Rahm Emanuel: The "Bush's 3rd Term" thing pisses McCain off because IT'S TRUE, it's "struck a nerve"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Rahm Emanuel: McCain Is In For A Thumpin'



House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel teased Sen. John McCain on a Friday conference call with reporters, saying the notion that the presumptive GOP nominee represents "Bush's third term" has clearly become a burr under McCain's saddle due to its essential truth.

Pivoting off today's news of McCain's apparent flip-flop on President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program, Emanuel painted a portrait of near-constant agreement between McCain and the president on the Iraq war, the economy, heath care and government spending.

Referring to the Arizona Republican's widely panned Tuesday night address in New Orleans, Emanuel said: "When I was watching that speech, I was reminded of what Shakespeare said, 'Thou protest too much.' When he sits there and says, 'I am not George Bush and I wish you'd stop saying these falsehoods,' it's clearly hit a nerve because of the (truth of it). ... And I think with core constituencies (of women, Hispanics, and working class voters) that are going to matter...when you look at the electoral map, he is not where George Bush was in 2004. He has a much higher negative rating with those constituencies and is well on his way on performing where Republicans performed in 2006."

Developing his analogy between the coming election and the thumpin' Democrats delivered to Republicans in 2006, Emanuel said the midterms amounted to "picking the lock" of an electoral map engineered by a GOP-controlled Congress, while Obama has the potential to "change the combination" of that lock altogether this November.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/06/rahm-emanuel-mccain-prote_n_105706.html

[blondeatlast]

1. McCain's exposed an open wound already; time to keep that sodium chloride ever handy.

Every Dem talker needs to say it and Obama needs to pound on it in his speeches. If we keep the pressure up, we might even see McCain's wild remper (locally legendary) flare up.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

5. One thing that Obama clearly understands is the "eat or be eaten" rule

I don't know what happened with John Kerry...I don't know if he honestly understood that Karl Rove would come at him, head-on, with anything and everything, regardless of its degree of "truth."

Obama's recent encounter with Lieberman...his defense of his wife...his "chill out" response to the "demands" that Hillary be made VP...

I don't think Obama is going to site still while McCain "attempts" to push him around. I think that every time McCain pushes, HE will be PUSHED in return.

:patriot:

[blondeatlast]

7. I've been represented by McCain my entire voting life and there's one thing I know--

he and his old boy campaign network have NEVER had to face a tough campaign. Here the Republican, lobbyist, media, and business old boy network are all that's needed for him to skate to another Senate win. His toughest campaign challenge here is raising money--for OTHER candidates.

He CAN'T handle the media if they are the least bit hard on him--and I do mean the LEAST bit. That he could expose a weakness like that so early--coupled with his boneheaded thought that he can shine in public on the same stage as Obama--shows that he better get more than a Rovian dirty-tricks campaign on his side--and his own campaign staff is clearly not able to handle what they are up against.

[Gabi Hayes]

16. he's already shown that several times....I've seen the clips on youtube:

going after reporters, overreacting amazingly (seen the one on the plane when he's asked about his meeting with kerry?).

none of these have been on TV, AFAIK. Dems might have to make a bunch of commercials with the clips and HOPE to get TV play. you know stuff like that would be put on constant rotation if it adversely affect dems...that's how the RW Noise Machine works.

we don't have one, unfortunately, and I dunno if it's possible to create one, as control rests with those in highly entrenched positions of power

[driver8]

2. Aw, that's too bad.

Maybe if McCain didn't have his head up Bush's ass, people wouldn't make these comparisons!

[BOSSHOG]

3. The ONLY difference between bush and mccain

is that mccain served honorably in the military.

[blondeatlast]

11. Wouldn't that make an OUTSTANDING campaign ad? Damn him with

faint praise--and the weakness he exposed all by his lonesome.

[TahitiNut]

4. It's the campaign meme that MUST be repeated. Endlessly. He can't defend against it.

It's not only TRUE, there's no way he can either RUN far enough from Cheney/Bush or defend Cheney/Bush and even begin to campaign for himself.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

6. Too many photos, too many videos, too much info available in the public record

Maybe...MAYBE...he will be smart enough to realize that EVERY "protest" over the comparison will be met with EVIDENCE.

I don't think so. I think McCain is a Pavlov Dog. I think he's gonna keep pressing the bar, and every time he does, Obama is gonna feed him a pellet...and each pellet will be harder to swallow than the one that came before it.

:toast:

[blondeatlast]

8. You think right--see my reply #7. McCain has no experience with a campaign challenge. nt

[TahitiNut]

12. I agree. Obama will be able to have the LONGEST coattails in recent history.

Obama can tune his campaign to local candidates and local issues ... under the 'change' banner. He can slam-dunk McCain with laugh-lines, fer crissakes.

[BlueButGlad2]

9. More proof! This is in the papers today...

More proof! This is in the papers today...

New York Times News Service / June 6, 2008
WASHINGTON - A top adviser to Senator John McCain says McCain believes that President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program was lawful, a position that appears to bring him into closer alignment with the sweeping theories of executive authority pushed by the Bush administration legal team.

[stray cat]

10. McBush, McBush, McBush! If McBush gets him cranky and petulent we win!

[Disturbed]

13. OK. McBush it is.

[featherman]

14. A GOP running to retain the White House for the GOP - hard to argue with the truth

[blondeatlast]

15. K nt

[Gabi Hayes]

17. my current favorite Bush/McBush '08 photo:

what the hell is going on there?

how come nobody is bringing up this, in the aftermath of SCarolina in 2000:

"Don't give me that shit. And get your hands off me."

http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/2006_07.htm

[Gabi Hayes]

18. lots of good siamese twin shots here; haven't seen this one before

[VP505]

19. Is it just me or has anyone noticed

that when McSame speaks in public he seems to be making a very conscious effort to appear calm and even tempered while flashing a phony smile/grin. Sure seems like he is trying to way too hard to hide and convince people that he doesn't have the explosive temper some claim he has.

[Gabi Hayes]

23. it's more apparent when he tries to give a prepared speech. that one he

gave in New Orleans was the WORST thing I've seen, maybe ever. look for it on youtube: grisly.

and PHONY smiles punctuate it.

he's better with the questions, and when making brief statements, as he did the next day, where he looked much less inauthentic

[Gabi Hayes]

20. does this cry out for a caption, or what?

and is it just my imagination, or is that a smile hiding the dagger?

[Gabi Hayes]

21. found this on an ABC page, with an interesting backstory

anybody remember this? I sure don't, but McBush is FAMOUS for holding grudges. wouldn't you love to know the real story? maybe if McBush loses, he'll finally let loose. he strikes me as the type that would, especially given his gazillionaire circumstances, his age, and the ending of his political career:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2008/03/index.html

Correspondent John Berman blogs:

A lot has happened since 2000, but watching George W. Bush endorse John McCain will always seems a bit like watching the Yankees cheer for the Red Sox (Giuliani did it, I guess, so what the heck?).

Much has been written about the tortured relationship between the two men, and the nasty 2000 South Carolina campaign.

But not many people remember what took place after Bush secured the nomination.

Here are some excerpts from my notes from 2000, back when I was a real reporter on the campaign trail:

April 30, 2000. McCain sits down with Al Gore. That's right, more than a month after McCain suspended his campaign he still hadn't met with Bush … but he did hold a meeting with the DEMOCRATIC nominee.

That day, I wrote: "The Bush campaign has made no comment on Gore's meeting with John McCain … Gore met with McCain before Bush did, and seemingly with much less difficulty. Remember this meeting comes on the heels of "meetings about meeting" between the Bush and McCain camps."

The day after it happened, I wrote: "Bush aides didn't have too much to say on the subject of Al Gore's weekend meeting with John McCain. But they did say enough to contradict each other. Spokesman Ari Fleischer said it was "appropriate," and the fact McCain was taping for CNN at the Naval Observatory made it "inevitable." However, one Bush senior adviser was much less charitable. He said , "It was peculiar that McCain felt necessary to go to the VP's home to shoot a CNN appearance when CNN has extensive facilities in DC." One does not have to dig too deeply to uncover serious resentment in the Bush camp for McCain and his people.

After much haggling, the Bush and McCain teams agreed to hold a joint appearance on May 9, 2000 in Pittsburgh. But the day before, it wasn't even clear McCain would endorse Bush...

[Gabi Hayes]

22. McCain's mind wanders......''time for another car crash?''

[Gabi Hayes]

24. John, how many times a day do you hit that?

[Gabi Hayes]

25. with this?

[Gabi Hayes]

26. Chang or Eng?

[Gabi Hayes]

27. caption time again