Ed Gillespie Uses Sarah Palin-coined Word on Face the Nation

Back during the Bush era, one of the political tactics used in campaigns was for Republicans to use their opponents' strengths against them.  John Kerry was a war hero, so they "swift boated" him, trying to paint his military past as a weakness.  This continues today of course, but there's a weirder new element at play.  Now, they're remaking a candidates weaknesses into strengths. Remember when Sarah Palin wrote on her hand?  It would have been embarrassing for most candidates, but Palin now regularly--and proudly--sports cutesy things on her hand at events. 

Palin is also known for her. . .let's say rambling. . .speaking style.  Even in prepared comments, she can wander from topic to topic, speaking sentences dozens of words long.  She uses commas and semi-colons but few periods.  And she also coins new words.  Her latest, "refudiate" instead of "repudiate" has appeared in her speech and her writing, so it isn't just an articulation problem.  She wore the gaffe as a badge of honor.  I wouldn't be surprised if there were an effort afoot to have refudiate added to dictionaries as an alternate spelling or pronunciation.  Remember George W. Bush's awkward mispronunciation of "nuclear" as "new-kyoo-ler?"  There was at least a minor effort to have that one added to dictionaries.

Meanwhile, high-level Republican operatives can help Palin out by using her newly-coined word themselves. Pretty soon, everybody will be doing it, just like they say Democrat Party, death tax, cap-and-tax or call Karl Rove The Architect rather than Turd Blossom.

[Excerpt]

Gillespie Claims NY Times And Wash. Post Have ‘Refudiated’ ThinkProgress On Secret Corporate Spending





On Face the Nation this morning, host Bob Schieffer grilled both White House advisor David Axelrod and GOP strategist Ed Gillespie on the millions of dollars being secretly funneled by Wall Street and the oil industry to defeat Democratic candidates this November, and particularly the role of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Gillespie, along with Karl Rove, is the mastermind behind American Crossroads, a group tied to the Chamber which also funnels corporate money into attack ads. As first revealed by a ThinkProgress report, the Chamber solicits funds from foreign corporations — including state-owned oil companies — that go into the same general account that funds their $75 million electioneering campaign. Using a neologism coined by Sarah Palin, Gillespie argued that the Washington Post and the New York Times had “completely refudiated” the report. . .

Read more at: Think Progress

Sunday Update II: David Boies Hands Tony Perkins His Evangelical Ass

Sorry for the crassness of the headline, but there isn't a better way to put this.  Face the Nation had Ted Olson's legal partner David Boies from the Perry v. Schwarzenegger case, and put him up against Tony Perkins, head of the "Family Research Council."  First, let me say that I'm offended that the news networks continue to put up Perkins, a complete hack with zero credibility on the issue.  He's a bigot with no empirical facts on his side.

Buuuut. . .Perkins got his ass kicked by Bois.  He simply has nothing but his anti-gay talking points to spew.  He has--as was proven in this lawsuit--nothing.  It was unfortunate that Perkins got the last word in the interview, floating nonsense balloons that proved nothing, but enough for his supporters to think he made sense.

The Last Barack Obama/John McCain Debate on the Fly

Photo from Newsday

Here we go again, yet another debate in this long campaign, the first of which was over a year ago, if I remember correctly. But this is the last one, perhaps the last chance for John McCain to reverse his flagging fortunes.

As I type this line, we're 1 minute away from the beginning of the end, as it were. As the debate runs, I'll try to type some comments.

- "Joe the Plumber" gets an early mention, direct from right-wing talk radio and blogs. Is it true that Sean Hannity is running McCain's campaign? "Class warfare" dig seems a little off.

- Barack Obama seems steady and reasoned. Definitely Presidential, in this biased liberal blogger's opinion.

- McCain mentions the Great Depression, reminding people that he was alive then. He's starting again on the "I know hows," which didn't play well last time.

- Obama's tying McCain's economic plan to George W. Bush's. Good one. McCain counters that he's not President Bush. Oh yeah? What's different?

- Obama said "screwy." McCain said "goodies." I like "screwy" better.

- Obama gets a dig at FOX "News!" Woo-hoo!

- I don't wanna see McCain's scars or his goodies.

- Shieffer is gettin' tough, asking point blank if both candidates would say to each others' face what they've said in their ads. Answers? McCain: It's all Obama's fault, for not having "town halls." Obama: Suck it up, John.

- Oh the tedium, and I'm only a half-hour in.

- Obama hitting on the tone in the campaign and the "kill him" remarks. Good.

- McCain is gettin agitated.' Sputtering. Matlock!!!

- Oooh, here comes the Bill Ayers and ACORN stuff from McCain. I think Obama's getting ready for a smack down.

- Nailed down the Ayers thing pretty handily. The ACORN thing too. Calm and reasoned. Threw it back at McCain.

- McCain's stickin' to his Ayers and ACORN as though it means anything. Stupid. But he "doesn't care" about Ayers. Right.

- Obama lavished praise on Joe Biden, and sounded like he had a healthy list of "pros."

- McCain is repeating every little nugget we already know about Sarah Palin, which isn't much, so he keeps repeating "reformer" and that he's "proud of her."

- Obama smiles a lot, and looks good when doing it. McCain looks creepy when he smiles.

- McCain says nuclear power and waste? No problem! Because of nuclear subs. Huh?

Nifty comparison video of George W. Bush and John McCain in this debate (quick work!) found at AmericaBlog:

- The Other Half says McCain is still coming off like Mr. Wilson from Dennis the Menace. So true. Grumpy, irritable, crabby.

- Obama by contrast is unflappable.

- McCain just entered a "Debbie Downer" portion of the debate, with a catalogue of health care issues. It just needs a soundtrack of a muted trombone for effect.

- "Joe the Plumber" again??? Fines again??? And now Joe Again??? C'mon, this is stupid.

- Abortion question, McCain's all blinky again. McCain says no abortion litmus test for justices (his base pro'ly hates that answer). Obama has thoughtful answer.

- Good answer from Obama on partial birth abortion too.

- If you're paying attention, Obama has shot down many of McCain's right-wing-talk-radio talking points. That surely doesn't mean that they won't be brought up again and again anyway.

- McCain not nearly so thoughtful or clear. . .words without meaning.

- I know I'm biased, but I see and hear Obama and I see Presidential. I see and hear McCain, and I see grumpy old man. I'm not sure I'll be able to see past that.

- What's the constant link McCain keeps making between autism and Sarah Palin? Her child has Down Synrome, perhaps similar, but certainly it doesn't make her an expert on autism.

- McCain's closing comments sounded sort of like a concession speech.

- Obama's closing comments, very strong as expected.

Favorite quote, from DailyKos: "This is by far Obama's best performance. And McCain is still a scowling lizard, tonguing the air to taste/smell the cool being radiated by Obama"

Who won? For me, Barack Obama all the way. I'm sure others will have different ideas. John McCain will get some high marks for bringing up Ayers and ACORN. Even though Obama put those matters to rest, they'll pretend that he didn't. Any chance that McCain will be declared the clear winner? Doubt it, but who knows? Game changer? Doubt it seriously.

Sunday Talk Shows, Take 2: Do We Know Obama Yet?

My take on the rest of the Sunday morning political chat-fests (excepting This Week with George Stephanopoulos, which is pre-empted by NASCAR--of all things--in Las Vegas):

Meet the Press: I've already covered the interview with the campaign surrogates, which blew. Following that, we got a contentious debate between two hopeful Senators who I don't remember from a state I don't remember. The meat of the show was an interview by Tom Brokaw of Bill Clinton. I've previously thought that Clinton's alleged tepidness of support for Barack Obama was overblown. Until this morning. Jesus, Bill, could you at least fake a little enthusiasm? And for God's sake (and this applies to all Democrats), enough of the laudatory, effusive "war hero" praise for John McCain, right before criticizing him for something. Nobody did that for John Kerry, a significant double standard.

FOX "News" Sunday: Always the most cringe-worthy of all the Sunday shows, today was really more of the same. Chris Wallace asks leading questions, and politicians to varying degrees, answer the way they wanted to anyway. And as always, the ludicrously named "Power Panel" takes up half the show--the only show that can be counted on to allot half their airtime to pure (and often wrong) speculation. Not a single thing from this morning's show stands out in memory.

Face the Nation: Barack Obama was the sole guest for the half hour show, and is the reason for the headline of this piece. The most frequent criticisms of Obama are variations on a theme: we don't know him; who is this guy?; he's scary; he's an unknown quantity we can't risk. . .etc., etc. OK, look. This guy has written two autobiographies (by the age of 47!). He's been campaigning in the public eye for over a year and a half. He's been picked apart by right-wing talk radio, wing-nut blogs, Hillary Clinton and FOX "News". He's performed well in debates and interviews. And he was clear, direct and thoughtful on Face the Nation this morning. Can we lay to rest the fiction that we don't know who he is?

Chuck Hagel & Jack Reed Slam McCain's Tactics

Yesterday's Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer was a little odd for political gab fests. Schieffer had two guests, Republican Chuck Hagel and Democrat Jack Reed, discussing Barack Obama's over-seas tour, and John McCain's series of attacks on said trip.

Usually, in these situations, you have a back-and-forth slap fight, with each side expressing completely opposite takes on the issue (any issue). This time, they were mostly in agreement, and were both coming to Obama's defense. Interesting.

Sunday Morning: Clinton, Obama, McClellan, Oh My!

I had the rare opportunity (and somehow, the intestinal fortitude) to watch all of the Sunday morning political talk shows this morning. What, there are five? Sorry, I can't take Wolf Blitzer, especially after choking back bile from watching FOX "News" Sunday.

All of the shows focused--naturally--on yesterday's battle to seat Democratic delegates for Florida and Michigan. The other big topic was former Press Secretary Scott McClellan's book What Happened. A smaller note was made about Barack Obama quitting his church, though that was the very first thing that FOX's Chris Wallace focused on. Surprise!

The biggest theme of the morning, on all four shows, was the Barack Obama vs. Hillary Clinton take on the primary at this very late stage. Rather, it was a variety of their campaign supporters, each dispatched to one of the shows. Not surprisingly, the Clinton people were Rovian in both their logic and their presentations. Each of them (particularly the loathesome Terry McCauliffe) used nearly identical verbiage in answer to their various interviewers. The phrase that struck me as the most obvious talking point was "I don't accept that premise" as a response to the question of Clinton leaving should Obama secure enough delegates to win on Tuesday.

The Obama people may have been using their own version of "talking points" but it sure didn't sound like it to me--and I'm not a long-time Obamaton. Mostly, I get the vibe that Obama wants to play fair, and that Clinton wants to seem fair. "Truthiness" seems to be her touchstone. I didn't feel this way in the beginning, but over the last several months, Clinton and her mouthpieces have rubbed me so far the wrong way, I see them as indistinguishable from "permanent campaign" Republicans. And I want Terry McCauliffe to never appear on my TV set again. Ugh.

Sunday Morning, What's That Smell?

Photo from lowculture.com

It's the third Sunday morning in August, and there's a smell of Turd Blossoms in the air! Yes, Karl Rove put on his human skin this morning, and split himself into three (at least), to appear on Meet the Press, Face the Nation, and FOX "News" Sunday. He managed to come off less than evil, but not without help from the questioners on those shows.

Once again, during the interviews, and in the post-interview wrap-up on FOX, there seems to be a wink-wink, nudge-nudge, "you sly dog!" sort of attitude toward Rove by the pundit class. They call him a genius, throw a few hard questions (particularly Bob Shieffer), but never get down and dirty where Rove actually operated. The diciest question he had to answer was about the nasty Max Cleland attacks, and he brushed those off, as though he wasn't involved.

What they didn't ask:
- Is there anything you wouldn't do to win an election?
- How many times did you violate the Hatch Act over the last 6 years?
- Is there any action you took in any campaign that you wouldn't want exposed?
- Is the idea of a unitary executive, or a permanent Republican majority in any way American?

There are many more areas they could have pursued, but it probably wouldn't have mattered. Rove has mastered the non-answer that makes the interviewer seem like the bad guy. From now on, if you go on a Sunday political show, and you get a question you don't want to answer? Give a short pause, a withering glance, and then say condescendingly, "nice try." It worked for Rove against David Gregory and Chris Wallace.

Biggest howler: I don't remember what show it was on, but Karl Rove actually stated that George Bush was trying to bring the country together. I actually laughed out loud.