Two things stuck out for me in Robert Draper’s story of the changing narratives of the McCain campaign. First, he repeats the McCain myth that Obama showed an interest–but no initiative–in McCain’s ploy to do town halls around the country together.

In June, McCain formally proposed that he and his Democratic opponent campaign together across America in a series of town-hall-style meetings. He had in fact suggested the same thing to Joe Biden three years earlier, Biden told me back then: “He said: ‘Let’s make a deal if we end up being the nominees. Let’s commit to do what Goldwater and Kennedy committed to do before Kennedy was shot.’ We agreed that we would campaign together, same plane, get off in the same city and go to 30 states or whatever together.” According to Biden, he and McCain sealed their agreement with a handshake. When McCain extended the same offer to Obama in 2008, the Democrat said that he found the notion “appealing” but then did little to make it happen. Since that time, McCain has repeatedly told aides what he has also said in public — that had Obama truly showed a determination to have a series of joint appearances, the campaign would not have degenerated to its current sorry state.

In fact, Obama responded to McCain’s proposal–with a counter-proposal, to model the debates on Lincoln-Douglas rather than Goldwater-Kennedy. As far as I know, McCain just ignored this counter-proposal. In other words, McCain has been stewing over the fact that Obama did not accept McCain’s proposal in its entirety for four months; or, to put it another way, he’s been stewing over the fact that the younger (and, in McCain’s mind, unworthy) man did not accept McCain’s terms without negotiation.

I find it interesting, then, that Draper doesn’t note Obama’s counter-proposal. It’s tough to say whether it’s just shitty journalism, whether Draper just internalized McCain’s own myths, or whether he simply saw himself repeating what the McCain campaign either sincerely or manipulatively told him. In any case, the silence about Obama’s counter-proposal shows how Draper’s entire narrative takes McCain’s claim to justifiable indignation uncritically.

More interesting still is the other significant detail Draper ignores: the McCain team’s cynical lies immediately after the convention. Nowhere does Draper mention the insistent lies about the Bridge to Nowhere; nowhere does he mention the manufactured outrage over the lipstick on a pig comment. Instead, he pretends that Palin had a two and a half week honeymoon with the press, with no blemishes until (presumably) her utter ignorance showed in the Couric interview.

In the ensuing two and a half weeks (which surely felt longer to the Obama campaign), the Palin Effect was manifest and profound. McCain seemed, if not suddenly younger — after all, the woman standing to his side was nearly the same age as his daughter, Sidney — then freshly boisterous as he crowed, “Change is coming, my friends!” Meanwhile, Palin’s gushing references to McCain as “the one great man in this race” and “exactly the kind of man I want as commander in chief” seemed to confer not only valor but virility on a 72-year-old politician who only weeks ago barely registered with the party faithful.

But just as you could make too much of Shanks’s quiet coaching of Palin, you could also make too little of it. The new narrative — the Team of Mavericks coming to lay waste the Beltway power alleys — now depended on a fairly inexperienced Alaska politician

Similarly, Draper suggests McCain just started going negative in October without having tried to mobilize resentment to protect Palin for the entire month of September.

In the period before the campaign’s decision earlier this month to wage an all-out assault on Obama’s character as the next narrative tactic, McCain was signaling to aides that it was important to run an honorable campaign. People are hurting now, McCain said to his convention planners as Hurricane Gustav whirled toward the Gulf Coast. It’s a shame we have to have a convention at all. But because we have to do this, tone it down. No balloons, nothing over the top. When his media team suggested running ads that highlighted Obama’s connection with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, McCain reminded them that he pledged months earlier not to exploit the matter, and John McCain was not about to go back on his word.

Again, I don’t know whether this is just crappy journalism from Draper or whether he simply believes he was repeating the McCain story in good faith. But it entirely excises from his narrative the moment when McCain went from ignoring the press to actively attacking it, even while daring it to call him on his blatant, repeated lies. 

Perhaps these two missing details don’t affect Draper’s ability to achieve his objective at all–he catalogs the six changing narratives the McCain team has believed it was telling about McCain, and that, in and of itself, tells the story.

Draper is much more explicit that the last big myth in this story–that the press was unfair to McCain–was Salter’s and Schmidt’s myth, not one he necessarily agreed with.

Salter and Schmidt had hoped that the mainstream press would warm to this new narrative. But the matter of which candidate had shown more acts of bipartisan daring failed to become Topic A. The two advisers — each of whom had friendly relations with the media but had grown increasingly convinced that Obama was getting a free ride — took this as further proof that today’s reporters were primarily young, snarky, blog-obsessed and liberal. To Schmidt’s and Salter’s minds, John McCain had always been honest and straightforward with the press, and the press in turn was not acting in good faith toward their candidate. As such it was now undeserving of McCain’s unfettered “straight talk.”

This point–and the debunking of Salter and Schmidt’s resentment toward the press–deserves much closer focus, because this is what the real story of the McCain campaign is. John McCain simply was not, himself, attractive enough to the American people–or even the Republican Party–to win the general election. So the campaign did more than just tell a (or rather six different) narratives. They began to lie–and really started telling doozies by the time Caribou Barbie strode onto the scene.

So while Draper’s article is interesting–particularly the details regarding the utter lack of vetting on Palin–what’s most interesting to me is the sustained self-denial about what was driving the campaign. I’m sure Draper’s sources believe this was fundamentally a story about the press mistreating a great man, about an upstart disrespecting his superior. But really, they seem totally unaware–or at least unforthcoming–about when it was that they just started lying through their teeth. 

And that lack of awareness is as much the story of the McCain campaign as Draper’s six narratives. 

Democratic "socialism:"

Tweaking the tax code to shift the enormous tax break President Bush gave to his "base"–earners in the top 2% of the country–to those struggling to put food on the table and send their kids to college.

Republican socialism:

Taking $150,000 of money at a time when your candidate is taking public financing for a presidential election to buy an over-priced new wardrobe for the vice presidential nominee.

Republican communism:

Using $150,000 for new duds while receiving public financing when your own family doesn’t pay into the presidential public finance fund.

Update: Corrected to reflect that this money came out of RNC funds, not McCain funds.

Update: Saks corrected to spell it like people who shop there would spell it, per brendanx.

The once smooth, efficient and ruthless political machine that was the Republican Party has turned into a pathetic low brow sitcom. In yesterday’s episode, we saw John and Cindy Drysdale McCain move in with the Palins Clampetts. In today’s show, Arizona Representative John Shaddegg, part of the GOP House Leadership, sends Double Naught Super Secret Agent Jethro Bodine on a deep cover spy mission to an Arizona Democratic Party office.

Democrats are demanding that Rep. John Shadegg fire his deputy campaign manager after learning that he accessed a Democratic Party office using a fake name and fake address.

Party officials believe that Ryan Anderson, who has claimed that he was at the party office to purchase a bumper sticker, provided the fake name and address. Anderson was only discovered because he left the Shadegg campaign’s credit card in the Democratic party’s office.

Records show that a person with the name "Bryan Anderson" filled out a contribution form, which is a legal document that the Arizona Democratic Party uses to report contributions to elections officials. The purchase of a bumper sticker is a contribution.

"Bryan Anderson’s" address is a near-match to Ryan Anderson’s. Every number in the street line of the address is one digit off. Democrats will not release Anderson’s home address.

Anderson, a veteran Republican operative, previously worked at a major Republican lobbying firm in Phoenix. He also worked on Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

This is so stupid it hurts. Unless Jethro Bodine Anderson was going to put a desktop computer down his pants before he fled without the Shaddegg Campaign VISA Card, it is pretty hard to imagine what they sought to gain from their double super secret covert mission.

EPIC FAIL

Lots of people are talking about Jane Mayer’s description of how some horny neocons took a cruise to Alaska and discovered Sarah Palin there. But that’s by no means the best part of the article.

The best part is the last paragraph:

Palin initially provided the McCain campaign with a boost, but polls now suggest that she has become a liability. A top Republican close to the campaign said that McCain’s aides have largely kept faith with Palin. They have been impressed by her work ethic, and by what a quick study she is. According to the Republican close to the campaign, she has sometimes discomfited advisers by travelling with a big family entourage. "It kind of changes the dynamic of a meeting to have them all in the room," he told me. John McCain’s comfort level with Palin is harder to gauge. In the view of the longtime McCain friend, "John’s personal comfort level is low with everyone right now. He’s angry. But it was his choice."

Update: Ut oh. Apparently the McCain campaign is not alone in its surprise at having to deal with the extended Palin family.

As governor, Palin justified having the state pay for the travel of her daughters – Bristol, 17; Willow, 14; and Piper, 7 – by noting on travel forms that the girls had been invited to attend or participate in events on the governor’s schedule.

But some organizers of these events said they were surprised when the Palin children showed up uninvited, or said they agreed to a request by the governor to allow the children to attend.

In case you’re wondering, this includes Bristol Palin’s trip to NYC on the Alaksa taxpayer’s dime.

In October 2007, Palin brought daughter Bristol along on a trip to New York for a women’s leadership conference. Plane tickets from Anchorage to La Guardia Airport for $1,385.11 were billed to the state, records show, and mother and daughter shared a room for four nights at the $707.29-per-night Essex House hotel, which overlooks Central Park.

The event’s organizers said Palin asked if she could bring her daughter.

Finally, the ad I’ve been waiting for since late August. Not as effective as their puppy-killer ad, but that’s a tough act to follow. 

I hope these counter-intelligence folks know what they’re talking about. 

Because Dick Cheney ordered the leak of a CIA spy’s identity, and he got to remain Vice President for five more years.

Though, as an optimist, I’m not ruling out "prison is the bank" in the future.

(Photoshop love from twolf)

Remember how, during the 2000 recount, the Bush team made a visible show of beginning their transition to power? That was about the last smart thing the Bush Administration did. It got people accustomed to the idea of Bush governing even before SCOTUS cast its vote.

In a similar move, Obama is beginning to tailor his events to show how he will govern, rather than just telling how he will do so. I strongly suspect that’s what his half-hour TV buy will do next week–it’ll look and feel like a presidential press conference, and he will presumably introduce what he would like to be included in the post-election stimulus package and beyond to fix the economy.

Similarly, at a campaign event in Florida today, Obama is showing the kinds of people he will listen to–and how he will listen (CNN stream here).  Obama has brought a bunch of swing state governors (Strickland, Granholm, Richardson–and I think Ritter, too), Paul Volcker, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and a small business owner to discuss how they would foster job growth. Sure, Obama got to make a speech about how he would invest in new jobs. And sure, most of the speakers reinforced Obama’s own policies (though, as an example, Richardson is disagreeing with him now, and telling him to ditch NCLB). But it puts Obama in the role he will be in–guiding the discussion of a lot of experts and listening. And he gets to make cracks like this:

I’m going to show the kind of leadership I’m gonna show in the White House. Anyone who wants to can take off their jackets. It’s really warm in here. This is how we’re going to do things in the White House–use some common sense.

All of which provides Obama with an opportunity to further ease the concerns of people who like Obama, but are just not yet comfortable enough he’s got the experience to be President.

To be honest, both of these events (the half hour presser and this jobs conference) are great politics. The presser gives Obama one last opportunity to get a bump from people seeing him and liking his calm on TV. This jobs conference pitches to a number of swing states–Granholm’s Michigan, Strickland’s Ohio, Richardson’s New Mexico, and Ritter’s Colorado. At the same time, it builds the pressure on Charlie Crist for his lukewarm support for McCain, even while providing a new twist on a campaign rally in Florida; in particular, Obama keeps bringing the general points back to issues that apply to Florida.

But just as importantly, it cements the image of Obama governing in an effective, but non-presumptuous way.

Update: One more cute exchange. After Obama talks about what went wrong with the mortgage market and how we have to stabilize the housing industry, he turns to Paul Volcker and asks if he wants to add anything: 

 Volcker: I don’t know why I’m here–you give my speech better than I do.

The FDL family has had a profound positive impact on the federal scene on issues surrounding the rule of law. We are all hurt when justice is politicized. As I pointed out in Deceit In The Desert, the problem with politicization at the state and local level in many places is every bit as bad, and the effects every bit as ruinous.

In Maricopa County Arizona a battle to turn the tide and restore the fair and equal rule of law is in full tilt in the last two weeks leading up to the election. In the video, governor Janet Napolitano, former Arizona Attorney General and United States Attorney for Arizona, describes the critical significance of the office of county attorney, and how Tim Nelson will repair it. Let me tell you about the guy that broke it and who must be ejected from office.

Andrew Thomas has been the theocratic right wing tool in office as the Maricopa County Attorney since 2004. Attorney Gerald Richard, who represented the Phoenix Police Department and law enforcement interests for over 19 years, had this to say about Thomas:

As County Attorney, he has diverted resources away from prosecuting violent criminals to persecuting immigrants charged with “smuggling themselves.” His wiretapping of the Serial Shooter suspects without a court order could jeopardize the expected convictions in the case. Thomas has cut training for his staff attorneys by 90-percent, creating the need to spend 11-million dollars hiring outside law firms (that coincidentally helped pay for his election campaign in 2004). He has spent more than two-million dollars on billboards, booklets and TV ads that primarily promote himself. And he has signed off on the arrest of newspaper publishers and invading the privacy of their readers.

Senior trial lawyers and division leaders in the County Attorney’s Office, many of them there for decades, have been forced out or marginalized. Critical decisions are made on the basis of ideology, theology and public relations value instead of the law. Andrew Thomas has brazenly used his office to attack and persecute personal enemies. When Thomas went after local newspaper publishers that disagreed with him, he not only attacked them, he also subpoenaed and tried to attack their readers by using a grand jury to attach their personal and private internet profiles and usage.

Oh, did I mention the theocratic element of Andrew Thomas? Thomas is an aggressive and dogmatic right to life maniac. His hero is Clarence Thomas, on whom he has authored the most slavishly prosed biography you have ever encountered. Andrew Thomas is an up and coming darling of the NRO and Katherine Jean Lopez. Just how far will Thomas go in proselytizing and forcing his religion on others? Very far, and he will convert public money and resources designated for law enforcement and prosecution to do it.

No, the office financed the [religious] donation with RICO funds — money seized from illegal enterprises and granted to law enforcement for four purposes: racketeering investigations, gang prevention, substance abuse programs, and substance abuse education.
…
[A review of] RICO fund expenditures by Thomas’ office during his tenure and found $168,000 in earmarks for church-based programs and Christian ministries — many of them blatantly focused on converting people to Christ.
…
And the donations to Christian churches aren’t the only RICO funds Thomas is using to win votes. He’s also used RICO bucks in an endless campaign to increase his name recognition.

Read the whole article; it is an amazing report on as blatant and objectionable conversion of the justice powers of the state to proselytizing for a pet religion as you will ever encounter.

As related above, Thomas relentlessly attacks anybody who disagrees with him. Even judges. His attacks on the Maricopa County judiciary that try to adhere to the law have become an ongoing scandal in Arizona, resulting in several of them retiring and seeking state bar action against Thomas. Thomas has even sought, in conjunction with the NRO, to break up the Ninth Circuit, a federal court he doesn’t even practice in front of, because they are "too liberal". Thomas is also a favorite of right wing crusader David Horowitz and his FrontPage Magazine. Thomas is an excessively ambitious political climber that is being groomed by national right wing extremists. (Did I mention that one of Thomas’ other life heroes is Dick Cheney?)

As described in Deceit In The Desert, there is a wonderfully viable alternative to Thomas on the ballot, Democrat Tim Nelson. It is a neck and neck race with the critical two weeks until the election to go. If Nelson can defeat Thomas, it will not only make a world of positive difference in the justice system in the fourth largest county in America, it will put a serious dent in the ability of Thomas to grow and become a national problem like he is being groomed to be.

Tim Nelson’s race to defeat Andrew Thomas is so critical, both for the present and the future, that Thomas’ predecessor as Maricopa County Attorney, Republican Rick Romley, as well as former Republican Attorney General Grant Woods, have both endorsed Tim Nelson. So has wrongfully purged former Republican US Attorney Paul Charlton.

With two weeks left, Nelson is in a dead heat with Thomas, but Thomas has the benefit of massive advertising advantage both from his office propaganda efforts described above, and, more importantly, from independent right wing and Republican groups, both in-state and national, supporting him. Barack Obama has shown the power of the many through small donations to a candidate. Your assistance, no matter what the size, can help Tim Nelson be competitive in advertising down the stretch.

The effort is critical even if you don’t live anywhere near Phoenix, Maricopa County or the State of Arizona.

Help make a difference for Nelson over Thomas.

This is troubling:

The office of Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner on Monday afternoon said that it is limiting the functionality of its web site after its tech department had detected a security breach.

“Due to security concerns experienced by the Secretary of State’s website, full functionality of the website has been suspended to protect the integrity of state records and data.  Full functionality will be restored when we are assured that all data has been protected to acceptable levels of security,” said Secretary of State Brunner in a statement issued Monday afternoon.

[snip]

"What we know is our IT department detected a situation with our Web site where there was somehow suspicious activity where someone could have gotten into our site and tried to move things around," a spokesman told The Cleveland Plain Dealer Monday afternoon.

The office’s statement noted that "this is not the first instance of direct assault on the operations of the Secretary of State’s office." [my emphasis]

Click through to read about all the death threats McCain’s legions (presumably) have been making.

There’s more in this Dayton Daily News story.

Fox News is preparing for what comes after the election. First came the news that Fox News was hiring Glenn Beck, replacing one of its election shows with yet more wingnuttia.

And now, they’ve hired someone whose greatest expertise is in laundering politically motivated leaks to give those leaks "respectability."

Fox News is expected to announce today the hiring of a new contributor, a veteran national security correspondent who has shared a Pulitzer Prize.

Her name is Judith Miller, and she is nothing if not controversial. Miller left the New York Times in 2005 after testifying in the trial of former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby that he had leaked her information about a CIA operative. Miller’s conduct in the case, which led to her serving 85 days in jail for initially refusing to testify, drew rebukes from the Times executive editor and some of her colleagues.

In the run-up to the Iraq war, Miller reported stories on the search for Saddam Hussein’s supposed weapons of mass destruction that turned out to be untrue, some of which were cited in a Times editor’s note acknowledging the flawed coverage. Miller, now with the conservative Manhattan Institute, wrote when she left the paper that she had "become a lightning rod for public fury over the intelligence failures that helped lead our country to war."

Miller will be an on-air analyst and will write for Fox’s Web site. "She has a very impressive résumé," says Senior Vice President John Moody. "We’ve all had stories that didn’t come out exactly as we had hoped. It’s certainly something she’s going to be associated with for all time, and there’s not much anyone can do about that, but we want to make use of the tremendous expertise she brings on a lot of other issues. . . . She has explained herself and she has nothing to apologize for."

No, I’m not surprised that Judy Judy Judy has finally ended up at the one place worthy of her, um, talents. But I would invite you to imagine why Fox wants Judy on board.

Sure, maybe she’ll manufacture stories about evil threats that a President Obama (if he is elected) is ignoring (Scooter Libby: "It is fall now. You will have stories to cover–Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program"). Maybe she’s just there to present the thoughts of totally discredited types like John Bolton or Paul Wolfowitz as if they still had credibility. I suspect, most of all, she’ll be doing something very similar to her UN Oil for Food coverage–extended series turning details everyone pretty much knew into a full-blown scandal designed to distract attention from a colossal failure.

But her presence at Fox does tell you something about the way that Fox plans to proceed during what is shaping up to be at least two years in opposition. Fox seems to be preparing for that–going into opposition–with more forethought than McCain has had running his campaign.