Bad American

Ariel Aleovich - NYTimes Blog

Hope so! I’ll be live blogging tonight.

In its debate primer, the Cleveland Plain Dealer suggests watching out for “whether Clinton continues the tone she displayed Saturday in Ohio. Upset by a flier depicting her health care and trade policies distributed by Obama, she accused her fellow U.S. senator of using Republican-style smear tactics. Obama says the facts are on his side.”

U.S. Rep. Dennis Eckart of Cleveland told the Columbus Dispatch that “the stakes are much higher here than any other debate. Obama can close it out on March 4 (or) Clinton can live to fight another day on March 4.”

Bill Carrick, a Los Angeles-based Democratic consultant who worked for former President Clinton’s 1992 and 1996 campaigns, said the Cleveland debate “is probably the last opportunity that Sen. Clinton is going to have to make the case both for herself and against Sen. Obama that will be unfiltered.”

Carrick said Obama, who has defined himself as a candidate of hope and unity, “would like to avoid a food fight” but almost certainly will press Clinton on the contentious issue of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Obama has criticized Clinton for supporting the trade agreement that he says has cost Ohio jobs. Clinton has accused Obama of distorting her position on NAFTA.

Dodd Catches Obamamania!

Washington Post

CLEVELAND — In issuing his endorsement of Barack Obama here this morning, Chris Dodd made abundantly clear — in the most decorous and senatorial of terms, to be sure — that he believes it is getting near time for the Democrats to call it a race.

“This is a moment of unity in our country, a time when we need to come together as the Democratic Party and get behind a candidacy that expresses the hopes, aspirations and ambitions of million and millions of Americans,” he said, standing beside Obama in a hotel function room. Dodd added: “I don’t want a campaign that’s only divisive. But there is a danger of it becoming that, not because the candidates want it to, but too often the advisers and consultants, others are seeking that divisiveness…. It is devastating in the longer term.”

Asked directly, Dodd denied that he was urging Hillary Clinton to quit the race. But he added a warning against any harshly negative attacks in the final week before the crucial March 4 primaries here and in Texas — a warning that comes as Clinton’s campaign is giving indications that it is in the midst of launching a final assault on Obama, at tonight’s debate and beyond.

Meanwhile, Cincinnati Embarrasses McCain

What can one expect from Bill Cunningham and the troglodyte right wingers in Cincinnati?

Associated Press

CINCINNATI (AP) — Republican John McCain quickly denounced the comments of a radio talk show host who while warming up a campaign crowd referred repeatedly to Barack Hussein Obama and called the Democratic presidential candidate a “hack, Chicago-style” politician.

Hussein is Obama’s middle name, but talk show host Bill Cunningham used it three times as he addressed the crowd before the likely Republican nominee’s appearance.

“Now we have a hack, Chicago-style Daley politician who is picturing himself as change. When he gets done with you, all you’re going to have in your pocket is change,” Cunningham said as the audience laughed.

The time will come, Cunningham added, when the liberal-leaning media will “peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama” and tell the truth about his relationship with indicted fundraiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko and how Obama got “sweetheart deals” in Chicago.

McCain wasn’t on stage or, he says, in the building when Cunningham made the comments, but he quickly distanced himself from the radio talk show host after finishing his speech. McCain spoke to a couple hundred people at Memorial Hall in downtown Cincinnati.

“I apologize for it,” McCain told reporters, addressing the issue before they had a chance to ask the Arizona senator about Cunningham’s comments.

snip

Aside from using Obama’s middle name, Cunningham also mocked the Illinois senator’s foreign policy statements about his willingness to meet with the leaders of rogue nations. He said he envisions a future in which “the great prophet from Chicago takes the stand and the world leaders who want to kill us will simply be singing Kumbaya together around the table with Barack Obama.”

At one point, Cunningham compared Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Madeleine Albright, whom he said “looks like death warmed over.” He also commented on the difference between former Ohio Rep. Rob Portman, whose wife is named Jane, and Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, an openly gay member of Congress. “Jane’s the main difference. But that’s a different story,” Cunningham said.

As Cunningham finished, Portman, who is mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate, took the microphone to introduce McCain.

“Willie, you’re out of control again. So, what else is new? But we love him,” Portman said. “But I’ve got to tell you, Bill Cunningham lending his voice to this campaign is extremely important. He did it in 2000, he did it in 2004. It was crucial to victory then and it’s even more important this year with his bigger radio audience. So, Bill Cunningham, thank you for lending your voice.”

Look, anyone who has ever heard Bill Cunningham knows what a complete asshole he is. But the numbnuts Republicans in Cincinnati, Neanderthal even by Republican standards, eat his shit up. And Rep. Bob Portman, after the whole thing breaks bad on him, suddenly starts backing away from his old buddy:

Speaking to reporters later alongside McCain, Portman said: “I was backstage so I didn’t hear everything he said. Bill Cunningham is a radio talk show host who is often controversial so it does not surprise me that he was controversial.” He added: “That’s, I guess, how he makes his living.“

Well, duh, but lets be more honest - he makes his living by being Cincinnati’s version of Bill O’Reilly on steroids: a punk, a thug and a know-nothing. A perfect representative of the bottom feeding right wingers on the Ohio River.

I strongly suspect that incidents of this kind will dog McCain throughout his campaign UNLESS the campaign goes very tightly into message control which will kill any genuine campaign spirit.

But I also think that Obama will be too tempting a target for the rabid race-baiting conservatives who will conduct guerrilla warfare against him through scurrilous e-mails and shady websites. Just watch.