Illinois senator's withdrawal schedule and offered a glimpse of Iraq's growing confidence as violence drops and Iraqi security forces expand their roles." The move by Iraq's government is seen as providing a domestic political boost to Obama. For example, NBC Nightly News said Iraq's leaders have become "Obama's unlikely allies. ... Whatever political benefit that Obama gets from this trip, his calls for more rapid withdrawal have helped Iraq's government to pressure President Bush to seek an exit strategy." On ABC World News, political analyst George Stephanopoulos said, "Halfway through the trip, it's going about as well as it can possibly go" for Obama, who has "hit all his marks." Under the headline "For Obama, A First Step Is Not A Misstep," the New York Times reports in a front-page analysis that the Iraqi move is "providing Mr. Obama with a potentially powerful political boost on a day he spent in Iraq working to fortify his credibility as a wartime leader." The Washington Post says that "as political theater, the events of the past few days have played unfailingly in the Democrat's favor." On MSNBC's Hardball, Roger Simon of The Politico.com said, "Talk about message management. The Obama campaign seems to have managed the message of the Maliki government." CNN's The Situation Room reported Obama is "6,200 miles from the nearest U.S. campaign trail, but, as he steps into the international arena, the imagery sent back home is all American, commander in chief-like, a helicopter tour of Iraq with David Petraeus, the general in charge of multinational forces, a chow-down with the troops in Afghanistan, basketball with US forces in Kuwait."
Meanwhile, poor John McCain is left to bluster on and on to an empty room that THE SURGE WORKED!!! WHY WON'T BARACK OBAMA ADMIT THAT THE SURGE WORKED!!! WHY WON'T BARACK OBAMA GIVE JOHN MCCAIN CREDIT FOR WINNING THE WAR that he isn't in charge of because he's not a commander on the ground and not the commander in chief... (huff ... whew... wheeze...)
Well, McCain did manage to get some attention for saying what even scuzzy Joe Klein called "the most scurrilous thing I've heard in covering nine presidential campaigns..." hey, how old does that make Joe Klein...???
ABC News' Jennifer Duck Reports: Sen. John McCain used some of his strongest words yet comparing his judgment to his opponent’s saying Sen Barack Obama "would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.” “This is a clear choice that the American people have. I had the courage and the judgment to say that I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Sen. Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign,” McCain said in Rochester, New Hampshire today around the same time Sen. Obama was speaking with reporters overseas.
And he repeated the charge enough for it to be his new, super official talking point. Klein says he's shocked that McCain would say such a thing -- essentially calling a fellow U.S. Senator a war traitor -- himself, rather than having a scummy surrogate do it. The answer: John McCain is one mean, angry sonofabitch. I thought everybody knew that...  And in all the carping from Camp McCain, about the surge, about the media loving Barack Obama too much (complete with a campaign video that the New Yorker's Daily Intel blog calls awkward, and "old" since it uses an old song from around the 1950s...) about the New York Times rejecting Mac's awful op-ed and on and on and on ... McCain once again screws up a major plank of history (courtesy of Slate's Commander Guy):Poor Grandpa.... Couric: Senator McCain, Sen. Obama says, while the increased number of U.S. troops contributed to increased security in Iraq, he also credits the Sunni awakening and the Shiite government going after militias. And says that there might have been improved security even without the surge. What's your response to that?
McCain: I don't know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened. Colonel McFarlane (phonetic) was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening. I mean, that's just a matter of history. Thanks to General Petraeus, our leadership, and the sacrifice of brave young Americans. I mean, to deny that their sacrifice didn't make possible the success of the surge in Iraq, I think, does a great disservice to young men and women who are serving and have sacrificed. Uh, one problem Grandpa---the Anbar awakening began long before the surge. Maybe we're being unfair to Grandpa by suggesting that he's senile and uninformed? Maybe he KNOWS the truth but he's just lying?
I vote for senile and uninformed, but that's just me. To Obama, who was in Jordan today where he even got a ride to the airport from King Abdullah. Next stop: Israel, where upon arriving tonight, Obama issued an immediate condemnation of the latest construction equipment driver attack in Jerusalem. He may face questions about a potentially embarrassing U.S. State Department report about Israel's actions on the West Bank:
The United States security coordinator for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, retired general James Jones, is preparing an extremely critical report of Israel's policies in the territories and its attitude toward the Palestinian Authority's security services.
A few copies of the report's executive summary (or, according to some sources, a draft of it) have been given to senior Bush Administration officials, and it is reportedly arousing considerable discomfort. In recent weeks, the administration has been debating whether to allow Jones to publish his full report, or whether to tell him to shelve it and make do with the summary, given the approaching end of President George Bush's term.
Jones was appointed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice following the Annapolis peace conference last November. His assignment was to draft a strategic plan to facilitate stabilization of the security situation, as a necessary accompaniment to Israeli-Palestinian final-status negotiations. In this context, he assessed the PA security forces in the West Bank, whose reform is being overseen by another American general, Keith Dayton. Jones has visited the region several times and met with senior Israeli government officials and army officers.
According to both Israeli and American sources, the envoy's conclusions about Israel are scathing. Israelis who met with Jones on his most recent visit here a few weeks ago, including Israel Defense Forces officers, said their impression was that the report would be "very harsh, and make Israel look very bad."
Jones is apparently critical of Israel on two key issues. One is its fairly broad definition of its security interests in the West Bank under any final-status agreement. The other is its attitude toward the PA security services. Jones is apparently pushing for a release of the full report. I'm assuming the Bushies will squash it.
Before McCain decides to comment, his staff might want to provide him with a helpful map, so that he doesn't decry the actions of Israel's neighbors, the Iraqis, whose Iranian-based al-Qaida operatives flowing over the border with Pakistan have forced Israel's hand.
| Labels: 2008 election, Barack Obama, John McCain, presidential campaigns, presidential candidates |
