[Mitt Romney invokes Reverend Jeremiah Wright during interview with Sean Hannity]

Ah, I smell the odor of desperation in the morning. When the Fox polls are showing Obama pulling ahead of Romney, it is required that Mitt Romney's billionaire boys step up with a proposal for a smear, and so they have. Disturbed that the President is well-liked, this particular proposal is to mount a coordinated media campaign to make him a little less likable.

I should hasten to add that since this story originally broke in the New York Times, the Obama campaign has denounced the plan and accused Mitt Romney of failing to lead to a higher ground, Romney has responded by repudiating it outright after the Obama campaign called him out on it, and the originator, Joe Ricketts (founder of TD Ameritrade and Chicago Cubs owner), has now rejected it while claiming he is just an independent who is tired of government spending.

Such are the days in the life of a national campaign. Repudiated or not, the 54-page proposal is an instructive look at how these billionaire idiots hatch their plan, get PR flacks to put together a proposal, and agree to write a ginormous check for the whole shebang.

The trial balloon went up earlier this year, when Mitt Romney invoked Jeremiah Wright in an interview with Sean Hannity, who loves to mention Wright's name whenever he can, preferably in concert with Bill Ayers'. It gives Hannity a tingle up his leg every single time, and Mitt obliged (audio at the top).

The Campaign

It begins with an image:

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It seems to me if you can afford to spend $10 million on an attack ad, you can probably afford to renovate your own damned stadium. And it seems like Mayor Emanuel has come to the same conclusion:

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is not returning calls from the Ricketts family and is “livid” over a New York Times report that Joe Ricketts commissioned a proposal for a multimillion-dollar ad campaign linking President Obama to the president’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, according to an Emanuel aide.

Joe Ricketts’s children, which include Obama bundler Laura Ricketts, bought the Chicago Cubs in 2009 and have been in talks with the city about renovating the team’s 98-year-old stadium, Wrigley Field.

That appears to be on hold now.

“The Mayor was livid when he read that the Ricketts were going to launch a $10 million campaign against President Obama – with the type of racially motivated ads that are insulting to the president and the presidential campaign,” said the aide, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the situation. “He is also livid with their blatant hypocrisy.”

The aide also said Emanuel, who is Obama’s former chief of staff, has cut off communication with the family.

“The Ricketts have tried to contact the mayor, but he’s said that he does not want to talk with them today, tomorrow or anytime soon,” the aide said.

Further proof of the crazy that is our current right wing: Outrage -- OUTRAGE, I tell you -- because President Obama issued this executive order under the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act.

It declares the following:

There is established within the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council (Council).

Among other things, the purpose of said council is to:

(c) provide recommendations to the President and the Congress concerning the most pressing health issues confronting the United States and changes in Federal policy to achieve national wellness, health promotion, and public health goals, including the reduction of tobacco use, sedentary behavior, and poor nutrition;

Only in Right-Winger Land could this be a bad thing. On the one hand, they whine about our spending on health care and on the other, whine about any initiative which actually stands a chance of improving both spending and outcomes.

The Council is comprised of cabinet officers and policymakers, but that doesn't stop the wingers from jumping off into the Imagination Canyon where they opine about what "advisors" the President will appoint, naming Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers as prime examples of the evil about to descend upon our nation. Oh, and Dr. Kevorkian, so as to raise the specter of "death panels" one. more. time.

I could quote them, but then I'd have to link and it's really just too ridiculous to link. If you really want to read the insanity for yourself, try googling the term "lifestyle behavior modification" or "nanny state liberation front."

Of course, this is just a riff on the "big government is bad" set of conservative talking points. They really hate big government until they love it. They don't want to make lifestyle changes, but are outraged -- OUTRAGED -- that Big Government hasn't stopped the oil spilling into the Gulf, sent Superman to clean it up, and restarted drilling in deepwater worldwide.

Of course, if health insurers established such advisory councils (which they have) and altered their policies to encourage and reward healthy lifestyles (which they have), it would be totally okay, because the savings to those insurers would mean cheaper health insurance for the rest of us. Right? RIGHT?

Do these people ever suffer from outrage fatigue? Is there a little blue pill for that?

Nieman Watchdog: Since McCain has made his military experience a key reason to vote him, reporters should look in to the three near-catastrophes McCain had as a pilot.

Hullabaloo: Sarah Palin was not vetted by the McCain org, but by the Religious Right.

slacktivist: Some unintentional McCain candor

Media Nation: Who said, "I'm not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions?" If you answered, Jeremiah Wright, you'd be wrong.

Where's the Outrage? About those wingmutt mass emails...

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: No Blood for Hubris, News Dissector Blog, Veritas Nihilum Vincent,

Well, I’ve finally seen everything. John McCain, who enjoys more media affection than any political figure in recent memory, has taken to complaining that reporters are overly fond of Barack Obama.

Honestly, hearing the McCain campaign whine about someone getting fawning media coverage is a bit like hearing Barry Bonds accuse someone getting an unfair advantage by abusing steroids.

For crying out loud, a detailed book was recently published chronicling the astoundingly biased coverage McCain has enjoyed for years.

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Last week, C&L highlighted the GOP's effort to manufacture a "character gap" in an election match-up between John McCain and Barack Obama. That is, facing Americans' overwhelming disdain for their party's policies and its president, Republicans will invariably try to repackage the race as a contest of character. Now, two new studies from the Pew Research Center and the Project for Excellence in Journalism suggest that even bad news is good news for John McCain when it comes to defining himself and his Democratic opponent.

First, the PEJ analysis showed that both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have enjoyed more positive press coverage than John McCain over the course of the campaign. Evaluating media coverage from January 1st through the March primaries in Ohio and Texas, researchers found that 69% of stories about Barack Obama featured "positive narratives." Seemingly contrary to assertions of bias by her own campaign, Senator Clinton similarly earned 67% positive mentions. (It is worth noting that both candidates saw a drop-off over time, including an Obama decline beginning prior to the Jeremiah Wright imbroglio.) In contrast, McCain rated only 43% positive stories during the same time period.

But the dark cloud of John McCain's press coverage during the Republican primaries contains a big silver lining for his general election race to the center.

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It's pretty amazing when a sitting President and your ties to his failed policies are the number one liability to your run for the Oval Office. Despite any real attempt to define McCain as Bush44, the public already sees the connection loud and clear. I've seen conservative after conservative go on TV today to talk about how mavericky John McCain really is. Nonsense. On the two most important issues this country faces -- Iraq and the economy -- John McCain is on the same exact page as George W. Bush.

MSNBC:

Sen. Barack Obama’s ties to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright could hurt his presidential hopes. So could his comment about “bitter” small-town America clinging to guns and religion. And Americans might question Sen. Hillary Clinton’s honesty and trustworthiness.

But according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, the bigger problem appears to be John McCain's ties to President Bush.

In the survey, 43 percent of registered voters say they have major concerns that McCain is too closely aligned with the current administration.

Wow.

Jon Stewart took off the gloves and pummeled the media last night for it's non-stop, wall-to-wall coverage of The Most Important Issue Facing America, things a Presidential candidate's former pastor said.

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"Who will end this vicious cycle of questions with no answers?!"

Check out The Daily Show website for all the clips from last night's hilarious show.

Digg It!

And kudos to our own Jamie for this perfectly on-point cartoon:

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Liberty Street: Georgetown has decided not to renew Douglas Feith's contract.

Majikthise: A coalition of New York legislators say the Sean Bell case not closed yet.

MyDD: More 'Straight Talk': John McCain breaks two pledges at once.

Happy Valley News Hour: Brush levels in Crawford becoming critical

What happened when Edward Teller tried to landscape Alaska with H-bombs. What happens when KGB agents and gangsters get their own country? What will happen when Matt Yglesias talks about his new book? All these questions are answered in The Opinion Mill's Sunday Bookchat.

HOLY CRAP: Jeremiah Wright has always had far more theological depth and nuance than his detractors...What's worse than Mel Gibson's Passion ? A biography of Jesus by the director of Showgirls...Faith-based health failure...Media Roundup...Religious Right trying to hijack National Day of Prayer... Rod Dreher mistily reminiscing about David Koresh...Did you know that the human body is 90% Lego?...NC pastor - homo no mo'

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The media-manufactured controversies over Barack Obama's pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, aren't going to go away if the media can help it. It's much easier to talk about them than admit to propagandists on your booking lists. Rev. Wright agreed to his first public interview, and will be on Bill Moyer's Journal, which will air this evening on PBS. But advance video has the punditocracy a-twitter with the meme that Wright "throws" Obama under the bus. But the media also has a history of purposefully taking Wright's words out of context.

However, take a closer look at that panel assembled. Joe Watkins (introduced as Rev. Watkins, as he holds a divinity degree), who has worked for the Dan Quayle, Bush 41 and the current president, Kevin Madden, whose last gig was as Mitt Romney's spokesman as well as working on Bush's 2000 campaign and Lawrence O'Donnell, the lone Democrat, who formerly worked for Patrick Moynihan and was the Chief of Staff for the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works before jumping to Hollywood and The West Wing and Big Love. Could the deck be stacked any further against anything Wright says? Watch as Madden and Watkins slam Obama by attributing words that Wright did not say, much to the frustration of O'Donnell.

This is great. He’s not using those words and every pundit on TV talking about this wants to force those words into Rev. Wright’s mouth. He’s not using them so we’re pretending he’s using them.