McCain’s New Strategy
Matt DeLong has a great new post exposing the McCain campaign’s new press strategy. For the view from Obama-land, I’ll just share two other reactions:
First, a liberal YouTuber mocks the tone from Steve Schmidt, the angry former Bush aide that has turned McCain’s operation into the slashing, lying, anti-press operation on display this week.
After the video, I’m excerpting the Obama campaign’s official rebuttal to Schmidt’s attack on The New York Times, which includes some data that the liberal media complainers should really think through.
The Obama response, “On the McCain campaign’s laughable screed about coverage in The NY Times,” offered this comparison, followed by a cascade of links detailing the past scrutiny of Obama:
“„By the numbers
“„Number of probing stories The NY Times has written over the course of the campaign about Barack Obama, his life, his religion, his childhood, his politics, his time in the state senate, his time in the U.S. Senate, his family, his religion, his friends, his fund-raising and all other manner of associations: more than 40 (see below)
“„Number of stories The NY Times has written over the course of the campaign about the last major financial regulatory crisis, resulting in a huge bailout and which John McCain was centrally involved in with his political godfather Charles Keating:** 0** (emphasis added)
The numbers show that The Times has scrutinized Obama a lot, along with a broadcast media that has looked into his past and devoted a great deal of time to his preacher, his old friends and even smears that have been completely debunked. For some reason, the press has shied away from putting McCain’s past under the same microscope, and most of the media was late to directly report that the McCain campaign currently uses falsehoods and lies on a regular basis in its speeches, ads and official materials.
So I’m guessing yeah, this is one of those times where Obama can say “this is a debate I’m ready to have.”
