The truest statement I've read about the 2008 campaign today

Posted By Daniel W. Drezner Thursday, July 31, 2008 - 8:59 PM Share

The campaign controversy of the moment seems to be whether McCain has been telling lies about his opponent, with the additional accusation from the opposing camp that he is also engaged in race-baiting. Of course, he is telling lies, and he isn't engaged in race-baiting, but in this bizarre election cycle you can be sure that he will be rewarded or at least forgiven for the former and then punished for something that he isn't doing.

Daniel Larison

EXPLORE:POLITICS, MCCAIN, OBAMA, RACE-BAITING

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LORD

10:13 PM ET

July 31, 2008

He may just want to get the

He may just want to get the accusations out so he can progress to that and blame his opponents for starting it, or it just may be more lies to find out which ones are useful.

BLACK POLITICAL ANALYSIS

12:51 AM ET

August 1, 2008

I must concur with Lord. This

I must concur with Lord. This could potentially be a trial balloon. Just because a strategy didn't work for Clinton, doesn't it mean it couldn't work for Team McCain. After all, general election voters are quite a bit different than Democratic primary voters.

J.PERULFI

2:17 AM ET

August 1, 2008

Oh Lordy, what a state black

Oh Lordy, what a state black politics is in.

AMERICANEOCON

3:15 AM ET

August 1, 2008

What's interesting is folks

What's interesting is folks like Larison - libertarian/paleocons - are frankly in bed with the antiwar leftists on Iraq.

Larison makes a good point here, but AmCon is whacked!

Also, David Weigel at Reason appears to be buddies with folks like Ackerman and Yglesias.

Ouch! That's rough company...

JOE M.

3:29 AM ET

August 1, 2008

There is some truth to this

There is some truth to this statement, but what makes it most interesting is why this happens.

The obvious answer is that the news generating media, mostly the 24 hour news networks, are total bull%hit and don't cover any issues or have any depth to their coverage at all. They are so empty and so idiotic that it is honestly safe to call them anti-American.

Yet they do generate these stories by obsessively repeating campaign commercials and using sound bites from political operatives to fill there hours of useless time.

It's a disgrace and reason to honestly mandate some sort of election reform so that these bastards at CNN/Fox News/MSNBC/and so on.... are not the ones who filter information to the public.

CHRIS

5:36 PM ET

August 1, 2008

As always Larison gives

As always Larison gives inciteful commentary not to be found in the Liberal/Neocon controlled media. AmCon is a great source for traditional American conservative thought as opposed to Troskyists masquerading as conservatives over at National Review (Derbyshire excepted)

ELI RABETT

12:31 AM ET

August 2, 2008

Did Eli hear a dog

Did Eli hear a dog whistle?

Yes West Virginia, McCain and his campaign are race baiting. On purpose and it is about time they were called on it.

LORD

7:53 PM ET

August 2, 2008

It is interesting to read

It is interesting to read campaign tactics as projections of the candidate's own fears and desires. Does McCain want to be all powerful? Does he fear he is only a shell, an empty suit, incapable of fulfilling his desires or even knowing what they are? Does he not know why he even wants to be president? If he does, he seems to be having a lot of difficulty expressing it.

LEWP

6:53 PM ET

August 8, 2008

Was the alleged race-baiting

Was the alleged race-baiting in bringing Paris and Britney out, in the hair-trigger rush to play the play-the-race-card card at the "dollar bill" line that came in response, or in the calculated combination of the two?

That he's telling blatant lies is undeniably true. The race-baiting charge is, perhaps, deniable (I'd say guilty if the standard is preponderance, not-guilty if beyond-a-reasonable-doubt). As to where the evidence is that he'll be punished for either, I haven't a clue. But I guess I have to agree, given the track record, that it would be "bizarre" in some sense if he were.

CRUST

9:14 PM ET

August 12, 2008

It really is amazing that it

It really is amazing that it seems to be in McCain's best interest to tell blatant lies about his opponents. It certainly worked for Senator Straight Talk in the primaries (remember his malarkey about Romney on timetables in Iraq?). What a stunning indictment of our press corps...

CRUST

9:19 PM ET

August 12, 2008

On the race-baiting angle, I

On the race-baiting angle, I tend to be skeptical of "dog whistle" claims. But now that McCain is running ads with a "hot chicks dig Obama" tagline (in which all the hot chicks are white) it's hard not to think he is trying to exploit a racial angle against Obama.