Countdown Campaign Comment: What if...
Keith's final Campaign Comment imagines an alternative, parallel reality where Barack Obama made the verbal gaffes that McCain has made and poses the question, would Obama be considered a realistic candidate for the office? And if not, why should anyone consider McCain a realistic candidate?
We all know exactly what would be happening tonight if Senator Obama had made all those mistakes, contradictions, gaffes, Freudian slips, and hypocritical pronouncements. He would have long since ceased to be taken seriously by any measurable part of the voting public, as a viable, responsible, self-aware, mentally vigorous, non-dangerous, non-risk. We'd all be going home to our beds well before midnight tomorrow night.
But while all that is hypothetical, this is not: This cascade of incompetence and irresponsibility I have enumerated tonight -- all the sound bites, all the foot-in-mouth moments, all the no-brainers-gone-wrong - all these, John McCain has said. No hyperbole and no hypotheses are required.
This is who John McCain has showed us he is.
Transcripts below the fold:
I ask you to imagine an alternative universe where the candidates are the same, but what each has said and done, has been reversed.
What would be happening tonight if Senator Obama had stumbled, over everything from arcane details, to sweeping policies of the utmost importance, and not just once or twice, but endlessly?
What if Senator Obama couldn't tell Iran from Iraq?
Iraq from Afghanistan?
Sunni from Shi'a?
Somalia from Sudan?
What if Senator Obama had gotten up before a crowd and started off by saying "You know, I think you may have noticed that Senator McCain's supporters have been saying some pretty nasty things about Western Pennsylvania lately."
And who finished by saying…
VIDEO OF BARACK OBAMA: I COULD NOT AGREE MORE. I COULD NOT DISAGREE WITH HIM MORE. BUT I COULD NOT AGREE MORE WITH THE EXPLANATION SENATOR MCCAIN OFFERED A FEW WEEKS AGO.
What would we be asking ourselves about his capabilities, if it had been Senator Obama who had identified General David Petraeus as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff?
And Vladimir Putin as the President of Germany?
And Spain as a country in Latin America?
What if it had been Senator Obama who not only used his POW experience at every turn, but wrote of giving to his captors, not the names of his fellow servicemen, but of the offensive line of the Green Bay Packers football team - only to, when he spoke in Western Pennsylvania, change the story so that he gave to his captors, the names of the offensive line of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team?
What if it had been Senator Obama who, out of nowhere, had blurted out an inexplicable, perhaps Freudian, slip, while intending to say "My Fellow Americans"?
VIDEO OF BARACK OBAMA:TO CHAIRMAN DEAN AND THE SENIOR SENATOR FROM ILLINOIS DICK DURBIN, AND TO MY FELLOW PRISONERS I ACCEPT YOUR NOMINATION FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
And what would be happening tonight in the minds of tens of millions of voters if it had been Senator Obama who had his people negotiate, behind the scenes and off the record, to force favorable coverage of his campaign at three television networks?
Or if it had been Senator Obama repeatedly mocking a research study on the DNA of bears… until he was suddenly reminded he had voted for it?
Or if Senator Obama had an advisor who claimed that Senator Obama's work on a sub-committee had led to the invention of the blackberry?
Or if Senator Obama had tried to get one of the presidential debates postponed or cancelled… and threatened to boycott another one, the Town Hall, because he didn't like the network the moderator worked for, all the while complaining that the other guy wouldn't debate him or agree to ten… Town Halls.
What would be happening tonight in the souls of a nation, if after all that, at the first debate, it had been Senator Obama who would not as much as look at Senator McCain, and then finally addressed him, at the second one, in a weird and cryptic manner?
VIDEO OF BARACK OBAMA: IF WE COULD HAVE INTERVENED IN THE HOLOCAUST, WHO AMONG US WOULD SAY THAT WE HAVE A MORAL OBLIGATION NOT TO GO IN? THAT ONE.
What would a country heading into the most important vote in its modern history be thinking tonight, if it had been Senator Obama who viewed a collapsing economy and insisted that if in office, he would fire the head of the SEC (even though a president cannot) - and then the next day tried to correct himself by calling on the head of the FEC to resign?
What if it had been Senator Obama who, on September 24th, had quote "suspended" his campaign so he could focus only on the "cratering" economy… just nine days after having insisted that there was little wrong?
VIDEO OF BARACK OBAMA: THE TRUTH IS, THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE ECONOMY ARE STRONG. WE ARE JUST SUFFERING FROM A MENTAL RECESSION, YOU NATION OF WHINERS.
Where would America's collective head be tonight, if it had been, in the middle of a campaign in part focused on elitism and celebrity and personal wealth, Senator Obama who couldn't remember - or wouldn't admit - how many houses he owned?
VIDEO: HOW MANY HOUSES DO YOU HAVE? BARACK OBAMA UH, YOU KNOW I THINK THAT'S A GOOD QUESTION TO ADDRESS TO MY STAFF...AH AH AH, I MEAN, YOU'D HAVE TO ASK MY STAFF.
What if Senator Obama had deflected all serious questions about the troubled finances of a worried nation, by virtually concocting a preposterous every-man, a fictional character, a plumber without a license, a small businessman who owned no business, an average Joe who had a lawyer, a book agent, a publicist, and maybe a recording contract?
VIDEO OF BARACK OBAMA: I WOULD LOVE TO SEE THE NEXT THREE WEEKS DEVOTED TO TALKING ABOUT JOE THE PLUMBER WHO IS AN AMERICAN HERO
JOHN MCCAIN: NO, HE'S NOT
BARACK OBAMA: YES,HE IS.
What would the national psyche be like tonight if it had been Senator Obama who had sung a mocking song about "bombing Iran"?
What would be happening if Senator Obama had accepted the endorsement of Pastor John Hagee, or Pastor Rod Parsley, or had a running mate who attributed their big break in politics to the laying on of hands by a minister who began his career in -- Kenya -- by slandering a woman as a "witch" and hounding her out of her home?
What would we be thinking if it had been Senator Obama who, at a critical moment, exaggerated a public claim about the "suspension" of his campaign, and lied to a national television figure about it?
And what if it had been Senator Obama who had been somehow nominated by his party, months and months ago, even though it had been he who had not reproached the use of the rankest of sexist terms - in public - about Senator Hillary Clinton?
VIDEO OF BARACK OBAMA:LET'S GO TO THIS LADY HERE. LADY: HOW DO WE BEAT THE BITCH ? THAT'S WHY I HAVE THAT STICK!
We all know exactly what would be happening tonight if Senator Obama had made all those mistakes, contradictions, gaffes, Freudian slips, and hypocritical pronouncements.
He would have long since ceased to be taken seriously by any measurable part of the voting public, as a viable, responsible, self-aware, mentally vigorous, non-dangerous, non-risk.
We'd all be going home to our beds well before midnight tomorrow night.
But while all that is hypothetical, this is not:
This cascade of incompetence and irresponsibility I have enumerated tonight -- all the sound bites, all the foot-in-mouth moments, all the no-brainers-gone-wrong - all these, John McCain has said.
No hyperbole and no hypotheses are required.
This... is who John McCain has showed us... he is.
...fact filled, spot on, and not too much on the hysterics.
Good job, KO.
maybe he should be hospitalized. or at least his medications should be reviewed.
McCain was running at a rate of gaffe and half per day.
Fine if you watched the whole segment from the beginning with enough attention to understand the whole concept. Not so great for people who are less attentive or channel surfing and only see Obama saying all that awful stuff. This can't be helpful. The amusement value, if any, can't outweigh the potential for unfair harm to Obama's campaign. If I were the Obama campaign I'd be protesting very loudly.
"think of the channel surfers" LOL... seriously, grasping at straws much?
... do you think the low-info voter has?
... but a person who is persuaded by a 2 second sniplet while channel surfing wouldn't vote for obama anyways.
In fact, if you calculate the probability of someone channel surfing just right when they had the Obama montage (a couple of seconds per every half minute of comment by Olbermann with the correct context) is so ridiculously low... that makes me wonder where you concern is coming from.
They will grasp at straws to reinforce their bigotry.
The Republican party with its legion of civilian and military PsyOps people knows this well.
Lets face it the GOP is the shiny happy face of the semi hidden fascist (power at any cost) MIC regime.
the past week them concern trolls have been out in full force.
Is the McCain campaign running a closeout special on their schwag?
I wondered about that too. It looked bad.
Still, I loved it, because K.O. asked the question I've been asking for weeks.
What can we say that McCain didn't?
Time for some hearty Schadenfreude
see http://cabdrollery.blogspot.com/
John McCain in an interview with the editorial board of the Des Moines Register proclaimed that he wanted to be a dictator.
What else would you need to hear?
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
I'm sure that some McCain handler somewhere is konkin' himself in the head and saying "Why, didn't we think of that?"
Half the liberal blogs (and sheltered sensitive types) dont want to hear the reality of the Repugs and WcCain in particular.
They are nastier in reality than Jon Stwart and the comedians portrays them.
Jim crow laws, voter caging, fire bombs, dems being framed and jailed for non crimes and other terrorist attacks on dissenters in GOP strongholds.
This is the reality. A very nasty harsh deadly reality.
This isnt a game, its life and death, for the homefront and any poor unsuspecting sap of a 3rd world country who is next on their invasion list.
A quick example which barely made the news recently,
that small district in Zanesville Ohio, where 50 black households were denied clean mains water for five decades even with a ha;f century old mains water pipe 200 feet from their properties. They repeatedly tried to get connected.
They were repeatedly told by the racist county commissioner of the town, "your grandchildren's grandchildren will never have running water"
A white family moved in and instantly got running water.
So they sued and won, and got connected.
This is the reality of racist and bigoted local Republicans.
Nationally they are made up of the local shite, but writ large and more corrupt.
...If we are really nice, and remain calm, and make sure we smile when we are abused... for sure we will be able to convince the people, who want nothing but our total annihilation, of our moral superiority with our kindness. Also we should make sure we clean our own blood from the streets when the GOP is done with us, lest not inconvenience our overlords with the clean up (it wouldn't be nice).
(/sarcasm)
I still get a kick out how some people are so lazy as to be willing to pass their "passive acceptance" for the real "passive resistance." Ghandi must be spinning in his grave (or wherever his ashes ended up)
I thought it was brilliant, I really enjoyed that. It would be nice to finish this off before bedtime.
Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity. Albert Einstein
Funny, I was just talking about this segment on the previous thread. It is amazing when you put all the gaffes together how truly lame McCain has been. But as we are told on every cable news channel, the MSM is in the tank for Obama. Yeah, rightttt!
Remember back when, we were told that McCain was being cut off from the press and not even able to use his cell phone as often as he would like. His campaign realized every time he opened his mouth, off script, he would screw up royally.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
How many gaffes that a "preznit John McCain" would be able to execute.
To say nothing of veep Bible Spice.
of that nightmare right now, thankyou.
God I hope this thing is over quickly tonight and I hope that if I go to sleep thinking Obama is our next president, he still is when I wake up in the morning. The last two presidential elections I went to bed thinking the dem had won only to find out the next day, he hadn't.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
But that only happened to me the first time around. The second I was prepared, took Wednesday off work and stayed up. I was outrageously drunk, curled up in a corner of the sofa in fetal position crying by 4 am.
Not this year. We've declared this to be "Booting of the Crooks" day. I'm making tasty margaritas and pineapple chicken stir-fry for us to munch while we watch the returns. This time we have hope.
We're going out for a casual dinner and then some serious drinking may follow back here at home. I'll either be drowning my sorrows or celebrating my butt off.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
plus, there are tons of propositions on our ballot that i need to see defeated
i really hope that californians read the bullet train proposal...it sounds way too much like a boondoggle...
i support alternative transit...why couldnt the legislature have gotten this passed if it was such a good idea?
and as they have done not even one environmental impact study, nor gotten right of ways...this project may be 20 years in the making...yet they insist that it will only cost 55 bux each way?
and i wish cali would make a law that no more anti abortion measures can ever be placed on the ballot
and i didnt understand any of the clean energy measures...so i voted against them all...i have a feeling that none of them will get us off oil and coal
I don't think you'll even be able to go to bed thinking Obama is president. I simply cannot believe McCain isn't going to win. We got 9-11, we got the horror of Iraq, the unforgivable demolition of a sovereign country by the United States, troop losses for vile profit, crippled, disfigured, and suicidal casualties "surviving" their horrible war wounds only because of medical advancements, we got Katrina, and then we got a collapsed economy. Dear God what next? Isn't it OBVIOUS? President Crash "Wetstart" McNasty and Vice President Prowar Barbie. THE END. It's the only outcome that fits.
I'm horribly negative, I know, and sorry to spill it here, but I live in, uh, well...north-central Arkansas, the Ozark Mountains. I'm watching the returns. It already looks so very bad to me. It looks exactly as I thought it would, unfortunately. I cannot understand why there has been this attitude all over the place that Obama will win. I'm with Rachel Maddow. It doesn't look nearly as good as they are saying.
Somebody talk me down I beg you.
Carly
Soldier's mom (an overlooked "mom" demographic if there ever was one.)
obama would not have even made it through the primaries.
Nope, not a chance in hell.
We forget the only reason McCain became the repub candidate was because all the other clowns in that side show dropped out. He was the closest they had to normal and all they had left.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
much as sarah the fake birthing baby crazy christian lady's is
and dont think the right hasnt tried to put gaffe's into obama's mouth...regarding everything from nafta to israel
ko missed one thing though....he forgot to ask what would people have thought if obama had walked aimlessly during one of the debates, looking much like an old man who couldnt find the toilet
btw, in my area, turnout is huuuuge
Only problem is most of them are voting against the Muslim terrorist.
That's what you meant right? Otherwise if you were trying to be humorous, you must have attended the Republican School of Comedy and Trollism cuz your humor does suck the big one dude.
OBL has been reported dead since 2002 by the worlds news media, only in the 'free' US does its MSM keep the myth alive that he is.
Benezair Bhutto in her interview with Sir David Frost last year said he was killed by the same assassin that killed Daniel Pearl. She paid with her life for releasing that tidbit of info to the West.
...that a lot of TURNOUT today is people like the unkempt, fuzzy-headed critter at the McCain ralley who said, "Obama's uh...he's uh...uh Arab...not?...he, he isn't?"
That's who's voting for McCain, c'mon. There are millions of 'em. That was the McCain/Palin strategy. With nothing else in their hat, they gambled all on a huge ignoramus turnout.
I thought it was funny, bateman, albeit scary, of course.
One has to ask a hypothetical question, WTF are the average Republicans voting for when they vote GOP.
Its not for sensible leadership, it has to be just selfish self interest, greed and local corruption.
The GOP voters just dont like paying their fair share of taxes, and we know the big corps dont.
That GAO study just released shows that almost no big US companies have a consistant record of paying taxes.
Always something to write off or way to transfer the profits overseas.
To the tune of $2,500,000,000,000 worth of trading per year, taxes avoided.
May we never hear "my friends" or "straight talk" ever again.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
if i talk like that when i hit my 70s...i want someone to shoot me
my dad is 80...he doesnt talk like that
he isnt condescending....in fact, he listens and absorbs more now than he did 40 years ago
and he never uses air quotes
His campaign was pretty much over after NC.
Alas, let's not kid our selves. McCain has been a douche from way back...
WcCain's pivotal role in the MIA/POW coverups, he was almost the only one in Congress to seal and hide the facts of the maybe 1500 American POWs and MIAs left behind in Korea and Vietnam.
It would have been expensive in money and diplomatic efforts to retrieve them, so they didnt bother.
WcCain is scum
Thank you for saying it. I get so sick of all the "McCain is a good man, and a genuine war hero!" from EVERYONE, despite the glaring contradictions at every turn in his history! The people who keep saying this sh*t KNOW better! AGGGHHH.
(That's why I think he's going to win: because it makes no sense, just as his "viable" candidacy in the first place makes no sense.)
Nicole, I probably won't be online later tonight, but I have a feeling you are going to ask which song we feel is a celebration song. I think the song "Celebration" by cool and the gang would be perfect. Don't ask me how I know about your plans, I just do. ;)
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
the pirates played it interminably during the year that they won the ws
i like my choice from last nite....mr blue sky
another great one is prince's 1999....cuz i wanna forget the last 8 years
I second that.
NOBODY 2012
Play whichever song you like, as long as you play THIS ONE first!
We Are The Champions. I blasted that song when the Giants won the Super Bowl.
NOBODY 2012
baby jesus is ready to consume supernatural amounts of adult beverages
Hell Yeah!
What is your conceptual, continuity?
I was leaning towards James Browns Living in America.
Or, Jimi Hendrix's Star Spangled Banner.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
My friends.
/huge Queen fan
When no one else cared Keith stepped out and took a stand against King George. While I know in the last couple of months he has gone over the top at times I have nothing but respect for this voice in the wilderness. I truly believe he made others step back and start to be the journalists that are paid to be. Look at Chris Matthews today versus just 12 months ago. He finally started asking tough questions and stopped being a door mat for Bush and Cheney.
Thank you Keith for speaking to our better angels.
It looks like at least 30% of the people have not tried Olbermanns' reversal test yet. It works good. I hope they try it before they vote. Try it next time you watch an advertizement - just imagine the sexes of the players reversed and see the sexism in action.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Everyone knows (except their supporters), that the republican's are not the sharpest tools in the shed.
That's why they have spent decades demonizing intelligence and education: they know they cannot possibly compete with liberals on an intellectual basis where facts and reality have meaning.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
Not so much demonizing intelligence as exploiting people's insecurities about their LACK of intelligence and/or education. It was a pretty clever trick, actually. Convince stupid, ignorant people that educated, clever people HATE them, and that most of those people are DEMOCRATS. Therefore, you have to vote Republican because the Democrats hate you, and look down on you. It was a cheap trick that the Democrats played right into, by the way, which sometimes makes me wonder who the stupid people really are.
I'll take McCain's gaffs, senior moments, and flip-flops to Palin's evil demagoguery anyday. Did you see what she did in response to the Ted Stevens question? Definitely playing a slippery weasel all the way to the finish line.
I am not a fan of Olbermann's and this is a good example why. He takes a good idea and beats it into an absurdity. I might agree with his politics but I'm always left with the impression that he's a pompous ass. The edited Obama clips were really, really asinine. Mrs. Precious Perfect was not that far from reality. The guy's a jerk.
when Olbermann was the ONLY pundit in the MSM who was calling Bu$hco on their crap.
That took courage.
I find it troubling that liberals, who have gotten NOTHING but contempt from the MSM, decide to deride the very people who give them ANY kind voice in the wilderness.
I understand that there are people who don't like his style.
But he has fought the war of words faithfully - even before CHANGE was in the wind.
Keep on keepin' KO!
E
O
M
EOM
What's scary is that there somehow actually are people who consider McCain a realistic candidate. Now that really is an alternative, parallel reality!
I have 2 bottles ready for tonight.
1 is a bottle of champagne (for when, I hope, Sen. Obama wins), the other is the cheapest, nastiest liquor I could get my hands on.
I will celebrate with the former, or (heavens forbid) I will use the latter to get myself used to how I will feel for the next four years (pretty cruddy, I am certain).
FP
I'm feeling MUCH better. I think it may be safe to go to bed at a decent hour, my friends.
Comments are closed on this entry