MSNB-f**king-C carries Charlie Black's "big advantage" water, asking "Was Black speaking the truth?"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

McCain adviser may have struck a nerve
Candidate distances himself from terror comment, but does it ring true?

By Jonathan Weisman and Anne E. Kornblut
updated 2 hours, 32 minutes ago

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25357745/



Senator John McCain with three campaign aides, Mark Salter, left, Brooke Buchanan and Charlie Black.

Sen. Barack Obama and his surrogates continued to criticize Charles R. Black Jr., a top adviser to Sen. John McCain, on Tuesday for saying a terrorist attack before the November election would help the presumptive Republican nominee. But behind their protests lay a question that has dogged Democrats since Sept. 11, 2001:

Was Black speaking the truth?

"I don't think anyone knows the answer to this question," said Tad Devine, a senior strategist on Sen. John F. Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign, which confronted the same internal debate. "On the one hand, Republicans say they made America safe. That argument goes by the wayside if there's an attack. On the other hand, an attack would change the entire framework of this election."

Black's comment to Fortune magazine that a terrorist attack "certainly would be a big advantage" roiled the presidential campaign for a second straight day. Obama -- who has made a determined effort to shore up his credentials on national security since clinching the Democratic nomination, arguing that the United States is less safe now than before President Bush took office -- wasted no time in trying to counter Black's statement. Obama dispatched Richard Ben-Veniste, a member of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission, to hold a conference call with reporters in which he called Black's comments "a candid and very disappointing glimpse into the thinking of one of McCain's closest advisers." He did not directly call for Black to step aside.

"I think the remarks were so out of place that they call for some recalibration in the thinking and perhaps a greater adherence to principle here in staying away from the politics of fear," Ben-Veniste said. McCain has distanced himself from Black's comments, saying, "If he said that -- and I don't know the context -- I strenuously disagree."

[Heather MC]

1. I think it's shameful that every least little thing someone does in Obama's

Camp, gets attacked relentlessly, until the person quits, but Meanwhile
McSame's camp can say or do whatever without any consequence.
Also they show clips of McSame uttering the same sentiment over and over and there is no Outrage!

If Obama ever did and said what McSame, his camp and even his Wife Cindy has done or said
Obama would be run out of town.

It angers me to no end that Obama has to be absolutely perfect in every way, but McSame gets away with murder.

[Bullet1987]

2. It's pretty clear that the MSM is acting as McCain's last line of defense

They're going to carry his water because he can't do it himself. Obama's been attacked since he won the nomination and he's still beating him in the polls.

[comtec]

3. Obama's been attacked long before that !

I will never forgive Hilary, she has more than enough money to pay off her fucking debt herself!
what disgusts me that most is how OUR 4th estate is totally gone, and a tool of the reich.
that every OTHER NEWS OUTLET IN THE WORLD is saying what a DISASTER mclame would be and what a god-send Obama would be!
Why oh fucking WHY do Americans have to be so WILLFULLY against anything those damned feriners say?!
but being out here I'm far more sensitive to it all, so maybe it's just me.

[ErinBerin84]

9. one thing that is obvious

Besides the question of whether or not the comment had a ring or truth, or whether or not the MSM is just siding wit him because he is Republican...these people fucking LOVE Charlie Black. Every analysis that I have heard of this has included a fair amount of drooling over Charlie Black. Chuck Todd had a frown face on, and when Chris Matthews asked him what was wrong, he said "Well, Charlie Black is usually a straight shooter with the media, and maybe he won't be so open when talking to us anymore!" The McCain campaign's relationship with journalists is akin to the problem of embedded journalists in Iraq. If the Democrats try and make Charlie Black an issue specifically later on in this campaign(his dirty ties), the MSM will especially demonize that.

[FrenchieCat]

4. I wrote the authors a letter, and I'm gonna tighten it up to submit as an LTEE.

Wrote the email via the feedback here: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/email/jonathan+weisman+and+anne+e.+kornblut/

and I'll be submitting the LTEE to this email address: letters@washpost. com

Charlie Black's comment of how a Terrorist Attack would help John McCain get elected isn't true. McCain's strength isn't fighting terrorists, and I have never seen or heard him accomplish anything that would suggest this. Walking around Iraq surrounded by armed guards with helicopters overhead doesn't make one tough. Being a POW 35 years ago might have made one a hero, but it doesn't mean that one actually fought a war, or know how to win one. Sitting in Senate chambers yammering senate speak or listening to the testimonies of those who might know, doesn't gift one with sound judgment on what actions to take in the realm of war and peace.

Just because the stereotype of Republicans being "tough" on terror has been peddled by the media and the Republican party, doesn't make it so. We need to be "smart" as well as "tough", and the GOP have never been known for their high IQs, far as I know.

The truth of the matter is that 9/11 occurred under a GOP administration. Further, the GOP haven't caught Osama Bin Laden, and the GOP invaded a country that had not attacked us, which distracted America from going after Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. So how does this add up to John McCain being the guy best able to handle terrorism? I don't see it, and most thinking people don't either. The talking heads sitting around the table at MSNBC in the morning, that pass the "meme" to the WAPO reporters in the afternoon, that shows up reported on NBC's Evening News, and later in the week in the latest NEWSWEEK issue (thanks to Media conglomeration) are why Americans believe this fairy tale.

The fault lies in the "journalists" who never really provide any evidence as to why the GOP have an advantage in fighting terror (all I can think of is that they are more trigger happy and love the dollars generated by the MIC aka war profiteers), instead they just repeat it as a "known fact" for whatever their reasons. But in the end, a lie, told over and over again, is still nothing but a lie.

Americans should righteously be appalled that Charlie Black believes that what is good for John McCain's campaign is to have a tragedy occur on our soil. They may even be praying for it. The media may truly believe that singing 'Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran' makes McCain appear to be tough on terror, but it simply just doesn't; not this time.

[flpoljunkie]

7. Let's elect "neocon John," bin Laden's dream candidate, who promises an endless occupation of Iraq!

And, an endless stream of new jihadist reruits! That will make us safer!

[truthisfreedom]

5. The MSM is McTerror's base.

Period.

[Jawja]

6. Yep.

That's why I don't watch ANY of it. I may of checked in to MSNBC now and then; but since they went on for DAYS over Tim Russert, I can't stomach even even them anymore.

If you think the Corporate Media is going to change it's stripes for the 2008 election, you will be disappointed. It doesn't matter WHO or how bad the Rethug nominee is: the Corporate Media is crony to the Rethugs and they will work to get the Rethug elected (or selected).

[flpoljunkie]

8. Would like to see a pollster ask these folks to explain why McCain better on "terrorism."

Truth is, they couldn't--even more than "McCain base," the media, could.

[cbc5g]

10. It's almost like the MSM is baiting terrorists to effect our elections

Don't forget the nexus of politics and terror by KO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az7yl-UnsQQ

[flpoljunkie]

11. What is wrong with these people! Obama has work to do, because the MSM media refuse to do their job!

Even Democrats choose Obama over McCain by only 38% to 21% on who'd do better job to handle terrorism! Surviving being a prisoner of war is indeed admirable, but having neocons like Randy "Committee to Liberate Iraq" Scheunemann as your foreign policy advisor is not the way to combat terrorism--but to increase Bin Laden's terrorist recruiting.