I'd like to ask your help in clearing away some of the b.s. that forms the basis of John McCain's candidacy. As pretty much everyone here knows, McCain's candidacy is built on a web of systematic distortion and deceit, woven over many years with the help of a fawning, all-too complicit mainstream media. What scares the hell out of me, though, is that millions of American voters don't know that much of what they've been sold regarding John McCain is b.s.

Will you help do something about that? It'll cost you about 10 minutes.

Yesterday John McCain announced his Vice Presidential selection to a crowd of tens in a parking garage in Columbus, Ohio. Unfortunately, there was no media present, no one in the crowd thought to video the event and there was no cell phone coverage in the 3 story underground facility. Asked if it was true he had named his running mate McCain responded, "Are you my economy czar? No, have you seen him?" Later at a restaurant near his home former Congressman Rob Portman was asked if he was the choice. "Yes it is," said Portman, "and the wine is superb."

Dear Journal,
The other I visited what Americans call the "grocery store". It was quite an experience. After all these years, I thought tha Frank my driver accumulated all of my food and delivered it. I had no idea that these stores existed.

 Listening to John McCain clips from the campaign trail on NPR this morning, I realized it was just like listening to George W. Bush - if an older, creepier version. Not all that different from listening to Ronald Reagan, either.  That's when it hit me: that's ALL the Republicans have. They have no real ideas, no substance - just snark.

You can't debate them, because they're not operating at a level of substance, just social dominance games. They don't need real policies, just excuses to paper over their agenda which is basically nothing more than greed and power grabbing. Their whole attitude is so high school, as in "It doesn't matter what you say - we're just too cool to care what YOU think." And if you try to take a position that things matter, that it actually DOES make a difference... well you're just not cool and can be ignored. There's no problem so big they won't turn any real attempt to address it into a joke.

The traditional media buys into this big time, because they all want to believe they're the cool kids too. That's why Obama turning out huge crowds makes them uneasy. It's incomprehensible to them, and they don't know how to deal with that. But a man in his 70's making cutting remarks and tittering smugly away at his own wit - that's too cool. It's Presidential.

Somebody has to say it, so I will:

John McCain is a grifter and a scoundrel.

He has built a career on a carefully crafted myth breathlessly repeated by his base of sycophants in the press. You know the hype: McCain the Maverick, McCain the Reformer, McCain the Straight Talker, McCain the ______ (insert worshipful drivel here).

Keep in mind that the same folks who sold George W. Bush and his failed policies to America are now working the streets to sell the myth of McCain—"the last honest man in politics".

Those willing to look behind the curtain will find a John McCain that has always surrounded himself with the most corrupt players on the political stage and kept himself one step ahead of exposure. His Abramoff investigation cover-up is a case in point (for details see this Diary).

Another one is the growing scandal swirling around his chief foreign policy advisor, Randy Scheunemann.

Randy shapes McCain’s foreign policy and—surprise—that policy helps Randy’s former and future clients. Ca-ching!

This, you need to know about.

To the jump...

Those who know me know that i am an old timer. In fact, the expression "old timer" is an understatement. I have witnessed 14 presidential elections and i can say that i have never seen a month of July this negative. Moreover, i can safely say that i have never witnessed the presumptive nominee of either parties going this negative this early and behaving in a thuggish way like Senator McCain has been behaving this last month. Usually, thuggish behavior is left to the surrogates, but Senator McCain decided that he will fulfill this role himself. I wrote about this in my previous diary

Can Senator Obama afford to stay silent and play nice? No. Does he have to answer each every attack? Absolutely. Why?

...Read the rest on the other side...

Ralph Hall, TX-04 Congressman, believes among other things that the Energizer Bunny is real, you can change political parties at any point in life, Jack Abramoff never influenced him and that the Cold War was still going on in 1996. Well we don't know about the Energizer Bunny part, but the other things are part of his repertoire of denial.

Luckily, Hall has a challenger, .Glenn Melancon that has a good grasp on the issues. We know that this is a long shot of long shots, but Ralph Hall is plenty vulnerable. Melancon and Hall faced off in 2006, but the climate is ripe for change this year.

The impact of an event like the Obama trip doesn't come quickly.  Since most people don't follow news closely, its impact comes over time, as people less interested in politics pick up bits of reaction from more informed friends and family and by seeing what columnists say, what the covers of newsmagazines look like.

So although I think it's too early to see the true impact, I present two examples of why it's been a success.

Given some of the concern with the Quin polls released today, I thought it might be nice to diary a poll showing Obama expanding his lead from the previous month.

Rasmussen 7/24 MoE 4% (6/23 results) (5/23 results)

Obama  (D) 51 (46) (45)
McCain (R) 45 (42) (43)

http://rasmussenreports.com/...

Chris Bowers at OpenLeft wonders, What Is Your Favorite Contradictory McCain Attack?:

1. Seventeen days after taking a trip abroad to Columbia [sic] and Mexico, five weeks after giving a paid campaign speech in Canada, and two months after criticizing Obama for not going to Iraq, the McCain campaign criticizes Obama for taking a trip abroad that includes a stop in Iraq

2. Eleven days after holding a press conference to claim that Obama  is a serial flip-flopper, McCain argues that Obama is the most extremist member of the Senate.

3. Five days after releasing a documentary criticizing Obama for flip-flopping on Iraq, the McCain campaign argues that Obama is too inflexible on Iraq.

Whether it's Roe v. Wade or off-shore drilling or a pathway to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants, McCain has taken opposite sides. Is it flip-floppery? Or is it flim-flammery?

He was anti-Grover Norquist before he was pro-Grover Norquist. He opposed torture before he yielded to White House demands. He was for campaign-finance reform before he was against a reform provision he sponsored two years earlier. He opposed presidential candidates campaigning at Bob Jones University before he favored it. He was anti-ethanol, then for it. He supported flying the Confederate flag on government property before he rejected the practice. He was for talking with Hamas until he was against it. He favored privatizing Social Security before he said he never was in favor of privatizing Social Security. He opposed the Bush tax cuts for the rich until he voted for them, twice.

Just before he steps off the Double-Talk Express, McCain must spin around three times and click his deals to decide which side of his mouth he is going to speak from.

At the risk of exhausting our pixel supply, here's your chance to name your favorite McCain contradiction.

(If you think you remember one, but not quite, you might try out nica24's extensive collection of links: h/t to peraspera.)

The Overnight News Digest is posted.

Our military has again gone above and beyond in their attempt to bring peace and stability to Iraq. They deserve our praise, respect and admiration. They and their families deserve our sincere gratitude for their many sacrifices. They overcame the obstacles placed before them by the Bush Administration's failure to plan for the aftermath of the invasion in Iraq, as well as the care of the soldiers and their families here at home.

Sen. McCain and his supporters are asking Sen. Obama to admit that Sen. McCain was right to call for more troops in Iraq and that the surge worked - he and the surge reduced violence.

Sen. McCain and his supporters see only two possible responses: either Sen. Obama says the surge worked - thanks to Sen. McCain's courage to stand up to the Bush Administration and the hard work and sacrifice of our military; or Sen. Obama has to say that the surge and our military failed. The truth is more simple than that. Sen. McCain knows this, yet now he is seeking credit for less violence while denying his role in supporting the mistakes that created, or at least failed to prevent, the violence in Iraq in the first place.

Just getting started...

It's rare that I am going to agree with John McCain or use a Fox News link to verify a point but John McCain got something right on Wednesday.

At a staged town hall, McCain was asked his thoughts about Israel.  The pertinent part of McCain's response was as follows:

January 5, 1995

Iran May Be Able to Build an Atomic Bomb in 5 Years, U.S. and Israeli Officials Fear

By CHRIS HEDGES,
Published: January 5, 1995

Iran is much closer to producing nuclear weapons than previously thought, and could be less than five years away from having an atomic bomb, several senior American and Israeli officials say. "The date by which Iran will have nuclear weapons is no longer 10 years from now," a senior official said recently, referring to previous estimates. "If the Iranians maintain this intensive effort to get everything they need, they could have all their components in two years. Then it will be just a matter of technology and research. If Iran is not interrupted in this program by some foreign power, it will have the device in more or less five years."

...

For all the talk, the reality is that there is still a lot of work to do at home.  

We have been listening to stories about a liberal bias in the MSM for years now. All the while we have been witnessing an MSM that has become  so afraid to be labeled as liberal, that they no longer can do their job. The Iraq war itself is the worst consequence of this situation. And I believe the coverage of the McCain campaign is the culmination of this phenomenon. While it is hard to get traction complaining about the MSM giving a pass to McCain on his plethora of gaffes, the recent CBS attempt to cover up one of McCain's more spectacular rewrites of history, rises to a new level. It's time to turn the tables and start doing some very loud intimidating of our own. The evidence now exists and it is incontrovertible. I would like to see KO start a new countdown, number of days since CBS and Katie Couric joined the McCain campaign.

Working American is sponsoring a Bad Boss contest, where you can vote on the worst boss in the country. Naturally, the polls here won't let us vote for all 500 of them, but I will pick out some of the worst of the bunch and let the person tell their stories. All of these bosses are liable to throw John McCain-sized tantrums at employees who are a little too uppity.

Who is not hurting from the high gas prices? Forgive me for wondering if our President and Vice President are bothered at all. Well, they may be bothered just a tad by the anger directed toward them because they have looked after the interests of Big Oil for the past seven years with narry a nod to consumers.

Yesterday, in a White House press briefing, Dana Perino announced

"in an effort to address the root causes of high energy prices, House Republicans are introducing their American Energy Act. Their proposal includes many of the provisions the President called on Congress to act upon, including opening up access to our energy resources in the Outer Continental Shelf, up in ANWR, allowing development of oil shale resources, and streamlining permitting processes for refineries."

Reading Michael Crowley's Mark Salter profile in TNR, you wonder how real McCainiacs can really keep a straight face while arguing that the Obama campaign is the one driven by a cult of personality built around a narcissist who feels he's owed the presidency.  Salter is apparently livid that Obama has stolen McCain's themes of having matured out of a colorful childhood and been bettered by patriotism and commitment to public service.  Did Mark Salter make it through his top perch in John McCain's 2000 campaign without ever listening to a George W. Bush speech?  Salter even jokes

"I often regret that we didn't copyright 'serving a cause greater than your self-interest,'" he cracks.