Spotted in Jackson County, Missouri:

If it’s all the McSame to you…

It’s definitely a good Cass County Democrat.

Any attempt at comprehensive coverage of the event by us would never get off the ground.

In case you haven’t already figured it out, we’re not there.

We’ve previously attempted to cover a McCain campaign event in our area – with some success. It’s just that we weren’t made to feel particularly welcome:

After two days of calling McCain headquarters asking for credentials (they don’t do credentials) to today’s town hall at Union Station in Kansas City I was told to show up with my identification. They put me on their media notification e-mail list and I received the press logistics notice. So I hauled myself out of bed at 5:00 a.m. and got to Union Station at about 7:30 a.m. Then we waited around for a while. Then we went through security…

…They didn’t know what to do with all the “freelancers” who showed up to cover this event. After a bit of head scratching from the people on the ground they decided to let us “media orphans” in…

…Then we were informed we might be asked to leave. Then we were informed we’d be allowed to stay…

To be fair, I did get in (Hey there, Tina!), but apparently not everyone can anymore:

…Something interesting is happening with John McCain’s campaign. Up until now, we’ve had no trouble gaining access to field offices and volunteers. Here in St. Louis, we were told by Tina Hervey, Missouri Republican State Party Press Secretary, that she had never heard of FiveThirtyEight, and while they trusted Politico, we were people who they had to decide whether we “shouldn’t or don’t need to be talking to.” (McCain’s Missouri press secretary actually works out of Iowa, and did not return calls or email.) I told Tina that’s not a story we wanted to write, that this was our first Republican resistance, and that while she may not have heard of us, we’d probably go over 2.5 million site visits this week, now that we’re regularly past 400,000 per weekday. I told her I’d hold off writing her flat refusal and give her the opportunity to change her mind.

No budging. We were told that we’d be asked to leave public field offices we now attempted to visit. We did not get any promised follow-up helping get access to the post-debate Palin rally last night, and we were locked out. Hmm…

Given our past experience, the present environment, and the tone of the event advisory, we at Show Me Progress were not even going to try to cover the Belton event.

Okay, after I figured I wouldn’t have a chance of getting into the event, I received this:

MEDIA ADVISORY

McCain-Palin 2008 Campaign Conference Call

For Immediate Release

Contact: Press Office

Monday, October 20, 2008…

…ARLINGTON, VA — Today, at 4:00 p.m. EDT, McCain-Palin 2008 will hold a press conference call with Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Randy Scheunemann, McCain-Palin Foreign Policy Adviser to discuss Joe Biden’s admission that Barack Obama’s election will precipitate an international crisis.

Monday, October 20, 2008

PRESS CONFERENCE CALL

WHO: Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani

         Randy Scheunemann, McCain-Palin Foreign Policy Adviser

WHAT: Press Conference Call

WHEN: Monday, October 20, 2008 at 4:00 p.m. EDT

[emphasis added]

Must be payback for “Noun, verb, 9/11”.

This would be really interesting.

So I figured I’d dial into the conference call. Busy signal. I kid you not. I’ve never called into a conference call that didn’t pick up right away. Is it really possible to get a busy signal?

It’s a symptom of the universe and the state of McCain’s campaign…

Saradice Lost

…To me, the fact that McCain is still even within shouting distance of winning with a running mate so dramatically uninformed is some kind of cosmic joke. But I’m not sure that a majority would agree if not for those other circumstances.

Jon Stewart said the other night after one of her bizarre non answers: “Did she win a contest?” I think she did. She won the Hockey Mom contest and got the right to run on the national ticket with John McCain. She was the prototype Republican for the next generation — someone who knows absolutely nothing about politics at all. I guess they must have figured that Bush’s failure was due to the fact that he knew too much…

We are not worthy.

For most of the day Monday I went through voir dire as a prospective juror (I wasn’t selected). We were questioned in mass and individually. Before we entered the courtroom we all filled out a supplemental questionnaire which included inquiries as to our television habits and preferences. My personal favorite: asking us if we had bumper stickers on our cars, and what type. You all know my answer to that.

Some individuals were questioned in detail about their favorite television shows, if they listened to talk radio (also on the questionnaire) and what kind of books they read. They were also asked what organizations the belonged to and what they did in their spare time.

The vast majority provided answers that indicated that people were involved inwardly. That is, with family, work, and their local religious group. It struck me that the information they get about the world outside their local environment passes through the filters of television and radio. That explains a lot.

Digby’s commentary echoed some recent conversations I’ve had with others who are politically active. It is some kind of cosmic joke. We should be up by sixty points, but we’re not.

I’ve paraphrased an old union organizer’s saying about organizing votes several times: “You don’t blame the people who voted against you, you blame yourself because you didn’t explain it well enough.” There’s work to be done. So do it.

According to Brett Penrose the Spandex brand just took a big hit.

As for the anti-heroine? Choose wisely, grasshopper.

Is it just me, or does McSame sound every other republican talking point spouting candidate? “Liberal!” “Tax and spend! Tax and spend!” “Drill baby, drill!” “Health insurance is only for those who can afford it and don’t need it!”

Oi vay. “We’re mavericks!”

This is an open thread.

Update:

Yeah, I should have watched McSame’s train wreck instead of just listening.

Joe Biden has the skill of a trained surgeon with a scalpel and the impact of a lumberjack with a chainsaw. Heh.

Overheard at our local headquarters:

Hello, I’m calling for Senator Obama’s Campaign for Change here in Warrensburg. Are you planning on voting for Barack Obama in November? Oh, you’re undecided. Well, I suppose you could watch the debate tomorrow, but I think Senator Obama is the only one planning on showing up…

This e-mail is making the rounds. One similar to it referring to dubya has been around a few times, too.

…While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75-year old Texas rancher whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man.  Eventually the topic got around to Sarah Palin and her bid to be a heartbeat away from being President.  The old rancher said, “Well, ya know, Palin is a post turtle.”  Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a post turtle was.  The old rancher said, “When you’re driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that’s a post turtle.”

The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor’s face, so he continued to explain.  “You know she didn’t get up there by herself, she doesn’t belong up there, she doesn’t know what to do while she is up there, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put her up there to begin with.”

Hat tip to Blue Girl at They gave us a republic…

Yep, a post turtle. That’s the republican way.

Can you spell “g-i-m-m-i-c-k”?

I wonder if this…

McCain suspends campaign, calls for Obama to do same

NEW YORK (CNN) — Republican presidential candidate John McCain announced Wednesday that he is suspending his campaign to return to Washington and focus on the “historic” crisis facing the U.S. economy….

…is because of this?:

New York Times

McCain Aide’s Firm Was Paid by Freddie Mac

By JACKIE CALMES and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Published: September 23, 2008

WASHINGTON – One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month from the end of 2005 through last month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain’s campaign manager, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement…

tiny URL

Ahem. You think?

Of course, the cable network boviators and gasping are fawning over the “breaking news”.

Gimmick. I’m not the only one who thinks so:

MyDD

…Sen. Reid as quoted on CNN said the debate should go on and is framing postponing the debate and having the pres candidates return to Washington as “injecting presidential politics” into the process. Good…

Open Left

…So, McCain moves to upstage Obama after Obama made the first “bi-partisan” move. Several things to learn from this. First, trust McCain, and get a fork in your eye. Second, why on Earth was Obama looking to remove the contrast between himself and McCain on this issue? Third, McCain is crazy out of control. He will do anything crazy if it is perceived as helping him, no matter how ludicrous it actually is (such as, say, picking Palin as VP.) What an incredibly dangerous President this guy would be….

dday and Digby

…I actually think this is pretty savvy. He doesn’t want to give the country a chance to see the two of them together right now and make the logical comparisons. He also wants to show that he can “take charge” in a crisis and the optics of this are that he’s rushing back to to Washington to knock some heads together.

But, this is the second time in a month that McCain has grandstanded like this. First it was “suspending” the convention because of the hurricane and now this. At some point, someone should point out that leadership requires something more than canceling events and posturing for the cameras.

I would love to see Obama say that he agrees to go back to Washington and hold the debate on the floor of the senate — about the economy…

So, Senator McCain, why haven’t you fired Rick Davis?

As for our useless media: “Ooh, look! There goes another shiny bauble!”

It’d be very interesting to be a fly on the wall today at the McSame campaign damage control bunker:

Uh yeah, saying “I didn’t do any work for that $15,0000.00 a month” doesn’t look so good.  

According to Brett Penrose no writing utensils were injured during the production of this ‘toon.