There is one more John McCain gaffe that the media missed from the now famous CBS interview with Katie Couric.
This is the same interview in which McCain claimed the surge led to the Anbar Awakening, which is demonstrably false. But watch below for another gaffe when McCain says Iraq was the first major conflict after 9/11.
One thing has been driving me crazy about this drilling debate - everyone seems to assume that if we drill for oil in the US, that we will get the oil. And hence, we won't be dependent on foreign oil anymore. But we won't get anything, Exxon-Mobil will.
When I was growing up as a young Republican dork, I was told that "regulation" was a bad word. Sensible people were for less government regulation. Socialists were for more government regulation because they liked big government controlling the markets and your life. And most of all they loved red tape that inhibited business.
And to this day, I still shudder when I hear the word "regulation." It sounds so nasty and socialist. That's the power of brainwashing.
Here's the only problem - it turns out you totally and completely need regulation. Without government regulation, the excesses of the market go unchecked and we constantly have financial meltdowns. Kind of like ... now.
And somehow Barack Obama thought it was a good idea to go along with these surrender monkeys. He thought it was a good idea to sign a bill written by Dick Cheneyright before the elections. What a terrible lack of judgment. What a sad display of weakness.
The pathetic Democratic capitulation on FISA is depressing to be sure. Sen. Feingold sounded pretty depressed when spoke to us about it yesterday on our show. He echoed the same frustration we have had for months now:
"It's the latest chapter of running for cover when the Administration tries to intimidate Democrats on national security issues. It's the most embarrassing failure of the Democrats I've seen since 2006, other than the failure to vote to end the Iraq war ... It's letting George Bush and Dick Cheney have their way even though they're that unpopular and on their way out. It's really incredible."
Do the Democrats want to lose? That seems an odd question to ask. But they do it so well you begin to wonder. Now, they are about to lose to Bush and the grossly unpopular Republicans again on FISA and telecom immunity. But are they really losing? That depends on what your objective is. Let me explain.
President Bush is the most unpopular president of all time - literally. No one has had approval ratings this low for this long in American history. Yet he keeps on kicking the crap out of the Democrats.
If you keep losing to the worst, what does that make you?
Today, President Bush will win another huge victory on telecom immunity. He will get away with breaking the law and ordering private companies to break the law for him, which he freely admits. He is making the argument that the president is above the law in the United States of America. And the Democrats can't find a way to beat that argument.
Today, the major American oil companies came back into Iraq by getting ... you guessed it ... no-bid contracts! In fact, the four major oil companies that were thrown out by Saddam Hussein 36 years ago made their triumphant return to occupied Iraq.
Former chief executive of Exxon, Lee Raymond, explained the history behind it. "There is an enormous amount of oil in Iraq," he said. "We were part of the consortium, the four companies that were there when Saddam Hussein threw us out, and we basically had the whole country."
Well, congratulations, you now have it back! Mission accomplished!
About a month ago, I said on the show that this as good as it gets for John McCain. That was in the middle of the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton melee. At that point Obama and McCain were essentially tied in the polls, and some polls even had McCain up by a few points. There's a good chance you will never see that again.
I believed that then and I believe it even more strongly now. The main problem wasn't all the damage that Hillary Clinton was inflicting on Obama (though she did do some), it was that the press wasn't paying any attention to McCain. Once you turn the spotlight on McCain, it isn't pretty.
This is The Young Turks musical tribute to the Democratic primary race that has just concluded. All of the fun moments, the ups and the downs, the roller coaster ride that was this long Democratic battle:
According to a new CBS News poll, about one quarter of Hillary Clinton's supporters say they will vote for John McCain instead of Barack Obama in the general election. That is a very big number and can do significant damage to the Democratic Party in November.
Hillary Clinton's new job from now until then must be to bring this number down to as close to zero as possible. It was her campaign that drove up this number by emphasizing Obama's negatives, implying sexism against Senator Clinton and sowing division within the party. It's her job now to get the number down by doing the opposite and bringing the party together.
I was going to write about what a horrible speech John McCain gave tonight. About how he has no chance of winning (barring a world changing event) and this is as good as it gets for him. I was going to explain how awkward and painful a speech that was, especially compared to the dynamic and energetic Clinton and Obama speeches.
This was what was going through my mind as I was waiting for Hillary to get to the point in her speech where she makes the turn and says, "It's been a great race, I love you all for supporting me through these trying times, but now we have to unite behind the Democratic candidate for president, Barack Obama!"
Except that moment never came. I couldn't believe it. She didn't concede. Is she mental? Her chances of winning aren't theoretically low now, they're nonexistent. The race is over. She lost. What is there not to concede? What kind of maniacal move is this?
Right now Scott McClellan has no friends, and that's a shame. His former friends on the Republican side are trying to bury him. The rest of us are still skeptical of him and what he did when he was still in the Bush White House. And the press is trying to be tough on him specifically because he called them out for not being tough enough when he was press secretary.
So, we have this ironic situation that in a time when McClellan is finally being honest, he has no defenders. I'm afraid this is going to lead the public to the false impression that the world is united in thinking he is a calculating opportunist who is trying to make a buck by turning on his friends. When, in fact, the reality is that the man finally grew a conscience.
Yesterday, RJ Eskow was on our show and we had an interesting discussion of why so many people in West Virginia and Kentucky admitted to pollsters that they voted based on race. This is otherwise known as racism. It's also something that people are usually loathe to admit. So, why did 21% of the voters in Kentucky freely admit that race was an important factor in their vote?
It's because Hillary Clinton's campaign gave them permission to be racist. Let me explain.
The Republicans are in deep, deep trouble. If they lose in these districts (the other two were a Louisiana seat they had kept for three decades and Dennis Hastert's former seat in Illinois), they can literally lose anywhere. The whole electoral map can be redrawn.
So, what's their new plan? Go further to the right! No, you schmucks, that's what got you in trouble in the first place. The problem is the Republican Party has become so extreme there are no moderates left to tell them they should head in the opposite direction.
I was playing basketball over the weekend and one of the funniest moments in trash talk history happened. We were playing pick up ball at a park in LA. A guy drove into the lane and got his shit swatted ("his shot was blocked" for the basketball illiterate). He called a foul.
This happens often in pickup ball when someone gets their shit sent (again, when their shot is rejected). They feel embarrassed and insist on calling a non-existent foul, as if they wouldn't have been sent so badly if they weren't fouled at the same time.
Now, this was a little unusual because even his own team didn't have his back. Everyone on the court pretty much agreed that he was not fouled. But nonetheless he insisted. Then someone came up with a line bound for the trash talking hall of fame, "This guy is pulling a Hillary."
Hillary Clinton supporters seem to have become the equivalent of global warming deniers in Democratic politics. If facts don't suit your argument, insist on the opposite. And even more importantly, insist that your non-facts get at least 50% of the coverage.
