Last week on ABC's This Week, senior Republican operative and current pundit Karl Rove denied having any role, either informal or formal, in the McCain campaign. Rove would like to deny his role in the campaign so that he's seen as credible by pundits as having an independent, albeit conservative, voice. After all, if you are perceived of as 'on message' for a campaign, you have much less credibility in pushing campaign talking points. If you look at the evidence however, it's quite clear that Rove has a direct pipeline into the strategy that McCain is pursuing.
It's a stupid game that media pundits play. Let's first look at the denial.
George Stephanopoulos: ...of course he was President Bush's former deputy chief of staff and political strategist-an informal advisor to John McCain's campaign. You just heard David [Axelrod]...
Karl Rove: I wouldn't, I wouldn't even go that far-informal advisor-no way.
GS: Well you pass on information to them. You give them your advice.
KR: Chitchat.
GS: Chitchat? Ok, well I think that justifies, that qualifies as informal, but let's move on...
A timeline of Rove-McCain chitchat awaits you in the extended entry
Thanks to those who read and contributed to this morning's liveblogging of ABC's This Week - where George Stephanopoulos interviewed John McCain, and then a ridiculous roundtable discussion ensued.
Below are 3 top outrages from the show - from YouTube (the third one's my favorite). If you want to hold ABC accountable, please sign MoveOn's petition to ABC here. Over a quarter million have signed so far, and the final number will be in an ad this week...so if you've already signed, tell a friend.
Straight Talking McCain on Hagee (and Jews and gays)
McCain on Iraq: "Eliminate" Casualties or "Keep Them Down"?
This is a Catch 22 for McCain, which reporters should ask about. If his standard for staying in Iraq for 100 years is to "keep casualties down" during those years, that's still a whole lot of casualties. If his condition for staying 100 years is zero violence, how many years is he willing to stay in Iraq before achieving zero violence? (100 years?)
Hey folks - this is Adam Green with MoveOn. Chris and Matt have graciously opened up the front page of OpenLeft this Sunday morning from 10am to 11am EST for me to liveblog ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
I wanted to invite you to join me here for active discussion, and to suggest in the comments below any thoughts you have on things to look for. Be they big issues or small nuances...or questions you think should be asked to McCain...I'm all ears.
As many of you probably know, MoveOn launched a petition this week to ABC and other networks in reaction to this week's travesty of a debate. If you haven't seen it yet, it says:
"Debate moderators abuse the public trust every time they ask trivial questions about gaffes and 'gotchas' that only political insiders care about. Enough with the distractions--ABC and other networks must focus on issues that affect people's daily lives."
There was a ton of energy behind this media critique. A quarter-million people signed MoveOn's petition within 3 days -- thousands of them not prior MoveOn members. (If you haven't signed yet, click here.) And the sentiment was equally strong on many blogs, and even on the pages of the Washington Post, Editor & Publisherr, and other places.
When it comes to what questions should be asked to McCain tomorrow, I have to admit, I'm a little torn--and I'd really value other people's thoughts. (More below...)
I just got an e-mail from LCV, which just launched an incredibly cool campaign to push the media to focus more on climate change. Check out this incredible fact from their research:
We analyzed the transcripts from all the debates and Sunday interviews that these top reporters--Tim Russert, George Stephanopoulos, Wolf Blitzer, Bob Schieffer, and Chris Wallace--have hosted.
Even we were shocked by what we found:
Between the Sunday shows and debates, these five reporters have interviewed the candidates 126 times in 2007. They have asked the candidates 2,275 questions. In that time, the words "global warming" and "climate change" have only been mentioned in 3 questions. Three. All year. Even if you include global warming related questions such as fuel efficiency and oil subsidies, it is only 24. There have nearly been more presidential candidates this year then questions about global warming.
Now that is truly absurd. If Gore and virtually every scientist who has studied this are right, are even half-right, climate change will be the most catastrophic thing that has ever happened to the human race, and we don't have long to change things before we reach the point of no return. And none of these reporters is even asking about the issue? Insanity...
STATE BLOGS
