Opening the Day: McCain's Health Comes Under Strong Scrutiny

by: Matt Stoller

Mon Oct 20, 2008 at 07:00


Finally, the very real possibility that McCain may not live through a term or two of the Presidency and that he won't disclose his medical records hits the front pages of the New York Times.

  • Obama is getting very aggressive about voter fraud, Bush, and McCain.

    The presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) asked the Justice Department on Friday to allow an existing special prosecutor to probe the possible collaboration between the Bush administration and the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in generating what Obama aides charge are spurious allegations and investigations of voter fraud.

    In the letter, and in a conference call, Obama officials charged that government leaks about FBI investigations into possible voter fraud point to a potential collaboration between the administration and the campaign.

  • Ah, the Family Guy does McCain/Palin.

  • Vint Cerf, one of the creators of the internet, has endorsed Obama.  He's often mentioned as a possible CTO for the US.

  • The New York Times reports on California's energy efficiency policies.

    California's energy-efficiency policies created nearly 1.5 million jobs from 1977 to 2007, while eliminating fewer than 25,000, according to a study to be released Monday.

    The study, conducted by David Roland-Holst, an economist at the Center for Energy, Resources and Economic Sustainability at the University of California, Berkeley, found that while the state's policies lowered employee compensation in the electric power industry by an estimated $1.6 billion over that period, it improved compensation in the state over all by $44.6 billion.

    Built into that figure were increases of $1.2 billion in the light industrial sector, $11.2 billion in wholesale and retail trade, $7.3 billion in the financial and insurance sectors and $17.8 billion in the service sector.

    "Consumers were able to reduce energy spending," the study said, adding that "these savings were diverted to other demand."

    Eco-extremists!

  • Lunsford is really making a go at Mitch McConnell.  He really could take the Minority Leader of the Senate out.

  • Obama has 3.1 million donors.  Goldwater had a million, Kerry had over a million.  Still, Obama is blowing up the records here, and political fundraising is not likely to ever be the same.

  • Pelosi won't support a stimulus larger than $100B.

  • McCain's latest gambit is to spread rumors that his internal polls show the race dramatically moving his way.  Mmmkay.

What are you reading?
Matt Stoller :: Opening the Day: McCain's Health Comes Under Strong Scrutiny

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Opening the Day: McCain's Health Comes Under Strong Scrutiny | 14 comments
Poor McCain.... (0.00 / 0)
Someone should have told him not to use Zogby as an internal pollster...

REID: Voting against us was never part of our arrangement!
SPECTER: I am altering the deal! Pray I don't alter it any further!
REID: This deal keeps getting worse all the time!
Here is something to consider (0.00 / 0)
Every democratic president in this century who won was a relative outsider.

FDR, Kennedy,Carter,Clinton

All of them were outsiders in some way.  The insiders all tend to lose.  I think its because they don't put the energy into a campaign the way an outsider does because they feel the presidency is somewhat owed to them.

The liberal wiki
Send an email to terra@liberalwiki.com

Kennedy was not an outsider (4.00 / 1)
JFK was an odd case.  He had establishment forces working for and against him.  He was a Senator for years and had his father's name.  The problem was that he was young and had to contend with the dixiecrat backed LBJ.

Also, what about Dukakis?  He was a governor.  That's about as outside of the beltway as you can get.

Those are the only 2 post wwII exceptions that I can think of.  I'm leaning more towards the case of that being a coincidence than a cause.

[ Parent ]
making up for the last 8 years (4.00 / 1)
So perhaps the NYTimes is trying to make up for the last 8 years. I actually agree with the McCain camp - they are going after him. But unlike them, I'm happy about it. I'm beginning to respect the Times a bit more. Not much (Judy Miller is still fresh in my mind - the NYTimes made the war possible). But they are acting more responsibly as a paper.

Then again, in my more cynical moments I just think, "No, Shamus, they're not. They're really just going with the political tide. It just so happens that you agree with the political tide. When the tide changes - and it will - the Times will go with it." This view is supported by the rather simple observation that "going with the tide" - be that justifying and making the war possible or attacking McCain seems to be the only consistency in that paper.  

Obama is the establishment candidate (4.00 / 1)
...and the NYT is just doing the work of its establishment masters.

Obama's flips (e.g. on FISA) were all about reassuring the establishment that he is "one of them."

[ Parent ]
I'm not so sure (0.00 / 0)
There is no doubt that Obama is further "inside the Beltway" than I would like and more of a Washington insider than I had hoped. But, there is no way he's the establishment candidate.  In comparison to Nader, Barr, and McKinney, definitely. Not in comparison to John McCain.

It's terrifying to think what the press would be writing if Palin weren't such a bust and if McCain weren't mindblowingly ignorant about the economy. After all, we're still hearing about William Ayers. We still have a very long way to go before we have a fair and independent media. But it's nice to see the New York Times raising questions about John McCain.  

[ Parent ]
Pelosi r dum (4.00 / 2)
If you're going to limit stimulus in a $14 trillion economy to $100 billion, then you might as well not even bother. That amount is a joke if you're seriously trying to affect anything.
Instead of being stupid .... (0.00 / 0)
Pelosi should just point out W's obstincence about any stimulus at this point .. hammer of the Republicans on it ... I do wonder if all the Republican nonsense of the past two years casting her as the spawn of the devil is getting to her
[ Parent ]
McCain wasn't talking about internal polling (4.00 / 1)
On Fox News Sunday, he talked about three of the trackers, describing them fairly accurately as "in the margin of error or somewhat behind" (true of Gallup if you use their ass-covering '04 LV model).  But where the bit about the numbers "closing dramatically in the last few days" comes from is anyone's guess.  Maybe he's all about the R2K/Kos tracker.

First of all, there are polls this morning - reliable - Zogby, Rasmussen, Gallup - all those that show us in the margin of error or somewhat behind. Are we behind? Sure. I'm the underdog.

I've always - I've been the underdog in a number of races, and we're very happy with the way the campaign is going. I'm very happy with the debate - went there the other night.

And look, I've been on enough campaigns, my friend, to sense enthusiasm and momentum, and we've got it, and I - again, I don't have to look at polls, but the polling numbers have closed dramatically in the last few days.


This statement is very Kerryesque (0.00 / 0)
"I don't have to look at polls, but the polling numbers have closed dramatically in the last few days."

Reminds me of his post-election MTP when he said he didn't believe in polls then in the very next sentence said their internals flatlined after the Bin Laden video.

But yeah, McCain was talking about the trackers. Since then Zogby and Rasmussen have gone both ways in their reports - in direct contradiction to each other both days. "Erratic" if you will. So as usual he is just plain wrong. Anyway, I wouldn't put much faith in his internals since they supposedly have him close in Iowa.

[ Parent ]
I'm reading (4.00 / 1)
Hertzberg's fine post about McCain's Colombia fixation and his ties to Colombian murderers, terrorists, and other assorted thugs.

http://www.newyorker.com/onlin...

What's at Stake (0.00 / 0)
I'm reading the NYReview of Books, "What's at Stake." It's a bunch of elite intellectuals weighing in on the potential consequences of the election.
http://www.nybooks.com/article...
He Also Knows How To Catch bin Laden, But Won't Tell Anyone Else, Like, Say, Bush Or Gates (0.00 / 0)
McCain's latest gambit is to spread rumors that his internal polls show the race dramaticaly moving his way. Mmmkay.

So, smart money says he needs to get his secret decoder ring debugged.


"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

Reading the Bernard-Henri Levy interview at Salon... (0.00 / 0)
and not really knowing what to make of it. This guy seems to be some kind of agent provocateur, who loives to be against the Zeitgeist, a bit like a french Broder. Some good ideas, though. For instance, this:

Q: " A lot of Americans do not understand why it even matters what the rest of the world thinks about who the American president is."
A: "Because you are the most important, the most powerful country in the world. But don't be too narcissistic, you Americans. Everything matters to everybody. The next president of Iran matters to everybody. Who is president matters to everybody. Who presides over one of the most little states in the world, which is Israel, matters to everybody. The entire world matters. Even more little -- Gaza. Hamas or not Hamas? Everybody has the eyes on that. So it is a principle, a rule in this time of globalization: Everything matters to everybody."

Indeed, indeed, even a small country that almost nobody has ever heard about before, like South Ossetia, has the potential to ignite the next World War. A small world, and a horrifying one, sure. But then, this guy writing about Obama, American democracy, and US foreign policy shhows he never heard the word "isolationalism":
"Those, for example, who pretend to be anti-mondialist ... I don't know if you have this in America? Anti-mondialists fight against globalization."

However, some good points in the rest. And the view of the US from the outside may be interesting. You can find the interview here:
http://www.salon.com/books/int...
 

Opening the Day: McCain's Health Comes Under Strong Scrutiny | 14 comments
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