"McCain Goes Negative, Worrying Some in G.O.P.," the New York Times fretted Wednesday in a headline over a story by reporter Michael Cooper. Times readers learned that while it's perfectly acceptable for the Times to call conservative Sen. Tom Coburn "Dr. No" in a front-page headline, it's bad for John McCain to call Barack Obama the same thing.
Cooper opened his story:
In recent days Senator John McCain has charged that Senator Barack Obama "would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign," tarred him as "Dr. No" on energy policy and run advertisements calling him responsible for high gas prices.
(The headline to Monday's front-page story about Sen. Tom Coburn: "Democrats Try to Break Grip Of the Senate's Flinty Dr. No.")
Cooper continued:
The old happy warrior side of Mr. McCain has been eclipsed a bit lately by a much more aggressive, and more negative, Mr. McCain who hammers Mr. Obama repeatedly on policy differences, experience and trustworthiness.
By doing so, Mr. McCain is clearly trying to sow doubts about his younger opponent, and bring him down a peg or two. But some Republicans worry that by going negative so early, and initiating so many of the attacks himself rather than leaving them to others, Mr. McCain risks coming across as angry or partisan in a way that could turn off some independents who have been attracted by his calls for respectful campaigning.
The drumbeat of attacks could also undermine his argument that he will champion a new brand of politics.
In a familiar pattern, the Times continued to be very touchy when it comes to "misleading" attacks on Barack Obama:
Some of his lines of attack have been accused of being misleading. Mr. McCain, for instance, said Mr. Obama had voted in the Senate "for tax hikes that would have impacted those making $32,000 a year." FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan Web site, said the vote was on a budget resolution to raise taxes on people making $41,500 a year; the $32,000 figure, it said, was the amount of taxable income those people had.
An advertisement criticized Mr. Obama for the high price of gas. "Who can you thank for rising prices at the pump?" an announcer intoned, as chants of "Obama, Obama" were heard.
—Clay Waters is the director of Times Watch, an MRC project tracking the New York Times.
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Comments Policy
Wait
July 31, 2008 - 08:17 ET by allanfThe New York Times stands for truth, justice and the socialist way. How can you attack them with logic?
Translation:
July 31, 2008 - 08:23 ET by candanceYou called my best friend a nasty name! You take that back right now or I'll call you something worse!
It's so nice to have a media full of such mature, thoughtful people.
The drumbeat of attacks
July 31, 2008 - 08:41 ET by pbanks7Are they mistaking "Obama" for "McCain?" I thought B.O. was the shiny new guy.
As opposed to outright lies and fearmongering? We might as well have a chicken in every pot.
MSM - shaping all the perceptions you need to believe, then confirming it with a poll.
The other "Dr. No"
July 31, 2008 - 08:44 ET by sarcasmoWas just on Glenn Beck (part 1 & part 2) but for some reason nobody questions if "Dr. No" is an epithet WRT Dr. Paul, probably because it fits too well. And everyone should think about sex or something irrelevant like name-calling & pay no attention to this graph.
JMR
The tax & spend drug war looks racist in the real world.
Just watched it sarc
July 31, 2008 - 09:01 ET by Cool ArrowAnd there's no "last laugh" coming for Americans who ignore the path we're on.
We cannot continue with the bailouts in hopes of a soft landing. I don't even see a soft landing if we stop the nonsense now.
Gotta admit, Beck has been fair with Ron Paul.
LYDSEXICS UNTIE
Yo Sarc??
July 31, 2008 - 10:12 ET by kilrodBare with my lack of iq, but where are we headed, are what are the results of all this borrowing from the feds??
Thanks, kilrod
Remember, only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, Jesus Christ and the American Soldier
IMO
July 31, 2008 - 10:20 ET by sarcasmoWithout a drastic change of spending behavior (notice all the political promises now focus only on taxation -- that's a sign they don't want to even discuss out of control spending!) we're headed for a hyperinflation episode to rival Weimar Germany's wheelbarrow days, only worse, because the dollar has become a world reserve currency despite its historically recent lack of backing.
IMO it's going to be bad, and the worst part will be when "hard money" constitutionalist types like me, who have repeatedly warned about the problem, get blamed for it because we've counseled preparation & prepared ourselves. This kind of talk out of the likes of me, because it's VERY politically incorrect, tends to excite extreme emotion in those who seem to feel that name-calling and antilibertarian hate will make fiscal problems go away forever. It didn't work before, and history's likely to repeat itself.
JMR
The tax & spend drug war looks racist in the real world.
the NYT makes shit up.
July 31, 2008 - 08:53 ET by c5thenI don't think that McCain said anything about a 'new brand of politics', what he said was he'll stick with his brand regardless.
Obama is the one who is hawking "change", which appaently refers to his policies and positions on issues being dependant on when he is asked and who is listening at the moment.
The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic. Let's get it back! Alan Keyes '08.
you went negative as well.
July 31, 2008 - 09:41 ET by athoughtor2you went negative as well. now go to your room. i want you to write "i will not go negative on the Obamasiah" 1000 times. oh and no dinner
Consultants talking with reporters in a bar
July 31, 2008 - 09:52 ET by KC Mulville“Some Republicans worry …” “risks coming across as …” “in a way that could turn off some independents …” Oh, for God’s sake, get a frickin’ spine!
The problem with political consultants is that they can predict what the obvious voters will do, but they can’t predict what the irrational voters will do. In a close election, though, irrational voters make the difference. The “obvious” voters are the die-hard GOP and Democrat cores. You don’t need a pivot chart to predict who they’re going to vote for. But the election is still in suspense because there’s a whole lot of voters out there who haven’t made up their minds.
Who knows? Political consultants will claim they know, but they don’t. They can’t say why last-minute voters decide because, let’s face it, last-minute voters don’t know themselves. That’s why these stories (which were obviously the result of reporters having a few drinks with the professional consultants) are so much deadweight. It’s consultants trying to sound like they know what’s going to happen, when they clearly don’t.
SOME
July 31, 2008 - 09:53 ET by ThisnThatThe liberal doomsday doubt-maker word: SOME. As in "Some say"; or "say Some"; or "Some doubt"; and "there are Some people".
Never be specific; never name those "Some". Just paste that word anyplace in an article to sow the seeds of doubt. Anything to make the liberal press seem like they are "in the know" and keeping a watchful eye out for all of our interests. Yeah, right.
___________________________________
If you can read this, thank a teacher. If it is in English, thank a Soldier. - My barber
Br'er Rabbit and Uncle Remus
July 31, 2008 - 11:23 ET by ThisnThatDid the NYT actually say "Tar" and "Obama" in the same story? Remember when Mitt Romney had to apologize for saying "tar baby", and this was headline news in one of the NYTimes papers (the Boston Globe) exactly two years ago today?
My, my -- just goes to show you it's not what you say, it's whose saying it, doesn't it?
___________________________________
If you can read this, thank a teacher. If it is in English, thank a Soldier. - My barber
Here we go with the good
July 31, 2008 - 15:42 ET by bigtimerHere we go with the good ol' 'some repubs say'....
They must mean some like John Weaver who is still mad he got let-go/fired from MCain's campaign...he is one who calls this ad childish and Tome Follery or some such...
Guess he is paying McCain back, or so he thinks...
Rick Davis has made an improvement it seems to me...
"America isn't the problem...America is the solution." ~ Rush Limbaugh