2008 Primaries Thread 2: THE QUICKENING

What does that Klingon text say on the front page?

(er, sorry)

I couldn't really tell you, but if you want to know what the word "Obama" looks like in Hebrew, it's right above his head.

i love how primary results are front page news everywhere - the whole world is following along w/us!

Some interesting folderol over at NRO:

I just got off the phone with John Weaver, the former top McCain campaign official who is now an informal adviser to the campaign. I asked him about his 1999 meeting on the campaign's behalf with lobbyist Vicki Iseman. He said he "had no reason to think" that McCain might have been having an affair with Iseman, but he was concerned about word he had heard suggesting that Iseman was telling associates she had connections with McCain. "This was a woman who was saying that she had special influence with John's committee staff and with him," Weaver told me. "I didn't believe that was the case."

"When you hear back from several people that this person is saying they can get anything done, then that is alarming," Weaver continued. So Weaver met with Iseman, at a Union Station restaurant, and told her to back off. He told me he didn't exactly say, "Get lost," but that that was the gist of it. "The discussion lasted all of five or six minutes in which I told her to cut that stuff out," Weaver told me. "I said, 'You need to stop this.'" Iseman's response, according to Weaver: "She was not happy."

It is not all that unusual for lobbyists to spread the word that they have good access with lawmakers; it's the currency of the realm in that business. "If a newspaper is going to run stories about lobbyists who claim they have special relationships with members of Congress, it will run out of ink," Weaver said.

Weaver told me he was contacted by the New York Times in December — he doesn't remember the precise day but says it was around the holidays. The Times wanted to do an interview; Weaver asked for written questions. Weaver told me the paper's reporters knew about the meeting with Iseman, asked a question about it, and he answered it, also in writing. (Weaver told me he did not answer the Times' other questions, because, he said, he didn't know anything about the specific legislative issues involved.) Weaver also told me that he emailed the McCain campaign exactly what he sent the Times, on the same day he sent it. Weaver told me the Times quoted his response on the Iseman question in its entirety.

I asked about the implications heard in some reports that Weaver, who left the McCain campaign during last summer's blow up, is disgruntled. Absolutely not, he told me. "From the day I left the campaign, including holidays — Christmas, Thanksgiving, Labor Day — not one day has gone by when I haven't talked to the campaign," Weaver told me. He is regular contact with top officials Salter, Charles Black, Steve Schmidt, as well as McCain himself and several of the campaign's surrogates. Weaver stressed that he would not do anything to harm the campaign. "When I first approached John about running for president in 1997, I badly wanted him to be president," Weaver told me. "And today, I badly want him to be president."

Though more amusing is Andy McCarthy essentially saying, "Feel sorry for you, McCain? FUCK YOU YOU PRICK."

i love how primary results are front page news everywhere - the whole world is following along w/us!

Asked about why he was so interested in the US presidential race, a Dutch PM said "Because it's going to be our new president as well", stating his view on how important the US is for the rest of the world.

Our vice-MP Wouter Bos even got reprimanded by MP Balkenende for saying he'd like Obama to win.

So yes, YOU ARE BEING WATCHED.

goddammit, this is gonna turn into a lewinsky-in-micro situation: 'lol u nailed her' 'no i did not', when the real story is that he was super cozy with a lobbyist and doing favors for her and her clients. he's said he's never had anything to do with lobbying or lobbyists. straight talk my fucking eye.

lolz @ former Romney campaign staffer complaining about the NYT not running this story in December on CNN last night. gee, bitter much?

I'm bitter! Candidate Mitt would have been so much more entertaining.

personally I think this story is bullshit. Couldn't care less about the infidelity angle, and wau I am shocked - SHOCKED - that McCain is a hypocrite re: lobbyists. I guess it will hurt him with the Republican base, which is good, but lolz what are they gonna do now, all turn to Fuckabee?? yah right

Sigh, Tammy plans to vote for Hilary, which doesn't surprise me:

Will Tammy Baldwin, superdelegate, represent the 2nd CD as well as Tammy Baldwin, Congresswoman?
February 20th, 2008

The answer appears to be no.

As a reward for winning every single precinct in Dane County, and for winning big in all the neighboring counties as well, Barack Obama will win five delegates from the 2nd CD, while Clinton will win three.

Unfortunately, unless things change, his actual advantage at the convention will be only a single delegate, since Tammy Baldwin is a superdelegate who plans to vote for Senator Clinton.

im glad for the u-fucked-her angle even though he probably didnt because it undermines trust in mccain and keeps what would be a kinda wonky lobbyist story in the news long enough for people to investigate it further

oh he fucked her alright

xposts - nah, the story may not have the meat on it that would normally warrant a lot of attention, but i'm pretty happy it broke. as others have mentioned (and TPM has a comment on it right now: Teflon John), the press doesn't really even touch mccain's contradictory or hypocritical statements at all. maybe this will be the start?

the "straight-talk express" crap is such bullshit but the press hardly calls him on it, so i'm digging the exposure of this admittedly thin story, because maybe it'll help start a "mccain full-of-shit" narrative to counter the straight talk one.

the infidelity angle, even if false, at least shakes up the "war hero reformer" / "paragon of virtue in a corrupt system" image and brings him to a far more flawed, human level

^exactly

He cheated on his first wife, too. That's on the record.

but he's so ugly!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/John_McCain_interview_on_April_24,_1974.jpg/628px-John_McCain_interview_on_April_24,_1974.jpg

whoah

Time is cruel bitch goddess apparently

he wasn't always! he useta be kinda fetching in a corn-fed kinda way

xpost i was just gonna post that pic lol

he looks like an undertaker.

??

so i'm curious about this debate tonight. i'm kinda thinking the tone is gonna be harsh.

um, yeah

or at least no democratic-party-love-in

http://img2.travelblog.org/Photos/3800/9542/t/42673-Senator-John-McCain-0.jpg
http://www.friendsofmccain.com/images/flight_suit.jpg

i woulda hit that

lol navy

keep it on the gaymo thread gaymos

yes, only straight pics here like, er, this ?

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n17/dhvoice/misc/vicki-iseman.jpg

"journalistic version of waterboarding"

I'm glad McCain has his own overblown accusations to deal with so he doesn't just get free hits on Obama until the convention.

deej's dismissal of this gives me confidence that it's got legs

Almost 1600 comments on the Times story so far, most of them HILARIOUS.

Everyone's got a different conspiracy theory on this one, and no one seems to be focusing on the Keating thing.

Bill O'Reilly and Hugh Hewitt have material for their respective radio shows for days.

And yeah, I am pretty sure more stuff's gonna come out on this.

i was really hoping this would be a non-starter

well, now that the times piece has dropped, a lot of investigative types are going to scrub through mccain's entire relationships with iseman and paxson looking for more details, interviewing every associate who can be tracked down, financial records will be scoured for improprieties -- this is going to be big news for at least a full week, with repercussions following well into the general campaign season.

lol iseman looks like a college gf of mine

uh so time to get ghoulish: who benefits on the dem side? does this matter? does it 'remind' ppl of lewinsky? does it suck up all the oxygen, leaving an momentum in stasis? OR WAHT.

any momentum

See above re: distracting McCain while the Dems straighten their shit out.

Son looks just like his old man:

http://mccainblogette.com/docs/postings/021408/00.jpg

only a little more date rapey

My sources tell me that McCain and Hillary also had an "unusual" relationship in the nineties. Katherine Wiley introduced them.

I think the story itself, as the Times printed it, probably with all the most salacious details lawyered out, is not a big deal

the real "what does it mean" is this -->

a lot of investigative types are going to scrub through mccain's entire relationships with iseman and paxson looking for more details

My sources tell me that McCain and Hillary also had an "unusual" relationship in the nineties. Katherine Wiley introduced them.

I am really tempted to write McCain/HRC fanfic.

The presence of a Gene Simmons sex tape makes me worried that there is a John McCain sex tape.

xpost There's already Obama/McCain slash out there.