Today in a tele-town hall  with Jewish leaders, John McCain, together with his best buddy, Joe Lieberman, not only delivered the special message that he wants his Jewish supporters to run with, but he also reinforced the themes he will be hitting during the last two weeks of the campaign. And they’re not pretty, consisting as they do, of distortion, outright lies, and smears, along with a little Neocon bluster.

The call offered little that is new.  McCain is the “steady hand at the tiller” that the times demand, in the words of Lieberman, the “tested leader who has passed the test”; he is the only candidate with the historical background to really “love” Israel the way she needs to be loved; he won’t raise taxes in order to “redistribute the wealth” like that naughty Socialist Obama, and, oh boy, have you noticed that Obama is a shadowy, unknown and unknowable character and he consorts with “unrepentant” terrorist voting fraudsters?  

Oh, I almost forgot, Sarah Palin is a brilliant young politician with scads of relevant experience. Betcha you didn’t know that! Wink, Wink!

Lieberman’s introductory remarks were especially interesting because he seemed to be trying to paint McCain as something other than a hard-core conservative.  Not only did he strike the expected chords, emphasizing McCain’s credentials as a friend to Israel, but he also described a hitherto unknown McCain who believes in using government to play a “constructive role” in “solving people’s problems,” and who is a defender of the weak. Efforts to reposition the candidate for this particular group, perhaps?  

One point that surfaced frequently in the opening remarks by both Lieberman and McCain was the threat posed by Iran and Syria to the security of Israel.  While expected, this emphasis is always worth remarking given the speculation that has existed, both pro and con, about an “October surprise” that might involve Israeli attacks on either or both of these countries (see here, and  here).

McCain’s Neocon Promises

Nothing unexpected surfaced in McCain’s answer to the first question about how a McCain administration would go about protecting Jews in the U.S. and in Israel.  His reply emphasized the word “continue,” so that portion of the American Jewish Community that applauds the direction of the Bush administration’s Neocon policies should be well-pleased.  McCain stated that he will continue negotiations towards a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians; he will continue the “successful” surge strategy  until victory is achieved in Iraq; and he will continue the Petraeus surge strategy in Afghanistan, with appropriate modifications to accommodate new conditions prevailing there.  He offered only one innovation, a vague promise to enact a “comprehensive strategy” to combat Islamic extremism (and isn’t this just a continuation of the Bush foreign policy raison d’etre?).  

How Can You Convince the Fools Out There that Obama Will Raise Their Taxes?

The second question, though it may have been quite sincere, had all the earmarks of a plant.  The questioner, who did not identify herself other than noting that she was a “registered independent,” asked when the McCain campaign was going to go after Obama’s “lies about taxes,” specifically Obama’s claims that he would give a tax cut to 95% of Americans.  How, she asked, can this be true since 40% of Americans don’t pay taxes, so giving them tax cut credits would mean taxing others and redistributing the wealth, wouldn’t it? Better yet, she wanted to know how this evident truth could be presented in a “sexy” enough fashion to engage those simple souls taken in by Obama’s facts and figures. (Too bad that nobody referred this questioner to Factcheck.org which refutes the  premises of her question.)

Practically salivating at the opportunity to rip into this tasty morsel once again, McCain thanked the questioner profusely for the question and indicated that he thought that he had found a hook that could make her point, to wit, Joe the Plumber.  Brave Joe who actually engaged Obama and got him to admit that he wanted to “redistribute the wealth.” (Nevermind that all the evidence indicates that Joe is not quite the everyman Godsend that McCain still seems determined to present him as being, but rather just another conservative ideologue out trying to make a phantasy point.)  

A follow-up question from the same person echoed an emerging, new theme in the McCain campaign.  What is being done to let the American people know about the dangers of an unbalanced government; when the legislative and executive branches are drawn from the same party doesn’t it erode checks and balances? McCain answered cheerfully and right on cue that he thought this concern was beginning to break through, and that people would realize that Reid, Pelosi and Obama, working together, would have no restraint when, for instance, it comes to raising taxes.

Sarah Palin is a Wunderkind and she Loves, Loves, Loves Israel.

A third questioner elicited the most interesting response of the entire call:  Though the actual question concerned what McCain would do to protect Israel from the Iranian threat, the questioner also remarked that she had attended one of Sarah Palin’s rallies and was pleased with what she saw.  Completely ignoring the initial question, both McCain and Lieberman immediately launched into a paen of praise to Palin, her natural political skills, her reformer’s credentials, and, of course, her deep love of Israel. McCain was rhapsodic about how she gets up the nose of the old-timey, leftist feminists who are enraged by a bright, conservative feminist everywoman. When the next questioner asked about her qualifications, they continued in the same vein, exaggerating her resume, and concluding by comparing her to Bill Clinton!  

Does this over-reaction indicate a little insecurity abut the appeal of this particular Hail Mary to the Jewish community?  Politico certainly thinks the McCain campaign has reason to be worried.

Obama is a Scary Black Man.

Shlomo Riskin, a distinguished, if somewhat controversial, Orthodox leader, brought up Obama’s connections to Wright, Ayers and ACORN, and emphasized that we  “know very little” about Obama.  McCain went after this like a flea after a dog, and in a tone of righteous indignation repeated the usual canards that Obama had served with Ayers, an unrepentant terrorist, when he, Obama, was far older than eight years old, and that the McCain campaign has a right to demand the details of their shadowy dealings.  Why, McCain declared, Ayers and Obama directed 230,000 dollars to ACORN when they sat on a board together.  Imagine! Further, the Obama primary campaign gave ACORN 830,000 dollars for lighting and site selection.  Some lighting, Hnunhh!  

Of course, here too, FactCheck.org might have helped since its research  has shown all these claims to be bogus.  On the topic of the Obama primary expenditures about which McCain is so exercised, FactCheck has this to say:

The Obama campaign also paid Citizens Services Inc., a group affiliated with ACORN, more than $800,000 for get-out-the-vote (not voter registration) efforts during the primary election. The nature of CSI’s services was initially misrepresented on the Obama campai
gn’s disclosures to the Federal Election Commission, which the campaign describes as an oversight.

Apparently, nobody in the McCain campaign can do research, or even google. Or maybe, the Maverick just lacks the integrity to tell the truth?

As Josh Marshall observed today, the McCain campaign’s

… final weeks’ strategy under and just above the radar … relies on two pillars. The first is aggressively playing to voters’ fears of electing a black president. Make no mistake: not just his campaign in a general sense, but McCain himself and his top handful of advisers, are banking on the residual racism in a changing America to get them over the finish line. The second is an aggressive use of innuendo to convince casual voters that Obama is in league with Islamic terrorists bent on killing Americans.

Well, I heard that strategy put into action today and it left me feeling queasy.

Summary

When McCain finished beating the ACORN dead horse,  he mounted his high horse and declared the main question to be the “economy, economy, economy.”  After pronouncing himself, in this regard, dedicated to the needs of Joe the Plumber, somebody the Welder, and Rose the Teacher, and presumably all the little people, he and Lieberman moved on to summarize what they believe to be issues of greatest interest to the Jewish community. If one could  mix-up and paraphrase the final remarks by both McCain and Lieberman, one would get something similar to the following:

We need your votes; if McCain is to have a chance at winning you need to go out into your communities and get American Jews to vote for him.  Tell them the following:  

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel; America has failed Israel badly by not locating our embassy in Israel and a McCain administration would do so immediately.  He, McCain is a student of history, understands both the historical claims of Israel as well as her security needs and will never force Israel to make concessions against her will.

McCain, can’t understand why Obama’s approval has shot up in proportion to the decline of the economy.  Don’t people realize that in time of crises we need a man like McCain [N.B.: Of course, nobody on the call mentioned that McCain’s economic proposals are almost identical to Bush’s]

God Spoke.

Finally, one anecdote related by Joe Lieberman sums up much of the tenor of the call:  While he and McCain were visiting the Western Wall, they encountered a distinguished, elderly Hasid, so venerable in appearance that McCain joked, “Is that God?”  Observing the presence of the two American politicians, this God-like gentleman spoke to the crowd, proclaiming “There is the next American President!”  

Oh Joe, have you no shame?.