The Anatomy of A Lazy Reporter: The Dana Milbank Story

Why do some seem psychologically dependent on the idea that Senator Obama is an elitist, arrogant, or unpatriotic?

The latest dust up surrounds a statement Senator Obama made to House Democrats a few days ago. Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank reported that the Illinois Senator said the following:

"This is the moment . . . that the world is waiting for... I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions."

The McCain campaign and right-wing commentators and pundits wasted no time pouncing on Obama as arrogant. But upon more reporting, those present at meeting, at which Dana Milbank was not, said that the reported comment did not reflect the context of Obama's remarks.

This was the full statement.

"It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It's about America. I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions."

It seems Barack Obama was talking about people being excited about the prospect for a better a better America not just about himself. But I could not explain this better than the folks on MSNBC.

New Obama Ad

Finally deciding whether acknowledging McCain's attacks will give them more authority, the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama decided yesterday to issue it's own ad in response to McCain's compellingly intellectual attack, comparing Senator Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

Here's the ad:

Republican Strategist: McCain Campaign Planned to Attack Obama If He Had Visited Troops

David Kiley of Business Week spoke with a Republican strategist recently who conceded that the McCain campaign was planning to attack Obama for using troops as a campaign prop, had he visited troops in German last week during the political part of his trip.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

"What the McCain campaign doesn’t want people to know, according to one GOP strategist I spoke with over the weekend, is that they had an ad script ready to go if Obama had visited the wounded troops saying that Obama was...wait for it...using wounded troops as campaign props. So, no matter which way Obama turned, McCain had an Obama bashing ad ready to launch. I guess that’s political hardball. But another word for it is the one word that most politicians are loathe to use about their opponents—a lie."

To see the full story, click here.

In Switzerland, An Easier Time for the Disabled

See NPR story here.

Joe Klein: I said McCain was Honorable: I Was Wrong

Noticeably startled by the new tactics by the McCain campaign to eviscerate the character of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, Time writer Joe Klein has retracted a claim he made earlier in the campaign: that John McCain was an honorable man.

See retraction here.

Is Someone Jealous?

Frustrated that most people would rather see, talk about, and think about Senator Obama, Arizona Senator John McCain and his campaign have launched a new negative ad, "Celeb," comparing Senator Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, while slamming him for not supporting Offshore Drilling and wanting to raise taxes.



What Senator McCain's ad does not mention is that Senator Obama supports drilling on the 60 million plus acres of land already leased to oil companies that have not been drilled yet and that Senator Obama's tax cut for the middle class (those making less than $250,000/year) is three times larger than that of the Arizona Senator's, who skews his tax relief to those making more than $650,000/year, according to the Tax Policy Center.

McCain Denies He Used The Word "Timetable" (Check the previous post)

In his latest bout of dementia, Senator McCain claimed last Sunday on This Week With George Stephanopoulos that he did not use the word "timetable" when seeming to give a tepid endorsement of Senator Obama's plan for redeployment from Iraq when speaking with Wolf Blitzer two days prior.

As for the greeted with liberators remark, I've stopped caring.




This could have been an honest mistake. I actually think it was. I really don't think he remembered what he said two days prior.