Tactics v Strategy

The tactics vs. strategy comment is spot on. Overall, McCain seems to be totally impulsive and thoughtless about longer term consequences. The Palin pick was last-minute and impulsive, with little thought to the long-term consequences. Blowing off Letterman was impulsive (and rude), with little thought to the longer-term consequences. Given how Bush got us into Iraq largely due to an inability to think out the strategic consequences, I don't think I want another impulsive man with his finger on the red button.

Hello all Dems,

Every one is in deep do do tonight. Rove is a genius, and I would like to play chess with him sometime. This is how things are going to play out.

1 The setup..
Palin not being able to think of how Mccain changed washington one time.

2. Bush announces that we are in time of crisis. We need to do something now.

3. Paulson say he wants unfettered power to spend 700 bln of taxpayers money.

4. The dems don't want to look bad by not being bipartisan in a time for crisis but doesn't want to let one person have so much power again after all that has happened in the pass with the patriot act, war ect... The dems think that they have something to go on and start bashing mccain on his economic lack of prowess.

5 Mccain suspends his campaign to go to Washington to do nothing. Spotlight is on him everyone bashing him. Fox news hannity says I'm even believing that mccain is not worth of presidency.. Hannity says the tax payers should not be on the hook what are they doing... Same thing from Mr O'reilly.

6. The people in the US are in an uproar calling their reps and congress folks demanding a no vote on this media sells it.

7. Bush meets with Mccain and Obamma. and some house repubs I think Paul Ryan of MIN(very smart man) He say I think we can do this without putting the taxpayers at risk. Obamma I like to hear more about this.. media is kicked out.

Mccain says nothing.... More drubbing by the media.

8. campaign/Debate must go on. Tonight Mccain is going to bash the dems with saying that He went to Washington and went against the establishment or status quo to change how things were done for you people.. I'm fighting for the american people.. We stalled this thing to make sure legislation wasn't passed to put the tax payer on the hook for rushed legislation by the dems and bush..

I think this is genius by them but we have time to change the strategy.... There should be people that look into the collusion of bush Paulson and the repubs... This thing is way out of hand when they start messing with not only the us economy but the world economy...

I feel like Nostradamus's today... I hope I'm wrong but I don't think I am!!!! James Beaufore... P.S. Send a copy to Mr Rove.. I really would like to play a game of chess with him....

Best Regards: James Beaufore

yes both "acorns" are the same and Barry worked for them.

the move was titan because the Reps now know the exact feelings and direction the new president will be able to work with when McCain takes over in Jan. The Reps had no way to dictate what McCain could deal with unless they sat down and talked with him and only a fool would lag behind elsewhere calling the leaders names.

The Gov also was able to discuss stuff with McCain before he went to Washington to relay his message so she would be in on the ground floor qwhen she takes over in 2012

"after days of saying that John McCain would not attend Friday's presidential debate unless an agreement on a bailout package for the markets was "locked-down," the McCain campaign has gone back on its word.

On Friday, it announced that the Senator would head down to Mississippi even though, as they readily admit, much work remained needed on the bailout agreement.

The whole episode left even conservatives admitting that the McCain campaign looked erratic and a bit foolish with no apparent direction or guiding principle.

"It just proves his campaign is governed by tactics and not ideology," said Republican consultant Craig Shirley, who advised McCain earlier in this cycle. "In the end, he blinked and Obama did not. The 'steady hand in a storm' argument looks now to more favor Obama, not McCain."

Shirley added, "My guess is that plasma units are rushing to the McCain campaign as we speak to replace the blood flowing there from the fights among the staff."

Adding to the rocky perception was a McCain campaign web ad released this morning declaring "McCain Wins Debate!" -- put out even before the candidate had announced he was planning to debate."

Karl Rove and the Republican election machinery are experts at diverting attention from the issues using personality-based stunts and news cycle tactics like what we've seen from McCain since the weeks before the convention. Just reading through these posts, there are NO ISSUES being discussed here, just tactics, rumors, and innuendo. Even the left-leaning comments are focused on distractions and not the real platforms of these candidates. What I see in Obama is a candidate who will encourage innovation and technology, get our public schools back into competitive position, and take the money being spent in Iraq now and use it for rebuilding our infrastructure and jump starting the green technology industry. On the other side, there isn't one long-term economic solution coming from the McCain camp that doesn't exactly mirror the failed policies of President Bush. No investment in shoring up our economic base, no technology development, no innovation, no teaching our young people the skills needed to be competitive in the global marketplace. Nothin. Tax cuts are great, but they really only help in the short term, and we are officially in a long-term crisis that will need more than the tax-cut band aid.
I'm tired of hearing about the same old recycled divisive non-issues in Washington. This is our LAST CHANCE, people. If we elect another republican administration after the horrific failures of the last 8 years, then we deserve to go down in flames.
Nothing can save an idea whose time has passed. Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.
Save America's Future Vote Obama 08

Actually, the bail-out is a tactic and not a strategy. What comes next if this $700 billion doesn't do the job, another trillion? I would rather the strategy of putting the money into backing the FDIC and let the bank failures commence. Let the banks that made these bad choices fail along with the borrowers who borrowed beyond their means to repay. Don't let the system fail and destroy everyone.

It's clear to me that McCain should not and must not be the next president. McCain lacks the judgement, temperament and more significantly the character to lead. The past two weeks has been very telling. He panicked and was totally out of his depth on the economy and I suspect everythng else.

How he runs his campaign is an indication of how he'll run the country.

Whatever people think of George W. Bush
at least he's true to what he believes in. Let history judge him on it but with McCain it's different. The McCain now seems totally different from the McCain of the past. He'll do anything and say anything just to become president.

Can someone explain whether ACORN and ACORN Housing Corp (across the country) are in fact related?

I find McCain's erratic behavior to be scary rather than that of a maverick.

These are not the actions of a President, or someone who will hold the future of our country in his hands.

I don't believe anything McLame or the republicans say anymore. They just want to steal our money.

In modeling, a hidden coupler can cause the model to look one way and the results another. (A hidden coupler is a variable not accounted for that affects the outcome strongly.)

What the media polls aren't accounting for is the role of the media itself. One has to wonder if that disgust factor with the MSM tanking for one candidate will influence the voters much like the Bradley effect.

QUICK!! Run a poll and find out!

I also wonder if the polling is getting into the fatigue noise where people tell the pollster anything just to get off the phone in hopes the circus will be over soon.

Uhhh. Did you mean kick? Or has McCain come up with yet another wild twist to his campaign?

One of the most difficult things to do is confront a liar, and I expect McCain and his people understand this.

I am really surprised how many commenters on this and other articles still believe what McCain says. Like how he was putting country first by running back to Washington to become the insider he is running against, or something like that. How bald faced the lie on 60 Minutes Sunday to say he believes Sarah Palin is ready to be President.

But you (i.e. Obama) can't directly challenge outright lies like that without looking bad yourself. So McCain and his crowd are going to try to lie themselves into the White House, and, as other commenters have pointed out, blame the Democrats and Obama for everything.

I really hope it is truly the end of the Nixonian approach to politics. I hope the negative ads and scare tactics don't work any more. And I really hope that the voters will see McCain's campaign for the pack of lies that it is.

USvet Cindycr is right

you are repeating the same lies that bold face liar Lindsey Graham and the rest of these freak conservative republican liars are telling...(the tradition continues...just another lie from the McCain camp...do they have a single fact somewhere...they have gotten so wrapped up in only using lies that I think they lost complete truth ...well about 9 years ago)

Why wouldn't they focus on message instead of strategy. American voters and our political representatives have shown time and again that the short term message is a stronger incentive than any long term strategic decision. Just look at the many examples - voting Bush in for a second term, voting to go to war in Iraq, almost passing the 700B bailout in only a few days time and no real understanding of the situation, wanting to drill, drill, drill because gas prices are up..... let's face it, we're reactive more often than proactive.

ACORN? Who started this ACORN rumor? What does the bailout of mortgage financing have to do with a voter-registration organization that you happen not to like?

Conflicting messages...Follow me here people. McCain claims to be country first, okay. He also says Obama isn't right for the country (the one he puts first). He then says he's willing to stay in D.C., miss the debate, and if it has political consequences, he's willing to take that. So he was willing to let Obama win the Presidency, because he puts country first? Letting someone you dont think is qualified to run the country, win the Presidency doesn't sound like putting country first. So in other words, everything that he did over the past 48 hours, was pure politics. No way America survives with 4 years of this guy...

Obama/Biden

jamesbeaufore

there is only one problem with your argument

the facts.

he screwed it up

he didn't stop his campaigning

he lied to letterman and then used the delay of his campaign as talking point on CBS news and his press conference

Palin has more excerpts from that interviiew coming

the fight was him bridging a gap within the republican party...the dems were already trying to be on the other side of that bridge

it was a republican plan that the dems did not want to do...but the dems work with the other side.

if mcCain can't get his side to agree amongst themselves but there is already a majority... with the dems ...how effective would he be in congress?

especially when he has agreed with Bush 90% of the time.

this is all a joke

Mccain Palin the worst ticket we have seen in our nation's history.

and everyone knows it...even if they are part of those pissed they are going to lose because of it.

Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, admitting that until recently she was a vocal supporter of Sarah Palin, now says the vice presidential nominee should bow out:

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I've been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I've also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there's not much content there.

It's so bad, Parker says, that Palin should quit the race:

Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

READY FOR MCCAIN'S NEXT MAGIC TRICK?