ABC Interview With McCain Reveals Fundamantal (Fatal?) Flaw

Remember a few days ago when it was reported that the NY Times rejected McCain’s Iraq editorial in essence because it consisted of little more than attacks on Obama and very little about McCain’s OWN vision for Iraq?

That really gets to the essence of McCain’s problem in a nutshell: his entire campaign is based on slamming Obama, with a few minor policy ideas, and essentially no vision for what a McCain presidency would look like.

Case in point, take tonight’s interview on ABC News. Watch his response to a question about the Israeli/Palestinian issue and how he would resolve it:

Incredibly Dumb McCain Response to Obama Germany Speech

Here’s what the McCain camp hopes to counter with against Barack Obama’s speech in front of thousands of people in Germany. They’re hoping their photo-op on the oil rig will present them with arresting visuals.

Hmm, arresting visuals? Let me show you what an oil rig looks like:

And let me show you what Obama’s speech in Germany will possibly look like:

It’s strikingly clear that the McCain team doesn’t have a clue of what an “arresting visual” would be. It’s going to be the green screen scream all over again for John McCain.

Rep. Wexler Blasts McCain Camp On Genocide Remarks

The Obama surrogates have been very quiet this week, preferring to allow Obama to soak up all the attention. This has allowed the focus to be on Obama’s trip, but it has also meant that there has been little response to McCain’s absurd attacks, in part because of Obama reluctance to attack from overseas. Well, the McCain camp attacking Obama on Genocide(!) may have been the final straw.

Rep. Robert Wexler:

Florida Democrat Robert Wexler isn’t pleased with the McCain campaign’s decision to attack remarks made by Barack Obama during his visit today to Israel’s Holocaust Museum Yad Vashem.

In a statement to the Huffington Post, Wexler called it “shameful” and “unconscionable” that the McCain campaign is “using Senator Obama’s somber visit to Israel’s Holocaust Museum Yad Vashem as a backdrop to score cheap political points instead of focusing on the security needs of the nation.”

One critique I would have of the Obama campaign is that their surrogates don’t do enough to engage the McCain camp on its attacks, so kudos to Rep. Wexler for firing back. Let’s hope it doesn’t take Genocide to get them to respond in the future.

CBS Stands By Its Editing On McCain Interview

Strategy08 poster turneresq rightfully takes CBS to task on its blatant cover-up of McCain’s gaffe.

However, CBS stands by its decision to editorialize heavily on McCain’s interview, according to a report by Ben Smith at Politico here:

“As all news organizations do with extended interviews, last night’s Obama and McCain interviews were edited to fit the available time and to give viewers a fair expression of the candidates’ major differences,” CBS spokeswoman Jennifer Farley emailed. “The full transcript and video were and still are available at cbsnews.com.”

Uh….the problem, CBS, is that they completely edited out McCain’s gaffe about the Awakening and substituted in a different answer instead.

Gallup: Obama Crushing McCain in Europe

In case there was any doubt, Europe and the world are desperate for an Obama presidency, according to a brand new Gallup poll:

Substantial majorities of citizens of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom say that they would like to see Democratic Sen. Barack Obama rather than Republican Sen. John McCain elected U.S. president, and also that it makes a difference to their country who is elected.

How substantial a majority? Take a look:

From the TMI File

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Barack Obama:

BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel is an admirer of U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama — even though she has not yet met him in person.

Asked at a news conference on Wednesday what she thought of Obama, Merkel responded: “I would say that he is well-equipped — physically(!!), mentally and politically.”

Now we know why she was so opposed to Obama speaking at Brandenburg Gate: She is playing hard to get! But it gets better:

Bush was famously caught on camera at a G8 meeting in 2006 giving Merkel a quick backrub and the chancellor was asked on Wednesday whether she expected more massages from Bush’s successor — whether it’s McCain or Obama.

“That’s not really up to me,” she joked. “But I wouldn’t resist.”

Uh, ew?

So Much for Running a “Tighter Ship”

John McCain’s press strategy has been a mess this week, hitting Obama for wanting to “lose a war,” getting the surge facts wrong, and now accusing Obama of flip-flopping on genocide while he’s at the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.

Looks like they needed to re-group and get their act together:

The one scheduled McCain press conference of the week has just been canceled, we are told. No word as to why. Grumble, grumble.

Now comes word McCain will take questions at a pool later on, but clearly they were unprepared for the types of questions he was likely to get after their latest debacle.

I know for a fact the Obama campaign is using a slow-build strategy during the summer, with the full-court press coming later this fall largely as a result of the fact that they believe McCain is a fatally-flawed candidate. I’m not sure if their strategy is aggressive enough for my tastes, but they’re proving to be pretty spot-on when it comes to McCain, whose much-vaunted re-launch of the campaign has been anything if impressive.   So much for running a “tighter ship.”

McCain Campaign Accuses Obama Of Supporting Genocide

Wow, can you say desperate? Ben Smith at Politico reports that John McCain’s campaign just issued a post attacking Obama, calling him a flip-flopper on genocide.

They’re really throwing the mud fast and furious in July, aren’t they? Here’s the text of the accusation below:

Obama on Genocide

Obama today at Yad Vashem:

“Let our children come here and know this history so they can add their voices to proclaim ‘never again.’ And may we remember those who perished, not only as victims but also as individuals who hoped and loved and dreamed like us and who have become symbols of the human spirit.”

Obama on July 20, 2007:

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn’t a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there.

“Well, look, if that’s the criteria by which we are making decisions on the deployment of U.S. forces, then by that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now — where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife — which we haven’t done,” Obama said in an interview with The Associated Press.

This is despicable to attack Barack Obama while he’s visiting a Holocaust memorial in Israel. This is low of the McCain campaign to insinuate that Barack Obama wouldn’t stop genocide from happening when his own campaign website says:

Obama would also work with Iraqi authorities and the international community to hold the perpetrators of potential war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide accountable. He would reserve the right to intervene militarily, with our international partners, to suppress potential genocidal violence within Iraq.

What can McCain do? Two takes

Mark Halperin has a list of suggestions for the McCain camp that he believes would help McCain win in November. He begins with:

–To have some of his own, big presidential moments before the conventions.

–To give a grand, soulful, expectations-defying acceptance speech in St. Paul (a la George H.W. Bush in 1988).

Also included are:

–To not bow to the temptation to talk about national security when he is supposed to talk about domestic issues.

–To recognize, accept and cater to the reality (as Rudy Giuliani would say) that most Americans care more about the price at the pump, their mortgages, and their food and health care costs then about McCain’s life story, prescience on the surge, or total number of trips made to Iraq.

I like Halperin, but he’s got this totally reversed.

The Jed Report Does it Again

CBS has some ’splaining to do

During a CBS interview on Tuesday, John McCain made a stone cold error on a subject about which he claims expert knowledge: the “surge” strategy in Iraq. In an interview with anchor Katie Couric, the Arizona Republican said, inaccurately, that the surge strategy was responsible for the much-touted “Anbar Awakening,” in which Sunni sheiks turned against Al Qaeda, helping in turn to reduce violence in the country.

Head to The Jed Report for more.

Update: The AP has called McCain on his timeline mix-up. Now, will they call out CBS?